On 15 October 2012, former Cambodian King and Prime Minister Norodom Sihanouk died at the age of 89, in Beijing, China, after suffering health issues. His death was announced by Deputy Prime Minister Nhek Bun Chhay. His body was brought back on 17 October 2012 by King Norodom Sihamoni and Prime Minister Hun Sen. State flags flew at half mast, and the government announced a 7-day mourning period for the former king.
Sihanouk had been receiving medical treatment in Beijing since January 2012 for a number of health problems, including colon cancer, diabetes, and hypertension. He died after a heart attack in Beijing on 15 October 2012, 1:20 a.m. Cambodian time, aged 89.
A state funeral was held on 17 October 2012 and the National Television of Kampuchea repeatedly screened a 30-minute documentary about his life. Sihanouk’s body then reposed in the Royal Palace until 1 February 2013 where it lay in state until 4 February 2013, when it was finally cremated. Sihanouk’s royal coffin was adorned with gold and draped with the Royal Standard of the King of Cambodia.
I spend a lot of time processing images, mainly in Light Room, so anything that saves me time is going to be a good thing. I really enjoy creating black and white images from my colour snaps and recently purchased a number of presets from called Silver 4 for LR/RAW-Adobe. Best 50 bucks I have spent in a long time.
There are over 100, customizable presets that are loaded directly in LR in my case (but can be used in the most recent versions of PS). The presets can be used on RAW or JPEG images, and each one can be tweaked to my your in seconds, rather than having to do every image from scratch.
Some may see this as cheating, not doing all the work yourself, personally I see it as just using another set of tools to get the job done, to my satisfaction without all the stress of having to build presets to my liking. As a usable tool, that I can control and adjust to what I like, then it certainly comes recommended. https://seimeffects.com/silver/
I just enjoy making pictures of my little adopted person. He really plays to the camera, which makes it fun. These taken with an Fuji X Pro2 + XF 50mm f2. He’s a beautiful kid but also a terrible 2 ….
The word Photography literally means ‘drawing with light’, which derives from the Greek photo, meaning light and graph, meaning to draw. Photography is the process of recording an image – a photograph – on light sensitive film or, in the case of digital photography, via a digital electronic or magnetic memory.
This ability to record, special events in my life drew me to photography. Photos of my children and family become very important to me. This early interest, with a specific goal, led me into photography as a hobby, making images of things that interested me, other than just family. My first venture into photography was of course in the film era, and my first camera, as I remember, was a Polaroid. The instant film was great for family pictures, but I soon found this to be very limiting. I bought my first ”REAL” camera after about six months of using the Polaroid. A little cheap and cheerful Chinon CS that cost me almost a week’s wages at the time. It was a great little fully manual camera with a 50mm lens, it got me into using 35mm film, both colour and black and white. This again led me to go further, developing and printing first my own black and white pictures and then advancing to colour. The mechanics of the process interested me, and I was hooked.
The interest I had developed quickly into an ALMOST obsession, I was out every opportunity making pictures and developing interests in things and places that were interesting to take pictures of.
Film and its development became a constant challenge to both afford and complete, it was certainly not a cheap hobby. The more I did it, the more I found I needed to invest to improve my ability to get the images I wanted. Newer cameras, better lenses or suddenly became a priority. Then a darkroom to get me out of the bathroom. A better enlarger and other kit.
I went through various incarnations, landscape, motor racing, bands, but never really found the things I most liked to shoot until I started to travel.
I recall the first time I travelled to Cambodia, still shooting film, carrying 100 roles of Fuji and Kodak slide film and 50 rolls of Kodak Tri X or Ilford HP5, shooting in this exotic location I found what I most enjoy making pictures of. PEOPLE in their everyday lives or STREET PHOTOGRAPHY.
Travel and people quickly became the thing most of interest to me, but it was expensive, and I was still working full time.
I had decided after my trip to Cambodia that as soon as I was able that I wanted to move and live in Asia, and use Phnom Penh as a base to travel from and start to develop my interest in picture stories. I had several years to work and wait, and prepare for.
My first major trip after moving to Cambodia in 2009 was a venture in Laos, taking a boat trip down the NAM OU river to Luang Prabang (now impossible due to damns on that river)
I actually bought a new camera just for that trip, a Canon 1D Mk IV and also a Canon 70-200mm f2.8L lens both of which got very well-used and to a degree paid for themselves and the trip. By this time I had stopped using film and most of my Nikon and Canon film cameras were sold on.
I have continued since then to document the street and work with agencies that try to make positive changes for those people who have a difficult life. Photography is my way of telling a story, in one image or many.
I have seen many people, throughout the net, giving answer to this question and describing the contents of the bag they carry. I have two bags that contain different cameras for different jobs.
Bag 1
Tenba large black messenger bag. Bought used and is big enough and has enough space to carry my three street cameras (when I need them) and 3 prime lenses.
a. Fuji X Pro 2
Usually kept mounted with an XF 50mm f2
b. Fuji XE1
Usually kept mounted with an XF 16mm f2.8
c. Fuji XE2
Usually kept mounted with the fine XF 18mm f2
d. Lenses (spare)
Xf 23mm f2
Xf 14mm f2.8
Xf 35mm f2
All lightweight and easy to carry for when I may need them.
Batteries. I usually carry 5 or six spares. (but rarely need them)
Air Blower and cleaning cloths.
This is a pretty comprehensive kit for street work. Don’t carry it all the time, and sometimes just carry one camera (XE2 + XF18mm f2) and a couple of spare batteries in the pocket.
Bag 2
For my second kit of XT2 and XT3 I used an old TAMRAC pro bag that I have had for about 10 years, and it’s still going strong, and big enough to carry all I need, comfortably.
a. Fuji XT3 usually mounted with the XF 10-24mm f4 Zoom
The Fujifilm X-T3 is arguably the best stills/video camera on the market right now.(IMHO) More expensive full frame cameras will offer better still image quality and cameras with in-body image stabilization will be easier to shoot video with, but nothing offers this balance of image quality and movie capability in a single package.
New 26.1MP X trans CMOS 4 sensor with X processor 4 image processing engine
4K movie recording: Internal SD card 4K/60P 4:2:0 10 bit recording and the first mirrorless digital camera with APS C or larger sensor that is capable of 4K/60P 4:2:2 10 bit HDMI output
2.16M phase detection pixels across entire frame and low light phase detection limits has been increased over X T2 by 2 stops, from 1EV to 3EV
3.69 million dot OLED color viewfinder with 0.75x magnification and blackout free burst shooting
16 film simulation modes: Including eternal/ cinema, B and w adjustment: 9~+9
b. Fuji XT2 usually mounted with an XF 56mm f1.2
24.3MP X Trans CMOS III APS-C sensor reduces moiré and false colors to improve image quality and X Processor Pro engine increases response times, achieves faster AF, lower noise and better color
Dust and moisture resistant body with approximately 63 points of weather sealing; Freeze resistance to 14 Degree Fahrenheit
High precision 0.48 inch, 2.36 million dot OLED viewfinder featuring a magnification of 0.77x and Ultra fast Real Time Viewfinder with a lag time of 0.005sec
Full HD and 4K 3840×2160 30P/25P/24P shooting (Using a card with the UHS Speed Class 3 or higher)
Tempered glass 1.04 million dot high-precision 3 Inches tilting LCD monitor with three directional tilt and shutter type is focal plane shutter
One great camera
Both the XT2 and XT3 are fitted with the battery grip which give me more than enough battery power for any given day and I don’t need to carry any spares.
c. Fuji XF 55-200 f3.5 zoomOIS
The FUJINON XF55-200mm lens produces sharp images across its entire zoom range, well resolved corner-to-corner. The fast F3.5-4.8 lens facilitates image capture in scenes requiring a fast shutter speed. Its image stabilization function enables the use of shutter speeds 4.5 stops slower, preventing camera shake even when shooting hand-held in low-light, or at a stopped down aperture. Its a great (cheap) lens to have in the bag.
In an age of digital photography, where the ability to set automatic exposure, automatic focusing, and automatic white balancing virtually ensures a sharp and technically pleasing image, the difference between a great shot and an unremarkable one often boils down to mere composition. Understanding this one concept can transform the quality of your photography overnight and reveal a whole new way of looking at the world.Perhaps the most widely quoted principle of effective composition involves the “rule of thirds”. In order to understand when this principle should be used, and when it should be ignored, it is important to understand the psychology behind the principle, which is something that is not adequately conveyed in most discussions of the rule of thirds.The idea behind the rule of thirds is that when you survey a scene in your viewfinder, you should mentally divide the image before you into thirds. Imagine two vertical lines which are placed one third, and two thirds, of the way from the left border of the viewfinder image. Then imagine two more lines, horizontal ones this time, placed one third, and two thirds, of the way down from the top border of the viewfinder image. In effect you have placed a coarse, but uniform, grid over the image.
The rule of thirds states that when you compose your image, you should try to place the most important visual elements on these lines. For example, a person standing upright should be centered on one of the two vertical lines. A horizontal band of water, a hedge, or the base of a wall, would be positioned on the upper or lower horizontal line. The idea is that the points of central interest in your image should neither be placed at the center of the image, nor too close to the edge of it.If you study photographs that are held in high regard by others you will often be able to discern the application of the rule of thirds. Other times you will instantly be able to see how a photograph with weak composition could have been substantially improved had the photographer applied the rule of thirds.So why does this method work so well to improve the composition of a photograph? And if it is known to often *dramatically* improve the composition, when should it not be used?
The key to mastering the rule of thirds is to understand the relationship between the principal object being photographed, and its immediate environment. If there is a relationship between the two, and you want to draw attention to it, you apply the rule of thirds. By forcing the viewer’s eye away from the center of the image you are suggesting that you (the photographer) have done this for a reason, and that to appreciate the full story behind the photograph you have to search elsewhere for it in the image.Application of the rule of thirds forces the viewer to relate the principal object to their immediate environment. Application of the rule of thirds tells the viewer that you have thought about your image, and so should they.But the rule of thirds has its limitations. If there is no relationship between the principal object and their immediate environment which needs to be emphasized, application of the rule of thirds can still be employed, but the effect will be significantly weakened by causing the viewer to look for a relationship that is not there. In such cases, consider throwing the background completely out of focus to re-emphasize the main subject.Applying the rule of thirds in the wrong situation can also completely destroy the strength of a photograph. In sports photography the money shot is often captured at the peak of the action, and at that instant the principal subject usually belongs at the center of the frame for maximum impact. This is not an absolute rule, but the rule of thirds is more often applied effectively to relatively static scenes.Other times that demand the rule of thirds be ignored arise when you photograph symmetrical objects. A starfish, or the inside of a flower, photographed at close range are going to result in much stronger images if the center of the starfish or flower coincides with the center of the image. In these instances, symmetry trumps any relationship of the starfish, or flower, to its immediate environment.If you have not yet consciously applied the rule of thirds to the composition of your photographs, now is a good time to start. Just remember to ask yourself one question: is there a relationship between the principal subject of the photograph and their immediate environment that I want to convey to the viewer. If there is, the rule of thirds should help you to capture that relation, increase the story-telling aspect of your photograph, and improve the chances that others come to hold it in high regard.
The largest of the four land-sharing projects in Phnom Penh in the early 2000s was the Borei Keila neighbourhood. It became a model for the privately financed land-sharing approach in Cambodia. In September 2003, the Council of Ministers announced that Phan Imex Construction Company Ltd had been selected as the private partner in the project.
The government accepted a proposal from the company to divide the 4.6-hectare land concession into two parts: “community buildings” to re-house the existing residents of Borei Keila would be constructed on 2 hectares of the concession, while the remaining 2.6 hectares of the concession would be granted to the company for commercial development. The rest of the Borei Keila land area, amounting to 9.52 hectares, would revert to the Ministry of Education, Youth and Sports. No public bidding process to select the developer for the Borei Keila project was ever held.
In 2003, the government granted Phanimex – owned by well-connected Cambodian businesswoman Suy Sophan — development rights to Borei Keila under a “land-sharing arrangement” to develop part of the area for commercial purposes.
Phanimex was obligated to build 10 apartment buildings on two hectares of land for the residents already living there in return for obtaining ownership of an additional 2.6 hectares for commercial development.
In April 2010, Phanimex unilaterally reneged on the agreement, however — with the approval of the government — and only constructed eight buildings. That left 300 Borei Keila families excluded from the original agreement.
Borei Keila was catapulted into wider public consciousness when the remaining families were violently evicted from their homes in January 2012. In exchange for the extremely valuable city property they occupied, residents were given small payouts, or scanty plots of land in distantly located, poorly serviced relocation sites.
Free from moral wrong; without sin; pure: innocent children. Free from legal or specific wrong; guiltless: innocent of the crime. Not involving evil intent or motive: an innocent misrepresentation. Not causing physical or moral injury; harmless: innocent fun. The innocence of Children is all of these.
a world without pictures is like coffee without cream and sugar, bitter 