Here’s the film of Tai Chi Senior Instructor Garry Seghers I mentioned I was working on a few posts ago. Shot midday at the Chùa Bửu Đài Sơn Buddhist temple here in Da Nang with the Fujifilm XT3 using primarily two prime lenses: 80mm (56mm) and a 23mm (16mm). A few sequences were captured with a GoPro […]
After an hour of slow but energizing poses, postures and flows on the beach and then a 1000 meter swim at the gym, I’m now at Bread & Salt – our choice of workplace here in Da Nang. And since I get here by 8:00 am, I get to pick the ultimate “poker seat” on […]
I don’t remember exactly when I shot this photo of the Öresund Bridge, which connects Sweden and Denmark. It’s a late autumn or early winter scene, for sure. Infrequent reports from friends and news outlets in southern Sweden keep me aware of how shitty the weather is there now. Yes, I feel thankful for not […]
Here’s one of the films I’ve recently delivered to my client Terranet in Lund, Sweden. The technology behind VoxelFlow is phenomenally interesting and can potentially save the lives of millions of people worldwide. This is the first of two info films I’m producing for the company. The second will likely never be published publicly. At […]
This is the young Tai Chi student Ms. Huong during today’s filming. Her teacher Garry supervised the fan form routine she performed and I shot at what turned out to be a most formidable location – one of many, many construction sites here in Da Nnag – somewhere in an alley a few blocks from […]
From yesterday’s film project with Tai Chi teacher Garry Seghers at the beautiful Chùa Bửu Đài Sơn Buddhist temple near where Da Nang’s fishing fleet anchor. Note the ancient symbols arrogated by the Nazi movement seen on either side of the temple’s entrance arch.
We’ve now moved to new dwellings. It’s our ninth move since arriving here in Asia more than two months ago. Which I know to some sounds absolutely mad. But when you consider we’ve traveled to three different cities, two of which were visited twice, it’s really not all that weird. Unlike many, Charlotte and I […]
Here’s the view of My Khe Beach when I look over the ledge from the 40th floor of the Muong Thanh Luxury Hotel. Unlike most other rooftops I’ve been on in recent years here in Asia, not only did I have the entire place to myself, but it was uneasily easy to stand slightly above […]
Shot this at 05:55 today – a few minutes before and not at all far from where Garry and I practiced Tai Chi and Qigong. It feels much colder here right now and it took me quite a few laps in the gym’s unheated pool before I warmed up and could complete the morning’s 1000m.
I just have to get this off my chest. At times, I worry too much about how rapidly our environment is changing and how dismal the forecast for the future is. Mostly, I worry about how drunk with apathy we all seem to be and that it’ll be too late to react once we finally […]
After several days with weather inconducive with outdoor Qigong and Tai Chi practice, here’s what the bright orange sun looked like as it made its way through thick rain clouds midway through Garry’s class on this Saturday morning in December.
Like most folks, when I find and identify something that fits perfectly to my liking, I tend to get a little carried away with my enthusiasm. Not only indulging but also overindulge until I’m sick of it. Whenever I bought an LP/CD back in the day, I would play it back-to-back until I either knew […]
I get childishly excited whenever I’m at a Japanse restaurant where a Bento Box is a prominent menu option. It’s just such a convenient way to enjoy a few of my favorite dishes from the Japanese kitchen. At some point in my earliest school years at Rosewood Avenue Elementary, near Melrose Place, I remember having […]
We realized after just a few hours of walking around in our new neighborhood in Da Nang that we’d be staying in the midst of a building boom. Not that we’re not accustomed to sharing our immediate environment with cranes, bulldozers, jackhammers and every other imaginable site and sound related to construction sites. Our many years […]
As long as it’s not raining when I go to sleep, I usually get out of bed at around 5:15 am. First, I’ll check the weather on my weather app and then in realtime through the balcony overlooking the South China Sea. If it’s dry outside and doesn’t look like it’s going to pour down […]
I created this image some time ago and it is one of my most downloaded. I have no idea who buys it, such is the world of stock photography. I can only hope that it’s published in a context that jells with my initial conceptual intention. As much as I like the adjective “merry”, to […]
Here’s a simple Qigong Warmup for all of us Screen Warriors. A couple of years ago, I enlisted a Qigong instructor to teach me a few basic movements that could help relieve some of the stiffness I was feeling from arthritis. I’ve since spent many hours practicing and taking additional courses to learn other systems […]
This shot is a frame grab from a scene during the filming two years ago at Bamboo Yoga Retreat, a revered, beachfront yoga resort on the south end of Patnem Beach in Goa, India. I went to a yoga class today at my new sports club (where they offer 5 yoga classes/day!). It was me, […]
I said, “Strike a pose, just like in the Madonna video, Vogue. Remember?”. She looked at me in disbelief, as if I was completely insane and fitting perfectly into the narrative of a typical crazy-ass westerner in Da Nang. Then she surprised me and muttered, “Eh, which part of the video do you mean? Flabbergasted, […]
Met this colorfully synchronized fellowship of young Chinese ladies on the boardwalk tonight just before Charlotte and I enjoyed a noodle dinner on the beach.
The image above is from where these very words were typed a few minutes ago (depending, of course, on when you read this). For the second day in a row, I’m at Bread & Salt, a co-working space, cum café that Charlotte’s discovered near the beach in Da Nang, Vietnam. Not sure why it’s called […]
Groucho Marx once said to a tennis club representative when he wanted to cancel his membership, “I Don’t Want to Belong to Any Club That Will Accept Me as a Member”. I love that quote. And yet, I’ve just joined a club that without hesitation let me in. A club called My An Sport Center. […]
Shot this today during a break from working on a new project for a client in Sweden. The beauty with producing time lapses, especially when using your phone as I did for this video, is that you don’t have to oversee anything. Used to be much more cumbersome back in the day. Now it’s just […]
Here’s a 6o showreel I created for our local sports center in Malmö, Sweden a couple of months ago. Kockum Fritid is filled with both a wide range of physical activities and a unique depth of competence among those that work there. You can swim, play hockey, eat great food and even bring your infant […]
Here’s a brand new collage I’ve been working on for a while. It’s reasonable to assume that I would instinctively know when an abstract picture like this is finished. In actuality, nothing could be further from the truth. On the contrary, there’s never a clear, concise path in my artistic process. It has always been […]
Beauty is in the eye of the beholder, as the saying goes. If I look hard enough, I find there’s something interesting, often beautiful, in just about everything. It’s all about angles and perspectives. Take the gate above as an example. While passing by it the other day, the colors and shapes seemed to call […]
Shot these scenes over the last couple of days. I can’t explain it, but traffic in slow-mo continues to mesmerize me. Even after all these years of visiting Bangkok, I’m still just as fascinated with the staggeringly intense traffic here as I was the very first time I visited Bangkok back in 1988. That was […]
From the other day while still in Da Nang, Vietnam. We’re heading back to My Khe Beach soon where there seems to be no shortage of ridable waves and barely any local rivalry. Photo: Charlotte Raboff
I’ve been practicing Tai Chi in Lumpini for few days now together with the cheerful and competent instrcutor Claire Hu from Thailand. In her previous career, Claire was a Dean at a university here in Bangkok and after deciding to take early retirement, she received her Tai Chi education in Chen village in northern China, […]
We’ve now moved into a two-bedroom apartment with a decent view in the Sathorn district of Bangkok. So for just shy of a month, we’ll have our base camp in one of the city’s many, many unnamed neighborhoods where you’ll find just about everything needed for day-to-day existence within reasonable walking distance – including a […]
Shot this view of “My Khe Beach” late last night from the rooftop pool of Haian Hotel, just a few floors above our corner room in Da Nang. I think corner hotel rooms are preferable for the obvious reason that they offer a less claustrophobic room experience. As we book most of our hotel nights […]
Here’s the short film from our visit with Sue, Cat, Marie, Julian, Nori, Lola, India and the rest of the gang at the NGO Vietnam Pets and Vets outside of Hoi An, here in Central Vietnam. Publishing this video today coincides perfectly with our daughter Elle’s 19th birthday. After all, it’s thanks to her genuine […]
This is by far Hoi An’s best taco joint. We became frequent guests there after falling in love with their fish tacos, which taste superbly, possibly thanks to all the ingredients being homemade from scratch. We’ve been eating a ton of Vietnamese food here. But truth be told, as Pescatarians, it ain’t been as exciting […]
This is Julian, one of two pigs we met the other day at an energetically operated combo rescue and shelter organization called Vietnam Animal, Aid and Rescue This is Julian, one of two friendly pigs Charlotte and I met the other day at Vietnam Animal, Aid and Rescue which is housed in a tiny village […]
After a couple of days with an intense downpour, the sun is again shining. The rice paddies are soaked and brimming with fresh rainwater and as the level has risen so much, the landscape surrounding the flooded fields is now beautifully reflected in the drenched paddies. We took a long walk last night after dinner. […]