Author: Tom (Admin)
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Indian Entrepreneur: Kolam Maker
A successful entrepreneur is someone who offers a solution to a problem. Â Far too often, I spot people weaving in and out of traffic on foot, trying to sell motorists one type of useless knickknack or another: Â long, twisty balloons, feather dusters, national flags, wire/bead animals. Â But we found a guy in Pondicherry who has…
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The Dune Eco Beach Hotel
We stayed at a wonderful, somewhat funky beach resort north of Pondicherry – “The Dune” Eco Beach Hotel. It’s an eco-friendly hotel/resort consisting of a bunch of different huts and houses scattered over 35 acres of lush landscaping. In addition to efforts to be “eco-friendly”, they are also art-friendly, playing host to a crafts and…
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Pondicherry: First Impressions
Although it has been correctly known as “Puducherry” since 2006, even the tourist brochures continue to refer to this southern Indian city as Pondicherry. Formerly the nucleus of “French India” – the French controlled this area for 280 years – the city and the region around it formally joined the rest of independent (in 1947)…
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It’s a Long, Long, Way to Pondicherry
For the first time, we left our 7 or so million neighbors in Chennai and decided to head out of town. South, along the “ECR” or Eastern Coastal Road. Which can be a harrowing experience. I just kept reminding myself that our driver has been doing this for a long, long time – he’s about…
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Getting Better at Black and White
I love my Kodak Monitor 620 – this camera from the 1940s has taken a bit of time to master – especially since I’m new to film / analog photography anyway – but I’m finally getting quality images out of it. Just wanted to share: I’m amazed at the detail you can get from medium…
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More Found Film
I posted yesterday about “found film” – exposed film found in old cameras. If you’re also intrigued and interested in seeing other “found film,” you can check out the following websites: – Westfordcomp.com – a no-frills website listing “found film” – along with bunches of snarky comments – Nerd’s World – a growing collection of…
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Six-16 Brownie Special with Found Film?
I’ve mentioned it before, and I still can’t tell you why: I like taking old rolls of film I come across, and getting them developed to see what secrets they hold. It costs much more than modern film, and probably half the time there are no pictures to be salvaged. People think it’s weird –…
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Vintage Cameras: Zeiss Ikon Ikonta 35
I was reminded today that I have a long way to go in building my vintage camera collection – the world record holder, who lives nearby in Mumbai, has a collection of 4,425. At least, he did when this article was published. The thing about my (much smaller) collection is, however, that I try…
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Chennai Fish Market
Living on the coast has its benefits – fresh fish! Unfortunately, when it all gets gathered in one place, the smell of fish becomes so strong that I quickly lose interest in actually eating any. But it’s good to know it’s there and suggests that what’s being sold in the shops is likely also pretty…
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Chennai: at the Beach
Today’s post is a bit more depressing than most. People in Chennai will proudly tell you Chennai’s “Marina Beach” (also often spelled “Merina”) is the longest beach in the world, or the second longest. I was skeptical, but found that in actuality the beach is the world’s second largest URBAN beach, at 13 km in…
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St. Thomas Basilica or San Thome Church
I had the opportunity to take part in an event sponsored by local Ahmadiyya Muslims encouraging peace between religions, and I was impressed by the diversity of religions represented by the guests at the event. One of these guests represented there told me about San Thome Church in Chennai, so named because it is built…
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More Scenes from the Hood
Sharing some more general impressions from my neighborhood. I go walking around for 15 minutes and every time I come back and feel like I’m about to start reciting “And to Think that I saw it on Mulberry Street.” Today’s post is nowhere near as dramatic – but this is literally 15 minutes’ walking, and…
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Riding in a Rickshaw
This post is from the point of view of the auto rickshaw – or as I like to call it, “the scourge of the developing world’s road network.” OK so maybe that’s a bit over the top; but as exhibit A, I present the fact that in Mumbai, they have banned auto rickshaws from the…
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The Trouble With Black and White Photography
I enjoy looking at good black and white photographs. But maybe it’s just me – I find it extraordinarily difficult to create good black and white photographs. The problem is, we see in color. And I use color references to help me select and frame photographs before I press the shutter button. Then I get…
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R.A. Puram, Chennai in Photos 3
This is the second part of a post describing a 90 minute “photowalk” around my new neighborhood in Chennai, India. Everything you see is within a 500 meter radius. So continuing yesterday’s story, the main destination I’d had in mind when starting this walk was yet to come. The other day I had heard drums…
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R.A. Puram, Chennai in Photos 2
This morning I decided to take my camera for another jaunt around the neighborhood in what seems to be called a “photowalk”. So I discovered today. It wound up being kind of a crazy 90 minutes or so – I came home soaking wet (sweaty) carrying a bag of jasmine and my forehead covered in…
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Driving in Chennai: Timelapse
In time-lapse photography, it’s common to keep the camera pretty still and let the subject do the moving – or if at all, to move the camera very slowly. But it can also be fun to do a moving camera time-lapse, especially when you want to convey something about the sometimes frantic (at least to…
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Afghanistan: The Power of Photography
Free and open media are at the heart of maintaining a free and democratic state. This is especially applicable to photojournalism, due to the power of photographs to convey emotion and meaning often eluding other media forms. This was a key component of the thinking that led me, in 2009, to conceive of a photo…
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Impressions of Chennai: Protecting Buildings from the Evil Eye
There’s lots of construction underway in Chennai, and one thing the visitor notices early on is that larger construction sites tend to have a scarecrow-like dummy – clothing filled with straw, with a cloth head attached – strapped up somewhere prominent. If you look closer, you’ll also see a round yellow disc (in most cases),…
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R.A. Puram, Chennai in Photos
There’s something both scary and exciting when you get off a plane in a strange foreign country, knowing you’re going to spend the next two years of your life here, whether you like it or not. The first thing that hits you is the humidity. Then, all your bags collected, you head into town and…
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The Mars Reality Show Has Begun!
If you haven’t heard about the private-sector “Mars One” project to colonize Mars, you should check it out – I posted about it back in April. Â Â The project envisions being largely financed by the proceeds of a reality show to eventually beam back to Earth as the 7 billion of us who stay behind…
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Namibia: Skeleton Coast and Damaraland
Although we’ve just moved to India, waiting for our things to arrive means there’s time to finally catch up on those blog posts I didn’t have time to do while we were getting ready to leave Namibia. This is the final trip we took within Namibia, a country that is far too large to be…
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Chennai Snake Park
One of India’s few urban national parks sits in the center of Chennai. Guindy National Park, India’s 8th smallest national park, is also host to a snake park. The Chennai Snake Park Trust, founded in 1972 by American herpetologist Romulus Whitaker, is a fun place to spend a few hours and check out not only…
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Chennai: Early Impressions
Driving in Chennai can be a harrowing experience, especially for a newly-arrived foreigner. And it typically takes more than a month to get your Indian driver’s license. So when you first get here, you’re somewhat limited in your movement, and you really get a feel for how important mobility can be. It’s even worse when,…
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Southern SuburbIndia: Kolams and Cows
Every morning, all across southern India, millions of women wake up at sunrise to draw what’s known as a “kolam” at the entrance to their home. Â Kolams are geometric designs hand “drawn” by sprinkling rice flour (or in some cases other substances) on a freshly-swept and watered piece of pavement. Â I see them on my…