Shy
Kyrgyzstan 2013, a small village on the shores of Issyk Kul Lake
Torie and I relaxed after a day of shooting by going out before dinner and before breakfast to shoot some ‘local color’. You could call us photo optimists…Ha! (as Torie often writes) Torie has the sense of direction of a stone and she relies on me to be the guide. I rely on her keen powers of observation.
This sweet fellow was standing outside his home. He’d never seen two women like us, loaded with camera gear and speaking a strange language. When I pointed my lens at him, he hid his face but not enough so that he couldn’t see what we would do next. The sunlight was perfect and in the original he is bathed in a golden light. I changed to black and white because his clothing reminded me of clothes boys wore back in the 40’s.
Portrait of a Kyrgyz Boy
This boy didn’t seem to be shy. He didn’t come out to see us. It was cold, ready to snow and he was in his warm living room. Apparently the television was broken and he was watching Torie and me as we tried to get some shots of a Kyrgyz cemetery. Cemeteries are filled with mausoleums that look like miniature mosques. Being infidels, we weren’t allowed to enter and we shouldn’t have taken any photos as the locals considered it desecration.
I shot this portrait from across the road and further. I couldn’t believe how sharp the boy’s face is. Although here it looks fuzzy, it isn’t. After making this black and white…just to keep the theme going, I brought back the blue color of the window trim. It didn’t work, so I deleted that. I wanted to show the blue color because our guide told us the reason everyone’s house was painted blue or had blue trim was that in communist times, blue was the only color the paint store had. Luckily, it was a pretty blue…the color of this park bench.
Want to visit Kyrgyzstan? Contact Penelope at www.uzbekjourneys.com She is an expert on travel in Central Asia.