2015
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Stranger No. 16
This is Murgan. Technically, he shouldn’t be a part of this project as he is one of the many people who asked me to take his photo, rather than the other way around.  The idea of the project is to approach strangers and ask them to shoot their portrait.  But I thought it was such a great photo.
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Strangers Nos. 14 and 15
Arais and Veerrappam were sitting exactly as you see them here, as I walked by with my camera, and thought it was the perfect photo. Â It was about 0830 am on a Sunday, and I assume this is their shop they are sitting in front of, getting ready to open. Â We had a brief chat
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Stranger No. 13
If you have been following along up to this point, you may have noticed that so far all of the “strangers” on this site have been male. Part of this project is getting the courage to start a conversation with a stranger on the street and ask to take their picture. For a foreign male
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Stranger No. 12
Andanan (spelling) was sitting on the floor of what you might consider a garage, with piles of bundles of banana leaves behind him. He was taking them, one leaf at a time, and cutting them into pieces about 18 inches long, and throwing the unusable parts away. In India (Tamil Nadu, anyway), it is traditional
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Stranger No. 11
Stranger No. 11 is Abdul Ghafar. Â I actually didn’t ask his permission before shooting – I saw him across the way, and he was so engrossed in his work, and the light was perfect, so I started taking shots nonstop. Â I went over afterward to make a point of introducing myself because I specifically wanted
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Stranger No. 10
Pandiyan was also in the market. Quiet and pensive, he didn’t mind me zooming all the way in close. When I showed him his picture, he so much appreciated it that he broke off a sprig of cedar he was selling and gave it to me. I like how his eyes shine on the close-up
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Stranger No. 9
I met Salokmar at the flower market in George Town. He was somewhat reserved, so we didn’t chat much – maybe it was the fact that it was still before 7 am – but he didn’t object to my taking his picture. The flower market makes a great place for photography, with the brightly colored
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Stranger No. 8
I stopped to chat with Vasanth and almost got separated from my group. Venkath and a partner are in the bottled water delivery business (see his truck behind him). He gave me a card for his business, “Done Marketing” Packaged Drinking Water Supply, we chatted for a few moments, and we were both on our
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Stranger No. 7
This is Akash, who caught my eye because he seemed to be very proud of his bicycle. So instead of the usual close-up portrait, I decided to take a wider angle shot showing the object of his pride. At the time, I thought the photo had come out better than it had – but it
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Strangers Nos. 5 and 6
Apu and Siva were on their way somewhere when they spotted about a dozen folks with cameras heading toward them, snapping photos in all directions as they moved. They asked several folks to snap their photo, and given that they were in a photographic mood, I approached them and asked to snap their portrait. They
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Stranger No. 4
This morning, I went for a walk in Chintadripet, a suburb in central Chennai, and met a smiling Mohammed, the proprietor at Chandrika Fast Foods, getting ready for the breakfast crowd. I asked him if I could take his photo exactly where he was sitting, as he looked very much at ease; we had a
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Stranger No. 3
Stranger number three spoke virtually no English, but he saw my camera and insisted on having his photo taken. Â We don’t know his name, but he lives in the semi-informal community along the canal in R.A. Puram, Chennai. Â With any luck, I’ll bring him a copy of his portrait and learn his name at that
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Stranger No. 2
Meet Apu, who wouldn’t say a word but took his lead from the younger Ashok (stranger #1). along with a third friend, he he was helping open shop at a roadside grill on Greenways Road in Chennai.
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Stranger No. 1
I’ve finally kicked off my “100 Strangers” project, and am rushing to catch up with my fellow photogs in this venture. The idea behind the project is to explain what you’re doing, get to know your subject, and work with them to get their best pose. On this, my first stranger (and on the
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Remembering Sierra Leone
Today Sierra Leone was officially declared “Ebola-free”, having successfully gone 42 days (two incubation periods) without a new case of Ebola. Â In neighboring Guinea, where the disease outbreak began, health workers continue to struggle for its eradication, working to save patients only a few miles from Sierra Leone’s border. When I was in Sierra Leone
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Rediscovering America: Oregon
The last four years have been given us amazing travel opportunities.  The world is full of interesting things to see; wonderful people to meet and get to know; and of course this all translates to great video and photo opportunities. Not only have we been able to experience the vast deserts, wilderness and wildlife of Namibia, but
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Washington, DC by Night
Washington, D.C. is an interesting place to photograph, but it goes without saying that it’s completely different from the photography environment we had gotten accustomed to in India. A couple of weeks ago we became aware that there was going to be a “supermoon” – a larger (closer) than normal full moon, and via Meetup.com
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Stars over Shenandoah
It’s Labor Day weekend in the Shenandoah Valley and it’s  packed with tourists escaping to the country to enjoy the fresh air, nature and sunshine.  I wonder how many of them noticed the night sky? I used a low ISO to cut down on “noise” – but this means a 30 second exposure.  The
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Found Film: Kodak Hawkeye Instamatic II
I ordered one of these for a few bucks on eBay because it combined two things I like:  old cameras and found film – i.e. an undeveloped 126 cartridge was  still inside the camera, according to the seller. The Hawkeye Instamatic II was one of many “instamatic” cameras sold by Kodak in the 1960s and 1970s.
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Final Chennai Photowalk
I’ve been out of India for over three weeks now, but wanted to finish sharing our experiences of our last few weeks in India before closing out that wonderful chapter in our lives, as documented in the TAZM Pictures blog. We have been doing photowalks for the last couple of years, and would often return to
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The Chennai Photowalk
One of the best things about Chennai, for us, was the “photowalks.” Â A photowalk is basically just walking around with a camera and seeing what you can photograph. Â Often these walks are in groups. Â I discovered photowalks in Chennai, though they happen all over the world – and there is even such a thing as
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Langkawi: the Jewel of Kedah
As our departure from India loomed closer, thoughts turned to all of the wonderful places in India we hadn’t yet managed to visit. India is so vast and diverse. We thought two years would be plenty of time to see all of the things that needed seeing. On the calendar, a few weekends that offered themselves
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Found Film: My Very First Camera
What was your first camera?  Mine wasn’t the one pictured above, but it was close:  A Kodak Instamatic X-15 like the one pictured below. This camera was manufactured between 1970 and 1976.  I got mine toward the end of that period, when I would have been 8 or 9 years old.  But mine is somewhere in
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Birdwatching from the Hotel Pool
One of the highlights from our recent trip to Jaipur was the beautiful hotel pool. Â On our last day there, fed up with the heat, waiting for an evening flight, we arranged for a late checkout and decided to spend the morning lounging by the pool. Â After reading a bit, I noticed a couple of
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Vintage Camera Test: Brownie Reflex Synchro Model
The Brownie Reflex Synchro Model was made between 1941 and 1952 in the US, and until 1960 in the UK, and closely followed the (non-synchro) Brownie Reflex. It was called a “Reflex” because, like most SLR (single lens reflex) cameras still in use today, it used a mirror to reflect the image from the lens