Day 2 - Tiffany

When I head back to Bangladesh I always have a stop over in Bangkok.  Like most international airports there are plenty of duty free shops with great displays to tempt us inside and make an 'unplanned' but very essential (not) purchase.

I started taking plenty of shots of all the different displays with an idea in mind, then I started to think of the vast amount money (compared to Bangladesh wages) that people have to walk in to buy, a Rolex watch or a Tiffany ring.

A good salary in Bangladesh might be $450 USD per month and guys save up for three months to buy a dream watch that costs $115 USD.

So my idea changed to how advertising changes us and came up with the image below to the right.

Tiffany, somethings not quite right?

So hopefully you saw that something is not quite right with the image above.

The image is actually a composite from the two images below.

Original Tiffany advertising display

She is a photographer and was using an iPhone to capture an image.

The thought process is that advertising can make us do things we perhaps were not planning to do. Like buying a new pair of red shoes. If we continue to make impulse buys then this will lead us down a path that could mean hard times when the telephone or power bill comes in or perhaps when you have to make the months mortgage payment.

• The reason why the shoes are changing red and the rest of the image is black and white is that advertising can change us bit by bit and slowly wears us down. It's not our fault. These guys go to uni right!
• The reason why the legs are the wrong way around (i hope you noticed) is that things can and do go wrong if you continually respond to the barrage of advertising that is all around us and impulse buy.

Well I never intended to get so deep and 'meaningful' its just what happened.

Until tomorrow.

Day 1 - Victor

While on the bus heading to Brisbane, and eventually back to Bangladesh I started to think about my Project 365 and the journey I am when I noticed an elderly gentleman sitting across from me.

I had noticed him getting on the bus from the aged care home and how well he was liked by the carers.

While sitting in the bus I noticed his hands and his walking stick. The hands had character earned from his experiences over his long life, and now a walking stick ensures he arrives at his new destination safely

I then started to wonder about His journey. Where he was from? What was his journey? and where he was going?

After a short time, I managed enough courage to go over and introduce myself and try and find out his story.

On my first attempt he must have thought I was a weirdo and he said he liked to "fly under the radar". So I politely said thank you and left him alone.

A few minutes later to my surprise, but delight he invited me back to share a small part of his story.

His name was Victor and he was born in 1923, he was 91 years old.  Victor had been a Lancaster bomber pilot in World War II. I guess he was around 20 years old when he had to pick out his crew of seven to eight and begin his 30 missions.

Victor was on his way to visit his son and daughter. I also though what a great job he is doing traveling alone at 91 and using an iPhone.

Well done Victor and thank you for sharing part of your story.

Victor, 91 years old

Until tomorrow.

Kodawari - the journey starts here:

How do you discover your creative style or develop your existing style further.

Read a couple of books, take an online course, talk to your style coach, take a magic pill. Who knows I certainly don't, not yet any way.

I am hoping that Project 365 will take me along the path to discovering and deepening what I want to tell you through my photographs.

Also with some help from you I hope to learn more about what you see and feel from looking at these images.

I do know I absolutely love taking photos and never want to be content with where I am creatively. 

For the next 365 days I will be posting a new picture every day with a description of why I took the image and what I was hoping to communicate to you, the viewer.

My friend in this journey "Kodawari" is my Fujifilm X100 which was the camera to have only just a few years ago.  While newer models have come out, I love that it has a fixed lens especially designed for its sensor. Who knows I might fall in love with style and upgrade to a Leica M240, my wife has been through this Leica 'Lust' a couple of times before and I am sure will just smile and hope I will stick with the X100.

Fujifilm X100, my friend along my Kodawari (journey) of  discovering my creative style. 

Feel free to drop me a line and ask what ever you want, and I will do my best to answer your question.

Until tomorrow.