NEW BLOG

Hey All,

A big thank you to everyone who has followed this blog for the past 8 months.

I have changed where I am blogging to a new location that is hosted at the same place as my website www.dennyculbert.com

If you have an interest in continuing to ready about my adventures this time in Baton Rouge, Louisiana please book mark the site http://blog.dennyculbert.com

it will be more of the same my ramblings about life and many more photos and on the new blog they'll be much bigger.

Hope you all continue to visit my work.

Best,

dc

Marriage. Through the Eyes of the Best Man.

Last month my best friend since 10th grade got married to a wonderful girl, who I'm happy to call one of my best friends as well. I was fortunate enough to be the best man in the wedding and of course my camera went along with me to try and tell the story of their big day.


The Rehearsal. One night left until Death Do us Part.

Tomorrow when we look out the pews will be full of friends and loved ones.


Mother of the bride getting in a few pre-game shots.


Kristen and her dad all smiles for their practice run down the aisle.


The Big Day. The Myers Syzgenda Wedding.

Bryan talks to his big brother, Jason, who you notice is dressed and ready for the photographer who is scheduled to arrive in 5 minutes. The groom on the other hand not so much.


Moving in the right direction.


David is ready and Eric is getting there but what about the groom?


Finally... progress.


Mr. Myers and myself checking out our tuxes one last time before photos.


Best Man Supplies: Marriage Certificate to make this official. Flask incase the Bryan gets nervous at the church. Not pictured but safely tucked in my pocket are the Wedding Bands.


Bryan skillfully pins on Mom's flowers.


No worries no cold feet here.


We're ready get the party started.


Of course Myers has a knife on his wedding day. Performing some last minute surgery on Eric's tux.


Looking sharp Bryan waits to head out into the sanctuary.


I definitely had the best view in the house... well except for maybe God.













Officially Bryan and Kristen Myers.





Hurry up and Wait. Picture time.


After a job well done minister and family friend, Chad Delaney waits to get his photo taken with the bride and groom.


Rainy gazes at the stars on the ceiling of the limo while we wait out the photo shoot.


The King and Queen of winter head to the limo after photos at the church.





Keeping warm during the out door photo shoot at the skating rink. Being in the wedding party is hard work.


We Finally made it to the hotel.


Time to make a grand entrance.


Introduction to everyone for the first time as Mr. and Mrs. Myers at the reception.


Kristin getting some attention from the photographers.


A civil ending to a cheesecake war.




Byan proves his Manhood.









Father Daughter Dance.



Bryan gets some words of wisdom from Mom during the dance.


Chicken Dance.


The party continued well into the night, but this is where our story ends.


I have to say thank you to Kristin and Bryan for letting me be apart of the most important day of their lives thus far.

There will be more posts coming soon from my new location in Baton Rouge, Louisiana. So keep checking back.

- Denny

One Month and One Roll of Toilet Paper Left

Walking the family buffalo.

I have been in India for 5 months now... i've neglected my blog for almost two months, but for good reason. My options were to either blog or to sleep, for once i actually chose sleep. I have so much to say and much has changed since my last post but there just isn't enough time to put it all into words. So here are a few numbers.

I've clicked my camera 11,549 times as of yesterday
On Dec. 19 I will finish up my 4th and final class of spoken English students
I'm currently working on 3 journalism projects
I have 1 roll of American toilet paper remaining (tp is difficult to come by in Umarkhed)
The evening English class of young kids has grown from 3 students to 12 students in 2 classes one taught by me and the other by Kelly
I have attended and photographed 3 Hindu weddings

I have exactly 30 days left

My internet is extremely slow today so I can only upload two photos. In the next few days I'll try to add a few more. For the rest you will have to wait until I am home or until I can launch the India section of my website www.dennyculbert.com

Napur, Bombay, and Umarkhed

Taking tea at 4 am in Bombay with two Muslim men before their morning prayers on the second to last day of Ramadan.

This post is mostly to put up the photos that I have been saving for way too long now. I haven't had much time to post recently because I am working to get the English classes working again at Gawande College. I will try to post another update soon. Until then I hope you enjoy the photos.

- Denny



Another giant bug in the guest house.


Umarkhed.

Nagpur Safari and Dam Excursion



View from the top of the dam inside the tiger reserve.


Gecko Art.


Tiger Watch Tower.




Loren and I rode on the front of this jeep through the jungle until the forest ranger stopped us. Then our driver gave the rangers a donation/bribe to let us continue without further harassment.




Someone left a ladder out so Loren and I found our way onto the roof of the guest house in the tiger reserve.


Nagpur.

A visit to Gandhi's Ashram



This guy new Gandhi and spent an hour telling us about him and his teachings.


Buddhist Temple.


The Shiva Temple behind our college at 2 am.

Bombay

In the evening during Ramadan the streets of Dongrey a Muslim neighborhood in Mumbai are filled with people buying and selling goods when the break their fast each day.


This is the first time in a long time that I've seen magazines and newspapers in English.


Not real tigers I promise


Only in India. McDelivery



Dongrey. (My hotel was in this neighborhood during my stay in Bombay.)












Kelly is Finally in India.

Shopping for Indian clothes in Nanded.


Cow in the City.

Rupala.

Another portrait of me by Sarfaraj a boy from the village.




Me and Mebu one of the boys that I teach English to in the evening.

It's been awhile but i'm finally posting again...

This has to be a quick post because I'm very busy at the moment getting new classes started and trying to settle back into Umarkhed. I was in Bombay for most of last week to meet some Indian photojournalists and to pick up Kelly from the airport.
It was a welcomed break from life at the college and rural India. The next post will hopefully have photos from the city.

For now here are some photos from the final day of the Ganesh Festival...


Krishna's ready to drive..



Ganesh Festival.

Quick Update...

Just a quick over view of adventure here in Umarkhed.

1. I'm still teaching 3 college classes of spoken English a day, but they will be wrapping up this week and new batches will start on Oct 5th.
2. My evening english class for the kids from the village is underway... each night a few more students show up. I started with three and now i'm up to 14.
3. I've started having classes on Festivals and Sundays because first of all there are far too many holidays in this country and second my students are so eager to learn they basically demand to have class even on their days off.

basically everything is going well... unfortunately the blog is being neglected because I'm working on putting my portfolio together to ship back to the US. So hopefully when i get home i'll have an internship or job waiting for me.
(If anyone knows of any newspapers that will be hiring at the end of January please drop me an email)

On to the photos....

Sunday Classes...

Normally on off days I have about 15 of my 30 students show up... we have class at 9:30 am on the balcony of the guest house where I live because the college is closed.
Class lasts about 3 hours, but we have formal class for only about half the time. The other half is spent socializing and playing games to help with spoken English.



A Day at the Water Fall..

I spent the day with Dr. Raut and his family relaxing at a waterfall...



Krishna got a haircut...



We had lunch and relaxed in the guest near the falls.





Dr. Raut has a rare moment of relaxation.


Cows are everywhere in the country and are very friendly... probably because he knows he will never be a cheeseburger.

Birds, Cows, and Nature stuff...





Taking in the scenery...

We stopped off in a village on the way home from the waterfall to have some tea. I found some more interesting doorways and little kids..










Everyone crowded around Dr. Raut's car to see the Americans...

There should be another new post in a day or two... i have many more photos to show and much more to say it just depends on the cooperation of my dial up internet connection.

Take Care.

Snakes and Elephants. Just another Day in India.

This is just going to be a quick post because I'm exhausted and need some sleep. So you're getting a bunch of photos and not a lot of text. The photos are mostly from the first day of a ten day long festival of Lord Ganesh (he's the one with the elephant head... its a long story how he came to look like that so I'll tell it another day.)

Just Another Snake Friend.

Snake from a Bag.


Snake Friend.
I was walking through the market on Saturday when this man came up to me and asked me if I wanted to see a snake. I said sure I'm always up for show and tell. So he takes me over to a fruit seller's cart and unties a sack made out of cotton and much to my surprise was this very long snake. Thankfully he didn't ask me to hold it. He had caught it in the town and was going to take it to the jungle later to release it.

Umarkhed.

The Old Part of Town.


Door Ways.
One big difference between India and the US; the front doors to homes are always open.

Party Time!

Lord Ganesh statues roll into town down the main street pulled by trucks and tractors.


The statues are followed around by groups of drummers, dancers, and people covering each other with red/pink powder called gulal. Needless to say myself and my camera bag were multi colored by the end of the day.
I was going to stay out of the way but the first group of drummers I tried to photograph pulled me into the center of them and made me dance with the rest of the festival goers. It was like nothing else I've ever experienced.

The Drummers are Rewarded with the dancing of the crowd and 10 or 20 rupee notes.











More Dancing in the Street.













Intense Gulal.

There will be more celebration on the last day of the festival and of course more interesting photos. So I'm going to wait until then to explain the whole festival.
Hope you Enjoyed the Celebration.
- Denny