Scott Poniewaz-Traveling by the Lens

Government supporters with knives and slings confronted anti-government demonstrators. A state of emergency was declared. Photo by Chumsak Kanoknan/Getty Images, published at nytimes.com.

Dustin Gage, a member of the Lolo Hot Shot Crew, shows Fire Information Officer Justin Dombrowski a PDA used to test alertness in a diet study during the I-90 fires in August of 2005.

This is part of a series of posts to highlight previous stories that I have written and photographed. This story was originally published at New West Network on August 25, 2005 during my time on the I-90 Complex wildfire just outside of Missoula, Montana. Click here to see the original story on Newwest.net.

Wildfires are a bit like war — soldiers and firefighters alike toiling day after day, far from home, dirty, tired and worn. But in reality, what do firefighters searching for hot spots in Montana have to do with the foot soldiers in Afghanistan on the long-forgotten search for Osama Bin Laden?

Indeed, they are two kinds of soldiers fighting different battles worlds away. But researchers from the U.S. Army and University of Montana are finding that they do have something in common: Both are working in highly stressful environments and need a diet that keeps them energized and alert.
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Members of India’s Border Security Force march during the daily closing of the border ceremony with Pakistan on the Attari-Wagah border. This is the only open port of entry between the two countries currently.

Please click this main image to see a gallery of images. If you place the cursor over images in the gallery, you can see captions. Click a thumbnail to move forward, or use the buttons in the lower right hand corner to advance photos.

The late 1940’s were a fervent period in the world. The Nazi forces were being defeated in World War II, America surprised Japan and the world with nuclear warfare, and in India, the British Raj was preparing to step down from its rule and grant independence to India. Across the world, people were dying, villages were being burned to the ground and monumental decisions were being recorded for the history books.

India was no different after 1945, when the Labour Party’s win in the British elections gave India hope for its own independent state, and so began the framework for the partition between India and Paksitan. In addition to an eventual decision that would be forming the two new nations of India and Pakistan, it created what is currently the longest running border dispute in the world over the state of Kashmir. After the light at the end of the tunnel gave hope to Indians about the creation of the two states, some people saw dreams of prosperity, while others were daunted with the likely exodus that would occur with the drafting of new borders by British judge, Cyril Radcliffe. Appointed by the British Raj, he was brought in fresh, with little knowledge of cultures and his scouting teams were trying to pour information into his head faster than an Italian chef stuffs ravioli. He had a big decision to make as he would be splitting up the Punjab state, which would also divide the Muslim, and Sikh populations into two areas, but also leave behind many Hindu’s as a minority in the new state. He managed to make up his mind quite quickly, spending just six weeks in India to develop what would eventually be known as the Radcliffe Line. The Sikhs and the Muslims were pitting it out with each other in the political arena over who would take control of the new states, and the name Sikhistan was being hinted around, but the rumors dissipated and Pakistan came to light along with the fact that it would be a Muslim state in late 1946. While this would split two of the Sikh religion’s major cities, Lahore and Amritsar, there was less concern over the Hindu’s and the Muslims during this decision making process. Muslims in the Indian state began an exodus to what would be Pakistan and the Hindu’s began making their move into what would be India. Everyone knew that eventually civil unrest would be sparked, no matter what Radcliffe’s borders said. The British just wanted to get their hands out of the pot which was about to boil over as fast as possible.
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I take in the Dhauladhar Mountain Range on a recent trek. The range is part of the foothills of the Himalaya in the north Indian state of Himachal Pradesh.

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As the midnight oil keeps me going into the morning here in India and the candle begins to burn at both ends, before I fly to the south of India tomorrow for a journey filled with backwater boats, beaches and big animals (tigers and elephants), I wanted to post a few pictures from the past month, which took me from the busy metropolitan area of Delhi, the home of the Sikh religion in Amritsar, the only land border between India and Pakistan for their special border closing ceremony, and the Himalaya where thousands of Tibetans live in Exile in India with their spiritual leader the Dalai Lama. Its all in a day’s work!

I’ve got another couple posts coming when I can get the internet connection to do so down there, but I’ll also be in the midst of some work, so it may be a few days! In the meantime, some of you may know how much I like quotes, others may not, but either way, inside this post, you’ll find a few of my favorite’s. Enjoy and check back in the upcoming weeks for several new posts!

“Whether one be slow or speedy, he that is a seeker will be a finder. Always apply yourself with both hands to seeking, for search is an excellent guide on the way.”
-Jalal ad-Din Rumi

“You should no longer take things at second or third hand… nor look through the eyes of the dead… nor feed…on the spectre in books… You shall not look through my eyes either, nor take things from me… you shall listen to all sides and filter them for yourself…”
-Walt Whitman
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Runners run and children play as the sun sets over the Gulf of Guinea along the coast near Accra, Ghana.

Please click this main image to see a gallery of images. If you place the cursor over images in the gallery, you can see captions. Click a thumbnail to move forward, or use the buttons in the lower right hand corner to advance photos. There are also several photos that are more personal, as opposed to my photojournalism style, so I hope you enjoy the twist!

I’ve now been fortunate to have my feet hit the ground in six continents and I’ve had the opportunity to experience these places with new friends, old friends and mutual friends. As I’ve continued to learn, it is also smaller than I had previously experienced. The education of travel has touched my personal life in more ways as the cross-cultural boundaries have been breached. Each time I feel the world become a smaller one, it continues to surprise me, whether I search for Hippo’s in undeveloped West African waterways on boats on the verge of sinking or experience the endless neon lights on the streets of Tokyo, I am fortunate to live a life that typically can only be encountered in the glossy pages of travel magazines.

This past fall I’ve learned how the sunsets can strike you differently when you stand on the shores of the Gulf of Guinea, contrasted with the way it falls upon the high Himalayan peaks of Ladakh. I know what it feels like to be breathing the thin air at 18,500 feet sipping chai as prayer flags flutter in the wind as you gaze into the towering mountain ranges of Pakistan on the highest motorable pass in the world, and I know what it feels like to share kava in a “sevu sevu” ceremony in remote villages of Viti Levu on the Fijian Islands. I also have learned that the new iPods don’t function at these high altitudes, while the older ones do, something I’m sure Apple hasn’t employed its engineers to research! As diverse and unique as these situations are, the similarities continue to surprise me as I trot around the globe. Family, happiness, hope, a quality of life, and the ongoing struggle to understand about the rest of the world are all common traits in the people I meet, no matter where I travel.
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A woman makes her way across the desert to the 800 year festival of the Drukhpa Lineage that has its roots in the Ladakh region. Please click here to see the gallery of images!

A real quickly written post. I just thought I’d throw this gallery up online after sitting on it for a couple weeks due to a lack of quick internet and a lack of real time as the summer came to a close in India.

I have some other images I’ll get posted when I find the time, but otherwise, these are a mixture of images from across India. From Sikh’s and Cricket players in Delhi to tight rope walkers and one of the funkiest hair styles I’ve seen on goats in Dharamsala, to the arid landscape of Ladakh, or “Little Tibet,” I think I covered most of the bases!

As a quick update, I’ll be finishing up in India, then making my way back to Thailand for work and with a couple adventures for work and pleasure to Fiji and West Africa, I should be returning to the US around the end of November as long as everything goes as planned! Enjoy the photos and if you haven’t taken the time to check out the video on my previous post, many of these images are from the same places and events as that video! Enjoy!

Give me a couple days in a hotel room with budgets, finances and pouring through receipts in one of the most incredible places in the world, and I’ll probably get a little side-tracked and stir-crazy. Especially when I’m hanging back to do this work and a group is trekking. I can’t really complain too much though, its just one of the minor downfalls in an otherwise prime occupation that takes me around the world.

Going back to the learning curve associated with multimedia, I spent this morning away from receipts giving myself a little “Scott time” and putting a short video together. It is nothing spectacular, but as I said in my last post, I want to put a DVD together using a lot of my images from around the world, maybe it’s a little influenced by the film “Baraka,” but also just so I can help my friends and family understand a bit more about where I’ve been without having to read my lengthy posts and of course I can incorporate my beautiful voice. For now, I just have a little local music with me, but the Ladakh section’s song is a bit more…well, Hindi pop music. I apologize for the use of these songs, but as anyone who travels over here knows, the 150 song pop CD I picked up didn’t really have a list of names, so I can’t credit them. Please feel free to email me, so I can properly attribute these songs to you!

Note: Quicktime is required to view this content. Please visit www.quicktime.com to see what software you may need to view this footage. Also, please note it may be slow to load, as I can’t tell how slow being on such a slow computer myself!

As always, please click read more to see more text and photos. There is also a photo gallery that you can CLICK HERE to reach!

I recently purchased a Leica D-Lux 3 digital point-and-shoot to add to my repertoire as a high-quality, but compact camera to just throw in my pocket when I didn’t want to lug my big and burly Canon 20D around. As I’ve been finding, I’ve been using both and the Leica has me playing a bit with video. As you will see the streaming quality isn’t the greatest, nor am I skilled with video (yet), but in some places it just helps to get more across in an area. I feel like the vast Indus Valley is better represented with the video footage and the still photographs still come across as more powerful, but its yet another way that Traveling by the Lens is growing in the way it can show you the world.
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