Rickshaw wallah

I'm sorry about the lack of updates - my posting frequency is way down at the moment, but hey, I never said it was a daily blog, did I? I did? Oh. Well it isn't, it's an erratic blog that aims for daily posts and will settle for two or three a week...

So anyway, here's a photo I took from the taxi on the way into Calcutta from the airport, during my very first half hour in India. This was back in September 1992, on the final leg of my round-the-world trip. I'd been travelling already for about six months and so it wasn't quite the shock to the system that it might have been - but even so, the contrast with South-East Asia was pretty stark. Indonesia is a poor, crowded third world country, but there's poor and crowded and then there's Calcutta. I'm reading Song of Kali by Dan Simmons at the moment, he does a pretty good job of capturing the atmosphere of the place.

Details: Minolta X-500, 50mm lens, exposure not recorded. Calcutta, September 1992. Placemark (approximate).

Rustico sunset

Another photo from our PEI holiday last year... Straight out of the 'cheesy inspirational poster' text book - all that's missing is some tacky Hallmark message. Anyway, it was a lovely sunset over Rustico harbour and worth recording.

I'm going through one of my periodical bouts of renewed interest in videogames. At the moment I'm spending every spare minute I have trying to get to the end of Grandia III (and enjoying every second) - then I can press on with Dragon Quest VIII, and then after that Dreamfall, on my Macbook Pro! So unsurprisingly I haven't been spending much time lovingly sorting through my photos, choosing real corkers, and posting them along with long, thoughtful comments. For the time being then it's pot luck. Sorry. :)

Details: Nikon D70, 18-70mm lens @ 18mm, f5.6, 1/400s, ISO 200, 15 August 2005, Rustico PEI. Placemark.

Snake

Today was the first full day out shooting with my new 18-200 lens (ordered back in February but only definitively in my possession since early April). I have to confess I'm really happy with the results, after all the fuss. It's a superb all-in-one lens for walking about all day when you don't want to carry a heavy kit bag. While the snake in this shot is not as sharp as I'd have liked when viewed at 100%, it's still really impressive for a shot taken at full zoom in very low light.

Toronto Zoo was great, if crowded. Malini was in heaven, of course, and I was happy with the number of keepers when I looked back at the hundred or so shots I took. I'll use a few more of them in this blog in future instalments. It was interesting to see the mix of people wandering through the zoo today. Lots of thin people, fat people, beautiful people, trailer trash, Chinese, Indians, East Europeans, South Americans, Somalis and Orthodox Jews. Toronto's a pretty mixed place, I hope it can avoid trouble going into the future. Speaking of rival factions, a very random straw poll tells me that Nikon are winning the DSLR wars in Ontario: D70s and D200s easily outnumbered the Digital Rebels and 20Ds on display. There were even a couple of D2Xs. :)

Details: Nikon D70, 18-200 VR lens @ 200 mm, f/5.6, 1/30s, ISO 800. Australasian Pavilion, Toronto Zoo, Easter Sunday 2006. Placemark.

Carvings

In case anyone's wondering where I've been these last couple of days, we're enjoying a long Easter break in Toronto so posting frequency is down. Back to normal after Tuesday.

Carvings in boulders lining the road through the middle of Mahabalipuram in Tamil Nadu. Mahabalipuram is the site of a port that flourished about 1400 years ago under the Pallava dynasty which dominated this part of the Indian subcontinent at about the same time as the Dark Ages in Europe and the birth of Islam in Arabia. It's the location of the Shore Temple which I've previously posted.

During the early European colonial period, the French and British vied for dominance in this region, with Madras changing hands a couple of times before becoming a major centre of British power while to the south Pondicherry remained a French possession until 1963. There's still a strong French influence along the Coromandel coast, and in fact the French government promotes French culture in the region with a series of subsidies. It's quite amusing to see the large number of restaurants lining the streets of Mahabalipuram, all with French names. I say 'restaurants' - they're shacks with a sign (in French) out front, and no visible kitchen or dining area. One suspects a widespread scam to wring a few rupees out of the French taxpayer... :)

Still, it's all good. I reckon the citizens of Mahabalipuram are very positively disposed towards their French benefactors so that's money well spent. :)

Details: Minolta X-500, 50mm lens, exposure not recorded. January 1998, Mahabalipuram, Tamil Nadu, India. Placemark.

Bible marketing

I found this in the local supermarket (see today's placemark) when staying with my Aunt in the San Fernando Valley in 1992. It was pretty tasty actually. What a mental way to sell healthy bread though! At least, it seems mental to me, but I guess it works, in that market. Canada's different again, but it's interesting how different techniques are used to appeal to different markets. This would never work in a million years in Europe, except possibly as comedy novelty bread.

Details: Minolta X-500, 50mm lens, exposure not recorded. Thousand Oaks, California, March 1992. Placemark.

Skaters

Twenty degrees today! Winter is gone! We walked out this evening over the Bank Street bridge, and didn't need a jacket! And yet, still the canal hasn't completely thawed... Wherever the sun won't reach, lurk huge piles of ice and snow. They'll probably be with us into June at this rate.

Details: Nikon D70, 75-240mm lens @ 220mm, f/18, 1/60s, ISO 200. 5 February 2005, 1.30pm. Bank Street Bridge, Ottawa. Placemark.

Backwaters

This colourful building is a school in Kerala, India. The photo was taken from a boat on which we were travelling through the backwaters. The other boat you can see in the photo is typical of the way in which people get around in the area.

We spent two days slowly floating through the Kerala backwaters during a trip to India over Christmas and New Year 1997-98. The backwaters live up to the hype - they're incredibly beautiful, and seeing them from a 'ketuvallam' is the only way to do it. It's almost shamefully luxurious - on board the converted cargo vessels is built a whole superstructure from dried reeds, including a private bedroom compartment with four poster bed (and mosquito netting), a large carpeted seating area open to the water, and a bathroom. At the back is a tiny space where the onboard cook prepares unbelievably sumptuous meals over a tiny fire. In the seating area is a coolbox full of beer. We really need to go back and do it again!

Kerala itself is a very interesting place, totally unlike northern India. For a start, it's much more rural, the pace of life is far more relaxed, it's uncrowded (compared to the north, at least) and lush. The language is different, the food is different, the people look different. It actually reminded me far more of Malaysia than northern India. Another thing that one immediately notices is that towns seem cleaner, people look healthier, roads are better, there are fewer beggars (in fact, I can't remember seeing any). Kerala is an example of communism that works.

Details: Minolta X-500, 50mm lens, exposure not recorded. January 1998, Kerala. Placemark (approximate).

Rough seas

I can't quite believe this came out sharp, given the state of the seas. We were on a whalewatching trip from Tofino, in very heavy weather. Jyoti was inside the cabin, throwing up. Technically, the photo's all wrong. It was taken at midday, in flat lighting, and with the sun in the wrong direction. It's a landscape shot, taken with a telephoto lens. And yet, I don't know, I really like it. There's enough haze in the air to give a sense of the distances involved, the waves breaking on the rocks give a sense of motion, the trees are reasonably sharp giving the sense of the forests right at the ocean's edge, stretching up inland to the mountains. I think it really captures the beauty of Vancouver Island (albeit by accident rather than design).

The boat trip itself was a bit of a washout (literally and figuratively) as we only saw an old grey whale's dorsal fin at a distance - he was clearly sick and not moving much. On the other hand, we (well, Malini and I) saw sea otters, loons, bald eagles and a sealion colony, so I suppose it wasn't a complete disaster. And fortunately for us we had a far more successful whalewatching trip a couple of months later.

Details: Nikon D70, 75-240mm lens @ 75mm, f/10, 1/400s, ISO 200. 20 May 2005, Clayoquot Sound, Vancouver Island. Placemark

Footprint

Sorry for the hiatus! I've spent the last couple of evenings playing with Boot Camp, which hasn't left any time for posting photos. The novelty of running Windows on my Macbook Pro has already just about worn off. I won't be booting into it on a regular basis. But the unexpected prospect of being able to play Caesar IV and Dreamfall, sequels to two of my favourite games of all time, makes me very happy. :)

Anyway, to today's photo. This is my daughter's footprint, in the sand on Frenchman's Bay, Treasure Beach, Jamaica. This was one of the many keepers from a day I spent shooting with only my 50mm prime. It's funny how being restricted to the single focal length can really help your composition and your eye for a good shot.

Oh, and look how sharp this photo is - at f/5.6! This is another great thing about a fast lens like this: at f/5.6 you're already at the sweet spot. The Nikkor 50mm f/1.8 is amazing, and costs under €100.

Details: Nikon D70, 50mm, f/5.6, 1/40, ISO 200. Frenchman's Bay, Jamaica. 21 February, 2006, 6.20pm. Placemark.

Freak show

Oops, this is a bit similar to yesterday's post isn't it? Never mind. I'll try and avoid ranting this time.

So anyway, the kids in the photo are not the freaks in the title. I'm the freak, and they're enjoying the show. After university I spent a few months travelling through south-east Asia. Everywhere I went, the kids were fascinated by me. I'd walk through a village and I'd have hundreds of them following me, about ten paces behind. When I'd stop and look around, they'd all run off and hide, laughing their heads off. Sometimes, in bigger towns, the bolder boys would actually come right up to me and stare at the blond hair on my legs and arms. FREAK! Lovely kids though, you never seem to see surly or aggressive kids in these countries.

This photo was taken in Berastagi (also spelt Brestagi, Berestagi), a market town in northern Sumatra on the road from Medan to Lake Toba. I was walking from my 'losmen' (guest house) along the edge of town to climb a volcano. A couple of hours into the climb, near the top, I was overtaken by a little kid wearing flip-flops and balancing a huge bag on her head. Madness.

Details: Minolta X-500, 50mm lens, exposure not recorded. Berastagi, Sumatra, Spring 1992. Placemark.

Cherengani Hills

During our Christmas holidays in 1998 we again visited my parents in Kenya, where they were living at the time. We undertook a week-long road trip through central and western Kenya, driving up the Rift Valley via Naivasha and Nakuru to Baringo and Bogoria, then heading up the escarpment to Eldoret and then to Kitale on the slopes of Mount Elgon. Between Kitale and Kapenguria we spent a couple of days with an old white settler family, the Barnleys, who run a kind of bed and breakfast. Using their place as a base, we explored the Cherengani Hills which lie on the border with Uganda. While driving up into the hills, we stopped by a fantastic viewpoint looking north-west towards the border. Right there, next to the road, was a hut with this small family. The four of them were sitting at the edge of a sheer drop down to the valley below, dangling their feet.

The people of this region are Pokot, a Kalenjin tribe of Nilotic origin as opposed to the more dominant Bantu tribes around Lake Victoria and Mount Kenya. On this trip I read a book I had picked up from my parents' bookshelf: The Tree Where Man Was Born by Peter Matthiessen. This wonderful book opened my eyes to the complexities and long history of the hugely diverse people of Africa. Having scratched the surface, I realised how little I knew about the continent, how many prejudices and stereotypes I carried with me, and how desperately ignorant we are in the West about African culture and conflicts. We arrogantly presume to lecture Africans on good governance, on conflict resolution and on poverty reduction, without making the slightest effort to understand the complex structures of family, tribe and community that have governed life in Africa for centuries and which have been so badly disrupted by our post-colonial imposition of European norms. In the 19th century the European Great Powers divided up the continent along arbitrary lines (the Kenya-Tanzania border was put where it is because Queen Victoria and the Kaiser wanted to have one snow-capped equatorial mountain each, for example). Having created these artificial 'nations', in the 20th century we gave them independence and assumed they would proceed meekly to copy the European model of the nation-state, just when we ourselves were giving up that outmoded method of organisation. Little wonder that the continent has descended into a welter of conflict. The borders that we imposed bear no relation to the true lines of relationship and division in Africa. Ties of patronage and loyalty in African society are complex, but we choose to dismiss them with the simplistic judgement that Africans are "corrupt".

Africa is not a basket case. Feel-good novels like The Number One Ladies Detective Agency do a great job of showing outsiders that normal life in Africa is not all about genocide and AIDS, even if McCall Smith's Arcadian vision of Botswana is a little patronising and sugar-coated. But the fact is that westerners will continue to misjudge Africa as long as we apply our values and our value system to societies that are fundamentally different. Anyone choosing to deliver an opinion on Africa and its troubles should spend some time understanding African society and learning about African history. This is not about being politically correct (God I hate that term), it's about establishing a bit of context.

Details: Minolta X-500, 50mm lens, exposure not recorded. Kenya, December 1998. Placemark.

Fireworks

Every summer, the casino at Lac Leamy in Gatineau holds a fireworks competition. Over two weekends in August, teams from different countries put together an incredible pyrotechnic display over the Lake. Thousands of people pay twenty dollars or more to be admitted to the casino grounds to view the display - but hundreds more park their cars along the Ontario bank of the Ottawa river, whip out their deckchairs, and view it all for free. I took this photo (and a few more like it) with a crowd of other photographers (and others) camping out on the footbridge over the Rideau Falls. We had a perfect view over the river to the fireworks, the wind was from the east blowing all the smoke away, leaving excellent conditions for photographing the display. I set the shutter to remote manual release, aperture at f/14, and timed exposures of three to five seconds for each explosion.

I was distracted by a woman next to me, brandishing a DSLR, taking reams of photos, all handheld using the onboard flash. In the end I told her that none of them would come out, and would she please stop, the flash was interfering with everyone else's pictures. She didn't seem to get it - "if I don't use the flash it's all blurry," she told me. D'oh! Why do people bother spending large amounts of money on an expensive piece of kit without doing some basic research into how it functions? We've all seen people with cheap compacts taking flash photos of the moon, that's one thing, but leaping about with an expensive camera like David Bailey in front of a supermodel when you're taking flash photos of a fireworks display a couple of kilometres away is really, well, daft.

Details: Nikon D70, 18-70mm lens @ 70mm, f/14, 4 seconds, ISO 200. 30 July 2005, Ottawa. Placemark.

Ski tracks

This is one of the hundreds of cross-country skiing trails in the Gatineau Park, across the river from Ottawa. The Gatineau Park (wikipedia entry) is an amazing resource only fifteen minutes' drive from Parliament Hill. It's an old escarpment in the Canadian Shield running parallel to the Ottawa River, marking the boundary of the Champlain Sea that covered the region after the last Ice Age. Only 10,000 years ago, the whole area was covered in two kilometres of ice, and as it retreated the sea flooded in from Hudson's Bay, draining only as the land rebounded from the huge weight of the ice.

The park built on the hills above Ottawa is pretty stunning all year round, but especially in the autumn and winter. The Canadians, being sports nutters, don't go in so much for walking, they're too busy skiing or running or mountain biking to take in the scenery at a more natural rhythm. We felt the pressure to engage in winter activities too, and during our first winter I booked a week off work to learn to ski (downhill). Unfortunately I couldn't book tuition in advance, and every time I turned up for lessons the instructors had all been nabbed for the day by schoolkids. So instead we drove up to the Mackenzie King Estate and walked on one of the few routes in the park which is actually open to pedestrians without snowshoes. The woods in the winter are magical - the quality of light is totally different, the snow on the forest floor creates bright reflections and the absence of leaves makes it hard to believe how dark and gloomy the woods can be in midsummer. The cross-country skiing paths dwindling into the distance are very inviting, but woe betide a walker who dares to set foot on one of the groomed trails. Within minutes he'll be mowed down by one of the hundreds of skiing groups that spend all winter tearing up and down the hills on the constantly groomed tracks. The group leader will inevitably harangue the poor walker for daring to leave footprints on the ski tracks and impede the skiers' progress. Sports nazis. They should leave the outdoors to people who actually appreciate it for what it is, without turning it into a race track.

Details: Nikon D70, 18-70mm lens @ 70mm, f/4.5, 1/500s, ISO 200, converted to duotone in Photoshop. Gatineau Park, 17 February 2005, 11.26am. Placemark.