Posts Tagged ‘photos’

Posted on January 6, 2010

Some photography sites

We plan to publish a photo journal of our travels soon (as soon as we finish debating which photos to include). We’ll probably use Shutterfly or Blurb. I hope to do the same for many of my friends (Gord and Michelle, you’re next).

Lately, I’ve been inspired by some stunning photography. Here are some web sites and resources that I have recently found…

Photo.Circle (http://www.photocircle.com.np/) – a platform for emerging and professional photographers that promotes visual storytelling.

Chobi Mela (http://www.chobimela.org/) – International Festival of Photography

Postcards from Manila (http://www.postcardsfrommanila.com/) – Stalking the most beautiful places in the Philippines.

Nepalphotography.org (http://www.nepalphotography.org/) – a club for Nepali photography enthusiasts, which publishes an online magazine and aims to promote the art of photography.

Posted on June 2, 2009

The Commons on Flickr

The amount and diversity of riveting photo collections on the world wide web continues to impress me.

The Commons on Flickr shows you hidden treasures in the world’s public photography archives. You’re invited to help describe the photographs you discover by adding tags or leaving comments.

The key goals of The Commons on Flickr are to firstly show you hidden treasures in the world’s public photography archives, and secondly to show how your input and knowledge can help make these collections even richer.

Little Champlain Street, Quebec City, QC, about 1890 – Musée McCord Museum

I remember hearing about Flickr’s Commons project early last year. I think it is an innovative initiative that harnesses the power of online social collaboration. I do wonder though how they manage the feedback as the tags are a little chaotic for my taste. The praise feedback which often evolves into social dialogue was interesting to see as viewers can converse with the owners of the photos. The Egypt: Gizeh photo below had 181 comments at the time of this post.

There are several comments that were informative but most of them were simple praises (wow, oh nice shot!), flickr group invitations, and self-promos by other flickr users. While browsing the collection and feedback, I kind of felt like I was mingling at a party and overhearing dozens of conversations, scanning them and deciding to whether or not interject with my two cents. Most of the time, if I see a photo with intoxicating topics and conversations, I move on.

Finally, the search capabilities (basic search) are typical Flickr but decent. The advanced search for the Commons however, doesn’t seem to exist (it searches all photos rather than the Commons set after executing a search).

Overall, it is well done and I look forward to hearing more about how the initiative progresses.

Posted on May 28, 2009

Room to Read site visit – Nepal

Last April, I attended a day long Room to Read site visit in the Dhading district of Nepal (about an hour from Kathmandu). We visited two successful Room to Read funded schools where we explored their libraries, chatted with the library teachers, and even visited a computer laboratory room (filled with brand new computers) where we also met a young student who came to school on a school-holiday just to use the facilities. It was awe-inspiring to see (what kid does that back home?) and absolutely wonderful to see a Room to Read project in person.

If you are in town in a country that has Room to Read projects, touch base with Room to Read’s Site Visit program and see if there are any available site visits that fit your schedule – it is definitely worth it.

Here are some photos as well as detailed captions from our site visit.

Posted on April 8, 2009

Roaming Chitwan

A weekend swimming with the elephants, a freaky encounter with a wild crocodile, Tharu culture and dance, and the familiar  joys of hanging out with my Nepali-Filipino family were just some of the highlights of our brief Chitwan escape from Kathmandu. It was a much needed break for both Tlell and I and we managed to pack in a lot in 3 days (even a Nepali wedding which hosted 2,500 people – the biggest wedding ever seen in the region).

Chitwan National Park is a phenomenal place, a whole different world that is practically tucked away from civilization and where you can see elements of lush tropical areas blending in with vast grasslands and snake-lake rivers that goes on for miles.

Thanks to Henry from International Adventures Treks & Expeditions for smoothly organizing our trip, Gaida Wildlife Camp for our in-park living experience and elephant encounter, and finally Hotel Parkside for their generous accomodations amd kind Nepali guide Ragu.

Oh  right, here is a virtual guide of our trip courtesy of Tlell.

Posted on December 21, 2008

My Village Stay – Day 6

Our day off. No language class, just hanging out with the volunteers and taking lots of photos. We also spent the day around town and planning for our community project. Here are some photos from our day…