i admittedly don’t know much about the subject, nor the photographer. however, this shot is a rare colour shot from 1911! yeah, almost 100 years ago. no touch ups, no shopping.

after going out for dinner on wednesday night, i headed to st mary’s catholic church to do some night shooting. i planned on just using my fisheye lens to get close. upon reflection, i could probably have used my normal lens to get a better angle. i found some info on the church on some website:

St Mary’s Church built in 1904 of Helidon sandstone. It is based on a design by F.D.G. Stanley and is virtually the same design asSt Joseph’s Cathedral at Rockhampton.  The Presbytery adjacent was designed by Andrea Stombuco and was completed in 1876.The adjoining grounds contain many other fine buildings including the primary school and former convent.

continuing with the best sports photos of 2010, this one where atlanta thrasher, evander kane (yes, named after the boxer) destroys matt cooke of the pittsburgh penguins. smack-oh!

i seem to be having a good run with galleries lately. i found another interesting one that shows all the ethnic groups in china. all 56 of them. it took 14 photographers just over a year to travel all over china to gather photos that depicted ethnic groups in their traditional costumes. the gallery can be found here.

trendalicious has once again provided an excellent photo, this time from richard renaldi. in a series called, ‘touching strangers’, renaldi has people who have just met to pose for photos. the outcomes are varied from obvious discomfort, to people who look like they’ve known each other forever. the gallery is here.

yesterday’s shots were grisly but interesting. today’s are nothing short of spectacular. iceland’s, impossible to pronounce, eyjafjallajokull volcano, has erupted. this has presented a great opportunity for photogs to get out and have some fun. a fantastic gallery can be found at flickr. the shot below would be my choice as best in show.

i’m keeping this picture small for a reason. mainly because we westerners would consider it too gruesome, too grisly to comprehend. however, while in my recent marathon mongolian reading menagerie, which included  conn iggulden‘s genghis khan series, mcgregor and boorman’s, long way round, and stanley stewart’s, journey among nomads, i’d read about the ritual of sky burials. i’d seen pictures before many years ago but only today found a set that i thought illustrated the ceremony very well. it’s definitely not for people who are easily sick (inyoung).

this series is from tibet but is done in very similar fashion on the various steppe nations in asia, ie, nepal, mongolia, bhutan and parts of china, russia, and the himalayan region. the ritual takes place usually on the top of a hill or peak. the presence of permafrost means that western-style burial is impossible. so, the body is offered back to the earth through a gift. my understanding is that back in the day, the body was just left on the hill and vultures, wolves, and even bears would come and devour the body, leaving nothing behind, the body returned to earth, as such. however, today, it’s mainly vultures as hunting and poaching have made wolves and bears near-extinct.

there aren’t any explaining texts accompanying the shots. it’s all self explanatory.

while doing my usual trolling, i found an interesting piece by photographer, michael yon. it’s about an afghan village that american armed forces visited. one of the more intriguing facts to come out was the village they went to is considered “beyond neutral” – meaning that the village actually has no idea about the war going on in their country. apparently there are, maybe, hundreds of villages tagged with the same label. i also thought the line: “public corporeal depressurization” was funny. check it out

while trolling through trendalicious, i found this neat page from the village of joy.

it describes life in north korea with some nice pics and interesting facts. it provides an insight that many people dispute. still, i wouldn’t mind going and checking it out myself. find the page here.

the boston globe has an interesting set of photos for this week’s big picture series. the theme is fiery festivals. the viking looking pictures come from scotland and a festival that has been a tradition for 130 years. the lower set is from spain and includes horse riders jumping through flames to pruify their souls. here’s the pick of the lot: