I think I'm just a trove of missed opportunities. I've always loved taking pictures but it wasn't until my sophomore year in college that I got to treat it as more than another random hobby and I got my camera. Before that I would use whatever point and shoot camera my family owned at the time to take my pictures.
I always remember one event that I wish I had been able to document when I was in the eighth grade. I went on this 'rites of passage', character-building trip with 11 kids from my church's pre-teen Sunday School class (and a few parent chaperones). It was a long week of early-morning 2 hour long hikes/jogs through mud in the middle of nowhere, hours of solitude and reflection/meditation, collectively cooking meals for the whole camp, Bible studies, lectures from chaperones, more solitude, and all with no technology of any sort, and a makeshift longdrop toilet and outdoor shower (read bucket bath station). It was an experience to say the least but what came after, is what I wish I could have documented.
On the last, day everyone's parents came up to surprise us and basically laugh at how worn out and dirty we were. Then they surprised us again with making us cook lunch for everyone (about 35 people). The meal was rice and veggies with chicken stew and roasted goat meat. We had veggies, rice, spices, 6 or 7 live chickens and one very live goat. Let's just say I could have made beautifully entertaining pictures of tired little girls chasing chickens and about 5 dirty little boys wrestling a goat. Twenty minutes later, I could have made portraits of all the sad girls holding the severed chicken heads and an epic group portrait of the triumphant boys parading the goat's head. Of course, one must also remember all the 'proud-parent' shots and my self portrait of blood-stained, sneakered feet. I don't think anyone else but me would have been able to capture the events as well as I did in my head.
Ebube Ezeh
I always remember one event that I wish I had been able to document when I was in the eighth grade. I went on this 'rites of passage', character-building trip with 11 kids from my church's pre-teen Sunday School class (and a few parent chaperones). It was a long week of early-morning 2 hour long hikes/jogs through mud in the middle of nowhere, hours of solitude and reflection/meditation, collectively cooking meals for the whole camp, Bible studies, lectures from chaperones, more solitude, and all with no technology of any sort, and a makeshift longdrop toilet and outdoor shower (read bucket bath station). It was an experience to say the least but what came after, is what I wish I could have documented.
On the last, day everyone's parents came up to surprise us and basically laugh at how worn out and dirty we were. Then they surprised us again with making us cook lunch for everyone (about 35 people). The meal was rice and veggies with chicken stew and roasted goat meat. We had veggies, rice, spices, 6 or 7 live chickens and one very live goat. Let's just say I could have made beautifully entertaining pictures of tired little girls chasing chickens and about 5 dirty little boys wrestling a goat. Twenty minutes later, I could have made portraits of all the sad girls holding the severed chicken heads and an epic group portrait of the triumphant boys parading the goat's head. Of course, one must also remember all the 'proud-parent' shots and my self portrait of blood-stained, sneakered feet. I don't think anyone else but me would have been able to capture the events as well as I did in my head.
Ebube Ezeh
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