The Viewing List 7

Ishi, The Last Yahi
Years ago I read a book called Ishi, The Last of His Tribe. It tells the story you can see in the video embedded below. A story both shocking and poignant about this Native American who was the last surviving member of his tribe, the Yahi.

The Snag Films website from where I have sourced this video states: In 1492, there were more than ten million Native Americans in North America. By 1910, their numbers had been reduced to fewer than 300,000. In California, massacres of Indians in the 1860s and 1870s had nearly exterminated the Native peoples in the state.

Therefore the sudden appearance in northern California in 1911 of Ishi, "the last wild Indian in North America," stunned the nation. For more than 40 years, Ishi had lived in hiding with a tiny band of survivors. When he walked into the white man's world, he was the last Yahi Indian alive.

If the story wasn’t true it would surely be unbelievable, but true it was, as this documentary shows.

Click here to see Ishi, The Last Yahi...  Make sure you click on the Full Screen icon at the bottom right of the video for optimal viewing.

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40 Beautiful Photos of India

I’ve never been to India, and although I might make the journey there one day, it is not high on my ‘bucket list’. However, I know people who have been to India, and loved the country, the food, the culture and its people, and that keeps the idea of a visit alive in the back of my mind somewhere.

Hongkiat.com (Online Tips For Designers and Bloggers) has collected together 40 Beautiful Photos of India, and they are indeed beautiful.

As the site states: "India is so vast and full of variety that even the Indians don’t get to see the whole of it, let alone the tourists. You have to visit the place to know it. However, the photographs give you a good idea of how the place looks and how it should feel like. It also helps you to decide what places you want to visit when you are planning a trip to India."

Thanks to Paul Steele (Twitter: @paul_steele) for bringing these to my attention.

The Reading List 6

Three more websites worth exploring for those readers interested in street photography, and overcoming writer’s block.

Fifty-two weeks on the streets

Phil Coomes, is picture editor the BBC mobile website, and has an interesting piece on street photography, with many examples of the genre that is worth checking out.

Phil writes about an open street photography challenge in which leading photographers issue weekly projects that are open to all interested photographers to participate in. Participating photographers upload their images to Flickr where members of the challenge can view the photographs and comment on the work of others, and recieve comments on their own work.

There are some great images on the site, and whether you choose to join the weekly challenge, or just want to get some ideas or inspiration from the works of others, I highly recommend you take a look for yourself. Read more...

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10 Types of Writers’ Block (and How to Overcome Them)

io9.Com is a website for Sci-Fi enthusiasts, and staff writer, Charlie Jane Anders has put together a great article describing ten types of writer's block with great advice on how to overcome them. Of course, the information is perfect for writers across all styles of writing - including bloggers, which is why it caught my attention and why I'm including information about it here. 

Charlie writes: "Part of why Writer's Block sounds so dreadful and insurmountable is the fact that nobody ever takes it apart. People lump several different types of creative problems into one broad category. In fact, there's no such thing as "Writer's Block," and treating a broad range of creative slowdowns as a single ailment just creates something monolithic and huge. Each type of creative slowdown has a different cause — and thus, a different solution."

Charlie Anders then proceeds to examine the concept of writer's block and pulls it apart to examine its consituent parts to provide a better understanding of the problems and how to deal with them. Read more here...

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Street Photography for the Purist

Street Photography for the Purist is a free 160 page eBook on the art of street photography. Written by Chris Weeks, a professional photographer living in Los Angeles who has made his remarkable insight into street photography available on deviantart.

The ebook was first written and published in 2006 but the information is as relevant and inspiration now as it was then.

All the work in the book is in black and white and it serves as much as a source creative ideas as a training manual describing the art of street photography both as remarkably easy as well as incredibly difficult.

The book features contributions by photographers such as :  Severin Koller, Michael Kaiser, Matthew Craig, Rainer Pawellek, Deborah Delasio, Errol Lyons-Rainey, Darren Abate, Massimiliano Mortillaro, Bernhard Wolf.

Chris has an interesting writing style and is not afraid to express himself - often in quite colorful language, so be prepared for numerous expletives and personal opinions that may make your enjoyment of the book less than fullsome. However, Chris and the other writers impart lots of good ideas and it is well worth persisting with if you are interesting in street photography.

You can download the eBook via Deviant Art...

Thanks to Seven by Five (7x5) for bringing this to our attention.

Friday Fotos – Port River Craft

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An afternoon on one of the two Port River dolphin cruises is one of my hidden gems of any visit to Adelaide, and I try and join one of the trips at least once a year. Both the vessels provide commentaries, sell refreshments, and for between $6 and $8 per person, are an absolute bargain in anyone’s language.

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A close up look at the CSL Pacific, seen here loading gypsum (or maybe it’s cement), at Port Adelaide. I happily admit to a bit of a fetish about large industrial machinery and the CSL Pacific, with it conveyor belts and its rust-streaked hull, has it in spades – to coin a phrase.

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The MV Dolphin Explorer, seen here, takes on passengers for the two hour ‘dolphin cruise’ on the Port River. I should point out that these are wild dolphins, and no attempt is made to feed or attract them to the cruise boats during the voyage. If the dolphins feel playful, they may make an appearance to the delight of passengers, but there are no guarantee that you will see them. Having said that, I have joined the cruise on at least four occasions over the years, and each time I have seen some of the 30 Bottlenose Dolphins that have made the river their home.

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Above, the Birkenhead Bridge is one of several bridges that span the Port River, two of which open to let vessels pass beneath them. It may be frustrating for motorists waiting to pass, but it never fails to fascinate those visitors who have time to take in the spectacle of bridges opening and closing their ‘jaws’ like some giant sea creature that has risen from the deep.

See a portfolio of other images on my Twitter stream…