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These are a couple of random images I shot in Fiji about 20 years ago. The first one is a great illustration of the spirit of the people of Fiji, kind of ” No money, no worry!”
That attitude makes a mockery of the western ethos of selfish capitalism especially in light of the recent ”Financial Crisis”‘. I know who are generally more happy!

I shot this one purely for the colour of the umbrellas which I have tried to accentuate through some work in Lightroom 2.
Hope you have enjoyed my little trip down memory lane, the next post will probably be some images of the Whitsundays where I live.

Where do the Children Play?

In Fiji, the world is their playground! It was refreshing to see the kids make the most of what they had. Virtually none of them had manufactured toys, so a tyre or a cardboard box was somthing to let their imaginations loose with. For the girls,young babies were the closet thing to a doll available. Never heard any child say they were bored!

Pull out a camera in front of the kids and before you knew it you had happy chaos as they all tried to out do each other for the camera, big smiles allround!

The nice thing was that you didn’t feel like a suspect if you photographed kids being kids so I hope that sort of innocence doesn’t get taken away by the fearmongers of the world.
This last image was a shot that begged to be taken, his expression is pure gold!

I sincerely hope these kids have grown up to be happy funloving adults which we should all aspire to!

Traditional Crafts

These are a couple of images showing some of the incredible mats that the women weave in their spare time.
All made from natural material found in the surrounding bush they are made as floor coverings and are also a traditional gift at ceremonies such as weddings, funerals etc.
They finish these quite large mats off with colourful woolen designs and fringing and really are a work of art in some cases.
The amount of time to make one from start to finish is staggering but the end result is worth every minute!

How was your day?

Hi, I trust you all survived Xmas and New Years in good shape!
These are a couple of images that show how “lucky” we are here in Australia and indeed most Western countries.
Electricity is something we take for granted but in many poorer countries like Fiji, daily tasks are still done by hand because electricity is not available outside towns.
Daily tasks such as cooking, cleaning, washing etc become a little more difficult and time consuming.

It’s not all bad though, they usually manage to turn it into a bit of a social event that keeps everybody involved laughing. And they build some of these villages on some prime real estate as well.
But, next time your washing machine goes on the blink, remember it could be a lot worse!

A simple life

These are a couple of images that were typical scenes to be found in a Fijian village 20 yrs ago and would still be found in many villages today.
Cane knives are a ubiquitous tool used by most males over the age of ten. There is not much that can’t be done with a cane knife, from splitting open coconuts to doing the gardening.
They are very skilled in the use of these knives and they keep them sharp! One thing I did notice was that many Fijian males have scars on their legs which is part and parcel of learning to use a cane knife when they were younger.
In most villages nowadays the grass hut or Bure has been replaced by corrugated iron shacks or if they can afford it a cement block shack.
While not always aesthetically pleasing to the eye they are practical and kept spotlessly clean and tidy.
I was curious as to why they no longer built from natural material which was easily and cheaply replaced. As they still cook over an open fire in most villages, grass huts were a hazard,so iron sheets were the next best material.
In cyclonic conditions though, I know which material I would rather have flying around the place!

Seasons Greetings

All the best for the festive season to you all out there! Thanks for stopping by on occasion and here’s to a great 2010!
See you all next year.

Tim

Fiji Time!

In response to a query from Graham at Ecomuse Images and with inspiration from truenorthmark, I am going to step back in time to 1989 when I was lucky enough to spend 5 months in Fiji.
I turned up with my surfboard, my backpack and some Nikon camera gear and no idea of where,what ,how. (Get the picture?)
To cut a long story short I kind of went native after being adopted by a local family who had family scattered over the Fiji Islands.
Even though I didn’t get to surf some of the places I was trying to get to, I got to spend time with some of the most generous and warm-hearted people I have yet to meet. I also saw and learned some aspects of Fiji that most tourists never see and got a few images to boot.

These images have been scanned from 35mm Kodachrome Slides so image quality may not be perfect but for 20 yo images they are not bad!

Hope you enjoy the next few posts from the vaults!

Back to the Future?

As it is a little difficult for me to get out shooting at the moment, I am playing around with the images I have on file and trying some things which sometimes work and sometimes don’t.
Digital imaging is so much easier than a darkroom!
Anyway, Mark Stothard (truenorthmark) posted an image of a sailing canoe from PNG which reminded me that I had scanned an old B&W print taken in Fiji 20 years ago.
Just shows that while technology has advanced hugely, to a large percentage of the worlds population, those advances are about as useful as a wooden barbecue plate!
On the flipside, if the power fails or there is no fuel it won’t worry these guys at all. It will be a big problem for all of us who rely on our technological advances!

Emissions, what emissions?

As I am still more or less housebound due to a recent hip replacement,I get to watch the news and current affairs programs more often.
The recent turmoil in the Federal Liberal Party has been a bit of a circus
and the scariest clown by the name of Tony Abbot is now in the ring!
All this has focussed attention on the Emissions Trading Scheme which was put together by the Federal Government and then severely watered down to try and get it through Parliament. All was for nought as the Opposition and the Greens voted it down for totally different reasons!
The one thing I did notice was that there is a dearth of information about the nuts and bolts of this scheme.
With the Copenhagen Summit underway I can’t believe there are still people out there who still have their heads in the sand despite all the science out there that says our climate is changing.
While the earth’s climate has changed drastically many times over the millenia and will continue to do so, surely the sceptics can’t honestly believe that pouring all the crap into our atmosphere for all these years has no effect?!
It’s the same as an alcoholic heavy smoker believing that his liver and lungs will stay healthy.
The planet Earth is our only home so we should be looking after it as we have no other place to go!
Tony Abbott has nailed his colours to the wall so all those conservative voters should be a little worried as he is playing pretty scary politics with the health and liveability of our only home.
Me, I’ll be voting Green!

I’m Hip to the Situation!

Hi gang,
I have just had hip replacement surgery about 10 days ago, so you can probably guesss that i am not feeling 100% at the moment!
Understandably, it has slowed me down a fair bit which annoys the daylights out of me but I just need to take it easy for a little while!
I’m still lurking about reading everyone’s new posts which gives me incentive to get going again asap.
see you all soon.