Nonong and Citi

Today I decided to ride up the hill again, to see if I could find Agglien, whom I blipped on the 7th Feb and she also signed up. I was hoping to help her get started and maybe arrange a safari. Unfortunately, Aggy was not at the store, so I will try another day.

I continued on up the hill, thinking about a scenery blip, but I guess 'seeing' scenery blips is a skill that I do not possess as yet, also the auto exposure on this camera just ruins the scenery shots with over exposure and I cannot find a way to control it. Scenery shots really need to be viewed large too, which I cannot offer with this brick.

On the way back, I spotted these two young ladies who waved to me as I rode past. This blip opportunity looked far more interesting than a scenic shot, so I turned around and introduced myself. Introducing Nonong and Citi, two delightful young ladies who were happy to help me out of my blipping dilemma.

I fired off several shots but I was not getting what I wanted. People seem to have a preconceived idea of their best photographic image that they want to present and generally speaking it is far from their best. First I try the silent shoot, but all you get is a false weak grin. Next I introduce some conversation, this relaxes the subject but you get all kinds of unusual expressions as they talk and you have to shoot a large number of images in the hope of finding something suitable. With two subjects, the chances of catching them both in a good pose is very unlikely.

My last resort and my favorite trick of all, is the eyebrow thing that I used in this blip. I setup the frame, then slowly lift my head up from the camera, when they start to look confused, I move my eyebrows up and down independently, it hardly ever fails . Mom cracked up completely and as for Citi, well I am sure you can read her thoughts. It took me about a year of five minutes a day to master the eyebrow thing, but I did not have photography in mind when I was training. What a bonus.

I really enjoyed meeting Nonong and Citi, charming and friendly people. I thanked them for their time and indulgence and rushed back home to see what I had captured and was not disappointed.

I started writing the Bandung story, but it is difficult to know what to write as each experience is linked to another, so I decided to write it all down and edit later. Already I have three pages down and am far from done, so I guess I will put it out in installments. Already today I have written too much, so it will have to wait until another day.

Dave