Masks

I'm in the process of putting together a portfolio of my climbing photography to show to companies. When editing I get so interested in the masks I create when messing with layers. Sometimes they're abstract and sometimes they are just incredibly graphic. I really love this example.

Lena and Maryia - Hourly Couch Surfers

In the last three days I've hosted six couch surfers, none of which have actually stayed over night. An Indian doctor and three girls from all over Europe came about 8am and slept on the floor till 4pm, when they left to take a bus to Goa. Last night, two girls from the small, little known ex-USSR country of Belarus arrived here about 11:30pm and left for home at about 2:30am.
They were good company for their short stay, and allowed me to continue my ongoing project of photographing all my guests (I missed the first group because they left while I was asleep).

Roommates and Couch Surfers

I really enjoyed living by myself, but I realized that there was an entire room getting almost no use so I opened my apartment up to a couple from New Zealand coming here to work for an NGO. Nigel and Alexandra (Alex) moved in in the middle of January. It's been great having roommates (and people to look after the apartment while I've been traveling). My friend from college, Derek, has been staying with us since the first of February, leaving occasionally to travel. Nigel and Derek took off tonight for New Delhi, so I decided to continue my stated intent to photograph everyone who sleeps on my couch through Couch Surfing or other connections.


Derek is traveling around the world for a year. He's blogging about his experience on a website called 1earthavenue, exploring the idea that we are all just neighbors with those across the earth.



The four of use shared tight quarters for the last month. Luckily all of us survived.

Monkeys on the Mount

Badami is a tiny town, though anything but quiet. The streets are overwhelmed with the sounds of cars, busses, rickshaws, horses all honking, and people yelling. I left the busy street and climbed up inside the cliffs enjoying the peace and quiet and making friends monkeys. I climbed and sat amongst the family. They took little notice of me, almost immediately accepting my presence.





Click on image to see larger. A panoramic view of Badami and Bhuthanatha temple.

Steps from the ruins of the fort above Badami


Woman doing her laundry in the lake with the Bhuthanatha Temple in the background

Returning from Badami

My return from my recent trip to Badami was uneventful besides it taking almost 24 hours for me to get back to my apartment. I took one train from Badami to Bijapur and another from Bijapur to Mumbai. In Solapur a beautiful young woman with two beautiful kids got on board and took the seat opposite me. We conversed in broken English and Hindi and she showed me the pictures of the rest of her family. I had finished my book and was tired of writing so I decided to do a quick sketch of the woman holding her son next to the window of the train. This is a bad representation of "Sanju's" beauty.

Hampi Part II

Since December I have barely spent any time in my apartment. I went to West Bengal, Gorkhaland, and Sikkim for two weeks, then I was sick for a week and half before spending my new years in Hampi, Karnataka. I came home for three days before spending a week and some in Andhra Pradesh, shooting the project for HMRI in Hyderabad. Again I was back for three days before leaving for Belapur and a rock climbing competition. Back for three days before I left for Bangalore and Hampi. I came home on the fourth, got wickedly sick, and left on the 10th for another climbing destination, Badami in Karnataka, where I am writing from now.

The views and climbing here are incredible, but they will be highlighted a little later. I want to showcase my climbing photos from Hampi, but I am submitting some of the photos to magazines and sponsor and they do not like accepting photos that have already been published somewhere. As I showed in an earlier post, Hampi is an unreal beautiful historical and magical place. Here are some more photos of the scenery.



click to see larger


I just really like this rock. What do you see?

 Thanks to Michael Fuselier I got a picture of myself climbing on a picturesque boulder on the Junglee plateau.

More after the break -->

Website update!

It's been a while since I've written. I've got some things in the works, a lot has been going on. Mostly I've been rock climbing and taking pictures of rock climbers. I soon will be leaving again to take more pictures of rock climbers in the sandstone sport climbing center of Badami, Karnataka.

One short (unproofed) article about the climbers from around Mumbai has been published on Climbing Magazine's website, Climbing.com.   Other images, already shown on here can be seen as well. Images from two trips to Hampi and a bouldering competition will be submitted to magazines. I have already gotten some interest from two professional climbers' sponsors for use of images, which is very exciting.

Anyway, this post is more about the updates to my portfolio website with the addition of the "adventure" tab that will eventually incorporate everything from rock climbing to skiing and hopefully kayaking. So far only climbing has images. I have also added the 09Travels page to the India subtab.

I will hopefully have some more updates soon. Cheers.