When you walk around with a 40-pound camera bag and two very large cameras slung around your shoulders enough people will stop you with questions like – “My camera doesn't advance the film roll anymore, what should I do?” A fair question for a guy with a lot of camera power, but my response is always a bit ambiguous. That's because there is no one universal answer to these types of questions.

You can have the camera checked for about $100 an hour. Or, you could go out and replace the batteries and restart the machine. Or, you can chuck it and buy another cheapo camera. It comes down to what your budget is.

Speaking of budget, I am in the mix now to buy a professional level digital camera. My freelance clients are demanding digital files and the conversion from film to digital on a regular basis is wearing me down a bit.

I am a huge fan of David Pogue, a technology writer at the New York Times. This morning's edition carries his article about two professional level cameras in the $1,000 range. I am eyeing the Nikon D-70 as I have been married to that company for quite some time now; lenses, flashes, gizmos galore – all Nikon. So, Canon won't do. If only the D-70 came with a vertical grip [for portraits]. Gripes and laments aside, it appears to be a wonderful camera. Thousand bucks, chump change right? It's still quite a bit of money but it will save me from dealing with film processing labs again.

It has been a busy couple of weeks and my posts here on TIFFINBOX have really trickled to a few drops. I hope to change that as soon as I get a few things sorted out at work and home.

Meanwhile, I missed posting this note about IDENTITY, a photo exhibit in NYC. David Wells, a photojournalist who has spent a great deal of time in India, told me about the show. His wife Annu is one of the artists showcased.

Sepia International and The Alkazi Collection in New York presented Identity, three concurrent exhibits by photographers. Two of the three photographers have Indian roots.

Annu Palakunnathu Matthew examines “the ‘staged' photographic document and its power to reinforce cultural stereotypes.” She combines images by Edward S. Curtis and digitally altered facsimiles using her own image. According to the press release, Matthew creates fabricated pairings that explore both the notion of originality and that of identity.

Sunil Gupta‘s work represents his journeys as a gay man with HIV from his homeland in India to his adopted homes in England and Canada. Known for his diptychs, Gupta's “narrative juxtapositions explore the inherent tensions which have shaped his experience of being a gay Indian man living in the West.”

The show ran from the end of January to the middle of March this year.

I am a die-hard Macintosh user and there is nothing that will convince me that PC's are better. If the network issues and crashes at work are any indication (where I am forced to use a PC), I'll play it safe with a Mac.

But once in a while I hear of a program on the PC side of life that ought to be on the Macintosh platform. The Font Creator Program is full of promise for font designers. If there is a Macintosh version, please let me know.

Via Eclecticism

Want to link your psyche to a famous novel? Take this online Book Quiz.

This is apparently who I am:

You're Siddhartha !
by Hermann Hesse

You simply don't know what to believe, but you're willing to try anything once. Western values, Eastern values, hedonism and minimalism, you've spent some time in every camp. But you still don't have any idea what camp you belong in. This makes you an individualist of the highest order, but also really lonely. It's time to chill out under a tree. And realize that at least you believe in ferries.

Kanak Mani Dixit is the editor of Himal South Asian, a spectacular periodical that covers the issues of the day from a unique perspective – it takes on all of South Asia!

Kanak has a photo exhibit online that you should check out. He says, “There are numerous photographic prints lying forgotten in the trunks and attics of Nepali families which should see the light of day, Dixit believes, to help us better appreciate our recent history, in the decades before the 1970s.”

Here is an example:

{above} The 1970s was when the first generation of Kathmandu girls made the shift from sari to Western wear, only later taking up the salwar kurta. (1979)

Ever backtrack a long URL to it's original source? Well I did that with Kanak's site and I landed at Shanti Marg, with more links to explore. Rohan Chitrakar‘s beautifully designed web portfolio caught my eye.