Todd Carmichael Releases Videos of Antarctic Expedition

Antarctic explorer Todd Carmichael, who became the first American to go solo and unsupported to the South Pole a few months back, setting a speed record in the process, has released some excellent videos of his journey. Check out the initial video below, then head over to his YouTube Channel for even more. They'll give you an idea of how much he suffered on his way to the Pole.

In an update posted to his site today, Todd had this to say to all of his supporters:

The lungs, feet, face and eye have healed I’ve taken on weight and I’m back in training. Lots of thoughts about the next adventure, which presently entails loads of discussions with famous Cable Channels (you know the names) and an insane idea that I can lug 350 pounds of water/food/gear in a rickshaw named the Desert Pig up and over the largest sand dunes on the planet - for 500+ miles.

The man has been home for two months and he's already forgotten that suffering! Can't wait to follow his next adventure.

Traveling with Children in Vietnam

The tourism business in Vietnam has become hugely since the mid 90s. At one time considered a war torn and distant nation, it is presently a flourishing visitor end in Southeast Asia. At the point when going in an expansive gathering of individuals with fluctuating ages, investments, and tastes, it can be hard to arrange a strong excursion that suits everybody. In Vietnam, you have the chance to make a family trek that suits everybody's necessities on the grounds that it is still generally modest to go here and simple to discover exercises that the entire family will delight in. Here are our main 5 particular Vietnam travel tips for those of you going with youngsters.

A simple approach to keep you and the children cheerful amid an outing to Vietnam is to arrange exercises that are 'involved', yet speak to both the more youthful and more established swarm. Vietnam has numerous chances to do simply that. Here are particular places that the entire family can delight in doing exercises while as of now unwinding and appreciating the surroundings:

Northern Vietnam – Halong Bay is an extraordinary spot for family amicable endeavor in Vietnam. Amid most travels in Halong Bay, there are a lot of chances to kayak in the narrows, swim in the sea, lay on the shoreline, go squid angling or take cooking classes. Some journey lines are more family agreeable than others. Bhaya, Au Co, and Indochina Sails have a portion of the greatest decks, giving your children a lot of space to circled. Paloma travels offers the Paloma Family Cruise, which is a private journey with a 6-man limit. The visit can be more pandered to your family's individual needs if the standard exercises don't engage you. A few travels likewise have abutting lodges with an uniting entryway so you can stay open to your children – Jasmine travels, Paloma travels, and Starlight travels are a portion of the organizations that offer bordering lodges.

Hanoi, being the capital of Vietnam, has numerous galleries and points of interest that you can visit. On the off chance that that gets a bit dry for a few parts of your family, you can take an excursion to the Bat Trang stoneware town where everybody in the family can paint a piece to take home. Your children may additionally like "toy road" in Hanoi, found on Luong Van Can road. In the event that you need to appreciate some open space, the parks close Hoan Kiem lake are generally not very packed and there is a lot of space for children to circled.

Focal Vietnam – The society and environment in focal Vietnam can be truly various from city to city. Along the coast, you will have numerous chances to revel in water sports. Nha Trang is celebrated for scuba swooping and Mui Ne is known for windsurfing and parasailing. In the event that your family delights in water sports, we propose going by these goals. Nha Trang likewise has the Vinpearl entertainment mecca which can be a fun movement to delight in as a crew. To get to the recreation center, you take a great gondola ride, which is one of the longest gondola rides over water on the planet. As opposed to Nha Trang and Mui Ne, Hoi An is an a great deal more loose town and is a spot to encounter an alternate city vibe in Vietnam. That being said, it is an extremely touristy town (and thusly, exceptionally vacationer well disposed) so on the off chance that you and your family require a break from the rushing about of life in Vietnam, Hoi An is an extraordinary spot to visit. Going to the wide open close Hoi An is additionally an extraordinary choice and numerous visits offer the chance to buoy down trenches in little bamboo angling vessels. You can likewise participate in some social exercises like taking light making classes or taking a bicycle visit to the encompassing towns.

See more: Vietnam travel packages

Southern Vietnam – One of the greatest offers of Ho Chi Minh City is the clamoring and confused nature of the city. In the event that you need to detract sooner or later from the disarray, we suggest going to Dam Sen Water Park or Suoi Tien Amusement Park. Both spots have a lot of rides, attractions, and exercises outfitted towards youngsters and is an extraordinary approach to keep them dynamic amid your excursion. Dam Sen Water Park is, as the name expresses, an oceanic themed park with heaps of themed water slides and pools for children to play. It is not very far from the inside of town and the admission to the recreation center is focused around tallness. Suoi Tien Amusement Park is a Buddha themed carnival which may appear interesting however is a great deal of good times for children. Other than the rides and exercises, they have shows, go kart rides and pontoon rides. This entertainment mecca is around 30 minutes outside of town.

The Mekong Delta is likewise a pleasant family well disposed goal. Most visits in the delta are involved and captivating for adolescent children on the grounds that they involve kayak treks down the backwaters, visits to rice paper production lines, and visits to apples and oranges confection assembling shops. Vast visit organizations with various gatherings of individuals on the same visit can get extremely ho-murmur for children. The agenda is more unbending and not all exercises may engage your kids. Rather, we prescribe private visits through Water Buffal

New Trail Run Pits Man vs. Nature, Perhaps Literally!

A new endurance trail race is gearing up to take place later this year in the Baviaanskloof Nature Reserve, located in the Eastern Cape Province of South Africa. The 50km (31 mile) race will cover some very remote, demanding terrain, as top adventure athletes challenge each other across the course. But that may be the least of their worries, as they'll be running through territory that is inhabited by dangerous game animals, including Black Rhino, Cape Buffalo, and Cape Cobra!

The inaugural Baviaanskloof Trail Run is scheduled to get underway on Saturday, Sept. 12 of this year. Each of the runners expected to be self sufficient while out on the course, and very little support will be provided. The race promises to be an event like any other, with beautiful landscapes, demanding trails, and the potential to pass a wide variety of wildlife on the course.

The Baviaanskloof National Reserve is a World Heritage Site that is well known for the diverse wildlife that exists inside its boundaries, which are accented by colorful cliffs and rock formations. In addition to the animals mentioned above, racers can expect to encounter Baboon, Bushbuck, Tortoise, Kudu, Bush Pig, Caracal, Mountain Zebra, and even possibly Leopards.

The event is now taking entries, with the majority of them being on a "first-come, first-served" basis, although there will be some sponsor exemptions to allow for event organizers to invite special guests. The entry form can be found here, just in case you would like to participate yourself. They'll continue to take entries up until the end of June.

Looks like a great event, and it really plays well to the old joke "I don't have to out run the rhino, I just need to outrun one of the other racers"! :)

Thanks to Darrell Raubenheimer for sending this my way! Much appreciated Darrell.

Northwest India | Tewfic El-Sawy

I've recently published Northwest India on the Exposure platform, with some of the photographs I made during one of my photo expeditions-workshops in a corner of northwest India; a region that is rife with tribal communities.

The Dungarpur-Poshina- Baneshwar-Bhuj region of Southern Rajasthan and of Gujarat‘s Rann of Kutch is sufficiently distant from the mainstream tourist circuit that compelling photographs and great photo-opportunities can be made in the small rural villages scattered in that geographical quadrangle.

I've chosen to feature portraits more than anything else in this gallery; portraits of members of tribal communities such as the Bhils, Banjara,  Gowdia and Garacia, and Rabaris.

I've also chosen to process the digital images using Nik Collection's Analog Efex Pro 2 filters, which gave them an analog look.

The photographs I made in the tiny village of Madhwa (midway between Bhuj and Bhachau) are those that stayed with me the most. The village is home to charcoal makers, living in abject poverty and were rather reclusive... however, when seeing cameras the women of the village quickly changed into their finest and cleanest, and stood with the poise of experienced models the minute when lenses were pointed their way.  Handsome people, with beautiful dark eyes...and yet dealt the harshest of cards in the desolate shrubs of the Kutch.

Anthony Pond | Ganga Aarti

Anthony Pond was a member of my The Sacred Cities Photo Expedition-Workshop a couple of weeks ago during which we photographed the eternal city of Varanasi and the sacred city of Vrindavan during the festival of Holi, and is a second time participant in my expeditions-workshops.

He just completed his first multimedia project of the photo expedition-workshop, and titled it Ganga Aarti. The lovely photographs are of the nightly religious ceremony held on the banks of the Ganges. The aarti is a devotional ritual that uses fire as an offering. It's usually made in the form of a lit lamp, and in the case of the Ganges River, a small "boat" with a candle and flowers is floated down the river. The offering is made to the Goddess Ganga, goddess of the most holy river in India.

Rather than using Soundslides and Audacity. Tony chose to process his photographs in Lightroom and Silver Efex Pro, and built the slideshow movie using Final Cut Pro X. Setting aside the fact that Tony is an aficionado of black and white photography, converting his photographs to monochrome eliminated the difficult lighting conditions that afflicted photography during the ceremony.

Anthony Pond worked for more than two decades in the criminal courts in California as an attorney for the Public Defender’s Office. Now pursuing his passion for travel and photography, he travels repeatedly to South East Asia and India, amongst other places, to capture life, the people and the culture. He has been a frequent contributor to The Travel Photographer blog,

North Pole 2009: Baffin Babes Are Off!

The Baffin Babes got underway on Wednesday, finally starting their 80 day expedition to scout the impact of global climate change on the Baffin Islands and the Inuit people that live there. Unfortunately, the girls are having an issue with their GPS tracker at the moment, and it's not updating their position on the ice. They hope to have that straightened out soon, but for now we'll just have to wait for them to send a dispatch or two, and update us all on how it's going out there.

Meanwhile, the Catlin Arctic Survey Team has experienced some nasty weather in the past couple of days, and as a result, they elected to stay in camp on Tuesday, but got back on the trail yesterday. The team has been garnering a lot of attention, including a spotlight on CNN.com and an ongoing blog over at the BBC. The home team is also using Twitter (who isn't these days?) to send out updates as well.

The Victorinox North Pole Team is reporting that they have achieved a milestone in their journey to reach the North Pole. After very slow and rough going early on, thanks to a rubble field, they have now moved into an area with thicker, smoother, and harder ice, making it much easier going. As a result, their speed has increased and they're now covering much better distances. They went from not even achieving a single nautical mile a few days back to nearly reaching 4 nautical miles yesterday. You can bet that the guys are very happy to have put the ice blocks behind them.

Finally, the Peary Centennial Expedition is reporting that conditions have improved for them as well. A few days back they were experiencing -50º F temperatures, and today they've reached a balmy -19º. When last they reported in, they were hunkered inside their tents thanks to an intense storm, but they had covered 5.4 nautical miles for the day and were quite happy with their progress. They also report high spirits, no equipment failures thus far, and a generally good outlook on the expedition thus far.

That's all for now. More updates soon.

Wanderings In NYC | Storehouse

I chose a number of my iPhone photographs and uploaded them unto Storehouse, and added a few choice quotes by well known personalities about New York City...just to add some spice to the mix.

I've been extolling the virtues of photographing the streets of New York City with an iPhone for some time. It's truly liberating to be using an iPhone to make photographs...the simplicity, the portability and the ease of making photographs on the go with such a small device are just wonderfully conducive to the kind of street photography I am interested in.

At this point of time, as far as the iPhone is concerned, I'm addicted to the Hipstamatic app, and use its Watts lens and the monochrome BlacKeys B+W film. I might do a tiny amount of post processing on the resultant images, but the combination is quite adequate for my taste.

Storehouse is a wonderful iPad app that lets photographers and videographers  to build stories on the fly from text, video and images. It has a great visual editing interface, and is quite easy to use with an iPad.

Storehouse was co-founded by ex-Apple iPhoto veteran Mark Kawano, who also worked at Adobe and Frog design studio and The Daily alum Timothy Donnelly. The app has hundreds of thousands of users, and tens of thousands of stories. An important facet of Storehouse is that its stories can be embedded on other websites, blogs etc.

The company has raised some serious funding recently, which will allow it to be free ‘for now’ to spur growth.

Dixie Dansercoer Interviewed at CheapTents.com

When it comes to polar explorers, few measure up to Dixie Dansercoer. The 47-year old Belgian has crossed both Poles, and spent more time in arctic conditions than just about anyone else, and he is also an avid mountaineer and endurance sport athlete. He is also well known for his photography, and has been commissioned by scientific research teams to measure the health and thickness of the polar ice. In short, the guy really gets around.

CheapTents.com, an online resource for inexpensive gear, has a nice blog, which features an interview with Dixie, in which he discusses his inspiration for polar exploration, his greatest achievements out on the ice, and what he finds most rewarding while traveling to the Poles.

The exclusive interview is quite extensive, and very well done, covering a lot of ground. Dixie is a true legend when it comes to modern day explorers, and if you're not familiar with him, this is a great place to start. The article lists his impressive adventure resume following the interview. Some of the highlights include: two round the world trips (one east to west, the other west to east), ascents on such peaks as Vinson, Mt. Blanc, and Mt. Fuji, the last two in winter, as well as a number of endurance events such as Ironman Triathlons, as well as mountain biking and wind surfing events, and of course, crossing Antarctica on foot using skis and kites.

Good interview, definitely worth a read.

Foundry Photojournalism Workshop 2015 | Bali, Indonesia

Eric Beecroft just announced the Foundry 2015 Indonesia early bird enrollment!

The workshop will be held July 2015 (exact dates to be confirmed soon) in Bali. The tuition is $475  for local photographers and $975 for non-local photographers.

From now until December 26, 2014, photographers can sign up simply by paying a nonrefundable $100 deposit. This amount will be taken off the remainder of the tuition, and it also guarantees first come first serve when the specific instructor choice and class registration are open.

I've often suggested that attending a Foundry workshop is not only about enhancing their craft with advice of some of the best (and certainly selfless) photographers and photojournalists in the business, or about the class they've chosen or even about their own stories and image-making, but it's also about rubbing shoulders with other participants, whether these are peers, or just starting their photography careers, or veterans, and with all sorts of other styles of image-making....it's about augmenting their exposure to different worlds, about exposing themselves to divergent thought processes, to varying points of view, and in doing so...grow as human beings (and yes, as photographers too).

Bali, needless to say, is an inspired choice of place for the Foundry Photojournalism Workshop. It's a superlative source of visual and sensory experiences, of unlimited photographic opportunities...from travel to hard core social issues, and overflows with unique cultural events ranging from deity purification ceremonies to cremations.

Here's one of the multimedia projects I've produced during my many travel photography workshops in Bali.