Sister of Perpetual Indulgence

In name, dress, and antics, the "Sisters of Perpetual Indulgence" are the personification of "theatrical camp". But it's serious business: Wikipedia states that the San Francisco order has raised and distributed over $1million to charities over the years. The first nuns of the order stepped out into public on the streets of San Francisco on Easter Sunday 1979.

According to the website for the Sisters of Perpetual Indulgence, the Sisters' mission statement states:

The Sisters devote [themselves] to community service, ministry and outreach to those on the edges, and to promoting human rights, respect for diversity and spiritual enlightenment. The Sisters believe all people have a right to express their unique joy and beauty and use humor and irreverent wit to expose the forces of bigotry, complacency and guilt that chain the human spirit. The Sisters' state vows to promulgate universal joy and expiate stigmatic guilt while serving their respective communities.

My photo of the sister above was taken at this year's gay pride parade in Long Beach this past Sunday. See this Sister of Perpetual Indulgence in my People and Portraits gallery. And go here for a collection of photos from the 2008 Gay Pride Parade and festival in Long Beach.

Arab Youth

I thought this photo I took of an Arab youth would be good subject matter for more practice with so-called "grunge" effect.


Camera: Nikon E8700
Exposure: 0.033 sec (10/299)
Aperture: f/4.2
Focal Length: 71.2 mm
ISO Speed: 50

Young African American Man in Chinatown

I captured this young African American man deep in thought on the streets of Chinatown in San Francisco.

We Stopped at Perfection

I took the original photo I used for this piece at the San Francisco MOMA. The young black man in the photo was one of the staff at the museum. The wording "We stopped at perfection" in the top right corner comes from a photo I took of the back of a packet of kettle fried potato chips! LOL!

I'm interested in any constructive criticism you might have of this artwork. Please post your comments below. Thanks!

Original Photo Details:
Camera: Canon EOS 20D
Exposure: 0.05 sec (1/20)
Aperture: f/5
Focal Length: 140 mm
ISO Speed: 1600

Samoan Girls Practicising Dance Routine

These Samoan girls were practising their steps for their upcoming performance at Pacifika when I caught them with my camera.

Their smiles were so sweet that I decided to turn the plumeria and hibiscus flowers behind their ears into a shower of blessings.

Canon EOS 20D
Canon 18-55mm lens at 55mm
1/200 secs at f/20
ISO 200

Pike Place Market Seattle

A trip to Seattle isn't complete without a visit to Pike Place Market. Here all sorts of fresh produce and flowers are peddled with vim and vigor, but none more so than the fish retailers who cry out inviting you to make a purchase, and then play football with the fish you select. Somehow the guys manage not to drop the slippery fish as the guy at the front throws it the the guy at the back who wraps it up for you.

Canon EOS 20D
Canon 18-55mm lens at 27mm
1/160 secs at f/4
ISO 400

Indian Chant to Discovery Bay Salmon

On the first evening of my recent stay at Beckett Point on Discovery Bay near Puget Sound, the silence was suddenly broken by the banging of a drum and the sound of native American Indian chant. The sound came from two women further up the beach. In talking to them subsequently they told us that they were chanting to the salmon in the bay. As it turned out, the salmon are running at this time of year, and when we first arrived the water just a little off shore was alive with salmon jumping in the water. The ceremony performed by the women only added to the mystical nature of the evening as the sun set.

Canon EOS 20D
Canon 70-300mm lens at 300mm
1/50 secs at f/10
ISO 800

Pow Wow Performer

Each year there is a Pow Wow held at the University of Irvine. This photo was actually taken back in April 2005 when I was still using my Nikon camera which wasn't even an SLR camera. So the depth of field for this shot was pretty horrible with the condos and landscaped slope in the background pretty distracting. It took me about an hour or more to make a selection of this wonderful Indian guy so that I could blur the background and my wrist is pretty sore for it too! I mean, look at all the hair and the feathers that had to be isolated from the background. I have to get myself a tablet for this kind of thing. Anyhow, I did the best I could and the photo doesn't look too bad, does it?


Nikon E8700
1/250sec at f/5.1
ISO 50
Focal length 48.5mm

Polynesian Guy with Turtle Tattoo

Turtles and shark tooth patterns are common in tattoos from the Polynesian islands of the South Pacific.

This guy at Pasifika in Auckland had a classic South Pacific Polynesian tattoo on his upper arm. If I had arms like that I might even consider some body art. Dreams are free!

For another version of this photo please see Polynesian Guy with Turtle Tattoo #2.

This and other photos of people can be seen in either the broadband people photo gallery or the dial-up people photo gallery.

Canon EOS 20D
Canon 18-55mm lens at 51mm
1/125 secs at f/16
ISO 200

Elderly Woman Near Cook Islands Village

I snapped this shot of an elderly woman taking a break on the grass at the Pasifika Festival in March. This was taken near the Cook Islands village.

Tattooed Polynesian Guy at Pasifika

Tattooing is a traditional art form in Polynesian culture that was a mark of rank and warriorhood. Tattooing was an incredibly painful and drawn-out process in which the skin was actually chiseled! In pre-European days, the ends of pointed sticks were used to carve the flesh and rub ashes and charcoal into the wounds. Once the European settlers arrived, the sticks were abandoned in favor of actual chisels. And people complain today about how much it hurts! (More here about the origins of tattooing in the South Pacific and the art of Charles F Goldie, an early New Zealand artist who painted portraits of Maori with traditional tattooing, including ta moko, the face tattoo).

This photo was taken at the Pasifika Polynesian festival in Auckland in March 2007

Canon EOS 20D
1/50sec at f/5.6
ISO 100
Canon 70-300mm lens at 70mm

Cook Islands Dancer

Action on the stage at the Cook Islands Village at Pasifika 2007. A young Cook Islands woman dances traditional dance in bright orange headdress and grass skirt.

Canon EOS 20D
Canon 70-300mm lens at 22omm
1/400s at f5/5
ISO 100

Samoan Youth

This young man was preparing with his friends for his moment of fame on the stage at the Samoan Village at the Polynesian dance festival called Pasifika in Auckland in March this year.

Canon EOS 20D
1/30sec at f/20
ISO 200
Canon 70-300mm lens at 300mm

Faafafine Performing at Pasifika Festival 2007

The Samoan "village" at the Pasifika Festival in Auckland in March 2007 was by far the biggest of them all. No wonder, since the Samoan community is the largest non-indigenous Polynesian community in Auckland. (The Pasifika Festival, by the way, features the Polynesian races of the south Pacific island, and does not include the Polynesian natives of New Zealand, the Maoris.

As mentioned in the previous post, Fa'afafine at the Pasifika Festival 2007, fa'afafine are cross-dressing Samoan males. They took the stage at the Samoan village before a very large crowd. This photo is of one of the fa'afafine performing with her group.

Faafafine at the Pasifika Festival 2007

Fa'afafine (fah-fa-fee-neh) is a Samoan word that translates literally as "like a woman" and describes males who identify as female.

I can't find much information on fa'afafine on the web at all, but Wikipedia's entry on fa'afafine states: "Fa'afafine fall in the general and vague category called transgender...They are often sexually attracted to non-transgender men, although some decide to marry heterosexually"

A link from Wikipedia to Radio ABC Australia has a rather idealized 2005 piece on fa'afafine (Samoan boys brought up as girls)

A paucity of information on the web about fa'afafine is made up for by the ubiquity of fa'afafine in New Zealand (and I presume Samoa) whenever groups of Samoans gather for fun. I have been at barbecues in New Zealand that have evolved into impromptu shows of fa'afafine entertaining the guests with antics consisting of a combination of traditional dance and "camp" to the delight of the guests.

The Polynesian dance festival "Pasifika" which I had the pleasure of attending in Auckland this past March for the first time featured a group of fa'afafine who performed for the large crowd gathered at the Samoan village. In this photo I caught them hiding behind a tent nervously awaiting their turn on the stage.

Samoan Beauty Queen at Pasifika Festival

Pasifika is an annual Polynesian festival held in Auckland in early March. All the many and varied Polynesian groups gather at Western Springs Park west of downtown Auckland and celebrate their cultures with traditional dancing, entertainment, and food. It is the largest Polynesian festival in the world, which isn't a difficult feat for Auckland which enjoys the largest population of people originating from the South Pacific Islands in addition to the native Maori people of New Zealand. The Maori name for New Zealand, by the way, is Aotearoa.

This photo is of a contestant in the Samoan beauty contest. And quite a beauty she is too.

You are invited to share your impressions of this and any of my photos by posting a comment below. I appreciate your feedback.