Apologies for being absent from the diary for more than a month.

Travelling to Indonesia, Thailand, Malaysia and back to Indonesia and Thailand has been exhausting.

We executed a world first a few days ago..... the combined gathering of 3 major South East Asian photo forums over 4 days in Yogjakarta, Indonesia is, from what I observe, an activity that has never been executed before anywhere else.

40+ Indonesians, Singaporeans and a lone Philippino shared 4 wondrous days of forging new friendships, alliances and practical jokes....

.....So we're moving out of the hotel at 5.30am for a morning shoot on Day 3....hotel's prepared morning wake up calls for all of us at 5am...

...at 4.46am Sebastian calls my room and asks "....duhh...hey Ed, is the wake up call ? 4.45am or 5am ??"

I tried looking for a rope to strangle my tormentor....

Another incident....at 6.30am in the morning.... our bus was on its way to this wooden bridge at Pundong outside of Yogjakarta. We were all dozing away in dreamland despite the great warm morning light. Willy 'Rambo' Foo whips out his Nikon D2h paired with a monster 80-200 and loaded with a 1 gig card, comes up right next to the driver and takes aim at what's coming ahead on the other side of the road..... bicycles with chicken, school kids on bicycles, bicycles with vegetables, Javanese in traditional dress walking to the market ..... and generally stuff that anyone would die to shoot for... like an Uzi at 8fps... he shoots continuously in short frantic bursts. Bam! Bam! Bam! Bam! Bam! Bam! Bam! Bam!

After we turned a corner and the morning light went the wrong direction...... he happily declares "That should be about 110 keepers!"

We subsequently covered Pundong Bridge and the nearby local market. I guess he should have had easily 300+ images in his CF card by then.

Over lunch, while shooting one of us up on stage singing karaoke, he accidentally reformats his CF card....... poor boy. Heh!Heh! Heh!

For us guys (16) from Singapore, it was a ardous half day slog that saw us taking a ferry across to Batam in Indonesia and then catching a flight that transited in Jakarta before finally reaching our end destination at Yogjakarta.

Boy were we in for a surprise......we had assumed that the low budget (US$230 including all flights, fees, meals and accomodations) would mean sleeping over at backpacker type guesthouses, or eating at road-side warungs and Jurassic-age bus transportations. Were we so wrong.

The Dollar strettttccchhhes a loooooooong way in Indonesia.

With some sponsorship money coming in, we were housed in a 4 star hotel, ate at great restraunts, moved around in brand new air-conditioned buses and had a crew of personnel co-ordinating all the little details that will normally make or break any trip.

I'd not brought along my tripod from home.....no problem.....an hour before the first sunrise shoot, a spare tripod appeared out of the dark morning mist into my hands......I'd forgotten the toilet paper ......mysteriously a roll of Softies materialized from one of the crew members....... I was dying from a bad back carrying my gear......by magic, a traditional Javanese masseau knocked on my door late in the evening to knead and unknot my tangled muscles....

We were blown away on the first evening of photo critiques.....volunteers shared their images that were just created each day. The quality was astounding. One 16 year old Indonesian high school kid, Jeber, showed huge potential with his humble 300D with images that were mature beyond his young years.


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Air travel in Asia has never been cheaper these days with the birth of a whole clutch of new budget airlines. I got to Bangkok and back to Singapore on US$120 round trip including taxes. And this was by Thai Airways, not a budget airline. Now Quantas is advertising a Singapore-Bali schedule at about US$110 roundtrip. I'm tempted.

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Picked up this gem of a Leica song through the courtesy of dedicated Leicaphile Pak Aryono Huboyo Djati from Fotografer.Net ,

"I Am A Total Devotee of Leica M Photography" Copyright (c) 2004 Peter A. Klein
Sung to the tune of "I Am the Very Model of a Modern Major General"

Apologies to Gilbert and Sullivan.

Scene:
A photographic gathering in a posh metropolitan hotel.
The Master Amateur is holding forth on the glories of Leica. He is dressed in a battered old raincoat and a French beret. In his hand is a battered M3 covered with black tape.
He is surrounded by a chorus of paunchy middle-aged men, each wearing an enormous autofocus SLR with zoom lens. The lenses bounce on their bellies when they sing......

(MASTER AMATEUR)
I am a total devotee of Leica M photography.
I will not buy a digicam, I won't do videography.
I read the work of Lager with his product list canonical.
I'll never use a plastic lens with focus ultrasonical.

I look at other cameras with an attitude that's whimsical.
I do not want an SLR with viewing pentaprimsical.
The look of glass from Asia makes me squint my eyes and squirm a knee.
I'd rather get my lenses from a little town in Germany.

(CHORUS)
He'd rather get his lenses from a little town in Germany.
He'd rather get his lenses from a little town in Germany.
He'd rather get his lenses from a little town in Germa-Germa-ny.

(MASTER AMATEUR)
I will never put my camera on a tripod that is teetering.
I cannot understand the need for modern matrix metering.
Look back upon my history, it's all in my biography:
I am a total devotee of Leica M photography.

(CHORUS)
Look back upon his history, it's all in his biography:
He is a total devotee of Leica M photography.

(MASTER AMATEUR)
I love my Leica cameras with passion that's tyrannical
A rangefinder, a floating frame, and everything mechanical.
The shutter curtain's rubberized, and fashioned from the finest silk.
The lenses have a bokeh that is smooth as summer buttermilk.

My fifty f-two Summicron takes landscapes that are lyrical.
I pierce the gloomy shadows with my Summilux aspherical.
I must have Leica quality although it costs me lots o' bucks.
I bought a ninety APO, I'm saving for a Noctilux.

(CHORUS)
He bought a ninety APO, he's saving for a Noctilux.
He bought a ninety APO, he's saving for a Noctilux.
He bought a ninety APO, he's saving for a Nocti-Nocti-lux.

(MASTER AMATEUR)
I develop all my Tri-X film in acid that's ascorbical.
I try to make my photos have a reference metaphorbical.
And so throughout my history, you'll find in my biography:
I am a total devotee of Leica M photography.

(CHORUS)
And so throughout his history, we find in his biography:
He is a total devotee of Leica M photography.

(MASTER AMATEUR)
I want to be like Eisenstadt and Smith and Frank and HCB.
I take my Christmas photos in a style that's documentary.
I never shoot at weathered rocks and twisted trees and gnats and logs.
There's universal pathos in my pictures of my cats and dogs.

I lurk in bars and coffeshops, and stalk the streets with Delphic glee.
To shoot unwary passers-by with Leica mounted pelvically.
But when I spy a plant that has a lovely flower's bloom upon.
I take a dazzling close-up with my dual-ranging Summicron.

(CHORUS)
He takes a dazzling close-up with his dual-ranging Summicron.
He takes a dazzling close-up with his dual-ranging Summicron.
He takes a dazzling close-up with his dual-ranging Summi-Summi-cron.

(MASTER AMATEUR)
And although I've tried the other brands they always are inferior.
They can't resolve the fuzz upon a baby's bare posterior.
That's why throughout my history, you'll find in my biography:
I am a total devotee of Leica M photography.

(CHORUS)
That's why throughout his history, you'll find in his biography:
He is a total devotee of Leica M photography.

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to be continued.....