Being Uncle Mike is a Pretty Cool Title

With all of my travels and being away for so long, missing family is obviously a very hard thing to cope with. Especially when new additions to the family come and I am not there to welcome them to this beautiful earth.

Back in 2009 my sister had her first son, and my first opportunity to be Uncle Mike, but at the time I was in Bangkok, and had been there for about 9 months at that point, so I didn't even have the chance to see my sister carrying my first little nephew. Like I said, it's difficult to only see pictures and hear stories over the phone and not be a part of it all. But that is the part of the "nomadic traveler's" contract, so I lived vicariously through my family as little Logan was introduced into our family.

I had the great chance to meet him at about 4 months old for about three days when I came home for a wedding, but obviously not enough time.

Now that I am back in America, I have had the chance to see Logan grow more and more. At first I was just referred to in baby blabber as "uh oh mai". Then my sister taught him how to say his new toy she bought him; a bike. So once he could say that, I was "Uh Oh Mike". Now he can hold conversations with me, mostly just "C'mon Uncle Mike!" as he holds my hand and walks me to play soccer or play with the bouncy ball-- which is a pretty awesome feeling.

As of last week, I can officially say I have a niece, as my other sister just had her first child, Ayla! And I thought since I got my first chance to see her via Skype just the other day, I would write a little post about how cool it is to be an Uncle and to see my niece and nephews firsthand (or somewhat so) grow up.

I have been photographing Logan a lot lately and I have thousands of photos of him already, but these recent ones from Easter have really made me happy, especially because he is photogenic like his "uh oh Mike". So now he is somewhat of my little model, especially since he's got piercingly deep, ocean-blue eyes like his mom and dad.

Maybe I will be able to teach Logan how to sing this song in tribute to Thailand...

Or I can try to have Ayla properly "wai" when someone says "sawa-dee ka" to her...

But enjoy these photos of my little "Logo" from Easter and check out the rest of my pictures from Easter on my site:

Logan Michael = cool guy.

Perfect

You caught me doing something naughty, I can tell!

Oh hey!

Just driving the tractor like a big boy.

One of my favorites with that smile!

Get Me to South Africa!

Last year, on this date, was the start of the most frustrating, exciting, enthralling, challenging, and emotional month and/or year of my life.

On May 25th, 2010 I stood, ankle deep in water from the torrential downpour of rain, on an empty Bangkok street for over an hour trying to hail a taxi cab. I had a massive backpack on and small bag with my camera inside in my hand. I was calling the university's security guards to call for a taxi, but no cabs were in sight (which is a complete rarity in BKK). It was eerie yet frustrating.


At the time, Thailand was in a political crisis. Downtown people were protesting, Red shirts were fighting Yellow shirts, hospitals were being overtaken and evacuated as political power moves in a substantial civil war. Just two week prior, Khattiya Sawasdipol, the former army general who was leading the anti-government protesters was shot in the head and killed, which flared the fighting even more. From then on, the country was on lock down with a curfew of 9pm. (For a play-by-play of some of the Bangkok protests and another write up of my interpretation of the curfew, check this out at tinglish.net)

Thai soldiers stand off the Red Shirt protesters. (AP Photo/Wall Santana)

Burning tires was the cause for most of the smoke within Bangkok... until they set Central World on fire. (AP Photo/Wason Wanichakorn)

(AP Photo/ Wally Santana)

I hated seeing my favorite country literally go up in smoke. To see the "Land of Smiles" have so much tension was heartbreaking and for the first time I wanted to leave Thailand... and I was.

A view of downtown Bangkok on fire from the protests and the Central World Mall.

My efforts to hail a taxi was to get to the airport for my trip to South Africa for the 2010 World Cup (and to see my friends Colin, Kelsey, Emily, Meg, and Lise of course). I just spent a month as an ordained Buddhist monk in the remote regions on Thailand and so the violence paired with my cultural shock was almost overpowering.

There were times where I felt like a brand new person, a 23-year old just dropped back into Bangkok like in the Sims or something. Music felt like it was curing my soul after being absent in my life. Wearing underwear was like a foreign feeling. Being able to eat after 12 noon was gluttonous to me. Sleeping on something other than a marble floor was like heaven for me. The stimuli was everywhere but extrapolated ten fold after being so secluded from it all for only a month. So when I had the chance to get away from all of the danger and violence and hate, I knew it would be good for me.

All images were taken by Kachorn Chiaravanont.

I finally got a taxi and arrived at the airport in full sprint. Once I got to Singapore Airways' counter, I was told that I was too late and could not board my flight. I panicked. I absolutely freaked out! I was not late. I had plenty of time. They said the gate had already closed and I could not check my bags or anything. I pleaded to the woman that I had to get on that plane and she told me there was nothing I could do about it. She later told me that the flight was for 8:35. I looked at my ticket from my travel agent and it said 9pm. The flight time was changed without anyone telling me. I was crushed. All my money I spent on my tickets, housing, game tickets, etc was just blowing by me. My mind went into a tailspin and I didn't think I would be going to South Africa at all. Fortunately, the woman understood my circumstance and booked me a flight two days later (a day after my Thai visa expired). I didn't care, just knowing I had a seat was all that mattered.


After trying to plead my case two days later at the airport with customs that I am not an "illegal visitor" and that I had been living in Thailand for two years, I gave up and paid the fee once they threatened to arrest me because I was arguing my case. Not the best situation to go into just weeks out of being a Buddhist monk.

I finally boarded the plane and made my extremely long flight to Cape Town (through Singapore) to arrive in a city where I knew very little about and just hoped to find a way to survive the week before Colin, Kelsey and Emily arrived. I barely did survive, I don't know how I did, but that story will be for another post later in the week!

Black and White Wednesdays: A Collection of Other Photographer

Since a lot of my photography is based around the many colors of the world (and since I am far too busy with past photos) I enjoy looking at other photographers work and how they portray things without color. So here are some of my favorite black and white shots for this week.

This photo is from Scott Nichols Gallery and this image alone is why I aspire to take black and white photographs. It's beautiful simplicity has a slight complexity to it, like a painting. The rest of his work below is also incredible, go to his site and take a look at all!

Here are some black and white night shots...

All of these images are from the photographer Marcin Stawiarz. Check out his black and white portfolio, it's fantastic. His use of contrast and extremely white whites and dark blacks without overpowering the image is fantastic. His ISO must be quite high and probably taken on a tripod considering all of these photos are taken at night.

I have an image very similar to this (as it sort of looks like the Chao Praya River in Bangkok) that I hope to put up in the next few days.

Enjoy the rest of your Wednesdays and go to these two artist's sites, they are truly talented photographers!

Footy Kit Fridays: Another AS Roma kit

I don't know what my recent obsession with these kits are, but maybe its just that great feeling of Kappa's material on my back, or maybe its a sign that I should start caring more about Serie A again, but for whatever reason, in my slightly hung over mind this morning, I chose to throw on my white, long sleeve 2008-09 AS Roma Francesco Totti kit.

Like last week, I don't have a camera on hand to snap what I'm rocking today (and I still think it would be a little weird to show my present self every week) so I'll just attach some images of it here.

I will say that although back to back weeks of Roma, I got to rock this jersey with a Baltimore Orioles hat today and it looked quite nice with both oranges being the same-- plus it helps when living in Bmore to get some hometown respect.

Enjoy the last week of club football for awhile this weekend, hopefully Chelsea can end the season with a win, although it's not for the title.

*I promise next week I'll be posting more, I've just been extremely busy with my photography to keep up. Sorry!

Eyes of Self Exhibit Premiering in Mt. Vernon!

Just recently I was asked to showcase some of my work at a gallery in Baltimore just near where I work. Obviously, it’s a great feeling that someone with a good taste in artistic work respects my photographs to give me not only one month of an exhibit but three. I will be setting up for the next few days at Shapiro’s Café and Gallery in Mt. Vernon, Baltimore and the premiere is scheduled for Tuesday from 5-7pm.

The exhibit that I will be displaying first is my older showcase titled Eyes of Self ~ Each Young Eastern Soul Offers a Frame: Southeast Asian Life Through the Faces of the Youth. My book that I made on this exhibit is on sale here or you can preview it on the box to the left of this post. I love this exhibit as it displays pictures from my great time abroad in Thailand back in 2006. The pictures are more thematic than other projects that I work on and it was my very first photography showcase, so it obviously holds a great place in my heart.

 My next exhibit that will replace the Eyes of Self one is still to be determined but I know that most of the photographs will be from my past three years traveling and taking even more photographs with new equipment and experiences to help improve my work. This exhibit will premiere the second week of June and will stay up until around August.

If you are going to be in the Baltimore area during the next few months, I would love for you to come by the gallery and take a look around. Also if you are free for our premiere next Thursday, May 19^th, we are going to have free drinks, food provided by Shapiro’s amazing menu and hopefully some live music or at least some good times to be had.

The gallery right now looks amazing with the set up of the café. There are two separate areas in the café and two very different vibes from the front and back rooms but they all come together perfectly. We’ll have a comment book and my coffee table photography book on the Eyes of Self exhibit where you can read my Artist’s Statement and see even more photographs from my project.

I hope to see you all there on Thursday and stopping in on occasion to take a look at my work—or the other great artists’—at Shapiro’s.

Here are a few photos from the exhibit being displayed. (Pictures from the Premiere will be posted later.)