I am, as a photographer, undeniably timid. I do not like asking people to take their picture, but I feel too rude and obnoxious just playing the foreigner card and start snapping without asking at all (something far too many travelers do in my mind.) As a result I have not, in the past, taken a lot of portrait style pictures.

In Nepal I have opened up more to the idea of asking people to take their pictures. Part of this change was of my own accord, as at the COCAP office I felt actually quite comfortable asking volunteers if I could take their picture. A lot of this change has also happened in spite of my timidity here in Nepalgunj. When I walk around with my camera, I frequently get requests from people wanting to have their pictures taken. I have has this happen while traveling to many other places, but usually the requests come from children who have nothing else to do. Here a good number of adults also ask me to take their picture.

My favorite incident involved several young men who work in a shop shaping iron. I was out on the street taking a picture of a statue when a young man came over and said in a harsh voice “Come here!” At the time I really did not know what he wanted, but was too curious not to follow him. Once inside the shop, him and his three friends immediately struck a pose while some children looked on. Once posing, he finally smiled, and said “Photo.” I obliged, and the result was a picture that is one of my personal favorites from the trip thus far (I will post it for my next journal entry.)