Leaving tonight

I am excited to be leaving for Bali tonight. I can't wait to see my loved ones and meet with new friends. Every visit so far has been blessed with new experience, new faces, and new ideas. I am looking forward to see what will unfold this time. While there, I will be co-leading a photo workshop with my husband during the festivals of Galungan and Kuningan, and creating new work for myself.

Eat, Pray, Love

I attended a reading and book-signing event by Elizabeth Gilbert, author of Eat, Pray, Love, yesterday at Diesel bookstore in Malibu .
She was insightful and entertaining. Quite a few people asked her about Bali and the Balinese she mentioned in her book: Ketut Liyer, Wayan and Tutti. Apparently, they are doing much better now that they have been visited by many people who have read their stories. I have seen the hardship experienced by most Balinese since the bombings of 2002 and 2003, and I admire what Liz has directly and indirectly done for these people. She proved that we are all connected and can help in our own way.

Liz wrote a short note to Wayan and Tutti for me to pass a long. I am planning to deliver the note this coming Saturday and have some of Wayan's "multi-vitamin" lunch while I'm there. For those of you who don't know what I'm taking about, I hope you'll read the book and visit Bali to see them too.

Lotus blossom

I am realizing more and more that, for me, photography is a form of meditation. When I see something that moves me, I am fully present in my effort to do my best to capture it. It’s not pure non-thinking because I still have to deal with the technique of photography, but it's the kind of thinking that is simply a reponse to what's required at that moment. When I look at the photographs I made that way, I am filled with contentment from remembering that moment. The work is done and I move on. The photographs I like best are usually a gift to which I respond with acceptance, rarely something I pursue or demand. My work is so much about seeing things as they are.

Iluh

I see Iluh in her playclothes everyday when I stay at my brother's home in Penestanan. But on a ceremony day, she is trasformed into a lovely traditional girl, complete with a mini basket of offering on her head.

Offerings

Celebrating the anniversary of the Temple at Ubud Market, this woman is ready to put down her offering under the banyan tree just outside the temple.
Offerings are such a big part of Hindu-Balinese life. They start in the morning around seven with the simplest one, done after the daily rice has been cooked, consisting of a pinch of rice on a small square of banana leaf. This gesture of thankfulness never fails to remind me to stay simple and not demand so much from life. Something I tend to forget when I'm not in Bali. Large offerings like the one in this photograph is reserved for more special occasions which, in Bali, happens every other week.

Reflection in Tegalalang

A scene from one late afternoon in Tegalalang, near Ubud, Bali. I had to photograph this because it represents the comfort of home that I crave when I am not in Bali. The Balinese view of keeping the world above and below in harmonious relationship came to my mind when I saw this. In this image, the sky meets the earth, the blue sky and palm trees are reflected on the water that gives life to the newly planted rice.