Edgardo and I have corresponded over the last several months about his watercolor paintings. They are beautiful to behold. See more of his work here.

Edgardo, now a native of Montreal, Canada, says he grew up in Colonial Goa and was inspired to do watercolors after seeing an Akbar Padamsee nude.

Documentary photographer Srinivas Kuruganti tipped me off about the Alexia Foundation announcing their 2006 fellowship winners; Balzs Gardi for the professional grant and Melanie Blanding of Western Kentucky University for the student grant.

Also, Pictures of the Year, International or POYi have also announced 2006 winners. The POYi winners gallery is here.

Speaking of winners, photographer G.M.B. Akash from Dhaka, Bangladesh chimed in modestly with some great news. He says, “You will be happy to know that I have won third prize from World Press Photo 2006 contest in daily life single category.” Bravo! This is well-deserved accolade for one of South Asia's rising photojournalism stars. Keep an eye on this guy. He is off to doing some incredible things in the years to come.

Here is G.M.B. Akash's winning image of a child laborer being threatened bodily harm. I can't think of a better image that so lucidly illustrates the abuse these young garment workers face every day.

I have a tall stack of unexposed Type55 Polaroid film that I am aching to use up. These are 4″x5″ positive/negative film that is simply delicious to look at. The bonus is having a negative [if treated right] from this film, which can of course be scanned or used in a 4×5 enlarger to produce some gorgeous prints.

My latest obsession is pinhole photography. I can't stop thinking about it. I get this way sometimes, so do bear with me. So the idea is to use up my stock of 4×5 film to produce pinhole images. Why? Well, why not? With everything going digital these days and the need for instant gratification, I figure I can take a step back into time and work on a body of images using an old technique [but still get that instant gratification through Polaroid film].

Where I am stuck is which pinhole camera I should get. Sorry going cheap and cannibalizing a Quaker Oatmeal box won't cut it. I want something solid.

Here are my choices so far: Santa Barbara, Bender and ZeroImage.

Would someone please help me decide or suggest an alternative?

CreativePro has a terrific list of how-to's in Photoshop. Well worth bookmarking.

Does anyone know if photographers Anup and Manoj Shah (brothers) in Kenya have a website?

I came across some of Anup's work in a recent National Geographic magazine. Here is a link to an older article about hyenas.

Please let me know if you find out more about them. Email me at – tiffinbox [at] pipalproductions [dot] com.