Why I Didn't Take More Photos in Libya

I thought I'd take loads. The fact is, I don't really like the whole street candid thing, I've decided. It's overrated, and potentially a bit creepy. So you ask people if you can take their photo, and they stand up straight and put on a phoney grin. Or look offended and say no. And taking photos of women here could be seriously bad for your health.

Instead, I've taught myself B&W dev, bought and learned to use a rangefinder, and bought a Sporti for low fi.

And I've spent a lot of time on Flickr, looking and asking questions. Lots more time thinking about photography. A read of this blog would tell you that.

One of the reasons for not taking so many photos here is, it's not my culture. Any you need to know a culture to know when to take photos, and to get yourself into situations when it's good to take them. I could never do that here, and would constantly risk cultural blunders.

So that's the next step, get into situations when it's acceptable to take photos, welcomed even, and bend those situations to getting good photos. I've got the cameras and the technology now. The rest is person skills.

I've tidied up my photos on Flickr. I've also joined a couple of rather arty groups. The night on earth pool, and, to get ideas for overt use of flash, the wonderfully artfaggy pretentious !Flash! *POP* [ART] Pool. Neither of them have much in the way of discussion, but the some of the photos are attempting to do what I want to attempt to do.

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