Crafting a knife

Scenes from Kuala Kubu Baru

For some time now I've been expecting this year to be my last living full-time in Kuala Kubu Baru (KKB). Just this past week I've received news that appear to confirm it, but I won't jinx the prospects with premature announcements. To prepare for my move, I've been trying to take high quality photos of the town and its people. So far, I haven't succeeded. It's hard to convey in images just what KKB means to me. Note to self: I still have not done a proper "photowalk" that conveys the full range of scenes and sensations I experience on my regular rounds (although in KKB it's more likely to be a "photocycle" or "photobike"). Nevertheless, here is a small sample from this year's photography:


Dusk on main street (one of only two main streets in KKB). Note to self: try not to leave the tripod at home


Lately I've taken to photographing the neighbourhood kids playing soccer or rounders


The view from my front gate, after rainfall


Temuan women and a Chinese man outside my local village shop. Temuan are Orang Asli (indigenous ethnic minorities of Peninsular Malaysia). As I keep reminding people, we are all settlers on Temuan soil. Most Temuan live in settlements and villages on the edges of town; two of the villages were displaced for the Kuala Selangor dam.


Peeping into the local Indian barber shop


And a puppy; my neighbours' new pet come to collect trophies from my front porch. He didn't get past the gate this time and I rather stunned him by keeping my finger on the shutter release button as he poked around the road.


Finally, Vignes: a visitor from KL. Many of my KL friends and relatives appear to think I live in the jungles and won't deign to visit. We're only 60 KM from the city!

A gash across the landscape

I could have asked the driver to stop the car, but I've found that those stop-look-compose-shoot photos never turn out well. Because what I want to show is what I glimpsed, felt, experienced from the car: crack across the windshield, bumpy road, dust, road, topography, and all. Once I'm out of the car, everything feels and looks different. And I'm rather pleased with the composition, one of four shots I took as the car bumped across the road. I did consider cloning and burning that crack from the image, but it didn't work out, and I think I prefer the image this way.

My latest

I'm temporarily back from fieldwork -- here're a couple of cloudsy photos to mark the occasion.

Temples of Sambor Prey Kuk: Robang Romeas

Sambor Prey Kuk series, part 11. Part 1 here.

This is the final part of the temple series proper: future posts will deal with neak taa sites (for the worship of ancestral or guardian spirits) and other ancillary sites slightly away from the main temples but are considered part of the broader Sambor Prey Kuk complex. Unfortunately I'm off to fieldwork today and will be offline for some weeks, so this coming intermission might be rather long!

Today's feature: the complex known as Robang Romeas. Literal meaning something like "rhinoceros pen", based on the shape of certain architectural forms. (Despite the eccentric spelling officialized by the French, there is no s-sound in romeas.) Notes on the temples to follow in future edits: I'm out of time!