Todays Work

Continuing to battle some illness but did some better work today I think. I got up late but still ended up shooting about 50 sheets. I photographed 8 people and did a few abstract tree type shots. I visited the temple where I made the young monk photo last year.

http://gerryyaum.blogspot.com/2011/03/young-monk.html

I talked the senior monk at the temple who gave me the young monks name and age, I will add this info to the title for the photograph in the future. I photographed this senior monk as well, he was sweeping up the grounds and has been in the monkhood for 21 years.

Later in the evening I also photographed 4 young Lao men 16-21 who were working in the river port area loading cardboard onto the back of a truck. I guess everyday they transport this cardboard to the Thai side of the river then load it on to trucks for recycling. I am not sure if the younger ones go to school yet, it did not seem so as they had workers hands, tough skin, covered with cuts, bruise and dirt.They also had nice friendly faces filled with youthful enthusiasm, I wonder what their futures hold? I think I made some good portraits their but do not want to jinx it, I hope I did them justice. I wish I could have spoken to them with a bit more depth, we had trouble communicating as they spoke little Thai and I speak even less : )

I did learn one important Lao language sentence from them, how to say "Can I take your photo please?"

In Thai its:

Koh Tye Roop Dai Mai Khup?

In Lao its:

Koh Tye Roop Dehh!

I need to learn more Laotian in the next seven days, everything I learn will help the photographs be better.

For you folks taking notes : ) if you want to say "Take photo?" in Khmere (Cambodias Language) its:

Tod Roop?

So Roop means "Picture" in all three languages, there are lots of connections between the countries/cultures here.