And here's the album of Kuala Gandah... Click here for the album with some 22 photos.
Click here for the total index.
Sunday, October 18, 2009
Elephant orphanage, the album
And here's the album of Kuala Gandah... Click here for the album with some 22 photos.
Click here for the total index.
Sunday, October 11, 2009
Elephrend
Had my Dutch friend Nora over last week. Hence the somewhat silence on this blog, I hardly had time.
Was fun to see her outside of her normal environment.
We actually never met up a lot in The Netherlands, it was more of a phone relationship. She's a colleague from one of my former jobs and after I left there we had become friends. I visited her when I was back in The Netherlands during the last two years, but this year she decided to come this way. I showed her around a bit, and she wandered the city by herself a few days when I still had to work, having lunch and dinner with her.
She very much enjoyed KL, but not so much the climate :-)
Highlight (well, for her anyway, I very much dislike organised tours) was a trip to Kuala Gandah, the elephant orphanage in Malaysia, where Nora turned into an elephrend...
Took some ok shots there, which I will show soon.
As far as I understood the orphanage takes in elephants that can't be set free in the wild anymore. Their habitats over here get smaller and smaller and when they get too close to civilisation they become a threat to humans and the oil plantations. It's the classic tale of human development making it impossible for wild life to sustain itself.
You can feed the elephants there, ride an elephant for a short round around a tree, and they even take you into the river to be dropped by these huge creatures into the water. All voluntary mind you...
I skipped all that, busy taking pictures. I'm not afraid of animals (well, all in moderation, it's unwise not to be afraid of venomous snakes or a growling tiger ready to jump you) but I sat on a horse once and I felt it for a week. Besides, I'm very much a 'better safe than sorry' kind of person, and I decided early on in life that it is best to keep some distance when it comes to trained wild animals. No matter how gentle they might seem and act, they still can trample you with one kick if they have a moody day. I know I would if I were an elephant... And since riding an elephant was never very high on my secret wish list, I just took pictures.
The bus driver of the small mini van to Kuala Gandah was a bit of a bore and kinda racist, telling his little story about how KL came about, and that set the tone for the rest of the trip... Think these outings are better done with just friends in a private car, or in a really big bus with lots of people where you can escape the guide, and wander off unnoticed...
Into the river... click on the photo for the bigger version...
Was fun to see her outside of her normal environment.
We actually never met up a lot in The Netherlands, it was more of a phone relationship. She's a colleague from one of my former jobs and after I left there we had become friends. I visited her when I was back in The Netherlands during the last two years, but this year she decided to come this way. I showed her around a bit, and she wandered the city by herself a few days when I still had to work, having lunch and dinner with her.
She very much enjoyed KL, but not so much the climate :-)
Highlight (well, for her anyway, I very much dislike organised tours) was a trip to Kuala Gandah, the elephant orphanage in Malaysia, where Nora turned into an elephrend...
Took some ok shots there, which I will show soon.
As far as I understood the orphanage takes in elephants that can't be set free in the wild anymore. Their habitats over here get smaller and smaller and when they get too close to civilisation they become a threat to humans and the oil plantations. It's the classic tale of human development making it impossible for wild life to sustain itself.
You can feed the elephants there, ride an elephant for a short round around a tree, and they even take you into the river to be dropped by these huge creatures into the water. All voluntary mind you...
I skipped all that, busy taking pictures. I'm not afraid of animals (well, all in moderation, it's unwise not to be afraid of venomous snakes or a growling tiger ready to jump you) but I sat on a horse once and I felt it for a week. Besides, I'm very much a 'better safe than sorry' kind of person, and I decided early on in life that it is best to keep some distance when it comes to trained wild animals. No matter how gentle they might seem and act, they still can trample you with one kick if they have a moody day. I know I would if I were an elephant... And since riding an elephant was never very high on my secret wish list, I just took pictures.
The bus driver of the small mini van to Kuala Gandah was a bit of a bore and kinda racist, telling his little story about how KL came about, and that set the tone for the rest of the trip... Think these outings are better done with just friends in a private car, or in a really big bus with lots of people where you can escape the guide, and wander off unnoticed...
Into the river... click on the photo for the bigger version...Tuesday, September 8, 2009
Beijing, the final album
And here's the last album of Beijing, the seventh and eight day. Those were two rather lazy days. Done with all the tourist sites we just walked the city center and one of the outer areas which turned out to be a sort of little Russia, with a lot of fur industry going on. Quite a depressing neighbourhood actually, with a lot of ugly buildings. Not many photos of that day.
Click here for the album with some 17 photos.
Click here for the total index.
Sunday, August 9, 2009
Saturday, August 8, 2009
In the meantime...
Something I forgot to mention, but I got my sensor cleaned, before the trip to Cambodia.
And for people who don't know what I'm talking about, see this post and this post.
I flashed Tha Professional card in their (Canon Malaysia Headquarters) faces and that got me a 'please sit down and wait 15 minutes', whilst other less fortunate people could pick up their camera the next day. I'm not one for special treatment, but in this case I felt I payed Canon enough to deserve it.
A bit apprehensive I tested the camera at home. Afraid they might have made it worse. The hair I already removed myself, but in that process I messed up the sensor even more, so I was really hoping for an improvement. And indeed there was. Almost spotless, not enough spots left to be bothered about, you'd never see them on a regular picture. They really cleaned up the mess I made of it.
I also ordered two new focusing screens. Turned out that replacing those, although technically easy, isn't that simple, because no shop has them in stock. Even Canon Malaysia didn't, they had to order them in Japan. Guess the model camera isn't that popular here, which is not a total surprise if you look at the price of the thing.
And for people wondering, a focusing screen is a small piece of glass that hangs directly under the viewfinder inside the camera. It disperses the light and you really cannot do without. I tried the camera without it, but apart from a very distorted image in the viewfinder, exposure gets all mixed up. Sensors in the camera clearly expect this thing to be there. Apparently ít's engraved with laser, not just an ordinary piece of glass.
And the final issue, the 70-200mm lens making some shaky noises after a small drop on the tiles of my apartment turned out to be normal. Something I suspected, but wasn't sure of, cause I didn't know if the sound had always been there when shaking the thing. It's the image stabilizer rattling around a bit. Wasn't too concerned about that anyway, cause the lens worked fine after the drop, but it's nice to know for sure.
So, all issues surrounding the camera resolved, waiting now for a phone call on the arrival of the focusing screens. I ordered two, the regular one, to replace the present scratched one, and an extra, with a grid on it. I tend to make shifted pictures sometimes, where the verticals or the horizontals are not completely straight, and the screen with the grid on it is supposed to help you prevent that. It's easily corrected in any editing software, but it saves time if the photos don't have the problem to begin with.
And for people who don't know what I'm talking about, see this post and this post.
I flashed Tha Professional card in their (Canon Malaysia Headquarters) faces and that got me a 'please sit down and wait 15 minutes', whilst other less fortunate people could pick up their camera the next day. I'm not one for special treatment, but in this case I felt I payed Canon enough to deserve it.
A bit apprehensive I tested the camera at home. Afraid they might have made it worse. The hair I already removed myself, but in that process I messed up the sensor even more, so I was really hoping for an improvement. And indeed there was. Almost spotless, not enough spots left to be bothered about, you'd never see them on a regular picture. They really cleaned up the mess I made of it.
I also ordered two new focusing screens. Turned out that replacing those, although technically easy, isn't that simple, because no shop has them in stock. Even Canon Malaysia didn't, they had to order them in Japan. Guess the model camera isn't that popular here, which is not a total surprise if you look at the price of the thing.
And for people wondering, a focusing screen is a small piece of glass that hangs directly under the viewfinder inside the camera. It disperses the light and you really cannot do without. I tried the camera without it, but apart from a very distorted image in the viewfinder, exposure gets all mixed up. Sensors in the camera clearly expect this thing to be there. Apparently ít's engraved with laser, not just an ordinary piece of glass.
And the final issue, the 70-200mm lens making some shaky noises after a small drop on the tiles of my apartment turned out to be normal. Something I suspected, but wasn't sure of, cause I didn't know if the sound had always been there when shaking the thing. It's the image stabilizer rattling around a bit. Wasn't too concerned about that anyway, cause the lens worked fine after the drop, but it's nice to know for sure.
So, all issues surrounding the camera resolved, waiting now for a phone call on the arrival of the focusing screens. I ordered two, the regular one, to replace the present scratched one, and an extra, with a grid on it. I tend to make shifted pictures sometimes, where the verticals or the horizontals are not completely straight, and the screen with the grid on it is supposed to help you prevent that. It's easily corrected in any editing software, but it saves time if the photos don't have the problem to begin with.
Thursday, August 6, 2009
Scroll
It's something I bought in Beijing.
I don't buy a lot of souvenirs. Small stuff sometimes. Problem is that it just stacks up, and my life is a bit unclear location wise. Don't feel like dragging along too much stuff if I need or decide to move, either within Malaysia or forcibly back to The Netherlands. The suitcase I arrived with is already too small.
This I couldn't resist.
Bought it at an art exhibition near the Forbidden City. The girl who sold it to me told me it was painted by her teacher, and for a 'souvenir' it wasn't very cheap. She was a student at the Beijing Art Academy. It was one out of four, depicting the seasons, but this one was clearly the best.
The real deal is about two meters tall and I photographed it in three pieces. Had some trouble stitching it all together without the seams showing up, but worked out ok. Not fully sure about the coloring yet, need to compare it a bit better in daylight. The original blossoms are a bit more pinkish.
Click on it for the real big one. It's big though, about 2mb, so give it some time to load if you're interested.
Phnom Penh
It's poor, it's underdeveloped compared to any standards, there's kids begging and the poverty is striking. But they're friendly, they seem curious, they like to make contact and their smile is appealing.
They were also easy targets to photograph. Either a friendly smile, a big laugh, a wave or a shy looking away, but never an objection. They actually seemed to like the attention.
Big smile and laughing when they spot the camera...
A lot of them literally live on the streets. I'm not sure if they have homes or live in one of the slum areas I saw, and just venture out to the city during the day, but they eat, pee, play, sleep, get their hair cut and dry their clothes on the streets, as some of the photos show. In fact, I caught them sleeping everywhere. On trucks, on benches, in tuk tuks, on seats at a funeral, they clearly like to sleep. My kind of people :-)
Kid playing near Phnom Wat...
'They' is of course not everybody, but the street life is in your face. It makes parts of Phnom Penh a very lively mess, especially around the market area.
Knowing a little bit of the history of Cambodia and the horrors that went on there - first by the Americans, then by Pol Pot slaughtering his own people - the resilience of the people seems amazing.
I don't want to romanticise it though. Life there seems also harsh. They might smile and some might seem genuinely happy with the little they have, a few days isn't enough to get a sense of what these people are thinking or feeling or how they experience their daily life. Think it's safe to assume that everyone would prefer a normal house over a slum, and a clean bed over a bench in the park. And the smiling might look friendly, but I remembered a book about the Pol Pot regime, in which Cambodians are described as friendly but also as spiteful. I'm quoting here freely, but in the book they're called 'the most spiteful Asians of the whole of Asia'. In short, don't piss off a Cambodian, because he might seek revenge in a less pleasant manner. How true it is, I don't know, it's second hand knowledge, but it's not unwise to keep such knowledge in mind when visiting there :-)
One tip worked out quite well, the street kids begging. In stead of giving them money - which is either spent wrong or possibly given to other people for whom they work - I bought a big bag of candy, and we just handed that out whenever the occasion arose. And it works, they leave you alone after that, with quite a happy face.
I also handed out money to disabled, landmine victims and other unfortunates, but you quickly realise it's impossible. They keep coming. It's one of the nasty aspects of these places: the confrontation with your own luck, the fact you have and they don't, and how to deal with that if they rub that almost literally in your face, with missing limbs, in wheelchairs and with other deformities. The Dutch suffer from guilt quite easily - I wrote about that in another post about Calvinism - and it's also a part of my nature. I haven't found a convincing way yet for myself. I give some, I reject some, but it still lingers in the back of my mind without a resolution, because there is none. This is the way it is, this is their life. You visit, you leave. Most you get out of it is the feeling of being lucky and a sense of admiration for this nation and its people.
Another striking thing, of which some Cambodian artists make fun themselves in paintings I saw, is the number of people they carry around on trucks, buses and motorbikes. Five people on one motor cycle wasn't an exception, and some seem to carry their whole material existence on their motor cycle. Furniture, stoves, bags, appliances, hardware, tools, you name it, you can find someone driving around with it, stacked, stuffed or folded onto a bike or truck, usually with people on top, also quite visible on some of the photos.
Two motor cycles and a lot of other stuff in a truck, with people on top...
Took me quite some time and trials to get some photos of the people on motor cycles, visible in the first album, but luckily they don't drive faster than about 30km per hour. Traffic is very chaotic, but because of the low speed it doesn't seem to go wrong often. Five on a motor cycle is quite acceptable if you don't go fast.
The weather was so so. It's the rain season now, and the first few days we had on and off drizzle and a grey sky. Dry enough between the drizzle to walk around though. The place is also quite windy, and as sandy and dusty as Siem Reap. Completely flat land, no mountains, so the wind can do its thing undisturbed, bit like The Netherlands, where a day without wind is quite rare.
Otherwise, apart from observing the life going on, there's really not much to do in Phnom Penh. There's a few sites to visit and there's some nice restaurants and cafes around the river area, but that's about it. My initial guess that a few days would be enough turned out to be true.
I did enjoy it though. Not sure if I will return there soon, but I think it was a worth while trip.
(Click on the photos for the bigger version)
They were also easy targets to photograph. Either a friendly smile, a big laugh, a wave or a shy looking away, but never an objection. They actually seemed to like the attention.
Big smile and laughing when they spot the camera...A lot of them literally live on the streets. I'm not sure if they have homes or live in one of the slum areas I saw, and just venture out to the city during the day, but they eat, pee, play, sleep, get their hair cut and dry their clothes on the streets, as some of the photos show. In fact, I caught them sleeping everywhere. On trucks, on benches, in tuk tuks, on seats at a funeral, they clearly like to sleep. My kind of people :-)
Kid playing near Phnom Wat...'They' is of course not everybody, but the street life is in your face. It makes parts of Phnom Penh a very lively mess, especially around the market area.
Knowing a little bit of the history of Cambodia and the horrors that went on there - first by the Americans, then by Pol Pot slaughtering his own people - the resilience of the people seems amazing.
I don't want to romanticise it though. Life there seems also harsh. They might smile and some might seem genuinely happy with the little they have, a few days isn't enough to get a sense of what these people are thinking or feeling or how they experience their daily life. Think it's safe to assume that everyone would prefer a normal house over a slum, and a clean bed over a bench in the park. And the smiling might look friendly, but I remembered a book about the Pol Pot regime, in which Cambodians are described as friendly but also as spiteful. I'm quoting here freely, but in the book they're called 'the most spiteful Asians of the whole of Asia'. In short, don't piss off a Cambodian, because he might seek revenge in a less pleasant manner. How true it is, I don't know, it's second hand knowledge, but it's not unwise to keep such knowledge in mind when visiting there :-)
One tip worked out quite well, the street kids begging. In stead of giving them money - which is either spent wrong or possibly given to other people for whom they work - I bought a big bag of candy, and we just handed that out whenever the occasion arose. And it works, they leave you alone after that, with quite a happy face.
I also handed out money to disabled, landmine victims and other unfortunates, but you quickly realise it's impossible. They keep coming. It's one of the nasty aspects of these places: the confrontation with your own luck, the fact you have and they don't, and how to deal with that if they rub that almost literally in your face, with missing limbs, in wheelchairs and with other deformities. The Dutch suffer from guilt quite easily - I wrote about that in another post about Calvinism - and it's also a part of my nature. I haven't found a convincing way yet for myself. I give some, I reject some, but it still lingers in the back of my mind without a resolution, because there is none. This is the way it is, this is their life. You visit, you leave. Most you get out of it is the feeling of being lucky and a sense of admiration for this nation and its people.
Another striking thing, of which some Cambodian artists make fun themselves in paintings I saw, is the number of people they carry around on trucks, buses and motorbikes. Five people on one motor cycle wasn't an exception, and some seem to carry their whole material existence on their motor cycle. Furniture, stoves, bags, appliances, hardware, tools, you name it, you can find someone driving around with it, stacked, stuffed or folded onto a bike or truck, usually with people on top, also quite visible on some of the photos.
Two motor cycles and a lot of other stuff in a truck, with people on top...Took me quite some time and trials to get some photos of the people on motor cycles, visible in the first album, but luckily they don't drive faster than about 30km per hour. Traffic is very chaotic, but because of the low speed it doesn't seem to go wrong often. Five on a motor cycle is quite acceptable if you don't go fast.
The weather was so so. It's the rain season now, and the first few days we had on and off drizzle and a grey sky. Dry enough between the drizzle to walk around though. The place is also quite windy, and as sandy and dusty as Siem Reap. Completely flat land, no mountains, so the wind can do its thing undisturbed, bit like The Netherlands, where a day without wind is quite rare.
Otherwise, apart from observing the life going on, there's really not much to do in Phnom Penh. There's a few sites to visit and there's some nice restaurants and cafes around the river area, but that's about it. My initial guess that a few days would be enough turned out to be true.
I did enjoy it though. Not sure if I will return there soon, but I think it was a worth while trip.
(Click on the photos for the bigger version)
Sunday, August 2, 2009
Phnom Penh, album I
Yes I'm back, and already done with the first album. Was quite happy with the photos I took, so I'll plunge you right into it. Coming days more about Phnom Penh, also in writing.Friday, July 31, 2009
Kampung Budaya, album
And before departure, another album finished. Almost there now, ready for new photos.Saturday, July 25, 2009
Wednesday, July 22, 2009
Was that it?
So, was that it about Beijing?
No, there were two more days. We just walked the center a bit, stumbled upon a big lake with lots of cafes and restaurants, wandered through little Russia, got cheated by a fortune teller and met this fellow, who was flying a kite, using the contraption on his belly.
Flying a kite over the center of Beijing...
...click for the bigger version...
The amazing thing was that the kite was (an educated guess) at least 200 or 300 meters up in the sky, almost invisible due to the haze. That in itself wasn't too amazing, it was quite windy that day, but he was flying the thing smack in the center of Beijing.
I was wondering what would happen if the kite would unexpectedly come down, with 300 meters of line draped over the city center...
The line...
...click for the bigger version...
He was very proud of the machine on his belly, needed to tell us how much he had paid for it, and was very happy to pose for a good shot.
There's one more album to come, with photos of those two days.
No, there were two more days. We just walked the center a bit, stumbled upon a big lake with lots of cafes and restaurants, wandered through little Russia, got cheated by a fortune teller and met this fellow, who was flying a kite, using the contraption on his belly.
Flying a kite over the center of Beijing......click for the bigger version...
The amazing thing was that the kite was (an educated guess) at least 200 or 300 meters up in the sky, almost invisible due to the haze. That in itself wasn't too amazing, it was quite windy that day, but he was flying the thing smack in the center of Beijing.
I was wondering what would happen if the kite would unexpectedly come down, with 300 meters of line draped over the city center...
The line......click for the bigger version...
He was very proud of the machine on his belly, needed to tell us how much he had paid for it, and was very happy to pose for a good shot.
There's one more album to come, with photos of those two days.
Tuesday, July 21, 2009
Beijing album VI - The Great Wall
The Great Wall... was a great day. Nice sunny weather, apart from the omnipresent dust in the air, which makes the views very hazy. I insisted on going a bit later in the day, because the light is much nicer in the afternoon, especially around 4 or 5. That worked out pretty well.Take a look here at some 28 photos...
Visitors from China will have trouble with these albums, since the used domain is blocked there. They can click here, but will have to click around more to get to the bigger versions of the photos.
Monday, July 6, 2009
Cambodia album IV - Angkor Wat
And the last album of Cambodia finished. Click here to view this album, most about Angkor Wat, a huge temple near Siem Reap, and one of the reasons Siem Reap is so popular amongst tourists.
One day of the whole trip is actually missing, the 25th of December. I was down that day with food poisoning. The steak was most likely too raw... tasted fine, but a few hours later I was oozing from all openings. Took me a day to recover, so the 25th is missing.
Click here for the album index.
Sunday, July 5, 2009
Siem Reap Cambodia, album III
And the third album of Cambodia finished. Click here to view the album of the third day.
Making all these albums turned out to take more time than I thought, but I'm almost done now. There's one more coming about Cambodia, and then I'll finish up China, the Great Wall album. After that some smaller ones of Borneo, Sarawak - Kuching and Kampung Budaya.
Next trip early August will be Phnom Penh, Cambodia. I know most people voted for Tokyo, but besides very expensive it can also be 40 degrees there in August. I decided to postpone that one, possibly to early next year, cause I don't want to rush a visit to Tokyo and limit it to only a few days, nor do I want to sweat through it like a pig.
Click here for the album index.
Thursday, July 2, 2009
Siem Reap Cambodia, album II
And here's the second album of Cambodia. Wednesday, July 1, 2009
Siem Reap Cambodia, album I
And here's the first of Cambodia. This was a trip in 2006, but I didn't get around earlier to turn them into something proper. I've published these photos before, but they're resized, I made a better selection and did some more thorough post production on some.
Click here to view the album of the first day.
Click here for the index.
Tuesday, June 23, 2009
Sri Aman, album
Aaaah, finally, way too late, but here it is, all the photos (35) of the festival in Sri Aman in 2008.Friday, June 19, 2009
Tha Professional
Yes! Finally something went right online.
Took them long enough, almost three weeks and an extra email, but I'm now officially a Canon Professional, hahaha, whatever that means... and I've got a neat little plastic card with my name on it to prove it!
It does mean I won't be standing in line at their counter when I go for the sensor cleaning (although you could say I've been standing in line for 3 weeks), no sir, champagne and caviar, whilst they sweat on my camera, somewhere soon now I hope...
Took them long enough, almost three weeks and an extra email, but I'm now officially a Canon Professional, hahaha, whatever that means... and I've got a neat little plastic card with my name on it to prove it!
It does mean I won't be standing in line at their counter when I go for the sensor cleaning (although you could say I've been standing in line for 3 weeks), no sir, champagne and caviar, whilst they sweat on my camera, somewhere soon now I hope...
Saturday, June 13, 2009
Sri Aman
Sri Aman is a small village in Sarawak (which is a state of Malaysia on Borneo).
Sri Aman is really the embodiment of 'the middle of nowhere' and probably one of the most remote places I’ve ever been to. It reminded me a bit of my own home town. It’s small and there’s nothing to do. No cinema, no clubs, nothing to do for young people besides hang out at the KFC, the one 'foreign' establishment I could detect there.
School and church, temple and mosque... smack in the middle of the state, surrounded by green.
The difference with the place I was born in is that that village is close to a big city. Not Sri Aman. It’s about three hours drive from Kuching, the capital of Sarawak.
Not really an option when you’re in your teens and growing up in Sri Aman.
I was invited to Sri Aman by Erick in February 2008, who’s born there, and he and his family were visiting relatives who still live there. They also went back to Sri Aman to witness and celebrate the last day of the Chinese New Year festivities, 14 days after the start of it - that was the year of the Rat.
Sri Aman is small and remote, but the end of the Chinese new year is not going by unnoticed. There’s a huge festival going on (relatively speaking) and it’s a bit of a strange one. It’s a mix of nature religion, tradition and fancy fair and somewhat hard to describe. The religious aspect is about several gods, who come down on that evening to possess a few selected people. These people are then carried through the streets in the evening in a big parade, stopping at every Chinese shop to ‘bless’ it. For prosperity in the new year and all that.
Now, to an outsider the whole parade seems a bit ridiculous: cute, but not to be taken too seriously. But when you observe it, you quickly notice this isn’t taken lightly. The beliefs are strong and there’s utmost respect for the people being 'possessed' and carried around. This whole process also involves self mutilation and 'torture' devices like seats with spikes, and pins being stuck through flesh. You can see that on some of the pictures I took (although close study of some of the photos do show some 'cheating', I'm not fully sure how far they take this).
And to top it all off there was professional fireworks going on at the end of the ceremony that lasted for so long that it almost became boring. Usually fireworks of that magnitude don’t last for longer than 10 or 15 minutes. This one must have lasted for more than half an hour. Never ever I would have thought that I would experience the longest fireworks I ever saw in such a small place in the middle of Borneo.
Pictures were all shot with my 35mm lens, without flash. I make it somewhat of a point not to use flash in the evening. Besides the fact I hardly know how to use flash properly – flash photography basically is a study in its own - I like the pics better without. Of course the hit rate goes down quickly without flash. The percentage of blurry shots was quite high - it’s impossible to freeze action without flash and with the resulting slow shutter times - but I managed to make a few ok ones nevertheless...
Also quite clear on some of the pictures is that they’re not really used to tourists in Sri Aman. The curious looks I got are also quite visible on some of the pics and espcially kids seem to love to make the V-sign as soon as they spot a camera (much similar to kids in Cambodia, who did the same).
Here's a few photos. Click on them for the full album.
Sri Aman is really the embodiment of 'the middle of nowhere' and probably one of the most remote places I’ve ever been to. It reminded me a bit of my own home town. It’s small and there’s nothing to do. No cinema, no clubs, nothing to do for young people besides hang out at the KFC, the one 'foreign' establishment I could detect there.
School and church, temple and mosque... smack in the middle of the state, surrounded by green.
The difference with the place I was born in is that that village is close to a big city. Not Sri Aman. It’s about three hours drive from Kuching, the capital of Sarawak.
Not really an option when you’re in your teens and growing up in Sri Aman.
I was invited to Sri Aman by Erick in February 2008, who’s born there, and he and his family were visiting relatives who still live there. They also went back to Sri Aman to witness and celebrate the last day of the Chinese New Year festivities, 14 days after the start of it - that was the year of the Rat.
Sri Aman is small and remote, but the end of the Chinese new year is not going by unnoticed. There’s a huge festival going on (relatively speaking) and it’s a bit of a strange one. It’s a mix of nature religion, tradition and fancy fair and somewhat hard to describe. The religious aspect is about several gods, who come down on that evening to possess a few selected people. These people are then carried through the streets in the evening in a big parade, stopping at every Chinese shop to ‘bless’ it. For prosperity in the new year and all that.
Now, to an outsider the whole parade seems a bit ridiculous: cute, but not to be taken too seriously. But when you observe it, you quickly notice this isn’t taken lightly. The beliefs are strong and there’s utmost respect for the people being 'possessed' and carried around. This whole process also involves self mutilation and 'torture' devices like seats with spikes, and pins being stuck through flesh. You can see that on some of the pictures I took (although close study of some of the photos do show some 'cheating', I'm not fully sure how far they take this).
And to top it all off there was professional fireworks going on at the end of the ceremony that lasted for so long that it almost became boring. Usually fireworks of that magnitude don’t last for longer than 10 or 15 minutes. This one must have lasted for more than half an hour. Never ever I would have thought that I would experience the longest fireworks I ever saw in such a small place in the middle of Borneo.
Pictures were all shot with my 35mm lens, without flash. I make it somewhat of a point not to use flash in the evening. Besides the fact I hardly know how to use flash properly – flash photography basically is a study in its own - I like the pics better without. Of course the hit rate goes down quickly without flash. The percentage of blurry shots was quite high - it’s impossible to freeze action without flash and with the resulting slow shutter times - but I managed to make a few ok ones nevertheless...
Also quite clear on some of the pictures is that they’re not really used to tourists in Sri Aman. The curious looks I got are also quite visible on some of the pics and espcially kids seem to love to make the V-sign as soon as they spot a camera (much similar to kids in Cambodia, who did the same).
Here's a few photos. Click on them for the full album.
Thursday, June 4, 2009
Beijing album V - Summer Palace
Well, the shortest album so far.I didn't have a good day. I was a bit moody and tired and it shows in the pictures. There's only one really good shot that day, and that wasn't even in the Summer Palace, but at the KFC in Beijing, of all places.
The Summer Palace was just too big. Another really 'hot' tourist spot, with too many people standing in front of everything.
It's like they do it on purpose. You point your lens and poof, there's someone in front of it... At some objects they're even queueing!
Truly, I never fully understood the desire to stand in front of an object and have your picture taken. It has something to do with showing off I suppose 'look, I was there'. But just taking the picture also proves that you were there. You don't need to have your face in it, unless people you show it to won't believe you were the one who actually took the picture? But how likely is that?
This attitude needs to change, I will campaign for it! Photographers of the world unite!
Ok, I'm done campaigning... my sensor isn't cleaned yet, so who cares anyway...
Thus, hardly any good shots, and the few that potentially were, got spoiled by people or strange objects sitting in the way (like support bars for trees etc).
But in the end it was simply me having a bad day...
Click here to view the 10 photos of this album.
For the complete index of all the albums, click here.
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