Carlina Teteris Photography » Travel and Lifestyle Photographer

Cirebon & Pekolangan | A Batik Pilgrimage

BATIK!  So I’m pretty much a lost cause.  As one of my travel buddies this trip put it – buying batik is a slippery slope.  Seriously.  You walk into a batik shop never thinking you’d have any reason to need some of the stuff, but it’s almost impossible to leave empty-handed.  And then it becomes addictive and starts to spiral out of control and you end up trying to justify needing to buy $700.00 batik (I haven’t been able to justify it just yet, by the way), or exploring the industrial wasteland of Java’s northern coast in search of the stuff.

Cirebon and Pekolangan are otherwise pretty boring.  I basically went out of curiosity and because I had a whole lot of time to roam around Java this trip.  If batik doesn’t excite you and you’re not REALLY into Javanese history, there’s not too much point in going out of your way to either of these cities.

I did leave with a bag full of batik, including napkins similar to the ones that I fell in love with at the Babi Guling event I shot last month, so it would be hard to say that my time was completely wasted there :)

Next up – I’ll finally get to the pretty parts of the trip!

Namaaz Dining | Underground Molecular Gastronomy

Jakarta is quickly becoming one of the coolest cities I know.  Every time I’m there I fall deeper and deeper in love with the place; next time I go I don’t think I’m coming back.  There’s so much happening there now, so many cool things to do, and oh, the food is incredible.

One of the nights we were there we went to the reservation-only underground restaurant Namaaz.  Chef Andrian Ishak serves up 17 courses of super-creative molecular gastronomy Indonesian food to up to 8 people/ night.  We needed to make reservations two weeks in advance, and it was a little more than I’d normally pay for a meal in Jakarta (more than I can live off of for a week travelling in Indonesia, really…).  Considering there were 17 mind blowing courses, it was actually a really awesome value and an amazing dinning experience.  I’m sure a comparable evening would cost a whole lot more in any other city.

Each course was super different than the next and the presentation was brilliant.  Most of all it they just severely messed with your mind and every dish was a really common Indonesian flavour, but looked so completely different than normal it was hard to place the taste.  I don’t think I’m really supposed to give away too many details, but if you’re in Jakarta or passing through go check this place out. Seriously.  Fun times.

Roger Lim - Very very cool. I’m almost jealous.

Magalie - Looks like tons of fun!

Sari Pratiwi - coooooool

Hukum Online

While I was in Jakarta I did a quick corporate shoot for Hukum Online for some marketing materials.  I got free run of their (really pretty) offices to do candid environmental shots of their staff.  This was my one and only day of work the whole trip, then I had three beautiful weeks of playing.  Will start posting the real trip pictures soon!

Lost on Java

I just got home from a month exploring Java (with a quick, mid-travel holiday in Bali, of course).  Lots of great adventures of getting stuck in the mountains, missing out on the post card view of Bromo and testing the limits of my pathetic Bahasa skills to talk my way out of a few situations.  Drowning in about 2000 photos from the trip, but some full posts will be coming soon.  I’m back in town now for a while and will be back to responding to emails and requests a little faster.

Magalie - Really, all you have is 2000 pictures after 1 month? See, that’s why I’m drowning in a giant ocean of photos… I have so many 500+ days, I don’t even know where to begin… I’m excited to see your shots though, maybe it will motivate me to finally finish editing Indonesia!

Carlina - 500+ DAYS?? yikkes. Ok, maybe I’ve got a few like that. Bromo was a pretty extensive shooting day (actually just morning, really). I’ve hardly seen ANY of your indo photos, I’ve been waiting for quite some time now really ;)

Akanksha Mehta - This is my favorite photo ever. Beautiful!

Clubvivre | Babi Guling Roast

Clubvivre.com held its first pop up restaurant event this weekend.  The website lets you book private chefs for awesome personal dining experiences hand-chosen by founders Maria + Andries.  They’ve got incredible taste, so I’m completely confident you can’t go wrong with any of the very unique experiences offered on the site.

This atas babi guling launch event was held at a very modern Indonesian art gallery at Gillman Barracks so it had an awesome atmosphere to go along with Chef John Sawarto’s roast pig + wagyu beef cheek rendang feast.  It’s sort of hard to shoot with the very distracting aroma of babi guling roasting over charcoal for a couple of hours….

I’m in love with the batik napkins they used.  Lucky for me I’m heading off on a three-week javanese batik hunt in a few days.  I know what I’ll be buying! <3

Igor Prahin - Great series, the pig almost looked like it had makeup! I trust you got paid for this professional work?

Carlina Teteris - Not just paid, but it also came with a bonus of babi guling sampling and a few glasses of fantastic wine :)

Magalie - Dude. Seriously? I was just about to cook dinner and this looks so awesome it ruined my dinner.

Carlina - HA! I doubt it! Dinner at your place always looks amazing. In fact, I full intend to invite myself over for a meal when I’m in BC this summer :)

Ralf Siebeck - A real sensation. Curious about the lens you are using here…

Carlina - Thanks Ralf! I think this set is mainly my 135mm f/2.0 DC (pretty much magic, in f-mount format), and the 24-70 for most of the interior shots except when it’s obviously UWA – 14-24mm 2.8.