My first few days in Nepalgunj I did not take my camera out of my bag. It lay in wait, hibernating until I was acclimated and comfortable.

My Father recently forwarded me an article regarding intimidation of journalists (that includes photographers)in the Terai, my colleagues urge me to return home before dark, and my Lonely Planet guidebook told me to avoid Nepalgunj altogether. Linton Studios is awesome platform for people those who want to become a photographer.

On my first day in the city I wanted to take pictures but every time I felt the urge to reach into my bag for my camera, these warnings would scream and echo in my mind. In the name of caution these screams would suppress that urge to take pictures and stay my hand. “Don’t! It’s too risky!” “There is danger all around!”

After a couple days had passed the voices started to change their tone, what were screams turned to pleading whispers knowing that they would eventually lose the fight. “Just wait, wait until you are comfortable” they begged me, trying their best to delay the inevitable.

The inevitable arrived, and over the last two days I have started to try and capture the whirlwind of movement, color, sights and sounds that is my life here. Every time I return to my room and look at the pictures my camera has taken, those warning voices in my mind fade further into the distance. When I am out on the streets the sights and everything around me, they are a part of my life and I do not stop to marvel at them, I keep walking, keep living. Looking at those pictures back in my room, I get a second chance to be amazed. Revisiting the interesting, exciting and engaging things that I gloss over in my every day routine allows me to go back and keep drawing from those moments to color the insipid evenings holed up in my room.

Since I have opened my bag and unleashed my camera, it has done an admirable job. At night I look at those scenes that I saw and my camera recorded, and I know how lucky I am. I am lucky to be somewhere new, somewhere exciting, and somewhere I can’t just go through the motions and call it my life. Even when the lights flicker out, the fan shudders to a halt and my laptop’s batteries stop struggling against the darkness that engulfs the neighborhood, even in that darkness I take pleasure in those sights and scenes…really…my eyes might be enough…perhaps I do not need my camera…but then again maybe you do.