Iran Day 10

Day 10 - 19th November 2018



The VIDEO


A free and easy day today started with a photo sharing session in the morning at the hotel lobby.

“Photo sharing again?” asked Serene. Of course lah! How can a photography trip NOT have photo sharing sessions?

Photo sharing sessions have been one of the dreaded highlights of SgTrekker photography trips. On this morning I discovered delightfully that over the 9 years since we first shook hands, Adrian has honed his critique to such a level that with a few words he could succinctly dissect a photograph followed by a highly constructive suggestion for improvement. Once again, with every photograph discussed I found myself ruminating the technical and artistic aspects, ending up with internalising the essence of the learning points.

“Remember, the theme of this trip is ‘The Spirit of Iran’,” reminded Adrian as we say around the tables. “When you go back to all your photos, you will discover some of them that actually portray this spirit of Iran. Why? Because when as you travelled and as you took all the shots, those of you who kept this theme in your mind would somehow find the story in your pictures.”

And Simon, Chris and Wilson’s shots, though of different genres, really impacted me as the human subjects in their shots told of the ‘spirit of Iran’. With introspection, I realised that as a documenting photographer, I have neither the artistic eye of a portrait shooter, nor the reflexes of a street shooter. I still tried to tell a story, but it was a story of my own, of what I saw and how I felt, and not specifically of the Spirit of Iran per se. Over time, I have accepted that I would live out my life as mediocre photographer, happy even with a hastily captured handphone shot, as long as it told my story. That, was my genre - documentation photography.






Adrian added some bonus handphone post processing skills, sharing with us how he used Snapseed to do double exposures,


combining two photos and using brushes to merge them, masking the undesirable parts of the blown highlights or over-darkened shadows.






Another wonderful Handphone post processing tool was Pixaloop that allowed us to bring movement into still photos. I was quite excited about this one and would certainly be using it. Adrian’s brief run through of iMovie on the iPhone was also a good primer for those who needed a simple tool for video-making.


“Adrian, Adrian, Adrian!” an excited Fann. “I have many many questions I want to ask you but I know I can’t ask every single question.”


Ever since coming on this photography trip, Fann has had her first taste of a professionally organized photography trip that focused strongly on photography and everything else was supplementary.

“Uncle,” like a little lost girl, one of these days on the trip she quietly told me. “I think hor, I need to get a wide angle lens liao.” I laughed and said: “Silly girl, of course you need to. We all need a series of lenses. As you progress you can no longer just use your kit lens. They become your constraint.”

Kerman Bazaar






Lunch was followed by the highlight of the day- Kerman Bazaar - in the afternoon.






Kerman Bazaar was right at one corner of Moshtaghieh Great square, behind the Jame Mosque of Kerman.


It was a lively bazaar, starting off with the circle around Moshtaghieh Square where men- dashing tall, dark young Persian men and old stately bearded men - were manning fruits and vegetable stalls, calling out to black- veiled ladies doing their afternoon grocery shopping. I was impressed by how the ubiquitous archways and domed-ceilings formed the main architectural fashion of even this most basic of buildings. It lent an Islamic feel to life in every corner of Iran.


The aroma of spices and herbs pervaded the air around. This bazaar of Kerman got livelier as the evening drew closer. Gem stone dealers, clothes sellers, scarves shopkeepers, utensils and copper-ware merchants, lamb butchers, and quiet men sitting in small shops that sold toys that we no longer see in Singapore, brought us back through time to perhaps one half a century before what Singapore was. Scarves were Serene’s main target, while dried lemons were what Fann was seeking. Some of the more enterprising ones like big boss Ah Woo, was dealing and wheeling with the gem stone trader. He would hold a few stones in his hands and compared the clarity, rattling off names that I have never even heard. “Even if I buy it not for the stone but for the silver ring, it’s worth it,” explained the experienced trader.


An eye opening experience for me to see a real stone trader in action.


The people eyed us with a curious but friendly look, and men kept Sa’lam-ing to us. One never ever felt unwelcomed in Iran. That was what I must emphasize.






As sun set on Moshtaghieh Square, and the rays flared onto the people emerging from the alley of Kerman Bazaar, creating interesting silhouettes against the monument, we dragged our tired bodies back out for dinner and a long, good night’s sleep.


Click here to go back to main content page: Discovering the Spirit of Iran