First photos of Gaibandha

Here are some pictures from my first adventure with my camera in Gaibandha. The district where I am living is called Gaibandha, and this part of the district is the most urban so people call it "Gaibandha City". It's urban in that the market here is quite large, including several multi-level shopping centers and some furniture and appliance stores in addition to the usual fruit and vegetable venders, tea stands, etc. and the houses are fairly densely packed without rice paddies in between them. Pictures of the city part will come soon, hopefully this weekend.

The house where I am staying is at the edge of the more densely populated area and this first set of pictures is from a walk in the opposite direction, away from town, where the scenery starts to look like a typical village almost immediately. Here are a couple of pictures to give you a sense of what the area looks like.

This set of pictures represents my first attempt to get the hang of aperture. Here are a few of my favorite shots from the day. You can tell when I got the aperture right in the portraits because the person is crisp and stands out from the blurred background. It's something that's hard to see on the camera screen while you are out shooting but that's very satisfying to see you've gotten right when you get home and upload the pictures to the computer.

Feel free to check out the whole album from that day by clicking on the albums link on the right side of the screen.

What's a bideshi?

What does the name of this blog mean, you ask? Well, "bideshi" means foreigner in Bangla. Foreigners are a pretty unusual sight in Gaibandha, so walking around the neighborhood I often hear little kids yelling "bideshi!" to alert other little kids to the excitement. This generally produces a small crowd of children following me along the road. In my albums, you will see lots and lots of pictures of groups of kids, because once I have a little following I tend to feel obligated to take pictures of them, especially because they get so excited when you show them the images.

I hope to include pictures from many other travels here eventually, but at the moment my mind is very much on Bangladesh and Bangla language, so for now I will call my blog "Bideshi Adventures in Bangladesh"

Welcome

Hi! Welcome to my photography blog. I am planning to use this space to post photos and stories as I explore Bangladesh and get acquainted with the amazing capabilities of my new camera.

I am living in rural northern Bangladesh at the moment, working on a nutrition research project for my future PhD program. I decided to take advantage of the unique scenery and slow pace of village life to teach myself how to use my shiny new dSLR camera and to try to get the hang of composition, lighting, and so forth.

I hope to fill this blog mostly with photos along with some descriptions of my subjects and learning process. I welcome your comments and critiques (and encouragement please) and hope you will check back often to see updates.