I'll be deviating from the normal method of doing things for the photos from this trip. There are far too many photos and too much background information for each photo to try posting them individually. The posts will likely be longer than normal, but will likely contain more photos and less technical discussion (though there will still be some - this is a photography site after all!)

Our trip began in Bali, Indonesia after a total of 28 hours of travel time and a 13 hour timezone adjustment. We got into Denpasar in the wee early morning hours on Jan 22nd, made our way to our hotel - the Puri Santrian resort (perhaps more on that in another post) - and crashed for a few hours. We spent the morning and afternoon lounging around the hotel, some folks hopped into the beautiful pool, while Anya and I strolled the grounds taking photos (of course!).

Towards late-afternoon, we headed off to the beautiful Uluwatu Temple (Pura Luhur Uluwatu). Uluwatu is a directional temple in Bali's south-west region which is meant to guard Bali from evil spirits. The temple sits up at the very edge of a 250 foot cliff that overlooks the Indian Ocean.

One of the major residents of the temple are monkeys. And apparently, these are thieving monkeys. The general setup is this: Tourists come, monkeys steal stuff from tourists, tourists buy fruit from vendors, tourists bribe monkeys with fruit to get their stuff back. Luckily we didn't have anything stolen, though Brigette apparently almost lost a fistful of hair when a monkey attempted to steal her hair band.

After visiting the temple and taking in the view from the cliffs, we proceeded to the Kecak Dance (or Ramayana Monkey Chant, or Fire Dance) nearby. The Kecak Dance is kind of interesting as it was basically invented by a couple westerners as a way to present some Balinese culture in a way that would appeal to westerners' limited tastes.

As usual, mouse over the thumbnails for the larger image to display.

The dance consists of a circle of men who chant all of the "music" for the dance (visible in the shot second from the left above). They repeat a few sounds over and over, sometimes alternating sounds between different sections of the group. There are no musical instruments or spoken words to the story depicted in the dance, so the chanting provides the rhythm and marks the important events in the story.

At the end of the dance, they set up a bunch of piles of what I thought was shredded coconut husks and set them on fire, and the monkey character then gets to kick them around (as depicted in the shot to the far right). It wasn't quite what I expected when I was told we were going to a "fire dance" - I think I was thinking of something more Hawaiian with a guy twirling a flaming baton, but this was still entertaining and impressive.

For the dance (and whole trip), I was limited in the lenses I was able to use. I switched between the Canon EF 50mm f/1.8 II and my new Canon EF 100mm f/2.8L Macro IS USM. I wanted the wide apertures (f/1.8 and f/2.8) to help with faster shutter-speeds given the twilight and then dark conditions. Also during the dance, I switched to automatic ISO mode, to allow the camera to select higher ISOs to also allow for faster shutter-speeds. I found that I took a good deal of photos in a vertical orientation (see below) as a way to both capture more of the character's full costume as well as a way to eliminate clutter and unnecessary elements (ie: spectators). If you're interested in any of the specific technical data for any shots here, simply post a comment and I'll provide them.

I am not going to go into the roles of each character, but provide some photos of each. Above there is a photo with two characters who basically provided comic relief, and I swear the one looks like Predator! Others include the Monkey, a bird of some sort, and others (see below). The costumes were really interesting, and you can see my usage of the vertical format to be able to isolate a single character.

The last photo there - of the one female dancer - is Anya's favorite of this set. The wide aperture (f/1.8) on the 50mm lens used provides the nice soft background. Additionally, the vertical format allowed me to isolate the woman in the shot while she was flanked by tourists, all pushing to get their own photos alongside the performer.

Given the dim lighting and general disarray and constantly moving subjects, all of these shots came out fantastic. So remember the lessons here. Shorten your exposure time (faster shutter speed) as much as possible by (1) using as wide of an aperture as possible, (2) if your camera works well at high ISOs, switch to auto-ISO mode. Additionally, remember that sometimes the vertical format will help you to eliminate distracting elements from your photos, so rotate the camera and see what you can get.

- Bill