Bornholm fotograf - that's me

Oh my, how time flies. Now 7 years down the road, I'm still a photographer, now based in Denmark. Bornholm actually, And I've got a new web site again, this one's mostly in Danish. Visit me here, at Fotograf Bornholm, you'll find photos from Bornholm of course, but still photos from Nepal as well. I still go there ocationally. But probably more photos from Bornholm and Denmark now. Cheers, see you around...

My New Blog and Web-site

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!

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!

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 Project
The last month I’ve been kicking off a new project, launched a web site called Gaia Photos, and it’s now on track to be a showcase platform for great photojournalism and visual story telling from around the world. I think it’s very interesting and I’ve only gotten very positive feedback from the photographers I’ve invited to join so far. The basic idea is that (at least) one photojournalist from every country will display some of his/her work here from time to time. I think together we can get a large audience, much larger that the combined audience of each of us individually, and hopefully professional photo buyers will also make a note of it and visit from time to time to find new and interesting material for publication. It is a bit on hold these days but once all this Christmas thing has settled down, I will find more top photojournalists to join. I could tell you all the great things I hope to accomplish with Gaia, but think I’ll wait till another time. For now, just go have a look at what we have so far, there is some great work up already!

Note
And a little note, my own web site is currently not online due to technical problems with my hosting company. There’s not much I can do about it but wait, it’s been three days now. Don’t like it one bit and I think it’s time to change web hosting company. There has been other glitches in the past with these guys. On the Gaia site I’ve chosen to work with BlueHost and I must say so far I am very pleased. Fast servers, incredible backend functionality, unlimited storage and bandwidth, voted best 24h support in the industry and seems to be a lot more reliable than NeedHost, the company I’m (still) using for my own site.

So just a quick note, if you need to get in touch with me, please use my alternate e-mail address until my site is back in operation, it’s

Bogus assignment?

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 some personal details to protect the innocent.


Re : Photo Services
Hello, I want the photographic coverage of 4 of my employees and a translator coming in for tour.Their anticipated date for the tour is 15th of December,2008.The tour will last for 5 days or more pending on my arrangements. Your services will be needed for maximum of three hours each day of their tour.Let me know your cost. I hope you do accept credit. Warm regards, Mr J******** B******. In case you need to speak with me at my honeymoon base with my international roamed London number +44 *** *** *** *.Send replies to b******j****01@yahoo.com.vn


Just wondered, has anyone else out there received this e-mail?

What I did was reply and ask for some clarification. And stating that full payment is required in advance and that there can be no refund. I don’t expect any reply.

It's done...

...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 the Kumari. Since I came to Nepal 3 years ago, I've been waiting for that moment where I could shoot the god-child sitting in her window. Well, last month it finally happened!

Daily life in Nepal : 6 new photos. People washing, eating, drinking etc. I really like this little collection, normal people going about their usual business.

People of Nepal : 10 new photos. Young and old. Classical and environmental portraits. People are always interesting subjects, aren't they?

Children of Nepal : Tightened this gallery up a bit. There's now 48 photos, a handful of new ones including a black-and-white photo of Sabina kissing her new niece that I really like (both the photo and the niece!)

Famous places of Kathmandu : 21 new photos! It was one of the smallest galleries before, so now it's a bit more complete with images from Boudha stupa, "the Monkey temple", Bhaktapur, Lalitpur, Pashupatinath and various other Kathmandu landmarks.

Nature & Environment : 9 new photos. Including an old one of lightning striking in Kathmandu!

Photos of the Himalayan Mountains : 9 new photos. It was also a fairly thin gallery before. So added a few new ones, especially like the black-and-white's.

Trekking and Climbing photos : 7 new photos. Just expanded the rock climbing and ice climbing sections a bit.

Hinduism & Buddhism : 14 new photos. Making this the largest Nepal gallery. Religion plays an important part of pretty much everything here in Nepal, so of course I have plenty of these in my archive. And now on my web site.

Religious Art : 10 new photos. This has prooved to be a popular gallery. Perhaps because of the 'sexy' photos of Tantric temple wood carvings;-)

Kenya Safari photos : 24 new photos. A lot of wildlife here. Everything you'd expect, lions, cheetahs, elephants, giraffes etc. But also some of the landscape and human inhabitants of the Masai Mara. From a guided tour I won a few years ago, so not really much chance to work the usual documentary field, but still nice though.

Copenhagen Carnival : Nothing new here, just rearranged things a bit.

Photos of Bornholm : Same old, from 'my island' back in Denmark that I'd recommend everyone to visit some time. Also a bit from Copenhagen.

Black and White : A couple of new ones here. A collection of nice black and white photography - from 3 continents.


And a few from the more documentary / storytelling genre:


Tibetan protests : Photos of this years anti-Chinese demonstrations. A few new ones.

Nepal election photos : We've had two historic elections in Nepal this year. Just one or two new ones in this update round.

The 2006 Peoples Uprising in Nepal : Think I added a few new (old) ones here as well...


That's it. If you have time, go have a look at some of the galleries.

Watermarking my photos...

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 versions of my images have been used illegally. And I’ve heard of other photographers who’ve found their images used under a different name.

I’ve previously spent some time optimizing my web site for search engines which has resulted in a fairly high number of visitors popping in and having a look. I don’t mind that. In fact, I’m happy to show the photos and build a “fan base”, if I can call it that. Many other photographers don’t seem to go that way, they just use their site as a small online portfolio exclusively meant for photo editors to do a quick review and find their contact details. But that’s not me. I like a broader audience and it gives me a small steady stream of little income sources. Posters, advertising etc. Nothing big, but nice with diverse revenue sources.. The downside is of course that surfers might save image copies and use them for their various purposes – without paying me. The internet is a fantastic place, but not really a place dominated by high morality and due respect for copyright.

(If you have the idea to steal some of my images, be aware of the terms and conditions I have: If I find out, I am reserving the right to bill you at 10 times normal rate!)

Ok, so from now on I’m putting a copyright notice onto all my images. As a compensation for the watermarks I’m making the photos bigger, around 750x500 pixels. That should also give users some “reward” for clicking on the small thumbnails. Pop! What a nice, big picture!

At the same time I’m putting a few keywords into the file names in addition to my reference number. Theoretically those two things should make it more likely that they show up in a Google image-search... In a years time or so. But Google’s gotta have a billion images indexed already and it’s not exactly a tool that professional image buyers are using on a daily basis, is it? I just still remember Dan Heller’s estimates, the photo market is 80-90% outside the established agencies! Not my experience so far, but still...

Ok, back to work. It’s not the most interesting work, watermarking, uploading etc. But I’m also adding new photos to the galleries, drinking coffee, listening to some music (REM, Automatic for the People – “Hypnotize the summer, steep it, steep it, Ig-nore-land...”). Luxury! So far I’ve uploaded some new photos of Kathmandu landmarks and children in Nepal. Next are the Himalayan Mountain photos and photos of Nepal’s festivals. Hope it’ll be done soon.

Shanti Sewa Griha

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 support the project. And you can, for free! The Shanti Sewa Griha is one of 12 finalists in the 2008 World Challenge Competition, and there's a couple of weeks left for you to vote. Vote here! I know they'll appreciate it, so many thanks for your support!

Leprosy in Nepal

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, feeds them, cleans them etc.

A couple of leprosy hit boys racing up and down the hallway in a wheelchair.