Eyes Open Photography

Dangdut Mania

Bob Rose — Fri, 13 Jun 2008 09:36:30 +0000

Took these a while ago, never got around to working on them. This live TV show is very popular, like American Idol but with Dangdut singing. Dangdut is a popular style of music with much Arabic/Indian influences. Worst costumes ever!

Malacca Strait Jazz Festival- 7/6/08

Bob Rose — Wed, 11 Jun 2008 07:59:18 +0000

I remember leaving quite a harsh review on my website the last time I saw Tompi, I was wondering maybe he wasn’t THAT bad?! Oh my God, he is. His popularity and fame are an absolute enigma to me. And he sounds like a chipmunk when he scat sings with his pretend air trumpet. Intensely irritating.

Rieka Roslan… the absolute highlight of the festival. Wonderful soul singer, and lots and lots of fun.

Andien… apparently was a child star. A little plastic for my taste.

Geliga… founders of the festival and combine jazz with local Sumatra ethnic music.

Hendri Lamiri, a wonderful soulful violinist. Loved the set.

Notturno.

Malacca Strait Jazz Festival- 6/6/08

Bob Rose — Wed, 11 Jun 2008 07:42:27 +0000

Ryan: festival founder, chairman and bass player for Geliga

My second go at photographing Dewa Budjana… nightmare lighting again, and another total media circus.

The guitarist Nikita Dompas is prolific and plays with many Jakarta bands, but this is the coolest and funkiest that I’ve seen him.

Steve Hunter Trio… widdly technical Australian jazz.

Donny Suhendra

Netta, singing with Donny Suhendra

Zarro

Real Band.
The last time I saw her was in Yogyakarta a year ago… she’d only been singing for a year and was still finding her feet. Well, she’s really found them now… really impressive performance.

Malacca Strait Jazz Festival- 5/6/08

Bob Rose — Wed, 11 Jun 2008 07:21:23 +0000

Really enjoyed this festival, and many thanks to the organisers for taking such good care of me and Kate.
Due to lack of funds, several of the bands had to be cancelled (very sad not to see Barry Likamahua!), so the first day consisted of local Pekanbaru bands. Although they weren’t always technically up to the standard of the other bands, I always like the spirit of young Indonesian jazz groups.

Jazziri

Thio

Flat Noze

Party Jazz

Nine Muses- Benny Mustafa

Bob Rose — Wed, 11 Jun 2008 07:03:10 +0000

A legend!

Dorothy, owner of Nine Muses

Kalimantan 21/05/08

Bob Rose — Tue, 03 Jun 2008 10:36:00 +0000

10-hour incredibly bumpy motorbike journey yesterday, good God it was uncomfortable! Very sore bottom afterwards (and during!). However, I do feel really connected to the world when I’m on a motorbike. When the sun was setting, I felt very poetic… it was like God was showing off all of His creation and had created light for this sole purpose. I also perceived light as an unrequited lover from afar caressing and admiring beautiful but unaware subjects.
Arrived in Pontianak just to find out I’d missed the first day of a Dayak festival which was apprently very photogenic… damn! Rest of the festival as far as I can make out is just to drink huge amounts of tuak and arak. Lots of fun, but not loads to photograph.

Kalimantan 19/05/08

Bob Rose — Tue, 03 Jun 2008 10:26:30 +0000

Visited an incredibly photogenic 65 year old man with loads of physical energy and presence. Tried chewing some of his betel, my first time! Very dizzying in a similar way to smoking loads of tobacco for the first time. Only a short-lived rush thankfully as it was quite hard to take photos.

Kalimantan 18/05/08

Bob Rose — Tue, 03 Jun 2008 10:18:51 +0000

Went to interview another magician/shaman, turned out to also just heal ill people… I want one that puts curses on mobile phone thieves! This one was a bit more media friendly… the last one didn’t want to pose with any props, but this one went and got props for the photos without being asked! He even gave me a VCD of a traditional ceremony but it was unfortunately too scratched to view. Interestingly, one of the ceremonies this shaman carries out is for arguing families and carries out a couple of these each year.

Kalimantan 17/05/08

Bob Rose — Tue, 03 Jun 2008 10:10:47 +0000

While staying with Ardy’s other sister, her mobile phone was stolen and I was intrigued by her automatic reaction to see the local magician/shaman to get a curse put on the perpetrator. Apparently people here have no compunction in stealing a phone if the opportunity presents itself, which really shocked me. As I was fascinated by the mixture of the old way of life with new technology I found and interviewed a shaman, but this one only dealt with healing the sick rather than tracking down mobile phones.
Travelled to see 2 of Ardy’s aunties who know folk tales and songs, really inspiring and lovely women. One of them was a particularly inspiring presence, I want to adopt her as my grandma!

Kalimantan 16/05/08

Bob Rose — Tue, 03 Jun 2008 09:44:53 +0000

What does Kalimantan look like? Nothing like the Amazonian dense wet jungle I envisioned before I got here. Basically, most of it looks like Chiang Mai. Many parts really look like England, which actually makes me a bit homesick! I think most of the places I’m seeing have been really affected by logging and mining. Many towns really look and feel like part of the American Wild West, log cabins in the middle of nowhere look like they should be in the American Frontier!
Returned to Pontianak (capital of West Kalimantan)- I hate cities! Everyone looks more glum, stressed and unfriendly. Not to mention the pollution, crowdedness, noise and ugliness.
Thankfully only 1 night in Pontianak, then journey to a village called Balaiberkuak. Extremelly uncomfortable 4 hour motorbike journey on very rough terrain.
Staying with very warm lady called Jus, has a husband with interesting story. He came from Surabaya because apparently it’s much easier to earn a good wage and have a good quality of life in Kalimantan. He runs a shop at the front of the house and rents out a truck. The women of the house make tempe, and it was proceeds from the tempe which paid for their incredible huge beautiful house. They also own 100 animals!
Went to interview a woman who sings folk tales, then another bumpy bike journey to Ardy’s village on an even worse road!

Kalimantan 13/05/08

Bob Rose — Tue, 03 Jun 2008 09:27:40 +0000

We all looked through the family photo albums, very strange to see random photos of celebrities suddenly appear in the middle of a family holiday, some of which were bought, some of which were signed and sent via a fan club.
Ardy has been telling me about the Photoshop work that he does in his village, people will pay large sums of money for all sorts of Photoshop work from appearing in exotic locations and having their face transplanted onto celebrities’ bodies to fixing missing teeth and legs! Incredible how this has reached such remote locations. Ardy also learnt how to do makeup and hairdressing, and hires out wedding dresses which makes his services much in demand in his village. Globalisation is reaching these villages very quickly. Every single hut and dwelling has a satellite dish, everybody has a mobile phone loaded with pop music (and often porn).

Kalimantan 12/05/08

Bob Rose — Tue, 03 Jun 2008 09:12:19 +0000

Ardy and his friend Leo wanted some cheesy portrait photos doing, so I dragged them up a steep overgrown mosquito-infested hill much to their discomfort. Also grabbed some cheesy Richard Clayderman style shots at sunset at the side of Ardy’s sister’s house.
Last night when we went to a muslim wedding, I was intrigued by the local band who were playing, so I went searching today for some of the musicians. We found Kamil, one of the guitarists. Impressively, he made his own very rock and roll looking guitar and taught himself for three years, and is pretty good. Quite bizarre to hear Yngwie Malmsteen licks in the middle of nowhere in Kalimantan!

Kalimantan 11/05/08

Bob Rose — Tue, 03 Jun 2008 08:56:40 +0000

Lots of travelling on bumpy motorbike today following Ardy at work. Getting used to the motorbike, although a 15kg bag on my back does make my bottom a bit sore and my back tired…
I haven’t wanted to smoke so much in a long time, or felt so similar to when I was a teenager in ages! Life in the UK gets very dull when people leave Uni and get jobs & families, but here in Indonesia people still want to make new friends, have fun and not become so boring and serious! I now need to unlearn everything since being a teenager.

Kalimantan 10/05/08

Bob Rose — Tue, 03 Jun 2008 08:45:20 +0000

I’m being shown around Kalimantan by an Indonesian chap called Ardy, whose job is to catalogue and record Dayak dialects which are on the verge of extinction. We’re currently staying with Ardy’s sister in a village called Nanga Taman.
I had the chance to see a catholic wedding where 12 couples were married in one go, due to financial limitations! It was bizarre to hear a catholic ceremony done in Indonesian, so much more interesting than when done in Latin! Lots of drinking of Tuak, much good-natured pressure to drink as much as possible.
Amazing how so many different religions co-exist in peaceful close proximity- neighbouring villages are often very different religions and races from each other.

2nd May @ Local Market

Bob Rose — Fri, 02 May 2008 13:28:31 +0000

Just finalised a trip to Kalimantan (Indonesian Borneo), I’m going to be travelling around visiting remote tribes, some of which may never have met any Westerners before. I leave early next week and I’m quite nervous/excited. I’m going with an Indonesian who is studying the different languages, he doesn’t speak much English, so hopefully this is really going to be good for my conversational Indonesian!

Some more photos from the local market…

28th April @ Local Market

Bob Rose — Wed, 30 Apr 2008 04:22:47 +0000

10-20mm lens again this time.

Kota Kinabalu

Bob Rose — Wed, 30 Apr 2008 04:13:46 +0000

One of the perils of living in Jakarta is that it can be difficult to find attractive locations to relax in at the weekend, away from the smog, bustle and people.
AirAsia recently came to the rescue by opening up a cheap new route from Jakarta to Kota Kinabalu which is in Malaysian North Borneo, near Brunei. There’s a massive mountain on the doorstep which is a popular climb, many national parks and also some beautiful islands 10 minutes from the mainland which was our choice of activity.
The islands allow camping, and although they can be a little busy at the weekend with snorkellers and day-trippers, at 4pm everyone disappears leaving almost nobody else there. Bliss!
The diving and snorkelling is reasonably good, we got to see a turtle, some rays, and all the other usual fish that you see in Malaysia.

I didn’t take my DSLR, just a Panasonic point and shoot (also with underwater housing).

Tunku Abdul Rahman Marine Park is just off Kota Kinabalu. You can see the mainland at the top left of the photo. Here, the plane is over Gaya island, we stayed at Mamutik island which is the tiny one near the centre of the photo. You can just see the beach where we pitched our tent. The island is almost opposite the airport on the mainland, and it’s a 10 minute speedboat journey from the jetty. Amazing!

Me, taken by Kate

Kate

A great angle of Jakarta from the sea, you can just see Monas on the left hand side above centre.

Today at the local market

Bob Rose — Thu, 24 Apr 2008 11:57:31 +0000

Each day that I go to the local market for photos, I take a different lens. Today, it was my very wide-angle lens which caused people to get a bit alarmed when I got in really close for a photo!

Seconds before she burst into tears because of the scary man with the big camera! Oops.

How to prepare a chicken.

Bob Rose — Wed, 23 Apr 2008 15:23:58 +0000

I went for another wander around the local market today, and happened to catch the chicken sellers kill a bunch of them and turn them into what I would see at the local supermarket. The process was quick and efficient, the Indonesians seemed to wonder why I had so much interest in something that was so everyday and mundane to them.

A quick slice to the throat before being passed the next victim.

Don’t pass me to the guy with the knife!

The chickens are prepared in hot oil.

This contraption is powered by a noisy motor that makes the drum turn round. The feathers come out of the bottom, and when the chickens are pulled back out, they look just like what you would buy at the supermarket (except with yellow feet!).

Game console graveyard on the top floor of the market.

Jakarta Olympic Torch Relay

Bob Rose — Tue, 22 Apr 2008 15:45:23 +0000

The ceremony was closed to the public, I wandered around the stadium looking for protests, supporters, anyone at all but nobody seemed to care. I didn’t get around to organising a photo pass in advance, and security was very tight. The police were particularly friendly and chilled out.

Riot gear sits unused as the ceremony unfolds peacefully.

A balinese statue and a Chinese flag outside the Bung Karno stadium.

A quick tour around the stadium as everyone leaves the ceremony in case of last minute trouble.

Unused protective head gear.

A Chinese official keeps an eye out for potential trouble.

Local market

Bob Rose — Mon, 21 Apr 2008 10:25:19 +0000

I’m going to try to pop out for half an hour each day to document life at the local market,
here are today’s photos.

Out and about in Jakarta

Bob Rose — Thu, 17 Apr 2008 06:18:33 +0000

We’ve been hosting a couchsurfer recently, which gave me a much needed kick to go out and take some photos of Jakarta while showing people around.

Sore

Bob Rose — Thu, 17 Apr 2008 05:06:25 +0000

Sore are a popular Indonesian band, I took some studio shots of them for Rolling Stone Indonesia, hopefully the first of many shoots for them! Sore means ‘afternoon’, and is pronounced ‘Sorray’.

Java Jazz

Bob Rose — Thu, 17 Apr 2008 04:58:32 +0000

Very commercial event, not keen on it at all. Great music though, and I had great fun making a guest appearance on guitar playing Deep Purple with one of the big bands!

Dhafer Youssef (Tunisian), one of my favourite musicians.

Father and son, Benny is a legend in Indonesia and Barry is the best young jazz player on the scene.

Oele Pattiselano is a legendary swing jazz guitarist in the style of Joe Pass with impeccable taste and incredible technique.

Jeffry Tahalele plays bass with all the great jazz masters in Indonesia.

I first caught Saharadja in Bali, amazing crossover band who incorporate every world style you can imagine. The violinist has a cool 6-string violin with frets!

Dewi Sandra is a very popular and well-known jazz singer in Indonesia

Moonlight Club, Jakarta

Bob Rose — Wed, 30 Jan 2008 13:39:23 +0000

While following Etta around taking photos for her book, we ended up at a club for the ‘gender challenged’. Etta believes in supporting the gay cause, as they’re the people who do her hair and makeup for TV(!)
Seems like a colourful community in a country which can be very intolerant.
They heavily took the p**s out of me while I was photographing… perils of the job…
One of the nights we were there was World Aids Day, and it was quite a touching moment when everyone in the club prayed after having been given a candle each.

Bertha McCarthy

Bob Rose — Wed, 30 Jan 2008 11:49:49 +0000

Some photos of Etta for her forthcoming book…

Dewa Budjana

Bob Rose — Mon, 28 Jan 2008 20:03:39 +0000

I went to this gig a couple of months ago, it was a huge media event as he was launching a new book and is one of Indonesia’s best known jazz/fusion guitarists. Not really my taste that evening, but I hear there’s a lot more to him than what I heard at this one event.

Selamat Jalan, Pak Suharto

Bob Rose — Sun, 27 Jan 2008 22:38:27 +0000

It’s 5:30am and I just had the surreal experience of visiting the recently deceased former Indonesian president Suharto. Apparently I’m the only photographer who was allowed to photograph his body at his private home where friends, family and colleagues were paying their respects. This meant I could only stand in a designated place for a very quick period of time, so it was very hard to get a decent photo. I’m not really interested in politics, but this chap had a very interesting part in Indonesia’s history to say the least.
The person in these photos is Mamiek Soeharto, the youngest daughter.

BTW, ‘Selamat Jalan, Pak Suharto’ was the constant caption on all the TV channels (mostly owned by the Suharto family). Selamat Jalan means ‘goodbye’, but literally it means ‘good walking’… you say it when someone leaves to go somewhere else. It seems a strange way to say goodbye to somebody who died… I would have thought ‘Good Flying’, or something similar would be more appropriate.

Indonesian Health Minister

Bob Rose — Thu, 13 Dec 2007 09:36:07 +0000

Went to the Indonesian Health Minister’s home (Siti Fadilah Supari) to take some photos of Etta giving her singing lessons. The photos are for Etta’s upcoming book. It was quite surreal to be talking with the health minister about bird flu afterwards!

Jakarta Graffiti

Bob Rose — Wed, 12 Dec 2007 09:29:39 +0000

Not a patch on Yogya graffiti, but I haven’t had time to go through all the photos I took there!
This particular piece of artwork really sums up the feel of the city which is my new home…

JakJazz Day 3

Bob Rose — Tue, 27 Nov 2007 05:42:25 +0000

Completely exhausted by this point, as I’ve been carrying my complete set of camera equipment around the festival for 3 days. Loads more quality music, especially Bazz Attack who consist of about 6 young virtuoso bass players and a drummer. What is amazing about the festival is just how popular virtuoso music is with the Indonesian crowds. I’m particularly surprised by the enormous following of a chap who leads the Balawan trio who plays the most self-indulgent 2 handed-tapping widdly nonsense played though a Roland guitar synth. The main Indonesian band to finish is Tompi & Groovology, who have one of the most annoying frontmen imaginable… but seems to have enormous celebrity status.

JakJazz Day 2

Bob Rose — Mon, 26 Nov 2007 18:44:36 +0000

Had a lovely day with my other half enjoying some really amazing music including one of the best guitarists I think I’ve ever heard in my life. Wow. Carlos Rios was also playing, but was really quite dull compared to all the incredible Indonesian talent. There was a lovely point when a generous Hungarian band invited a mother and daughter on to the stage to perform… real festival spirit!

JakJazz Day 1

Bob Rose — Mon, 26 Nov 2007 18:16:34 +0000

Things are getting going in Jakarta… I’ve just agreed a full-time job which is rather good news involving photography, writing and web development. I also covered my first music festival since I started backpacking… I really missed it! And what a music festival! JakJazz (The 9th International Jakarta Jazz Festival) featured really stunning musical talent from Indonesia which really put the European and American bands to shame. Loads of incredible guitarists, which kept me really happy.

Borobudur

Bob Rose — Tue, 30 Oct 2007 20:31:21 +0000

Sorry to the regular readers that this blog has been quiet for a little while.
We’ve now settled in Jakarta, and my photographic eye needed a few months to relax and focus on settling into a new city.
I will add a few updates over the next few days, but in the meantime here are some shots of Indonesia’s no.1 tourist attraction Borobudur:

I have to admit that it really is very overhyped, and poorly looked after. It’s not all that photogenic, you have to work really hard to get good shots. The mist in the surrounding valleys is rather nice before the sun rises though, but again not that photogenic.

Bali

Bob Rose — Sat, 21 Jul 2007 14:24:44 +0000

We’ve been very lazy in Bali for the last few days, we’re staying in a place called Ubud which was once apparently very beautiful and empty but is now full of tourists.
There’s not much to photograph as it’s just full of shops and touts, but I did try to get out and grab a couple. I am enjoying the luxury of nice hotels and restaurants, but it’s going to be time soon to get to Jakarta where we’ll both probably get jobs, hopefully me with a newspaper!

After buying the point and shoot (Panasonic Lumix DMC-TZ3), I’ve enjoyed not having to cart around the DSLR and lenses. 10x optical zoom and image stablising is quite useful, check out these photos of the Petronas twin towers in Malaysia (do they really not have anything more exciting and full of character to be proud of as their national symbol?!) taken with the Lumix…

Magnificent Holiday

Bob Rose — Wed, 18 Jul 2007 10:58:37 +0000

Not many photos from the last couple of weeks, as I’ve really been enjoying the good life which also meant leaving my camera in it’s bag!!
We did get a new point & shoot in Bangkok, with a waterproof housing so we could try some underwater photography.
Kate has been trying to get me into diving for years, and I’ve never been that enthusiastic about the idea… but I got my openwater PADI licence in the Perhentian Islands of Malaysia, and now have 12 dives in my logbook! Underwater photography is really tough, especially with a p&s which has an appalling shutter lag… I forgot how annoying that was after getting a DSLR.
To get really good photos, you need really good strobes which cost an arm and a leg… the water swallows every bit of red and you need the strobes to put the colour back. Ah well, looks like this could be an expensive hobby! I was always a bit nervous of swimming with fish, but actually it’s magnificent and an amazing feeling to swim alongside a giant pufferfish, or a giant turtle. I’m hooked!
I’m a little embarassed to post photos, there’s a steep learning curve to underwater photography.

We’re now in Bali, this is really the good life after the challenges of India and working in Chiang Mai.

More from the Phi Ta Khon festival.

Bob Rose — Thu, 28 Jun 2007 19:08:15 +0000

As well as being a great excuse for a piss up, the festival had a load of unfathomable religious symbolisms.
The ghosts carried swords with a penis on one end, no-one seemed to have any idea why! They would regularly attack unsuspecting strangers (me included) and grind the penises into their crotch. Very strange! We were invited to a piss up with a nice group of ghosts on the Sunday night, and it was quite amusing to watch and share in pretend gun-fights with these sword-penises and then play air guitar on the sword-penises. All very phallic and Freudian.

Lovely Ladies of Phi Ta Khon

Bob Rose — Wed, 27 Jun 2007 09:19:21 +0000

Kate just posted on her blog (http://www.travelblog.org/Asia/Thailand/Loei/Dan-Sai/blog-174091.html) that I had some photos of showgirls from the festival, so here are the photos!

The showgirls were charmingly without grace, but made up for it with huge amounts of enthusiasm and smiles. A large part of the choreography consisted of pelvic thrusts accompanied by high-pitched squeals… hilarious!

Phi Ta Khon Festival - HDR

Bob Rose — Tue, 26 Jun 2007 19:56:46 +0000

The festival was superb, I can’t remember the last time I had such a good time!
Everyone was so warm, friendly and cheerful and spirits were running very high.
The general idea of the festival is to get dressed up as ghosts, and then get extremely drunk. Nice drunk though!
The Fuji S3 generates some great HDR photos from it’s RAW files, what I shame I can only get around 70 RAW files on one 2GB memory card!

Perhaps I’m getting carried away with the effect, but I like it and it’s fun. I’m sure I’ll calm down and produce nice respectable realistic photos again soon so I don’t offend people’s sensibilities.

Some tips about HDR I’m picking up…
it’s handy to keep the original photo on the bottom layer in Photoshop so you can tone down the HDR effect. Obviously I haven’t done that here! But I can see a place for this being done in a subtle way on many future photos.
As my camera (Fuji S3) has a wider dynamic range than other cameras, it’s possible to turn a JPEG capture into HDR. I NeatImage the photo first if it needs it, convert it into 16-bit and save it as a TIFF which can then be opened in Photomatix Pro for the HDR treatment. Nice!

Suckers at Glastonbury

Bob Rose — Thu, 21 Jun 2007 19:40:29 +0000

Actually I think I’ll really miss Glastonbury this year, although I do think the music this year is absolutely terrible. Glastonbury Festival is never really about the music for me, but it’s nice as a photographer to shoot some great acts. Not this year, I can’t say I’ll really be missing any of the performances. Almost every band has done the UK festival scene to death, it’s a triumph of NME bands which is really not my scene. I was considering flying back, but I’m sure I made the right choice now.
I’ve been hard at work in front of the computer working on my mystery project, it’s a terrible time to feel motivated to sit in front of the computer all day when I’m in exotic lands! Glastonbury this weekend did send me into a panic though, so I decided at short notice to head off to a festival on the Thailand/ Laos border called Phi Ta Khon which looks really photogenic and has been described as ‘Halloween on steroids’. As Kate has a job interview in Indonesia in a month’s time so our travelling might be cut short, we’ll then be continuing on through Laos, and then on to some of the beaches of the islands in the south of Thailand. A nice change of pace! Then back to work in Indonesia.
Anyway, I’ve had a bit of time to do some sight-seeing in Chiang Mai…