November 20 2013

Photography Class ; Flower Plantation

chenry 2013

Thought for the day: A nation of sheep breeds a government of wolves. Each person has a responsibility for what is happening and perhaps more importantly what is not happening. Each picks his path. Choices.

Photography Class

The instructor is Johan Prozesky from South Africa. He and his wife currently live in Manta. Last June we met him in the Monkey Bar. He has lived in Korea and has some beautiful pictures that he uses as examples when he teaches his class. I have a lot to learn since I have always used a point and shoot camera. Now I am learning about aperture, depth of field, shutter speed and ISO. Tomorrow we go on a field trip to Peguche Waterfall near Otavalo and the following day to the market to practice what we have learned.

There are 5 students in the class. One lady is from Sedona, AZ where she used to be an activity director for a resort. Another man was a university professor and author. One of the ladies has her photographs appear in National Geographic. So I am certainly the novice in the class.

When I started walking home from class I was joined by an 8 year old school girl dressed so cute in her school uniform. She chirped “Buenos Tardes “( good afternoon) and made some comment about my casa and the rain. I tried to tell her “no Espanol” but she continued to cheerful talk as if I was her friend. She even offered me candy. You certainly would not find a young girl walking by herself home from school and talking with a stranger In the USA. No stranger danger here.

Our driver and his wife offered to take me to a flower plantation today. Bill had to stay home since we could not leave the painter alone in the house. Turns out his wife is one of the managers at La Mirage and we immediately recognized her. We drove to Atuntaqul and then miles and miles down winding dirt roads. At one point a pole had fallen in the middle of the road and Rafael had to drive around it later there was a donkey in the middle of the road that refused to move so again Rafael had to drive around it. At one point Rafael laughed and said we are a little lost. He turned around and we finally made it to the flower plantation. Oh my, it was beautiful in the middle of no where and rows and rows of poinsettias being prepared for Christmas shipment. There were 2 hugh dogs that used to be owned by Senior Michel. These dogs must have smelled our dogs because they would not leave me alone and kept jumping up on me. Lucky I am not afraid of dogs! Then it started to rain like crazy. We finally left with our flowers and headed back home. My flowers ended up costing $27 which included a hanging basket, poinsettia, another plant called earing plant a double vermillion.