Arrival in Delhi

On your first visit to India, you must ride in the front seat as you leave the airport. This will prepare you for your visit. The streets in any Indian city are a microcosm of life. I am convinced.

As my driver carefully kept the middle of the car centered over the white dotted line, I marveled at his calm while more frenetic drivers jostled to the left and right blowing their horns like it would make a difference. Though the highway was marked three-lanes, the actual number was in constant flux.

Perhaps the streets are a better picture of India vs. The West. My driver is India: following his own clock, making his own lane, and enjoying the scenery along the way. The crazy drivers blowing their horns and careening past bicyclists, tuk-tuks and other cars? It's the Western way of life: get where you can as fast as you can and never mind the cow in the road.

I like the Indian idea of life. Take it as it comes. Things aren't always what they seem, so one can rarely judge. 

My hotel, for example: When Sahid pulled up in the midst of the cycle market in Old Delhi at 11pm, it looked like a beehive of nefarious activity. Men and boys everywhere doing something, talking, yelling, hanging around... all amidst a background of greasy parts, scattered bikes, and human life. And just down there, a tiny dark alley, is Tara Palace, my driver says assuredly.

The dingy door sign, lit sporadically by the quintessential flashing neon sign above, indicates it was indeed the correct alley. 

Fortunately, I've traveled enough in the developing world to know what's behind the door is often very different than what is lying in the street. While I may have had a bit of apprehension, it wasn't even bordering on 'worry.'

Sure enough, when I stepped into a cool, immaculate marble lobby, I raised my eyes heavenward, smiled, and whispered 'Thanks.'

The Hidden Cost of Eco-Tourism

While poring through my photo library for a pending project, I came across these images from a past project in Uganda with Hurinet, a Human Rights organization. 

This project was in 2006, and it is never far from my mind. These people live in the most abject poverty I have witnessed. The Batwa Pygmys (along with other indigenous groups in the Bwindi Forest bordering Uganda, DR Congo and Rwanda) were physically ejected from their ancestral forests in the name of 'Eco-Tourism.' 

The three settlements I visited were each just outside the forest perimeter. These people who were raised as caretakers of the forest were forced out without an alternative place to live or being taught alternative skills to survive in the foreign agrarian society they now find themselves. Ostracized by the local villagers, forgotten by the very government that forced them out, they are truly living life on the edge.

These are some of the faces of Eco-tourism gone wrong.


(Please note: all images are copyright Cheryl Nemazie, all rights reserved. Please send me for usage enquiries. Thank you!)

Wife of the Tribal Leader sits by her doorway in the Nyakabungo settlement
outside the Bwindi Forest.

Without a vocabulary to converse in the past, nor words for the future, Batwa men are in limbo following their forced extradition from their ancestral forest.

A Batwa woman nurses her child at the Rwamahano Settlement in Uganda.

Forced from ancestral forests, outcast from local villages, a Batwa child sits in a field somewhere in between the two.

Poverty and ostracization denies Batwa children access to government-run schools. This boy attends a school funded by a Human Rights organization within his Rwamahano settlement.

Human Rights group HURINET works with local NGOs in targeting exceptional Batwa children to attend a village school with the hope of equipping them to advocate for their people's future.

Sunday, Day Three

My leisurely start (thanks to a downpour) made for a late night. I had planned an ambitious day on purpose: I'm hoping to arrive at the ranch in the afternoon on Monday with time to scout the next phase of our commercial shoot to take place in November. So far, the trip has been remarkably uneventful. If I have the opportunity to drive out west again, I think I'd prefer to take longer, avoid the Interstates, and really see the places I'm passing by.

Heading into Nebraska around sunset, I drove through a large area which appeared to have been inundated with flood waters. in fact, part of the Interstate was closed, necessitating a detour.

(This is my complaint with NAV systems. Sometimes I miss the dependable, oversized Rand McNally. There's a lot to be said for pulling out the dog-eared tome and seeing with a cursory glance just where you are and what is the obvious route to take in the event of said detour).

That being said, the scenery was hauntingly beautiful: the sun dipping below the horizon, reflecting sentinel trees wading in the watery landscape. Quite an appropriate backdrop to the book I'm listening to (When the Rivers Run Dry). A particular section dealt with the fact that dams rarely perform as promised, often unleashing greater destruction on the communities below than engineers ever imagine.

And without a Rand McNally, I was left to wonder if I were looking at the remnants of an overflowing river, excess rainfall, or the havoc wreaked by yet another dam.

Saturday, Day 2

Didnt make the dunes. A few setbacks early on and hard rain toward the end slowed me down. Pulled into Merrillville around 9pm. Woke up Sunday to more heavy skies. No Dunes this trip, I'm afraid.

I decided to try to find a Starbucks for my breakfast of Oatmeal. This is where trusty Yelp took me:

Lesson learned. When the GPS tells you that location is really 4 hours east, believe it. By that time I really needed fuel. Since I was out on the boonies, I turned to the GPS to get me to the closest gas station. This is where the GPS took me:

It is about the journey, and I find whether you're flying or driving, you just always have to go with the flow. Be patient, flexible, and enjoy the ride. Much less stress that way!

I began listening to one of the audio books I downloaded on the current water crisis. Elixir was, well, somewhat pedantic. Written by an anthropologist, it's a history of humankind and it's relation to water. by the fourth story of tribal relations, restrictions, and customs about water --which were identical to the first three stories --- I admittedly lost interest and turned to the next book, When The Rivers Run Dry. This is written by a journalist and is nicely paced and fascinating. I'm feeling quite disappointed in the overall greed and lack of forward thinking in our species, but that just might mean the guy is getting his point across.

My ambitious goal for Sunday is to drive 12 hours to North Platte, Nebraska. Why stay in Omaha when you can stay in North Platte? Along the way I need to find a light magenta cartridge for my Epson 2400 ....

The Journey's the Thing ...

Last night I packed up my '99 Land Rover and headed West. I'm on my way to Brush Creek Ranch in Saratoga Wyoming, just outside Medicine Bow National Forest for part 1 of an Artist in Residence program. My goal is to get the foundation started on a book of my photo series, "Change is the Constant: Reflections on a Malleable Society." Although, if all goes well, the title may likely change (ha! how appropriate!) to reflect a new direction the work seems to be taking.

I'm also looking forward to doing some early morning / late afternoon shooting around the ranch. The topography there is so rich and varied: wide vistas, quiet streams, graceful stands of aspens, rocky outcroppings.

I made it to Hagerstown, MD, last night despite a dense fog at the very end of the leg — a good 4-hour start on my journey. My goal today is to get to Indiana Dunes National Lakeshore Park. Fingers crossed!

It's getting busy!

There's a lot in the works I'll be blogging about in the next few days.
1. I'm preparing to leave for Nicaragua next week, photographing for the medical group, La Merced. I will cover the new dental clinic, a few key surgeries, the social welfare efforts of part of the group, and hopefully some follow up with subjects photographed last year. Donations are welcome and tax deductible. Email me if you're interested in more information!

2. I've been approved to lead Salisbury, Maryland's first ever worldwide Photo Walk organized by Scott Kelby and the National Association of Photoshop Professionals. The link to sign up is here: http://worldwidephotowalk.com/walk/salisbury-md-united-states/

3. I've just finished a couple of architectural projects for Becker Morgan and will be uploading some images from those shoots.

4. I've been invited to join the Board of Directors of The Art Institute and Gallery in Salisbury, Maryland. I'm hoping to help expand their social outreach via Facebook and Twitter, as well as work on offering some photography workshops.

Stay tuned!

Lightroom 3 Final

Yay! Lightroom 3 has finally been released. I've become so dependent on the beta version, longing for the time when older catalogues could all be updated.

Tonight I went through all of my catalogs (general, client, event, wedding, family) upgrading, naming, converting to dng, saving metadata, organizing folders. One problem I encountered right away involved reattaching files to photos lightroom couldn't 'find.'

With my asset management, I only keep enough files in a folder which will fit on a dvd, so about 4.3 gigs. When I import a large quantity of files into lightroom, I have to split them up after import. This means I go to my finder (on Mac OS 6), create additional folders and move the requisite number of files there.

With lightroom 3, I could not get the menu command photo>show in finder to re-attach the missing photo or all the other nearby photos in the same folder. Frustrating to say the least. I quit the application and restarted. Still would not work. I restarted my Mac to no avail.

Finally, I clicked right on the question mark in the top right corner of the orphaned photo. That also took me to the 'show in finder' menu. I found the image, clicked okay, and voilà! It worked. I'm not sure if this is a program bug or not. But at least the back door method worked in this case!