I made a big stink about this photographer today on facebook, about this. If you read part of the descriptions about one of pictures [of a man selling shoes on the street], this is what he writes:

"He originally was working in harsh sunlight. I asked him, through the guide, if he would mind setting up a few feet away in the shade. This change greatly enhanced the image quality so I could portray the details of the man’s face, in his hand actions and in his shoes."

Really? You asked him to 'move' his 'shop', so you could take a better picture? I just wrote a whole post on how I feel about pictures like this - to keep it short, I feel it's exploitative, opportunistic, and if you are making money as a result of the pictures (directly or indirectly), I feel you need to do something to give back to the person, or the place. Do something (as little as can be done) to make the persons life a little bit better. You can read more about it here.

So, then you may ask, why am I posting this picture? Well, my conscious is clear for two reasons - one of the reasons being that the kid told me to take the picture. This is just outside Ahsan Manjil, where a lot of vendors (mostly kids) sell a lot of stuff. It was pretty crowded, but with my massive dslr, I guess I stood out. He asked me to take the picture, saying that he wanted to make a pose. Then he asked me if he could get the picture. I showed him the picture right away, and he seemed pretty elated. He said he is there every friday, so if I ever came back, to please bring the picture. I felt bad, because I knew there was no way I could get the picture to him, being unprepared as I was, and I was not going back there this visit. I was thinking about it recently when I processed the picture about two weeks ago - it dawned on me that I can send it to my aunt (and I did), who then on my request printed it out and went there to give it the boy. My aunt said that he was ecstatic. I didn't really improve his life by much, but I left him happy, I believe, which is good enough for me. If all these bigshot photographers would do just that much, I would be happy.

A Drive through Switzerland

A drive through Switzerland is everything that I thought it would be. Mountains, lakes and the requisite chocolate stops makes this one of the more memorable road trips in Europe.

Cliché

Aside from the pristine beaches, there is another side of Jamaica landscape that I noticed when I ventured out from the sheltered resort area. When you venture inland, there is a plethora of other scenery that is very different than the tourism posters of Jamaica. I happened to walk off the hotel property, and stumbled upon the edge of golf course which was not really part of it, but still was very well taken care of. Either way, anybody would be more than ecstatic to have it as their backyard.

On a different note, I wanted to mention something about photographic cliches. Photographic cliches are images that are created with motifs that are very common, such as sunrise/sunset beaches, mountaineous landscapes, rocks in water, autumn leaves, white fences - and lone trees. I've probably rattled off about 70% of the recent pictures you've seen on the web (and possibly on my blog). The truth is that in the current digital age, and the easy access to camera equipment/technology, its pretty hard to be original, especially for amateurs like myself. All this is a little depressing unless you're a creative genius, and so the philosophy has to change. So if you're not going to create the next original masterpiece, then I guess the thing to take note off is whether you're having fun, and whether you believe in what you created (or are creating) - IMHO, its all worthwhile as long as that requirement is met. Also, I strongly believe that once you are having fun and believe in what you're doing, you will end up creating that masterpiece at some point. Yes, the lone tree motif has been done many times before, but I'm fairly confident its not that rampant in landscapes of Jamaica (I hope). This is my thought process in the ever changing, saturated world of photography of today. What is your approach?