Papua New Guinea – Stuck in Customs

27 Tribes from Remote Villages in Papua New Guinea that No One Has Ever Seen

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This is the second in a series of mind-bending imagery, all created by an AI I’ve been working with. The first article explored art installations at Burning Man that do not exist and talks a little about how artists can team up with AIs in fun, inspiring, and innovative ways.

Here’s a few more too…

40 Street Photos From 4,000 Years of Time Travel
32 Nonexistent People At Burning Man
60 Stills from a Wes Anderson Sci-Fi Film That Doesn’t Exist
20 Entities I Encountered And Inspirations From DMT Reality
How Artificial Intelligence Interprets Bible Verses – 35 Holiest Of Holy Creations Of Artificial Intelligent-Design

I went to Papua New Guinea several years ago and I was so amazed by seeing so many different types of tribes (see my Original Photos Here). I found their customs and the way they decorated themselves to be mesmerizing. There are still many undiscovered villages in Papua New Guinea as well, so I decided to make that a theme here.

I used some of my images as reference and for many of these queries to the AI, I used “in the style of Trey Ratcliff.” Luckily, because I’ve uploaded so many “people” photos to the internet over the past 15 years, the AI can kind of figure out my style. For these, I did many different switches and adjustments on the types of images. Male to female, age 8 to 80 to see all the variations. I hope you enjoy looking at them as much as I did creating them!

























Comments

Happy

Daily Photo – Happy

He certainly seems to be 🙂

Happy

Photo Information

  • Date Taken2015-09-13 09:35:33
  • CameraILCE-7R
  • Camera MakeSony
  • Exposure Time1/800
  • Aperture6.3
  • ISO500
  • Focal Length157.0 mm
  • FlashOff, Did not fire
  • Exposure ProgramManual
  • Exposure Bias

Comments

Looking Good

Daily Photo – Looking Good

How awesome does this guy look? I’d imagine that getting make-up/face paint perfect on a beard is super hard, but he’s done it, for sure. The rest of the look was fantastic as well!

Looking Good

Photo Information

  • Date Taken2015-10-13 13:25:03
  • CameraILCE-7R
  • Camera MakeSony
  • Exposure Time1/3200
  • Aperture
  • ISO100
  • Focal Length
  • FlashOff, Did not fire
  • Exposure ProgramManual
  • Exposure Bias-1

Comments

Boy in Papua New Guinea

Daily Photo – Boy in Papua New Guinea

I imagine for these special ceremonies that the kids really like getting all dressed up like the adults for the festival. It’s considered a fun right of passage for kids to do this every year. What kids don’t like getting all dressed and gussied up? Well, I know Scarlett certainly does. 🙂

Boy in Papua New Guinea

Photo Information

  • Date Taken2015-10-13 12:21:48
  • CameraILCE-7R
  • Camera MakeSony
  • Exposure Time1/3200
  • Aperture
  • ISO125
  • Focal Length
  • FlashOff, Did not fire
  • Exposure ProgramManual
  • Exposure Bias-0.7

Comments

Sunglasses for the Headhunter

Daily Photo – Sunglasses for the Headhunter

Well, I don’t know if this guy is an actual headhunter or not, but let’s just pretend he is. I was afraid to ask… But you gotta admit, the addition of the sunglasses makes him seem extra badass!

Sunglasses for the Headhunter

Photo Information

  • Date Taken2015-09-13 09:43:19
  • CameraILCE-7R
  • Camera MakeSony
  • Exposure Time1/2000
  • Aperture5.6
  • ISO800
  • Focal Length75.0 mm
  • FlashOff, Did not fire
  • Exposure ProgramManual
  • Exposure Bias

Comments

The Festival in Goroka

Daily Photo – The Festival in Goroka

Here’s a cool photo that shows a little bit of the context of the amazing tribal festival in Goroka. All the tribes get together and festoon themselves in an entirely unique way. It reminds me a lot of the documentaries that David Attenborough hosts about the birds of paradise in the same area. Papua New Guinea has some of the craziest-looking birds and dances you’ve ever seen. It seems to me that the locals are following their lead.

The Festival in Goroka

Photo Information

  • Date Taken2015-09-13 09:51:20
  • CameraILCE-7R
  • Camera MakeSony
  • Exposure Time1/2000
  • Aperture6.3
  • ISO1000
  • Focal Length139.0 mm
  • FlashOff, Did not fire
  • Exposure ProgramManual
  • Exposure Bias+0.3

Comments

Ladies in Papua New Guinea

Daily Photo – Ladies in Papua New Guinea

So this was a rather tense situation… This tribe in PNG has all the women who are the badasses and they outfit them with all the kind of stuff you see here. Not long after I took this, the national military group showed up and started shooting off tear gas before things got too out of control. Pretty much everyone here imbibes the psychoactive betel nut, which makes their mouths and teeth a dark, bloody red. Anyway, before things got too rough, I left to go back to where I was staying. They don’t really have hotels there, so I was staying at some compound that was built for diamond miners. There was this tough South African guy there that ran it… I’ll never forget when he told me about how much the locals are thankful for him, and, if they are not, he carries around a 1-meter copper pipe to make sure they do. Pretty rough place!

Ladies in Papua New Guinea

Photo Information

  • Date Taken2015-09-13 09:04:49
  • CameraILCE-7R
  • Camera MakeSony
  • Exposure Time1/1600
  • Aperture4
  • ISO125
  • Focal Length24.0 mm
  • FlashOff, Did not fire
  • Exposure ProgramManual
  • Exposure Bias

Comments

Another Tribe in PNG

Daily Photo – Another Tribe in PNG

Man I could take photos of these tribes all day! The amount of time and effort that goes into them is truly stunning. Plus, they are all such characters and love having their photo taken. I think I used the 50mm Leica 1.4 for almost all these shots!

Another Tribe in PNG

Photo Information

  • Date Taken2015-10-13 12:56:23
  • CameraILCE-7R
  • Camera MakeSony
  • Exposure Time1/6400
  • Aperture
  • ISO100
  • Focal Length
  • FlashOff, Did not fire
  • Exposure ProgramManual
  • Exposure Bias-1

Comments

Party in Papua New Guinea

Daily Photo – Party in Papua New Guinea

Well, this isn’t exactly a great place to party, unless you count “staying alive” as a party. After we went to a big festival where we almost got killed, we went to a remote village where we almost got killed. It didn’t help that Choppy was there and she began an attack to try to intimidate them. But, they were definitely thinkin’, “Man this white chick is CRAZY!” …so, she may have just saved our lives.

Party in Papua New Guinea

Photo Information

  • Date Taken2015-10-15 12:22:59
  • CameraILCE-7R
  • Camera MakeSony
  • Exposure Time1/400
  • Aperture
  • ISO125
  • Focal Length
  • FlashOff, Did not fire
  • Exposure ProgramManual
  • Exposure Bias+0.3

Comments

Singing Circle in Papua New Guinea

Passport Sunday Fun

Today, I have a new video that shows off the new Luminar AI if you are a Passport Member! You can get it now via that link for a pre-order and it’s released in just a few days. I think you are really going to like it!

Sunday: Mountains on top of Mountains

Today’s video will entertain you with a quick tour-de-force all around the new Luminar AI. I start off with a rather silly example of how you can add mountains on top of mountains… Hey, I would not doctor a photo quite that much, but it’s kind of cool how easy it is. Besides that quirky feature, I show off a lot more that are more practical.

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Daily Photo – Singing Circle in Papua New Guinea

While at the festival, we would visit 20-30 different tribes. They all had their unique outfits and singing patterns. There’s a big competition with which tribes have the coolest outfits and the coolest song & dance routine. I think the contest is pretty unofficial, but it’s still quite competitve. In fact, it can turn quite violent and the military has to come in with tear gas and stuff. When that happens, it’s time to leave the scene quickly!

Singing Circle in Papua New Guinea

Photo Information

  • Date Taken2015-09-13 09:15:35
  • CameraILCE-7R
  • Camera MakeSony
  • Exposure Time1/1250
  • Aperture4
  • ISO200
  • Focal Length24.0 mm
  • FlashOff, Did not fire
  • Exposure ProgramManual
  • Exposure Bias

Comments