A picture is worth a thousand words

That’s the reason I am with the team at CHO’s offices in Poipet, to teach a couple of the staff how to use the camera equipment that they have more effectively. I have been working with Monorom and Rosa primarily, showing them the controls on their camera, which is a good quality Canon digital SLR, so that they can take better photographs to send to their sponsors and promote the activities of CHO. Before I arrived I wondered how I would cope trying to teach a fairly technical area to those whose first language was not English, but I needn’t have worried as both students understand and speak English perfectly, way better than my Khmer. They are also very quick to pick things up and we are making much more rapid progress than I had expected. Our first lesson was how to choose the shutter speed ourselves so that we were more in control of what the camera did and practised the technique on the many motorbikes that pass in front of the Destiny café and even achieved a fairly advanced technique called ‘panning’ to keep the subject in focus while the background is blurred to give the impression of speed as evidenced by the photo below:

This isn’t something I think they would have even attempted before I arrived. It doesn’t show a motorbike passing a car, passing a lorry which is quite common but you get the idea of what driving is like in Cambodia with vehicles weaving everywhere.

I have also shown them how to use some photo-editing software to give more impact to their photos and this morning we had a set-up which would allow good quality photos to be made for sale so that they could start a small business to help fund CHO’s work. It might be a while before that is up and running but seeing what Chomno achieves it may be sooner than I could imagine.

This afternoon I had the real privilege of accompanying Matt, Ellie and David to school on a mat. The children were delightful and engaged wholeheartedly with the activities. Monorom also came with us and I found I was able to give some practical advice as we took photographs together.  An exhausting but extremely enjoyable day.

Looking forward to what is to come.

Rod