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Photographing events and performances at night: low light lenses and fast apertures

I spend quite a lot of time hanging out around “The Piazza” in Kelapa Gading. That’s where my gym is, Starbucks (yeah don’t say it), absurd numbers of restaurants (mourning the loss of my favorite Indian), and two large stages that regularly have Indonesian artists, singers, celebrities, and all sorts of other events on a near daily basis. Since Jakarta’s traffic has become so congested, it’s often easier to motivate myself to hang around here with Novita than it isRead more

Yet another maid story

{key sarcasm} A really awesome thing happened today. {/sarcasm} Our maid, Sri, who has been really great for many months, said she was returning home to her new husband. No worries, we said, do you happen to have a friend who’d like to work? In fact she did. The friend came and has been working with us for about four days. She smiled, said good morning every day, and seemed overall quite content. We pay quite well, aren’t the leastRead more

The path we've chosen has chosen us

This Buddhist monk spent a couple of hours talking to Novita and me while walking through the temples of Angkor Wat. We discussed what it means to be a monk, why he chose such a path, and how his life has evolved. He was quite young and chose the life of a monk as an escape from an alcoholic father and a life of absolute poverty. At one point, he was moved to tears while talking about his family, andRead more

Novita by the power of three: Deciding if photos are better in color or black and white?

A tough decision many photographers face is deciding how the final image should look. This holds especially true in any type of portraiture. Many people are drawn to black and white, as often it’s more flattering to the model and as such, many people correlate black and white with more professional portraits. Quite often I process photos in both color and black and white, but only post one version or the other; it’s not always an easy decision. The exampleRead more