Wednesday, August 19, 2009

Decorated Public Transport

Mystical, eccentric, larger than life are the paintings covering every inch of metal on trucks,buses and oil tankers in Pakistan. I grew up without knowing that it was unusual in other parts of the world.
My personal favourite thing to do is look for quotes written on backs of rickshaws, and sometimes trucks, often hilarious but mostly with wisdom and bittersweet wit tinged with sadness, eye openers really.
Those merit a post of their own.
A look at mostly passenger buses, that when I was small, had very loud, VERY long musical notes for a horn, very crazy and hard to describe really, from whistles and bird-screams to the kind of sounds you would hear if you handed a bunch of six year olds at a birthday a variety of musical instruments.
I hardly ever in one, but when I did in Gujrat, I remember not being able to see properly out the windows because they were in dark colorful tints!
















( Pictures courtesy various sources on the internet, mostly Peter Grant's photography.)






Dunes, Sky, Action


This is the kind of picture that can inspire a 'wow' for a moment.
The kind that makes you take note of the photographer.
The kind that makes you want to see something fresh and exhilirating yourself, and capture it.
This picture is by Chase Jarvis.

I love that the action puts still more emphasis on the beauty and majestic grace of the dunes and desert sky.
Soon after, I am sure, nature would have blown away the footprints of the dancer, and the sands shifted once more, unimpressed, unaffected.