Back from India

Indian Hidaways

Just got back from a fantastic 6 week trip to India…part holiday part work. I will show you some special places and a lot of great photos as soon as I have sorted them out. You will get some tutorials and behind the scene footage as well.

 

Some of the places that I will show you are:

 

Taj Faluknama Palace in Hydrabad

http://www.tajhotels.com/Luxury/Grand-Palaces-And-Iconic-Hotels/Taj-Falaknuma-Palace-Hyderabad/Overview.html

Barefoot at Havelock, Andaman and Nicobar Islands

http://www.barefootindia.com/

 

 Elephant Yoga Havelock Island

clik on link to view video

Kalari Kovilakom, Kollengode

http://www.kalarikovilakom.com/

 

 

Malabar House Fort Cochin

 

Serenity at Kanam Estate

 

Purity at lake Vembanad

http://www.malabarhouse.com/

 

Palmtree Heritage, Varkala

http://www.palmtreeheritage.com/

 

I’ll also give you a quick review of some other places we stayed at on Kuzhupilly Beach, on the beach in Madras and in Kalkutta and Puthenthop.

Check back shortly!

 

Big thanks to Antonio Canova for excellent travel company, being my assistant and paparazzi (all shot with ipad 2)

4 page article about me in Italian magazine

Erika Pinieri that works for the magazine  “Turismo in Sicilia”,  has interviewed me and written an article about me as a photographer and my connection to Sicily.

 

Link: http://issuu.com/turismoinsicilia/docs/turismoinsicilia11

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

No more spas in the Maldives!

A sad and very bad time for the Maldives, for all us tourists that like visiting the Maldives and for the whole spa industry. 

 

 

 

Chatting away with my good old Danish friend Ulrik Nielsen whos a pilot and flights operations manager for the Maldivian  Air Taxi

http://www.maldivianairtaxi.com

 

”Ulrik recently bacame an actor as well, doing his usual work in the German film ”The dream Hotel Maldives” / Das Traumhotel Malediven

http://www.amazon.de/Das-Traumhotel-Malediven-Christian-Kohlund/dp/B004OGDVKM/ref=sr_1_sc_1?s=dvd&ie=UTF8&qid=1325329579&sr=1-1-spell ”

 

We met about 8 years ago when I worked as a spa manager in the Maldives. He keeps me updated every now and then about what’s going on in his life and in the Maldives.

 

Unfortunately things are not looking good at the moment.

 

The Government has closed all spas in the Maldives!

Islamic fundamentalists think that the spas are equal to brothels.

 

Unless you like to stay all day in the water and on the beach…don’t go there! You might not be used to go to spas at home, but when you are in the Maldives you go for two reasons; 1^st  being the amazing spas and top of the range treatments and 2^nd because there’s not much else to do.

 

It’s a catastrophe for the resorts that rely on the big revenue percentage that the spas bring in.

 

 

 

BBC sums it up like this:

 

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-asia-16365254

Tourism operators in the Maldives have expressed concern over a government order to shut down all spas and health centres in resorts.

 

The ban followed allegations by an opposition Islamist party that spas were being used for prostitution.

 

Tourism is a key foreign exchange earner for the Maldives.

 

The islands are a popular destination for wealthy honeymooners and celebrities where luxury rooms can cost up to $12,000 (£7,748) a day.

 

The Maldives Association of Tourism Industry said the ban would harm the economy. It has appealed for a resolution of the issue.

 

The tourism ministry on Thursday instructed all resort hotels across the hundreds of islands that make up the Maldives to shut down spas and health centres offering beauty treatments and massages with immediate effect.

 

Last week the opposition Adhaalath party, a conservative religious movement, staged a protest in the capital Male against such spas, arguing that they were being used as brothels.

 

“An Islamic party has been agitating against spas hoping to embarrass the government,” a senior government figure told the AFP news agency.

 

So far this year the Indian Ocean country has received more than 850,000 tourists attracted to its turquoise blue lagoons and spectacular corals with multi-coloured fish.

 

Last week President Mohamed Nasheed called for a “tolerant” form of Islam in the country amid growing concern about the influence of hardline Islamic parties.

 

Industry sources say that they expect the government eventually to revoke the decision on spas because of the huge revenue earned from the business.

And the shit gets worse:

Maldives can’t handle their rubbish!

The government of the Maldives has temporarily banned the depositing of rubbish from its hotels onto an island used almost entirely as a garbage dump.

Thilafushi, an artificial island 7km (four miles) from the capital, is nicknamed Rubbish Island.

The accumulation of garbage there has become so acute that it has begun spilling into its lagoon.

An emergency clearing operation has begun to remove “hills of rubbish” mostly collected from luxury hotels.

Rubbish Island is a far cry from the Maldives’ famous turquoise waters and white sands.

Those who have been there describe vast piles of rubbish and perpetual smog and smoke.

The routine is for mainly Bangladeshi workers to sift through the trash to look for materials their employers can sell.

Waste from the whole country is taken there to the island be buried, burnt or – for some plastic and metal – recycled.

Much of the rubbish comes from the luxury resorts which, reportedly, do not follow the rules on crushing their waste.

The boats that bring rubbish to Thilafushi have recently started dumping it into the lagoon, many boatmen impatient at having to wait up to seven hours to unload it.

The head of the Maldives’ Environment Protection Agency, Ibrahim Naeem, says that delays in dealing with rubbish are caused by technical problems with the unloading of trucks.

He stressed that Thilafushi was not full up and that work was under way to improve waste disposal and ban open incineration.

Mr Naeem said the jetty for rubbish from outlying islands will be closed until the lagoon is cleaned up – although a separate quay for the capital, Male, remains open.

Criticising the waste management on Thilafushi, local environmental campaigner Ahmed Ikram said that years of promises to create a biofuel facility on the island to generate more power had come to nothing.

Mr Ikram’s Bluepeace organisation has highlighted the problem of toxins from poisonous waste seeping into the sea.

Thilafushi was reclaimed from a coral reef 20 years ago. There are other industries there, including boat repairers.

 

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-asia-16365254

 

Christmas in Sicily

 

I have just experienced my first Italian Christmas, in Taormina Sicily.

 

 

 

Being Swedish and having grown up with cold white or totally grey and dark winters, it is a particular nice feeling to still have all the Christmas feeling and traditions, that are similar to that I am used to, but with the addition of light, flowers palm trees and citrus trees. Ohhh the citrus trees… all the mandarins, oranges and lemons are ripe and ready to pick now.  Now that is a magic feeling…picking oranges on Christmas day.

 

 

 

 

 

Taormina is a lot more beautiful this time of the year than I could have imagined. It’s really well decorated with traditional lights, stars, Christmas trees and religious symbols and big bon fires…plus this year they have a great sculpture exhibition spread out in the centre of town. Taormina over the holiday season is magic, warm, cosy and welcoming. If you haven’t planned anything for New Year yet…come on down here, it’s fantastic.

 

 

 

 

 

 

Pregnancy Portraits

I just recently took some photos of my beautiful Sicilian friend Ida (and proud husband and father Nehnad) just 3 days before she gave birth to a gorgeous little girl.

Check it out!

And then, check out some other beautiful women with big bellies

http://www.amielsius.com/love/pregnant

New Wesite

I now have  a new noncommercial website. http://www.amielsius.com/love

It might not be my regular work, but every now and then I shoot weddings and portraits, especially of mothers to be. People, despite the lack of advertising, info or photos on the web, have somehow found me and had the courage to ask me to take their special photos. I feel honoured every time and I have found that I really enjoy it.

 

Now you can check out some of those private and very special moments on my new site. And don’t hesitate to ask me should you be interested in having me take your wedding photos…I do travel just about anywhere.

Costal Living

Here are some of the photos I took for Swedish Llife Style Magazine SkärgårdsHemfor their September issue.

 

My dear Sister with family spends their summers at the beautiful Bohus Malmön, an island on the west coast of Sweden. Their house is built on poles right on the water in the small natural harbour.  Editor in Chief Martin Goodwin, has had a strong connection to Bohus Malmön for years: He’ spent many hours searching the ocean floor in the area, for an old  treasure he’s convinced he will find one day. When it was time to write the article about my sisters summer house he made sure to come along himself to do the interview. You should have seen his face when he found out that my sister is a long time dive fan and sometimes starts her dives straight from the house. I don’t have the Pdf of the article so I haven’t posted it here. It’s nice reading though…but it is in Swedish. Enjoy the photos!

I used the Manfrotto 303PLUS Panoramic Head. Check out  http://www.philrowlinson.com/photography/reviews/manfrotto-303PLUS.html for a good review of the head. I used the light but sturdy Manfrotto 055 CX Pro to keep it in place and used Autopano Giga, a great panoramic stitching software that you can buy from http://www.kolor.com/

 

For further information of the west cost of Sweden  check out this link: http://www.vastsverige.com/sv/bohuslan/

 

Magic reflections

How did I do that? 

 

Photoshop genius?  A spirit? Awesome light setting skills? Smoke?

 

Sometimes you just need to be in the right place in the right time…and keep your eyes open and have your camera handy.

 

Fact is I was just at the right place at the right time. The reflections are actually 100% natural. A late afternoon at my mums place, the sun, filtered through leaves shining in to the living room through a small gap in the window where the marquise didn’t reach. The rays played with the hand blown glass and bounced off the small stone pebbles that covered the bottom. I was there, I moved the bowl back and forth, but it was just in that position that you saw the magic and I could hardly believe what I saw; It looked like smoke dancing on the wall, but it was still and motionless.

 

 

I had it printed and framed and now it hangs in my mums house, on the wall right opposite where the glas bowl is. My mum took a couple of photos of the result and sent me….I like it and am tempted to do one like that for myself as well.

 

Business websites, FSR and Intermezzon

 

Earlier this month I was in Sweden taking photos for Intermezzon and First Swedish Research, portraits and image-photos for their websites. Check out what I did under the header “photo lessons”.

 

Photos for Hotel Imperiale

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

That was some some of the photos I took of the terrace…now for something totally different. Some food fom the Restaurant at Hotel Imperiale. It was a very quick shoot using natural light together with Litepanels  Micro Pro LED light. www.litepanels.com

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Buon Apetito!

 

 

 

 

 

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