This is the year ... I hosted a cat

I've been remiss in updating the blog this year, but, in a mad dash to make up for it, I'm trying to fill in the blanks.

A most beautiful cat and sweet tempered with it.  Yet every single time I tried to take a picture I got a look that would freeze your soul.

Despite the look of unalloyed hatred ... this was the year I hosted my most glamourous house guest ever.

Shore Leave

I like holidays and travel, I like historical sites and interesting markets, I like trying new food and finding out about different ways of life.  But I also like sitting with a book and sometimes not even reading it and for that there is not much required, just a shoreline:

Something to sit on:

And if possible an astounding sunrise or sunset, I'm not picky;

Alas this beach is a bit further flung than my old favourite beach in Goa which was voted "Best beach in India" and so got very popular and difficult to book for last minute getaways.  I had to travel all the way to Indonesia for this one so I'm still on the lookout for my own new version of my perfect Indian beach.

If you've got any suggestions, please send them my way. 

Waiting zones

Mumbai is a crazy city and I love it.  I like the bustle and hustle and the noise and the smells, well almost all the smells.  I've got very comfortable weaving my way through the people and traffic and enjoying watching and joining in with the masses of people getting on with their lives. 

Recently my eye has been drawn away from the action the business and the activities to the quiet waiting that happens everywhere.  People, entirely comfortable in their spaces just waiting.  I do a lot of waiting too, just standing and watching and waiting to see what happens.  Here are two fellow waiters I watched recently:

Well, it's Mumbai, if  you wait long enough something's going to happen.

Vintage Point

I'm not a car buff, I categorise cars by simple parameters; "big", "small" and their colour but I do appreciate "pretty" and I stumbled on a whole heap of pretty parked up at Kala Ghoda. 

Just sitting there in the car park at were beautiful old Bentleys and Buicks, I knew they were thus because they had their names on their hoods.  They had just been unveiled and were on display prior to taking part in the Mumbai Vintage Car Rally on Sunday.

There was just me and one other camera toting person happily clicking away, a real luxury in camera crazy Mumbai.  There were a lot of officials and mechanics all hovering around awaiting the inevitable onslaught of the photo opportunists. Later I spent a happy ten minutes watching men standing proprietorially beside the cars while their partners snapped them looking proud  but at this stage I had space and time and felt strangely exposed.

I've grown so used to craning and jostling and working on avoiding hundreds of others with cameras that it was odd not to have to, odd but lovely.

By the time I moved on the crowds had moved in and the young men in official white polo shirts were starting becoming agitated about caring for their precious charges.

I said "goodbye and thank you" to the man in the mirror and he said "Thank you for loving the cars without touching".  I hope his day wasn't too stressful.

Splash

I went to a swim meet this weekend in my role as my workplace's Official -Unofficial photographer.   It's an easy role to fall into, first you take your camera with you because you think it will be fun, then you share your pictures and before you know it the responsibility to capture all sorts of events has fallen to you.  It keeps me on my toes and hopefully helps my photography improve.

 

If nothing else I now have a huge free storage capacity on dropbox through sharing the images.

The People-Pictures Problem

I admit, I'm a bit "backward in coming forward" when it comes to taking pictures of strangers.  I've missed out on so many great images because I'm helplessly British and don't want to intrude.  Yes, I'm one of "those" photographers, the ones who pretend to be taking a picture of something other than the stranger they really want to capture, the ones whose lenses swivel away at the slightest flicker of eye contact.  There's a pretty high ratio of backs to fronts in my people pictures.

It's compounded by me not liking to have my own picture taken.  Nearly every single picture of me has me sporting a rictus smile and an I'd-rather-be-anywhere-else attitude.  Hence "random pictures with white people" is a bit of a nightmare for me and I must be projecting that dislike of being photographed on the people I don't capture.  Of course, I'm wrong about that, some people love being photographed.

I enjoy taking pictures of people and my workplace is full of portraits and candids I've captured, but I know the people and I'm taking the pictures in an official capacity.  I also stand at the side of the road taking pictures of people on motorbikes and bicycles.  Moving targets are fine.  See, I'm working on my problems bit by bit.

So how come, given my debilitating condition, is this post full of pictures of people happily posing for me?  Simple really, they asked me to take their pictures so I was "official".  I was traipsing about the streets of Pondy when the two girls above shyly asked me to take their picture.  They were part of a group about to board a ramshackle tourist bus and they wanted their visit documented. Since there wasn't a camera or cell phone between the lot of them I was the next best thing and so the photoshoot happened.  We attracted a crowd and literally stopped traffic.

They were a grand bunch and we all had a good time, I'm only sorry I couldn't get an address out of them to post them some of the pictures.

Now to work on asking permission...

Moving Mumbaikers

Mumbai traffic is justly famous.  Mostly it's just an obstacle between where you are and where you want to get to but recently I've been trying to capture the people who drive, pedal or push their way through the noisy scrum.

Some people are aware of me, some pleased, some not so pleased and some are in their own worlds.  I haven't quite mastered the art of capturing people just as I'd like to but I'm sharing some early attempts.

 This chap is rather delighted to be snapped spinning through the city.

 The gentleman driver is oblivious or perhaps only seems so due to his shades. I like to think that in his mind he's in the opening credits of some blockbuster movie.  The lady passenger on the other hand looks mildly annoyed.

 The passenger is decidedly put out.  The driver seems quite pleased with the attention or at least happily bemused.

 This is closer to what I originally set out to capture. Deep in his own world and entirely oblivious to me.  I want to know what's worrying him.

So participation, recording or just being another annoying or puzzling factor in the transport of Mumbai.  I'm not really sure where this will take me but I'm up for the journey.

Karjat - the photo failures

Getting out of the city can be a bit of a pain in the nethers but it's worth it to put the smog and smells behind you for a bit.

I went on my annual trip to Karjat to help build houses for a Habitat for Humanity project - I can call it annual because it's the second year I've done it. Here's the proof from last year. To be absolutely honest the students did the building and I did the wandering around with the camera capturing them mixing concrete and slapping on paint.

I broke off from the arduous task of taking pictures of students to take a few pictures of other things.  I've recently been reading various "how to be an awesome photographer" articles and sites and thought it would be a good chance to put some of the lessons into practice.

"Look for colour contrasts and textural interest to create stunning abstracts"

I interpreted this as "watch paint dry". This didn't really work but the paint dried very quickly so I wandered off to see other things.

  Every "guide to great photography" will tell you that you should always try to frame your subjects.

 A good piece of advice but also try to keep them in focus, above and below look ok in this small format but if  you saw the originals in full size  - not so good.  Really not so good at all! 

The "guide to being a kickass photographer"  tells you to look for textural interest and repeating patterns to create interesting images.

    So long as you think a sack with a hole in it covering a window counts as an "interesting image".

Always crop off the head of the bullock to create an interesting shot and don't forget to include a great big white arrow pointing at the bullock in case anyone missed it. Or as "how to click better clicks" says. Pay attention to the background!

Despite the bodged photographs it was a good day and I learned a lot about picture taking, mostly that I have to do a lot more of it.  



 

Golden Temple of Amritsar, Early Morning and musings on random photo requests

Bathing at sunrise


Warming early morning light


Golden dawn

As mentioned in a previous post, early morning is the best time to visit. I spent time here at various points in the day but the light in the morning was magical.

I wasn't sure how a foreigner taking pictures would go down but after being asked to pose with three different families I reckoned no-one would mind. I have a personal rule about "pictures with random white people" and only pose with family groups. I'm far happier on the other side of the camera in any case but thankfully I don't get invited into photographs too often. I more often get approached by children who shake my hand and speak to me while proud parents gaze on. Friends I travelled with got approached far, far more often, not only are they white, they're glow-in-the-dark white and the female half has blue eyes and light hair. Extra points on the "pictures with random white people" scale?

Back to early mornings, the glow-in-the-dark white guy of the group managed to get to the temple at 3:30, I tried, I truly did but could not raise myself from my bed, instead I met him for tea at the nearest stall around 5am and heard all about it while berating myself for being such a lazy sod and missing out on the experience.

I met a lot of lovely and welcoming people and had some great conversations. A fantastic place to visit with a truly magical atmosphere, I'd return in a heartbeat and this time rouse myself at 3:30am.

Street Snacks

A fifth Postcard from Amritsar

A trayfull of samosas ready for the big fry. I first ate real Indian food as a very young ex-pat kid in Kuwait. Our next door neighbour, Aunty Padma, would sometimes call me in on the way back from school saying, to my ears, "I've just made some osas, would you like one?". Osas they remained for an embarrasingly long time.

Amritsar, lady at well

A second postcard from Amritsar.

Early morning, sunrise, the light is lovely and Golden Temple gradually becoming more active. Behind this woman were volunteers preparing vegetables for lunch, further behind them the food hall were thousands of free meals are served to pilgrims and visitors. At this time in the morning you're served a bowl of tea and a rusk, very, very good tea.

Five Years Ago Yesterday

I noticed that my flickr account turned five years old yesterday, I had just posted the image above which I thought could be much better, I was considering taking it down again when I realised that, completely insignificantly, it was the last picture I posted before I was aware of the date. Caught up with concept that anniversaries matter I went for a wander through my photo's.

Way back then me and the man had taken the plunge and found ourselves jobs in Vietnam. The flickr account was one of the ways of documenting the "international experience', as is this blog. The name on both is a combination of our initials with an extraneous "s". We were both meant to contribute, that didn't happen but he does occassionally point out spelling mistakes.

The flickr account has pictures of leaving Scotland, sorting out the house for renting, arriving in Vietnam and getting settled. Trips and holidays all over Asia and a brief visit back to the homeland before our current incarnation in Mumbai. It documents my favourite places and views, my obsessions and interests of the time and it makes for nostialgic viewing. I'm working on improving my photography and getting more selective about what I post, hence my prickliness over the "significance" of the photo above. But if the last upload was so bad, how would I feel about the first one?

I was well chuffed! My very first upload to my flickr account was a shot of two buildings in Singapore which, when viewed from a certain angle, look like a great big c*ck!

Pure class.

Swimming Against the Tide

The last in my current collection of pictures taken from Mumbai trains. I love that I can hang outside the doors and get angles like this, at least I can during the relatively quiet times when I travel. I wouldn't want to attempt it during rush hour, in fact I wouldn't want to attempt the trains during rush hour if I could possibly avoid it.

Second Class, Women

Womens' carriage, local train in Mumbai.

Morning

Sunrise isn't usually as spectacular as sunset but, since Indian cities don't tend to get moving very early and I do, it's a quiet and lovely time of day.

Jaipur

Amber Fort tout



Amber Fort bird

Mumbai arrival

Hawker, damp day at Gateway to India

Just over two weeks ago we arrived and started work in the Mumbai suburb of Goregaon. It's been predictably hectic but the essential practicalities are working themselves out pretty well.

The weather has been abysmal for photography but fantastic for sleeping with no air conditioning.

It took until the most recent weekend to get into Mumbai proper and first impressions were positive. The grey cotton wool skies that go with cool weather didn't make for great photographs, but things will undoubtedly brighted up.

Anywhere in the world by DHL...

...anywhere else by bus.

Singapore Blues

I went to Singapore and took pictures of blue things.

There was some shopping and eating too, but mainly taking pictures of blue things, maybe Saigon Reds is next.

Siem Reap, 2010

I'm just back from a visit to the Temples of Angkor Wat in Cambodia. I'm officially all templed out. We took Tuk Tuks for bum numbing periods and saw sunsets and sunrises and all the hours in between, did the Small Tour, the Grand Tour and the Back-of-bloody-beyond tour. Climbed over, under and through things and got sore knees from that and sore shoulders and necks from the cameras and other "necessities" we carried with us.

It's going to be quite a job to pick through the hundreds of pictures taken, there're bound to be a few decent ones between them, but in the meantime, here's a few:

One of the large stone elephants at Mebon



Also at Mebon, stone balancing seems to be all the rage.



Intricate carving seen at a temple the name of which temporarily slips my mind - I'll need to look it up



The south entrance to Bayon at sunrise



The same entrance with local brushmakers heading out to work



A yellow flower in honour of Tet, I'll be out taking pictures of the Tet floral displays tomorrow so expect lots more yellow.

The man took pictures this time too, apparently it's marginally less boring than just waiting for me to take them, and so his first real contribution to this blog might appear very soon.