morten svenningsen | blog

My New Blog and Web-site

2009-01-07T18:57:00.002+05:45

This is my post number 50 here, and it will be the last. I have moved my blog (and web site) to http://www.mortensvenningsen.com - please update any links and bookmarks you may have. The posts here will remain for blog eternity, but check the new site for updates.Thanks to everyone who follows my thoughts and scribblings!Morten

My Web Host is Bankrupt!

2008-12-27T13:48:00.004+05:45

Bloody Hell, just found out why my web site isn't working: Without any kind of warning or notification, my web hosting company (NeedHost) has gone bankrupt and all servers have been shut down.I will be setting up a new web site ASAP, please stay tuned for updates. Until then, if you need to get in touch, please contact me at- sorry for the inconvenience...

Merry Christmas!

2008-12-24T14:33:00.004+05:45

All the best wishes from all of us to all of you. As you probably can see in the photo, Sabina is now less than two months away from giving birth to our first child!Although there’s not much Christmas-ado around these latitudes, we do have a little plastic tree and we’re having a little family get-together tonight. Yes, it’s only the 24th, but that’s when we celebrate it in Denmark.New ProjectThe

Bogus assignment?

2008-11-24T10:21:00.001+05:45

I just received the following e-mail, looks and smells like a scam that has been going around in the photographic community for a while. The basic idea is that they pay an advance, cancel the assignment, ask me to refund the advance and when that’s done, they’ll cancel their original payment, which can be done within 30 days or so when paying with credit card. Here’s the e-mail, I’ve *-censored

It's done...

2008-11-13T17:23:00.002+05:45

...updating and watermarking my web photo galleries. It has gotten cold here in Nepal, so haven't really been out and about the last couple of days. Just sitting here at the computer, adding about 100 new photos to my web site. Here's the list if you're interested:update: links are now pointing to my new site (where possible):Nepal festival photos : About 10 new photos. A couple of good shots of

Watermarking my photos...

2008-11-10T18:46:00.002+05:45

Decided to make some changes to the photo galleries I have on my web site. Make the photos bigger and watermarking them. There seems to be a trend nowadays, web photos have to be big, fill out the screen. So far I’ve kept the photos on my web site fairly small, mainly to prevent illegal use but also to facilitate quick viewing. But still, on a couple of occasions I’ve had a suspision that small

Shanti Sewa Griha

2008-11-10T09:44:00.005+05:45

The Shanti Sewa Griha is a home and clinic for handicapped persons here in Nepal, where leprosy and polio patients live together with various mentally and socially disadvantaged people. My photo reportage from there, mainly about leprosy patients, is now viewable on my web site (parts of it, at least). Go have a look if you're curious: Leprosy in Nepal.Having seen it, perhaps you'd like to

Leprosy in Nepal

2008-11-02T21:19:00.003+05:45

A few photos from today. I am doing a reportage from a local leprosy hospital/home. Nepal is one of the few countries in the world where people still get leprosy. It’s a double curse here, where fear and superstition results in victims being social outcasts, sometimes even stoned to death.Sudarsan (12) and his brother Narayan (6) are confined to their bed, while their mother watches over them,

2008-10-29T12:29:00.001+05:45

"Sabina". Photo by Morten Svenningsen, all rights reserved.A new ‘tag’ here, thought I’d post some links to various sites I frequent. Mostly photo related, of course. First one is a new fashion / glamour photo blog I was invited to have a look at. It looks promising. It’s not really at the heart of what I do, being more about studio portraits than documentary work. In my own portraits I always

Happy Tihar!

2008-10-29T11:28:00.003+05:45

What a night it was. Whole city turned into Las Vegas for three nights here.For those of you not familiar with Hindu culture, this is the time to celebrate the victory of good over evil and various other things, the festival of lights also known as Diwali and Dipawali down south. In latin or something, guess it’ll be called a “photo festival”…Funny culture, first day is the day of Crows, where “

Global Financial Crisis

2008-10-10T16:24:00.004+05:45

Spare a few change, Sir? While 2 and 3 digit billion dollar amounts are being thrown around at banks in Europe and America these days, many people in “third world” countries, like Nepal here, are still struggling to get a few rupees for a daily meal.(Second part of my naïve investigation of “global issues”)What the heck’s going on here? It seems that all markets in all parts of the world are

Eid Mubarak!

2008-10-02T11:32:00.007+05:45

The end of the Islam Ramadan month, Eid al-Fitr, was celebrated in Kathmandu (and many other places) yesterday. Nepal's got some 8-900.000 Muslims, and 14.000 of them were in Kathmandu's 2 Muslim mosques yesterday.I took some 150 photos in little more than one hour, edited them down to 79 on my hard drive and 32 on my web site. There's 7 here in the slideshow. I'd like to do a tighter edit of

Technical Problems

2008-09-25T17:15:00.003+05:45

Yours truly, the computer doctor! Copyright Morten Svenningsen 2008.They never come alone, do they? Problems. First one of my lenses failed. Got an “Error 99” on the camera, which turned out to be the lens aperture control that wasn’t working. That’s now fixed, thanks to the guys at Primax. Yes, we do actually have an authorized Canon service center here in Kathmandu.Next was my laptop. Think it

Year of Global Crisis

2008-09-19T21:41:00.004+05:45

Some Nepalese rupees and 20 US Dollars. Which one's worth most next year? Photo copyright by Morten Svenningsen.We’ve had the global oil crisis, the global food crisis and now the global financial crisis. Next to that we have the global warming issue and a global war on terrorism. Well, at least a fairly international war on terrorism.One crisis after another, I’d like to investigate this further

Finally, it's here! (Canon 5D Mark II pre-review)

2008-09-17T13:28:00.011+05:45

I’m really excited today. My new tool has been announced: The Canon 5D2 camera. Here’s the main features and some thoughts:21.1 Megapixels - rocks! 2.5 times what I’m currently using. Recently, some clients have expressed a little dis-satisfaction with 8.2 MP, although it’s still sufficient for full page 300 dpi! And I can avoid the upsizing process when submitting for my stock agency... And it’s

Destined Evolution Dreams

2008-09-13T18:41:00.005+05:45

Canon’s new camera. From web site teaser, it looks like a 5d2 (/4d/3d/2d). Could it be a new 1d? Buttons and body looks more like 5d, but the eos logo is placed differently. So maybe a 4d/3d/2d name is more likely. Or maybe maybe, I’m just over-thinking it a bit. The Canon 5D and 1D3 But if it’s anything like Nikon’s new D700 and Sony’s new A900, I’ll have to get it. Considering Canon has been

Freedom of speech, movement ??

2008-08-09T23:13:00.007+05:45

Think I've mentioned it before here, but it's kind'a important. Tibetans are protesting against Chinese human rights violations in Nepal. Still. Since 10. March. And of course also now, during the Olympics. And despite Nepal's ban on all anti-Chinese activities. I'll not repeat the gruesome details again now, but Chinese torture etc. is well documented. And if you've ever spoken with some of the

Changing Media World

2008-07-29T12:39:00.001+05:45

Strolling around the stupa. Modern dressed teenagers and a Buddhist monk. Nice mix of old and new. © Morten Svenningsen, 27 July 2008.The media world is changing and I am sitting here thinking about where it’s going. In-depth journalism is getting rare, everything is happening so fast and no-one have time to dwell on issues from around the world. Professional photojournalism is getting squeezed

New Prez in Nepal

2008-07-22T14:07:00.005+05:45

President Ram Baran Yadav outside the BICC / Nepal’s interim parliament. © Morten SvenningsenWe got a new president, a first, here in Nepal yesterday. Dr. Ram Baran Yadav, a 61 year old physician. Much to the dissatisfaction of the Maoists, their candidate didn’t win the secret parlamentary election and they are currently in a meeting to decide on their further participation in government. Fears

June went by so quickly...

2008-07-03T11:28:00.006+05:45

Old husband and wife selling vegetables, Kathmandu. Photographed 1. June 2008 / Morten Svenningsen.It’s been a while since my last post, doesn’t mean that nothing has happened here. What have I been doing?• Just created the Denmark Nepal Network (DNN) on facebook yesterday. A meeting place for people of the two countries, excited to see what becomes of it... Welcome to join if you feel you

Monarchy Abolished

2008-05-29T10:06:00.000+05:45

Nepal declared a federal democratic republic. King given 15 days to leave the Palace.Late last night at 23.30, the first meeting of the newly elected constituent assembly abolished Nepal’s 240 year old monarchy by overwhelming majority. Of 564 members present, only 4 voted against the motion, which is less than 1%.King Gyanendra is expected to accept the declaration and is now set to live the

Chasing holy cows

2008-05-22T14:30:00.001+05:45

A holy cow in Nepal. Except it’s a bull...© Morten SvenningsenWe had a little banda here in Kathmandu yesterday, a strike. One Maoist commander had kidnapped one of their own supporters and beat him up together with a couple of regular PLA’s. The poor guy later died of “multiple organ failure and excessive bleeding”. So his family, together with the support of rival party, NC, closed down the

Nepal update

2008-05-08T15:07:00.003+05:45

There’s still ”load-shedding” around here (scheduled power-cuts) but it’s now down from some 40 hours a week to ”only” about 20 hours. The show must go on, so this is what I look like when I’m writing in the evenings.Hi there, just felt it was time for a little rant about big and small things. Here goes.This just in: Today the Chinese managed to scale Everest with the Olympic torch. (The summit

Link building for a photo web site

2008-04-24T14:54:00.001+05:45

It’s really not as bad as people say, it takes some time but I actually like to do “link building” for my web site. Surfing around trying to navigate the depths of the internet and finding new places. And making a benefit out of it, hopefully.What benefit?Well, I’ve now spent several years taking pictures and I think I have about 500 images on my web site. Now I’d like to get some more visitors,

Nepal: Post-election thoughts

2008-04-15T16:15:00.002+05:45

Maoist supporter holding up their well-know symbol.© Morten Svenningsen 2008While the ballots are still being counted, it is now safe to say that the Maoists were the big winners of last week constituent assembly election here in Nepal. They’ve secured more than half of the seats in the first-past-the-post election constituency that’s been counted so far (114 out of 207) and about a third of the

A time to vote

2008-04-05T20:16:00.004+05:45

Nepal deciding on monarchy. Well, sort of. At least in final preparations for holding election to a constituent assembly.Photo © Morten Svenningsen.Everybody’s talking ‘bout it here, so thought I’d give you my perspective as well...We’re entering into uncertain times here in Nepal - again. It’s just 5 days to the election here, and it’s by no means an ordinary one. In fact, it can turn out to be

Is it worth it?

2008-03-12T21:58:00.015+05:45

(on Tibet & Alamy)Norbu Gualtsen Rangzen (28), son of Tibetan refugee in Nepal, sustained injuries on his head, arm and back from police beatings during a peace march to mark the anniversary of the 1959 Lhasa uprising. Kathmandu, Nepal, 10. March 2008. On Monday the Tibetans here in Kathmandu had a big demonstration, intending to march to the Chinese Embassy to deliver a letter demanding an end

Down for the count

2008-03-07T17:48:00.001+05:45

A naga-baba* smoking a chillum on Shivaratri. Photo © by Morten Svenningsen 6. March 2008.*If you’re not familiar with the term: a naked Hindu ascetic who have renounced the world - and the use of clothes. The last 24 hours I’ve been through a cycle of dizziness, constipation, cramps, vomiting, diarrhea and now just headache and exhaustion. Thank God it seems to be over. It all started

Conflict and approaching election in the Tarai and Nepal.

2008-02-23T00:33:00.009+05:45

WARNING: Hold on to your chair, get a cup of coffee ‘cause this is gonna be a bit lengthy post, this one! A tentative analysis on current affairs here. (Part 1)Only 2 liters pr person. Hundreds of people in Kathmandu are queuing up all morning to get a bit of kerosene fuel for cooking. Supplies are hit by acute shortage. Photo 21. February 2008 © Morten Svenningsen. For more than a week

High and low in Nepal

2008-02-20T21:45:00.008+05:45

Happy Losar! Urkin and his boys throwing flour up in the thin air to welcome the new year. Langtang village in the Himalayas, 7. February 2008. © Morten Svenningsen. With the full moon today, the Tibetan Losar (New Year) celebrations are coming to an end. The celebrations started two weeks ago and I had gone up in the mountains to visit some Tibetan friends and celebrate together with them

Photo business

2008-01-19T22:56:00.000+05:45

Sadhu, a holy man having renounced the world, drinking a cup of tea, with plenty of time on his hands...© Morten Svenningsen 2008 Man there’s lots of things to do in this business! Funny thing, the actual photography seems to be just the least of it. Looking back at the last months, I’ve spent time writing, developing ideas, posting on forums, making web-site, building links, submitting

Time to market (news photos, democracy and the loot)

2008-01-16T11:34:00.000+05:45

Old news: My friend and colleague, Nick, in a sharp situation during the peoples uprising, April 2006. That's a cloud of tear gas behind him, he's trying to escape by the way.© Morten Svenningsen I’ve been looking for a better way to get some of my newsworthy photos out on the market. News photography is just a little part of what I’m doing, but we do have an election coming up here –

New web site!

2008-01-08T23:05:00.001+05:45

Here's the result of the last week's labour - and the last half year's speculations and preperations! Finally: I have just finished the complete re-design of my web-site and it is being uploaded as I write this! So what’s new? First of all, the old site consisted mainly of photos. I realized that it wasn’t doing me very much good with the search engines, since they are all geared for

Hi

2008-01-03T16:24:00.000+05:45

Technorati Profile

Another year, another million – I wish

2007-12-28T13:17:00.000+05:45

Heating my hands. - Is this a good photo for stock sales? Who would be interested in buying it? It’s probably somewhere in the conceptual department... And do I really need that big copyright mark? © Morten Svenningsen New year is approaching and it’s cold here in Kathmandu. Nice in the daytime, but when the sun sets, the temperature drops 15 degrees in 15 minutes or so. Too quick for my

What the neighbors are up to

2007-12-25T17:37:00.001+05:45

Hazardous work. © Morten Svenningsen Sometimes I see construction workers walk around on small ledges without safety ropes. I see them throwing tools to each other, sometimes they catch them, sometimes they don’t. If somebody passes by underneath and gets a screwdriver in the head, it’ll break their skull. So just look out when walking around. And just don’t fall down when you’re up there on the

How we live

2007-12-15T21:31:00.000+05:45

Oh yeah, I know that some of you are curious to see how we live. My dad posted some shots of their visit here earlier this year. Check it out if you want:http://picasaweb.google.dk/Flemmingsv/Nepal

One photo a week

2007-12-15T16:54:00.001+05:45

No posts here for a month and a half now. Sorry about that, I’ll try to post more often from now on. Even during the dry periods where nothing much apparently happens. But there’s always things happening inside my head. Well, maybe not this week, since I’ve been down with the flu. But my brain is now back on 90% power. One entry per week here should provide a more continuous feel for the local

Came in from the wilderness

2007-10-28T11:09:00.000+05:45

I got back from the mountains about a week ago and there’s been lots of catching up to do. While I was gone, they postponed the CA election here in Kathmandu. Not a big surprise to anybody. Fuel prices have also gone up and the Maoists are still taking the impossible stand. It’s starting to smell like trouble in the streets again, isn’t it? Maybe I should just head back up to the peaceful

Himalayan field trip

2007-10-02T19:38:00.001+05:45

Friends and colleagues, please note that I'll be out of reach until the end of October. Hopefully I'll come back with lots of material, so do check in here again at that time...I'm going trekking in Himalaya for a while. The thing to do around here! If you're curious about trekking and the whole Himalaya thing, check the link there. Good maps and reviews of the 3 "top" places in Nepal: Everest,

Nepal Breakdown (devotional, political & personal)

2007-09-19T23:20:00.001+05:45

Woman passed out at Pashupatinath. At the annual Teej festival in Nepal, women fast all day long in honor of the Gods who, in return, will bestow them with a happy marriage. On this day, thousands of women are waiting in long queues outside the temple to offer their prayers. But in the baking sun, and on an empty stomach, it was too much for this young lady, leaving the premises feet first. ©

The wider scope of things

2007-09-14T18:34:00.000+05:45

From the back seat of a micro-bus, driving through the wet streets of Kathmandu. The monsoon is still on here, but it's loosing it's grip fast now.Life used to be so simple when I first got here. There were the good guys fighting the bad guys. The freedom fighters and the oppressors. With daily battles playing out in the streets. No question about it, that was the only story in town. But

Taking a few steps

2007-08-21T12:06:00.000+05:45

Children in the slum loving the attention of the camera. This particular settlement is home to a couple of thousand people, the so-called sukumbasi's. UN says that around one billion people in the world are living in slums like this one!Despite the countless number of little distracting situations that constantly require 'taking care of' and 'tending to', so common to my life here in Nepal

Insomnia and business adjustments

2007-07-06T05:51:00.001+05:45

View from my kitchen balcony. It's about 5 o'clock in the morning and I just took this photo. The peak behind the valley ridge is called Manaslu, at 8156 meters it's the 8th highest mountain in the world.© Morten Svenningsen.Slightly insomniac here and mosquitoes inside the mosquito-net aren't improving the situation. Hence this write up. Ain't much going on

A revealing coincidence - Paris Hilton and "The napalm girl"

2007-06-13T09:53:00.001+05:45

Photos by Nick Ut, 8 June 1972 & 2007As a photographer and journalist myself, I just have to fret about this, it's too freakin' much: The other day Paris Hilton went back to the slammer - I couldn't care less and that's not what this is about. Her village wasn't bombed, her family wasn't killed, her body wasn't disfigured and she didn't have to leave the country in fear of her life. Just off to a

The great exodus from Nepal - a dodgy affair

2007-05-25T22:03:00.000+05:45

Visitor at the ECAN fair gets brochures from a visa consultant firm.First a little background, bear with me now. If you've been to Nepal recently, you'll already know it: Everybody here is looking for a way out of the country! If not for themselves, then for their son or brother. So many people I've met have been asking me questions about how to get a visa and a job in Europe. Or 'America', which

What the people like

2007-05-12T14:19:00.000+05:45

So yesterday this guy gave a presentation about his findings in some strategic tourism study. He had found out just what it is that tourists like about Nepal: It's the mountains, the nature and the friendliness and hospitality of ordinary people. Great. He also found out what they didn't like: The political instability with transport strikes, the bad road conditions and the poor service level

The New World

2007-05-12T11:01:00.000+05:45

Desperate voice heard on a cracking phone line from some third world country: -But listen, I think the revolution is coming! People are suffering terribly. The generals are turning the blind eye. Private houses are burning! There's no more food or clean water. People are really terrified and screaming! -Where did you say you were? -I'm in the Mombulumbu province. I've seen it all and I have