As we’ve stated on this blog before, Mahmud is one of the most established photographers that Bangladesh has to offer, and with a long trail of successful publications behind him, supported by a dozen of international development agencies, his work is one you want to know and watch.

He’s launching a new book, entitled “Every Day is Another Day”, which according to its cover, is a historical look back at some of his best black and white work. Mahmud normally has these events at his home, if you’re interested in coming please RSVP by phone or e-mail first. The details:

Flat 4B; House 2D;
Road 73G; Gulshan 2; Dhaka.

Feb 06, 2010, Saturday
3 pm – 6 pm

phone: 01715 75 94 63
mahmudmap@yahoo.co.uk

You’ve newly arrived in Bangladesh and you’re amazed at the colour and the energy that this country possesses. Each day is a flowing reel of potential images, bursting with human energy. So what should you try and capture in the camera?

Here are some composition tips for getting your viewers ‘into your frame.’ For the full session, you’ll need to come to the training session held on these topics at the Nordic Club next Monday 2 February, see end for more details.

STRONGER COMPOSITIONS MAKES FOR STRONGER PHOTOGRAPHY
Get closer, get intimate – wide angles versus telephotos
One of the biggest limitations of great photography is weak legs. To create a sense of place inside your images you need to be inside that place, and preferably as close as possible. Do not use a telephoto to compensate for getting close to a subject, unless there is some kind of compositional element you desire, or you’re trying to create a candid photograph while remaining unnoticed. You’ve got to move around when you shoot, use your legs, stand on things, bend down and get different angles. A camera, held only at eye level, will produces only eye-level pictures, but it’s best to mix things up as much as possible.

The Rule of Thirds
Imagine a tic-tac-toe box and try composing along those lines with vertical or horizontal lines. Images that have the horizon in the center or faces placed in the center of the photograph deflate the potential visual impact of a photograph that positions the elements on a rule-of-thirds.

Light, the essential ingredient
Good light will help you get that magic shot, so consider that before, during and after your shoot. The best times of day to shoot are for the few hours before dawn, and for the few hours before dusk. If you must shoot at mid-day, position your subjects in a way that the contrast is not too high.

WHAT TO SHOOT?
People and Bangladesh
In Bangladesh, there’s a fantastic opportunity for you to capture amazing photographs of people. If you’re not comfortable shooting people now, start with children. Women have an especially unique opportunity in Bangladesh to photograph other women.

Colour
Dhaka, one of the most frenetic cities on Earth, is actually quite a pleasurable place to go out and take photographs. Outside the city, Bangladesh is an overwhelmingly rural country beset with rivers and so rivers and fields are an integral part of the Bangladeshi existence. These provide good themes for the travel photographer and hence the challenge will be to be in the right places at the right times.

EDIT, EDIT AND EDIT SOME MORE
On Camera
I use two editing processes in my work. The first is ‘on camera’ editing, where I will go through what I’ve shot in a day and delete images that just don’t speak up as loudly as the others.

On Screen
The second edit comes ‘on screen.’ Take your photographs home and if you’re a Mac user like me, rate them so you can quickly discover what your best photographs are. Start getting objective about your photos by pretending that you’re another person viewing them.

For your audience
When showing your images, do remember that ‘less is more.’ I can think of nothing more boring than seeing 300 photos of my friend’s vacation in wherever, half of which were just a different angle on the same thing.

What’s the story?
Storytelling is an art as old as humankind. Ask yourself, what’s the story behind my photos? Ask yourself why somebody would be interested in these things, and what would they have to learn from what you have to show them. In this way, we start drawing out a series of images that communicate something.

The Perfect Frame Part 2: Composition Tips click the photo for full-size preview
Monday, February 2; Nordic Club Hse 18, Rd 55; 18.30 to 20.00; Tk1,500 each. Attendance will be limited to 15 students so register now. If you’re not an expat club card holder then give me a call at 01714 361 173, and we’ll get your name on the list at the gate.

To register, drop me an e-mail at joybangla.info AT gmail.com. Provide your name and phone number and I’ll send you a confirmation.

If you’d like to hear about events like this in future, click here to subscribe to the Joybangla.Info website. You will receive e-mails when a new entry, event, or any tidbit of interesting information is released via this website.

Do you want to create striking photos of Bangladesh with your newly purchased digital camera? If so, you must learn the basics of exposure first, or you’ll find it difficult to make your photography excel to a new level.

Here’s a quick guide to some of the most useful functions of your camera. Whether you own a compact digital or a digital SLR, these tips should prove useful. (A training session will be held on these topics at the Nordic Club next Monday 26 January, see end for more details.)

Let’s start the tutorial with a glossary of terms.

Lens Aperture: The aperture is the diaphragm of a lens. It can let in more or less light through the lens.

Shutter speed: The shutter of a camera is the gatekeeper of light. When the gate is open for a longer time (eg 1/15th of a second), more light hits the sensor, causing a ‘brighter’ exposure. Conversely, the gate can be open for a shorter time (1/500th of a second), causing a ‘darker’ exposure.

ISO: The ISO setting controls the amount of light needed to ‘properly expose’ a picture. With a high ISO (eg 1600) less light is required for good exposure, but the image fidelity decreases. With a low ISO (eg 200), more light is required but the image quality is higher.

So far so good? If not, don’t worry. The training session is definitely for you and I’ll make sure you understand before it’s over. Now let’s consider how the three concepts tie up.

Each of the three concepts are related mathematically. But since we’re not into math very much, here’s the easy way to understand it.

Let’s say we’ve got one potential image with a certain amount of light.

With that light, if you increase your shutter speed, you will also need to increase the aperture size to get a correct exposure.

Conversely, if you decrease your shutter speed, the aperture size must also decrease to get correct exposure. This is what’s happening in the above photo. The shutter speed is low, causing the people in the foreground to blur. But to compensate the shutter speed became faster.

If you increase your ISO, you can use a lower shutter speed and/or a smaller aperture. But then the image quality will decrease, because of colour ‘noise.’

At this point, if you’re confused by all this but still want to learn, you should come to the session at the Nordic Club next Monday, Jan 26, so I can explain it in person.

But if you’re following me so far, then I’m going to introduce two more concepts that will prove useful for your photography in the future.

Depth of Field
Lenses have a special property that is a result of physics known as ‘depth of field.’ This can have a dramatic effect on your resulting photographs.

When the aperture is wide open, the depth of field is very short. In other words, your foreground and background objects will be hard to focus at the same time. This is known as a ‘low depth of field.’

When the aperture is very small, the depth of field is very long. You can have background and foreground objects in focus at the same time.

Motion Blur
When it comes to shutter speed, there’s one ‘golden rule’ that you MUST remember — shutter speed must be HIGHER than the focal length of your lens, or else you could get motion blur, ruining the potential perfect frame.

This is particularly an issue in dark situations, like when you’re indoors or when it’s dusk.

If it’s too dark, you’ll need to switch the flash on in order to get enough light to expose the picture.

If the above is at all confusing, I highly recommend you attend my technical photography tutorial where I will explain all the above concepts in greater detail, and take the time to make sure you understand.

The Perfect Frame Part 1: Technical Training click the photo for full-size preview
Monday, January 26; Nordic Club Hse 18, Rd 55; 18.30 to 20.00; Tk1,500 each. Attendance will be limited to 15 students so register now. If you’re not an expat club card holder then give me a call at 01714 361 173, and we’ll get your name on the list at the gate.

To register, drop me an e-mail at joybangla.info AT gmail.com. Provide your name and phone number and I’ll send you a confirmation.

You’ve just arrived in Bangladesh, and quickly realise you’re in one of the world’s most photogenic countries. You’ve got a brand new camera but what now?

Here are five easy suggestions for taking better photos in this lovely country. (A FREE training session will be held on these topics at the Nordic Club next Monday 19 January.)

1. Don’t be shy. In Bangladesh, people absolutely love having their photograph taken. Unlike so many other countries where people are nervous being photographed by tourists, Bangladesh is the kind of country where you have to tell people NOT to jump into your frame! So don’t be shy, and snap away, especially photos of gorgeous Bangladeshi people.



2. Get closer. You’re in one of the world’s most densely populated countries, and it certainly feels like it. Instead of photographing somebody with a zoom lens across the street, try interacting with your subject while snapping frames at the same time. The more intimate the picture feels, the you’ll take your viewer into your frame.
3. Work in pairs. As a foreigner, you will attract loads of attention as you try to take pictures. So by working with another photographer, one of you can take the attention of the crowd by speaking some battered Bengali, while the other can snap away. This is about the only way you can get candid photos in Bangladesh.
4. Shoot at the right time of day. If you’re serious about your pictures you’ll be serious about your light. Shooting early in the morning or late in the afternoon produces photographs of a much higher quality because of the light, this is especially the case in the hazy skies of winter in Bangladesh.
5. Edit, edit, and edit some more. Taking pictures is fun but in order to improve your photography you need to be self-critical. By deleting several of the lower impact frames you’ll quickly discover frames that have more meaning and, more importantly, visual impact. When you’re a better editor, you’ll become a better photographer.

Are you interested hear about these five suggestions in person? Then please come to a FREE one-hour tutorial at the Nordic Club (Hse 18, Rd 55, Gulshan 2; tel: 882 1331) at 18.30 on Monday, 19 January. You need to have an expat club card to join the session.

Mikey will also host two more tutorial sessions at the Nordic club over the next three weeks.

Session 2: Technical Training – What’s going on in my camera?
Monday 26 January; 1.5 hours
- up to 15 participants, sign up by e-mailing joybangla.info AT gmail.com; please give your name and mobile number.
- Tk1,500 each; includes snacks

Session 3: Composition Training – What looks good in a picture?
Monday 2 February; 1.5 hours
- up to 15 participants, sign up by e-mailng joybangla.info AT gmail.com; please give your name and mobile number.
- Tk1,500 each; includes snacks

Photography Trips
January 30-31, 2008 – Pubail Resort (TBC)
February 6-7, 2008 – River Tour with Contic (TBC)

Do you want to know when events like this are planned AHEAD of time? Then subscribe to Joy Bangla by Email using the box in the left sidebar.

~story and photos by Mikey Leung~

Barry Ison likes to get things done.

“So what?” you might say. But Ison’s choice of where to get things done might strike you as confusing, perhaps even crazy. The notion of creating new hospitality businesses in Bangladesh, one of the world’s least-travelled, disaster-prone countries might elicit such a response. But Ison, a self-proclaimed optimist, believes that Bangladesh’s redeeming qualities make it just the right place to operate.

“What I’m doing is not totally unique,” he says. “There are many Bangladeshis and expatriates who have given years of their lives in an effort to try and change things. My motivation is probably similar to theirs: somebody has to do something to help.”

Help Bangladesh. It is a notion that for the last 30 years has defined the country’s world image as a broken country. Beset with floods, cyclones, poverty and corruption, it has now become the country with the most number of non-government organisations in the world, with some estimating that over 20,000 such groups now work to better the lives of the poor. But Ison is critical of these organisations, saying that they haven’t always achieved the results they set out to accomplish.

“I’m an optimist,” he says. “To me Bangladesh presents a lot of positives, positive potentials. It has had a very unfortunate period of bad leadership and bad role models, bad developments where a lot of money has been thrown at problems without a lot of thought, and with the seeming feelings that money will solve the problems.”

Despite these problems, Ison has stuck to his guns. In opening Ideas Manzil, he is attempting to revive traditions that today have been discarded in favour of modern development. His guesthouse is Bangladesh’s first ‘heritage’ property, a place where Bangladesh culture is celebrated in the form of intricate handicrafts, personal hospitality and old world comfort.

“When we look at the products I’ve been trying to revive, they have been a revival of old skills and previous traditions,” says Ison. “Same thing goes for a lot of the other leather products, wooden products. What we’re trying to do through Ideas Manzil is step back and look at what the country was like several years ago, or even a previous era.”

A tour of his guesthouse does indeed give guests a taste of that old world Bangladeshi charm. Ideas Manzil is located in a quiet neighbourhood of Gulshan, the main area that houses all of Dhaka’s foreign missions and international NGO offices. Ison has refitted an old house of the neighbourhood with four guest rooms, rooftop restaurant, handicrafts boutique and quiet courtyards (hopefully it will be even more quiet when nearby construction is finished).

Each of the four guestrooms (except one) has a sitting room decorated with rare antiques such as ancient terracottas and silverware, while each bedroom features an antique wardrobe and king-size four-poster bed. Modern bathrooms complement the design, while Mughal-style doors and carvings decorate the entire property. In short, the Manzil (Abaric term for ‘house’) feels like a kind of living museum, a place where guests can experience a taste of the way that Bengal’s Mughal lords used to live.

Heritage properties like Ison’s are now common in India, where old buildings are frequently restored and often converted to guesthouses in an effort to both preserve cultural heritage and create successful tourism businesses. In Bangladesh, Ison’s property is one of the first to restore and celebrate this form of hospitality in a way that is uniquely ‘Bangladeshi.’ He believes that if this business is successful, the potential of its impact will be realised when others steal—that’s right, steal—his idea.

“Bangladeshis do like to copy,” says Ison. “If I set up a ‘heritage’ establishment that reflects the traditions and culture and nature of what I feel is the true Bangladesh, then perhaps other people will copy me. And I can have an impact on a relatively large number of people.”

Perhaps Ison is on to something, as it would be good if others also stole some of his behind-the-scenes practices, as his notion of helping Bangladesh goes beyond preserving its culture in his guesthouse. He is also making a very conscious decision about who to hire for work at Ideas Manzil.

“What I’m trying to do is give training to people from lower income levels, people who come from the village, who have perhaps grade five to grade eight education,” he says.
“I give them in house training, I take them travelling around the region and show them what food and hospitality is like in those parts. With this cumulative experience, we work together try to create food, service, menus and tables that reflects the tremendous hospitality that has been the tradition of Bangladesh for a long, long time.”

On those fronts, Ison is doing a decent job at Ideas Manzil. It’s very friendly, prompt and unobtrusive at the same time. Unlike many other guesthouses, where service staff often barge into unlocked rooms without even knocking first, Ison’s staff are polite, helpful and seem empowered to think and act on their own.

The food and hospitality scores well too. Ison’s particular focus is on freshly prepared food, and to that end orders need to be placed in advanced or you can trust in the fixed menu that offered by staff. His restaurant serves home-style versions of Indian, Thai and Bangladeshi cuisine. They are home-style in the sense they aren’t totally authentic versions of the above cuisines, but they certainly are tasty and most importantly, fresh. Ison is also teaching his staff to prepare western deserts, which is a real treat and somewhat hard to find in Bangladesh.

And finally, one last question that had to be asked: What does Ison truly think about the tourism potential of Bangladesh?

“So many countries you go to you to, you live in environments that have been totally artificially reproduced,” he says. “In Bangladesh what you see is what you get. It is totally authentic. You want poverty? It’s here. You want beauty? It’s here. I have never seen so many greens in my life as in Bangladesh. You want warmth and hospitality and friendship? It is here.”

“Bangladesh has done something for them, in terms of their experiences, particularly in terms of relating to people, Bangladeshi or expatriate from different parts of the world. You can do so many things here that are unique and new, which in other countries have already been done. That kind of challenge is attractive to people who like to get things done.”

Click here for the full size flyer.

We’re finally presenting our images to the Dhaka-viewing public! We hope you can make it out next weekend. Here are the details:

Journeys in Bangladesh: A photo exhibition by Belinda Meggitt and Mikey Leung
18-20 September 2008
BAGHA Club, Road 44, Gulshan 2, Dhaka
Exhibition Opening: 19.30 pm
Photos will be displayed until Saturday night

Ten percent of proceeds from the photo sale will be donated to The Dhaka Project.

More details to come soon…

~photos by Mikey Leung and Belinda Meggitt~

We’ve received some mixed reviews over the above photographic video presentation, which we’ve shown to some members of the Bangladesh tourism industry. Some people love the images and the music, while others have told us some of the images portray a side of Bangladesh that should remain hidden. We now leave it to you, our audience, to tell us what you think?

PS: Youtube’s encoding filters have changed the alignment of the music and frames, plus the quality of the photography has fallen significantly in the transition.. but that’s the deal you get with Youtube. So, that’s why the music doesn’t line up 100 per cent properly with the frames, despite our efforts to make them do so in the first place.

Click here for the full size flyer.

Over 50 different indigenous societies live in Bangladesh, scattered around country. Among them, their female members are perhaps some of the people most excluded from the rest of society, in terms of education, health care and government resources. Mahmud, of MAP Photo Agency, has photographed these populations for the last decade. This exhibition of his work, co-hosted by ActionAid and the Bangladesh Indigenous People’s Forum brings their faces to the foreground. We encourage you to visit the exhibition and learn more about the true diversity Bangladesh holds.

Venue:

Drik Gallery
House 58, Road 15A (New),
Dhanmondi Residential Area, Dhaka, Bangladesh
Tel: (880-2) 9120125, 8123412, 8112954

Dates: August 7-13, 2008
Hours: 1500-2000 every day.

Click on the image or here to see the full flyer.

Have you been stuck searching for the brighter side of Bangladesh in pictures? Search no more.

Our photography (Belinda Meggitt and Mikey Leung) is now on sale as gift cards or postcards. Special edition prints are up for grabs too—contact us. We’ll show you the beautiful, the bold and the brazen side of Bangladesh that you may have yet to see.

Best of all, 10 percent of proceeds are being donated to The Dhaka Project.

The cards are available for purchase at the following fine shopping venues:

• Jatra, 60 Kamal Ataturk Avenue, Gulshan-Banani Bridge above Aranya
• Word and Pages, 125 Gulshan Avenue, close to Gulshan 2
• Ideas Manzil, House 19, Road 79, Gulshan 2
• Mermaid Cafe, Cox’s Bazaar beachside
• Bishaud Bangla, Mehedibagh, Chittagong

For viewings or delivery by the Joybangla rickshaw:

E-mail us: joybangla [DOT] info [AT] gmail.com or use the contact form.

Click on the image to see more from Russell John.

The Bangladeshi Photographers group recently completed a Cyclone Sidr fundraising exhibition, which presented a mix of amateur and professional photography at the Russian Cultural Centre last week. The exhibition has now moved to another venue (details below) but for those who may not able to make it, I managed to speak with some of the photographers about some of my favourites from the show.

The BP group is unique in that many of them have come together via the internet—they are currently sharing their images in an ever increasing pool of quality photography of Bangladesh, which is freely available for all to see at Flickr. Click here to see more of the group’s pictures. You’ll find a mixed bag—some are amateurs with a a real talent, others are just out to have fun with their cameras and explore.

The above image is by self-professed “IT Guy” Russell John. You can hear the story of this image and a few other favourites by following the link below and by listening to the podcast:

[display_podcast]

M R Hasan’s “Road Workers” photo.

Moniruzzaman’s “Creator of the Earth” photo.

Next venue’s details:
Venue: Chobir Haat (opposite of Institute of Fine Arts, Shahbag)
Time: 11 AM to 8 PM
Date: 1st February 2008 to 3rd February 2008

Volunteering in Bangladesh: A Slideshow Presentation by travel journalists Mikey Leung and Belinda Meggitt
7:30pm, November 8, 2007 – Travel Bug Bookstore, Vancouver
3065 West Broadway, Vancouver, British Columbia, Canada

***Latest: we now have over 30 registered attendees to the event.. if you’re interested in coming, please RSVP soon!

Photo by Belinda Meggitt. See more photos here.

What’s it like to volunteer in one of the world’s poorest, most densely populated countries? Not as difficult as one might like to imagine.

For Belinda Meggitt and Mikey Leung, the experience was inspiring, invigorating and life-changing. Bangladesh, a country better known for its devastating floods, intractable corruption and intense poverty, is in fact a beautiful and verdant nation rich with history and literature. For what they might lack in material possessions, Bengali people make up for with unforgettable and legendary hospitality.

On the evening of Thursday, Nov. 8, the travelling couple will present a set of their photographs from the country and talk about one of travel’s last frontiers—one that may soon be underwater because of climate change. They will also have photographs and designer handicrafts from the Desh for sale. Finally, Mikey and Belinda are also inviting members from the Greater Vancouver Bangladesh Cultural Association to attend.

All Travel Bug Bookstore slideshows and presentations are free of charge, but it is necessary to reserve seating. Please call (604)737-1122 for reservations, or send an email to info@NOSPAMtravelbugbooks.ca. (Please remove the “REMOVETHISFORSPAM” message!).

Mikey Leung and Belinda Meggitt are travel journalists based in Dhaka, Bangladesh. The couple originally travelled to Bangladesh as volunteers (Mikey for Voluntary Service Overseas; Belinda for the Australian Youth Ambassadors of Development). They are currently researching a new Bradt travel guide to the country.

Click on the thumbnail to see the event flyer: