Why ?

 

Son:         “Father…what do they call a person

                 who speaks three languages ?”
Father:     “Ah, well, you say tri-lingual.”
Son:         “…and what about a person
                who speaks two languages ?”
Father:     “You would call him bi-lingual.”
Son:         “…and how about if they speak
                one language ?”
Father:    “Ah, well, that’s easy…
                …that’s an American.”

                        -    South American Joke

There was a time, and it’s still true in many places around the world, when a person lived their entire life within 20 miles of the place where they were born.  Of course, especially in agrarian times, we didn’t have the means, the need, or the time, to travel far.  Now, for many of us, things are different.  Many have the time and the money for a little vacation travel, and of course, there are those of us who travel for work, often far and wide. 

Travel is a means of learning about the world.  As I wrote in “Culture”, quoting Maya Angelou, as she quoted Terentius, “I am a human being: nothing human can be alien to me.”  It’s not just languages, or even culture in general...everything we learn is important.

I think it matters.   All of it.

(http://writtenpost.blogspot.com/2011/05/culture.html)

 

“Homo sum: humani nil

a me alienum puto ”
                           -     Terentius

Photo by Doug Maclam

This is my friend Hugo, and his mom. 

Wet met on the Mutianyu Great Wall, near Beijing. 

Hugo heard us speaking English. 

He stepped up and said "Hello". 

I think Hugo would understand

what Terentius was getting at.

                                          - m

                        

 

People / People...

Photos need people in them.
For perspective, for scale,
to show how a place is popular,
and the kind of people who visit there.

(These are all from Toledo, Spain on a very hot 12-July-2015)

But unfortunately for me, I am often taking photos alone.  Or if family are with me, they stay well behind and out of the way of my lens.  So, I have to "borrow" other people.

Occasionally, you luck out and catch a tourist cooling her feet in a fountain (I prefer folks who's faces are not recognizable, so they don't object if I post them...)

What would this street scene look like without the couple walking...
...or this one without the girls ? 
                ...Would just be empty streets.

 

Ok, ok, I admit it...sometimes, it's "just about the girl"...

        (Hey, I'm a guy...whatayagonnado ?)

These are examples of one of my favorite subjects...

..."taking photos of people taking photos"...

This one has a "selfie-stick" to hold her cell phone while she gets a photo of herself and the very high church tower behind her.  She struck the same pose and took several photos, likely trying to get the tower fully in frame.

This young lady had an entirely different approach.  She lay down directly on the cobblestone plaza to get a sharp upward angle on the tower (fortunately, the square wasn't crowded, so nobody tripped over her).

As I look at the two shots I got, in quick succession before she got up off the (very) hot pavement, I see that the first looks better to me.  I was actually trying in the second to catch her without the person on the left being in the frame.  But looking now, this photo of a person looks better to me with the perspective of the (parts) of the other people in the photo.

 

Another try at framing the high tower.  This time, trying to get her little brother in the frame.  Nice set up, but I was certain he'd fall off that ball at any moment. 

So, is it: 
(A) a photo of "people taking photos"...or
(B) "a photo of a girl", or
(C) "an attempt by me to catch a photo of a kid breaking his ankle". 
Answer: All 3 !

And then, as I was taking reflection photos of the same high tower, a young lady decided to go wading in the reflection pool.  The ripples she stirred up disrupted my reflection shot of the tower, but I like the one I got of her.

Here, in a totally different form of "selfie", is me...
... (in my "Indiana Jones" keep-the-sun-off-me hat).
(Entrance to the Jewish Quarter, Toledo)

This is the high church tower we were all trying to shoot.
(Santa Iglesia Catedral Primada de Toledo, Spain)


More Toledo later,
-Mark W. Laughlin