Scott Woodward: Thunder Dragon

I realized it's been a while since I featured Bhutan on this blog. It's one of my favorite destinations to photograph, and having chanced upon Scott Woodward's portfolio of Bhutan, I thought his lovely toned photographs would fill that gap very nicely.

Scott Woodward worked for American Express in Singapore, and switched careers in 2003 to become a freelance photographer. He specializes in making editorial and commercial photography, all enhanced with Adobe Photoshop Lightroom 3 software.

He favors shooting location-based narratives, where it's just him and his camera. He spent 28 days on the Mekong River traveling through Vietnam, Cambodia, Laos, and Thailand, during which he made 12,000 images. His work is people oriented, and he seeks to discover new and remarkable photographic opportunities throughout Asia, where he lives and works.

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POV: No Auto Focus Is Killing Me!

Photo © Tewfic El-Sawy-All Rights Reserved

 Having decided to re-learn photography and rely less on my Canons' computerized wizardry, I strolled into NYC's Chinatown yesterday to try my hand at self-focus on a Leica M9 fitted with a Elmarit 28mm f2.8.

The verdict? To keep it simple and to the point...self-focusing is a bitch. The M9's handling is great, color rendition is great, controls are fine and intuitive...but the focusing is really tough, and it's frustrating.  Using it yesterday in virtually ideal conditions (cloud cover, etc) reminded me of when learning how to windsurf years ago. I kept falling every other second, until I finally managed to stand up for a few minutes then it was back in the water...and so on, until I finally understood the wind direction, and found my balance.

Photo © Tewfic El-Sawy-All Rights Reserved

I have yet to find my balance in having no auto-focus. It's early days and I'll eventually get it. My frustration level will ebb and flow with every shutter click...but if the ebb is more than the flow, then I'll get there.

I hope.

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