a wanderer in bhutan » Photography

To make a prairie

ping — Tue, 29 Jul 2008 17:11:00 +0000

Taking advantage of a short respite from the summer rains, I took a short photowalk in the neighbourhood over the weekend. Carried my much neglected 50mm out, which isn’t the best lens for flower macros, but its sharpness provided for much cropping room. Tiny set of photos here.

To make a prairie it takes a clover and one bee,—
One clover, and a bee,
And revery.
The revery alone will do
If bees are few.

- Emily Dickinson

Distractions

ping — Tue, 29 Apr 2008 02:07:11 +0000

As I am prone to do, my mind wonders as a form of distraction whenever things get busy. New project ideas fight for brain real estate with the stuff I really ought to be focusing on.

One of those “distractions” is a photography project I’m naming “Hidden Portraits” for now. A series of portraits of people who are ‘hidden’ from our daily lives here in Thimphu. They exist in the fringes; you find them working on the highways, on construction sites, raising their families in the squatter settlements. They will not be your typical Bhutanese portraits. Heck, I suspect many of them will not even be of Bhutanese. I don’t know how difficult it would be to collect these portraits, especially when it comes to communication. I’m not even good at taking portraits, but I think it will be an amazing learning experience.

So, anyone out there care to join me?

First Photowalk in Thimphu

ping — Wed, 12 Dec 2007 05:32:54 +0000

In addition to working on the photo mosaic, Kuenga and I somehow found time to join the Photography Club outing this past Sunday afternoon. Ian (the head honcho) suggested that we take the themes that members have listed for the photo exhibition next year (I haven’t picked a theme yet) and use them for the photo club outings. I thought it was a brilliant idea; we didn’t have to knock our heads for themes to shoot and at the same time, our individual interpretations of the theme can provide inspiration/ideas for the one who chose the theme. We met at 3pm and after a short discussion, we were left to wander and shoot on the theme chosen for the day “Architecture”.

I enjoyed the opportunity to photowalk again. Even for just an hour or so. I should do this more often, may be during the long weekend coming up (next Monday is the Bhutan National Day, a public holiday). After a few hectic nights of working on the photomosaic, it was a lovely break to just walk and shoot, even if it got chilly after a while (reminder to self: wear warmer clothes).

Ian bought us coffee and cookies at Art Cafe after the walk (Thanks Ian!). The club will meet again on the 19th where we’ll have to share 3 of our photos and hopefully have a good discussion on our work.