One thing that surprised me the most about seeing all the different tribes in Papua New Guinea was how the females were as richly adorned as the men. And they all followed the same pattern in the tribe, whether or not they were male or female. There was a little variation here and there. I had to look close to see the differences, but I am sure that between the tribe the differences were quite unique.

People of Papua New Guinea Part 16

Photo Information

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• Date Taken2015-09-13 09:10:22
• CameraILCE-7R
• Camera MakeSony
• Exposure Time1/1250
• Aperture6.3
• ISO800
• Focal Length152.0 mm
• FlashOff, Did not fire
• Exposure ProgramManual
• Exposure Bias

You don’t want to mess with these women. I generally notice that my life goes better when I listen to the women in my life, and this was no exception. MOST of the time, they are not holding guns, but I find it’s a pretty good idea to listen to women whether or not they happen to be holding a weapon.

People of Papua New Guinea Part 15

Photo Information

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• Date Taken2015-09-13 09:05:05
• CameraILCE-7R
• Camera MakeSony
• Exposure Time1/1600
• Aperture4
• ISO100
• Focal Length24.0 mm
• FlashOff, Did not fire
• Exposure ProgramManual
• Exposure Bias

Here come the mud men of Asaro! These guys were creepy dot com. When I got back from Papua New Guinea, I shared all these photos with my family, and the girls were most scared of these dudes. I almost brought home one of the mud men masks that I tried to buy, but now I am glad I didn’t… I find that little girls don’t like to be scared, and they don’t like the kinds of jokes that scare them! Haha… boys are a bit easier in that dept!

People of Papua New Guinea Part 14

Photo Information

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• Date Taken2015-09-13 08:48:44
• CameraILCE-7R
• Camera MakeSony
• Exposure Time1/640
• Aperture4
• ISO100
• Focal Length24.0 mm
• FlashOff, Did not fire
• Exposure ProgramManual
• Exposure Bias

I never thought I’d be this deep in Papua New Guinea… never thought I’d see pygmies in real life… I wasn’t even sure if they were real or not! And yes, that’s a bow and arrow. It looked pretty authentic so I didn’t take any chances.

People of Papua New Guinea Part 13

Photo Information

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• Date Taken2015-10-13 13:34:50
• CameraILCE-7R
• Camera MakeSony
• Exposure Time1/3200
• Aperture
• ISO800
• Focal Length
• FlashOff, Did not fire
• Exposure ProgramManual
• Exposure Bias-1.3

I haven’t been sharing a lot of shots of multiple tribesmen at the same time, but this is a pretty good example of how they all adorn themselves in exactly the same way. This was one of the only tribes I found that was asking me for money. I don’t know what they needed it for… maybe grooming equipment or somesuch. They were all very nice and I was happy to help out. This guy kind of reminded me of “Papua New Guinea’s Most Interesting Man.” I wanted to hand him a Dos Equis and take a photo but I didn’t have one handy.

People of Papua New Guinea Part 12

Photo Information

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• 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

Here’s another view of the mysterious mudmen of Asaro. I shot this with the Leica 80mm f/2. What a lens! I had to “downgrade” A7r to shoot this because my Mark 2 got too sand-blasted at Burning Man the week before. The great thing about the Mark 2 is that it has a gimbal (floating) sensor that makes your shots more stable. But in the middle of the day like this, my shutter speed is so fast that it would not have affected the stabilization anyway.

By the way, if you want to find the Other photo of the mudmen of Asaro, just click on the “Papua New Guinea” category and have a look! 🙂

People of Papua New Guinea Part 11

Photo Information

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• Date Taken2015-10-13 12:53:29
• CameraILCE-7R
• Camera MakeSony
• Exposure Time1/3200
• Aperture
• ISO100
• Focal Length
• FlashOff, Did not fire
• Exposure ProgramManual
• Exposure Bias-0.7

Almost all the tribes there are pretty much addicted to this drug called betel nut. You chew it and it turns your mouth a deep blood red… so it’s pretty easy to tell who is on it. It’s pretty accepted everywhere and not illegal. Even some policemen and judges use it quite a bit (we had dinner with a judge and got the full scoop!). It’s a green nut and you can buy it on any street corner for just a few cents. You also need to have a bag of lime powder and a bean-like green called mustard (daka). You mix all of them together in your mouth and have a full-on party in there.

People of Papua New Guinea Part 10

Photo Information

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• Date Taken2015-10-13 12:15:39
• CameraILCE-7R
• Camera MakeSony
• Exposure Time1/3200
• Aperture
• ISO250
• Focal Length
• FlashOff, Did not fire
• Exposure ProgramManual
• Exposure Bias

Who said smoking isn’t cool if you’re a kid? Hey, this pygmy has had a hard day, you know… just takin’ it easy now. As you can tell from this comment and the previous People of Papua New Guinea post, I’m not a Photo Journalist or anything. But I do love to take photos of these kinds of scenes and I absolutely loved the people of Papua New Guinea… I’m already having thoughts of going back! 🙂

People of Papua New Guinea Part 9

Photo Information

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• Date Taken2015-10-13 12:12:39
• CameraILCE-7R
• Camera MakeSony
• Exposure Time1/2000
• Aperture
• ISO640
• Focal Length
• FlashOff, Did not fire
• Exposure ProgramManual
• Exposure Bias

This guy is really giving someone the side-eye. I wouldn’t want this guy to give me the side-eye if I made a lie that belies his two eyes. I also would not want to get into a rhyming contest with him in his native language. But I would like to get into a def poetry slam with him. I went up to him to propose my amazing idea of a def poetry slam, and he gave me the side-eye.

People of Papua New Guinea Part 8

Photo Information

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• Date Taken2015-10-13 12:05:42
• CameraILCE-7R
• Camera MakeSony
• Exposure Time1/2000
• Aperture
• ISO100
• Focal Length
• FlashOff, Did not fire
• Exposure ProgramManual
• Exposure Bias

This was a pretty intimidating tribe for sure… did a little dance of wits with them a few days ago here. They totally won and were way more intimidating, but was happy to have the chance to get a few photos. There are hundreds of tribes here that adorn themselves in different ways. This one is known for painting half their body white and half their body black…

People of New Guinea Part 6

Photo Information

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• Date Taken2015-10-13 12:34:24
• CameraILCE-7R
• Camera MakeSony
• Exposure Time1/3200
• Aperture
• ISO100
• Focal Length
• FlashOff, Did not fire
• Exposure ProgramManual
• Exposure Bias-0.7