Textiles and Bicycles

In 2003 I backpacked through India and Nepal for 6 months with 2 fantastic friends. I like to think of myself as a bit of a photographer, having studied black and white darkroom photography, gone to portfolio reviews and all that. But in reality I’m not much of one–or I’m a painfully slow one. Since it took me 5 years to have these slides printed. I’m actually going back to India for a cousin’s wedding in a couple of weeks, so these photos have really re-excited me. While they have nothing to do with knitting, I do think that having a knitting blog has brought back my photography obsession. I’m going to have to get into the self-portraiture thing for my FOs from now on. In that spirit, I thought I would share some photos I’m proud of:

Boys in Kanya Kumari–the southernmost tip of India where the Arabian Sea, Indian Ocean and the Bay of Bengal meet.

A soldier at the India/Pakistan border, just north of Amritsar in the state of Punjab.

Chained elephants for a New Year’s celebration in Cochin.

A lone sadhu in Hampi (in Karnataka), which is a hippie-filled, but magical UNESCO site.

Autorickshaws–a major mode of transport in much of Asia and the topic of my master’s thesis. Ugh.

Damn gloves. Didn’t help too much. It was like 11 degrees today…or something. But it was sunny and I wanted to take my film camera out and test some different aperture settings…it’s been a while and I have to refresh my memory on all the photography basics since one thing I’m vowing to do before a much needed trip to New Delhi (for a cousin’s wedding) and then Italy (yay!!) in a few weeks is to get my new Crown Graphic 4×5 camera up and running. Which means I need to remember how manual settings work. Which is also how I think truly beautiful photographs are crafted–with direct and clear intent. I guess often it’s just luck…but maybe that’s what separates photographers from everyone else. Someday I’d like to actually be at least almost a photographer.

Anyway, today’s bitter cold was an excellent reason to take my newly completely completed best friend cardigan (and aspen hat) out for a spin. And did she perform. I stayed relatively warm, and with the seams finally looking good, I love her!

But not enough to smile when it’s this goddamn cold out.