What a busy and hectic few months. Prepping for the Canon In Action Tour and starting the tour has eaten up a lot of my time. But that's rolling smoothly now. Just got back from an unexpected trip to Indonesia for their International Photo Week. We started in Jakarta and then traveled to the islands of Buton, Labuan Bajo, and Lombok.
My start in Jakarta would have been smoother if Cathay Pacific didn't cancel my flight because of a rudder problem. I re-booked on another flight, which was good because my original flight was delayed 3 days before it left. I arrived in Jakarta after 24 hours, NY to Hong Kong, Hong Kong to Jakarta, landing a little more than 2 hours before my presentation. And then gave my presentation at the National Museum after a rush through Jakarta traffic. I guess it went well, because it was well received. Let's just say I was a bit numb. I did get to do a lighting demo with my Canon Speedlite and a delegate from Sri Lanka, Bandu Gunaratne, that I "volunteered".
It was a great time meeting and shooting with some wonderful and accomplished photographers from all over the world. Twenty Six different countries were represented, with me being the USA representative and one of the two speakers. The other speaker was Reha Bilir from Turkey. Reha is a fantastic photographer and a wonderful educator. I was already familiar with his work of the Whirling Dervishes in Turkey. We really hit it off, trading teaching methods. Below is a photo he took of me as we were riding back on a boat from Komodo Island at sunset, after photographing the famous Komodo Dragons.
It was also fun and a surprise to see my friend Zeng Yi as the delegate from China. This event was an invitation only conference, so only one delegate from each country.
I'll be posting a lot of my Indonesia photos here in the blog and in a new gallery, right after I register the copyright.
BTW, after 25 hours flying back to JFK airport, it took less than a minute to get through immigration using the Global Entry kiosk, as I have Global Entry. It then took almost an hour (the longest hour of the trip) at the carousel waiting for my luggage to pop out.
On the boat coming back after a long day on Komodo Island. Photo ©Reha Bilir