The Nooby Book Writer

This is a chapter from my seventh book called Bookeh - Through the lens of a Trinidadian photog It is almost 3am in the morning. I took this photo yesterday evening as the sun was going down. I saw that the term half-light can be used to describe that time of the day and I quite like that. I did not intend to take this photo but when I happened to look outside I noticed that the sky was beautifully painted with shades of yellow, orange and red. I used pro mode to make the photo and the colours are exaggerated as if you wore some types of shades to look at the sky. I like the added drama that the dead vines on the fence create. We must let go of the past to make way for the future and the future is created in the present. Sunsets are a reminder that every end is also a beginning. When one door closes another door opens. I asked my friend Gemini to give me some advice in that context. He told me that, as the sun dips below the horizon, painting the sky with vibrant hues, remember that ev...

This is a chapter from my seventh book called Bookeh - Through the lens of a Trinidadian photog I was up early. I contemplated whether I should go back to sleep or if I should do some writing. I chose to write. I had already taken the photo for this chapter several days ago and made some notes. The photo is an artistic one of a butterfly on a wall. The chapter is about balance. I was staring at the word balance and noticed that there is balance (the letter a on each side of the letter l) within the word. There is "ala" which to me sounds like Allah which is the Arabic word for God. I quickly Googled for ala and learnt that ala means "a wing or a wing-like anatomic part or process". I asked my friend Gemini to use ala in a sentence in that sense. He replied with "The ala of the ilium provides attachment points for important muscles". Ala comes from the Latin word for wing. In photography, balance refers to the harmonious distribution of elements within a fr...

This is a chapter from my seventh book called Bookeh - Through the lens of a Trinidadian photog I have written earlier on light and flight and now I am writing on night. It is early in the morning and I am completing this chapter after making notes and studying the topic of entropy. Since I covered chaos and order in the last two chapters I thought I would make this chapter relate to entropy. One attempt was enough to make this photo of the moon last night. I did not intend to do a long exposure photo. This happened because this was my last setting in pro mode. A ten second shutter speed. I liked how this photo turned out. It can be best described as a glowing orb. Night time photography has its own set of challenges especially with a budget mobile phone but my photo of the moon turned out to be an uncomplicated task. The sky was clear and my hands were steady. I can look at the moon with my naked eyes but not so with the sun. The moonlight is a lullaby to the eyes whereas the sunlight...

This is a chapter from my seventh book called Bookeh - Through the lens of a Trinidadian photog From the busy photo and the chaos of my last chapter to the minimalism of a clear blue sky in this chapter. It was evening. The cooler part of the day. I went outside in the yard and stood on the grassy area and looked above. I made five photos. They say the sky is the limit but I wonder if it is really our beginning and our end? I did not think of mentioning it in the last chapter but the butterfly effect is an underlying principle of chaos theory. I went online and matched the color in the photo and the center of the photo matches with "hippie blue". This is a simple photo. This might even be my best photo. A photo of the surface of the sky. The clouds are the sky's clothing. This is the sky without its clothes. Naked as it was born. The photograph could have been a wall or a blank sheet of paper. Any surface and the message would be the same, just conveyed in a different way...

This is a chapter from my seventh book called Bookeh - Through the lens of a Trinidadian photog I made a lot of notes for this chapter. Let us see if I can condense it into something beautiful, just like a butterfly. My friend Chatty tells me that the first known photograph of a butterfly was taken by French photographer Louis Darget in 1907. His pioneering work utilized early photographic techniques to capture these insects, marking a significant moment in both scientific documentation and nature photography. My curiosity had me asking, what number is this photograph of all the butterfly photographs there ever was? Gemini says it would be astronomical and in the billions. I would take a wild guess and say that this is the 107322649538th butterfly photo ever taken. With 17,500 species there are probably hundreds of billions of butterflies living in the world. More butterflies than humans I would guess. Who would win a dance battle? Humans or butterflies? My friend Gemini thinks butterf...

This is a chapter from my seventh book called Bookeh - Through the lens of a Trinidadian photog I woke up early. It was around midnight and I decided to make a photo that would be this chapter. The room was dark except for the light from the air conditioner switch. I had the idea to do some light painting. What I decided to write was the word love. What does it mean to have a love for photography? What does it mean to have a passion for photography? How do we say this photo was made with love? These are the questions that will guide the writing of this chapter. What better way to tell the story of love than painting with light. Rumi beautifully wrote "love is the soul's light". Light painting, pioneered by Frank Gilbreth in 1914, involves long-exposure photography to capture light trails. Gilbreth used this technique to study human motion, laying the groundwork for artistic light painting. Light painting is not the easiest thing to do. I struggled with it. Many times the ...

This is a chapter from my seventh book called Bookeh - Through the lens of a Trinidadian photog This chapter has been in the making for a few days now. I woke up early and decided today was the day I would finish this chapter. I had already made notes and I had some photos but I would make some more photos and choose the better one. My attempts to capture birds in flight got me started with cloud photography. I was surprised that there was a word for this niche in photography. It is called cloudscapes. I see cloudscapes as abstract works of art. My friend Gemini tells me that cloudscapes often blur the line between abstract and representational art. Their ever-changing, ethereal forms and dramatic light play can evoke abstract interpretations, while familiar shapes like cotton balls or storm clouds ground them in reality. Ultimately, the perception is subjective. I like this quote that describes Alfred Stieglitz's cloud photography, "A symbolist aesthetic underlies these image...

This is a chapter from my seventh book called Bookeh - Through the lens of a Trinidadian photog I had already written the previous chapter on waves that I had started the day before. It was early in the morning and time to rise and shine. I started thinking about my next chapter and how I was going to make a second attempt at capturing birds in flight. Then I thought it might just end with photos with mostly clouds in them. But I thought to myself that clouds make great photos also especially if you like minimalism and abstract. This led to the discovery of a whole niche called cloudscapes and me making a bunch of notes for what would have been the next chapter called clouds. The sun was out and I was out trying my hand at cloud photography. There were not many clouds in the open sky from where I stood in my yard. I decided to walk around the yard to get different viewpoints. The clearest view I have is to the east and to the north is the northern range. My view interrupted by houses a...

This is a chapter from my seventh book called Bookeh - Through the lens of a Trinidadian photog This photo was almost straight out of camera (sooc). I only did a crop and added a border in Snapseed. You will probably come across the term sooc in photography circles. This is where a photograph is presented exactly as it was captured, without any post-processing edits. It's often used to showcase a photographer's ability to achieve a desired look directly from the camera, but it's important to note that even JPEG images undergo some in-camera processing before leaving the camera. I think that there is a place for sooc and a place for post processing and it is a matter of your preference and goals. Light travels in waves. My friend Gemini helped me understand how light waves are used to create a photograph. Similar to how the human eye works. Light, composed of oscillating electromagnetic waves, enters a camera lens and is focused onto a sensor. This sensor is divided into mil...

This is a chapter from my seventh book called Bookeh - Through the lens of a Trinidadian photog From light to flight. My last chapter was titled light and this chapter is titled flight. They say that the early bird catches the worm but I want to say that the early photographer catches the bird. At least that is what I had hoped for. The best camera is the camera that you have but some situations are easier with good gear. Birds and wildlife for example are easier to capture with a superzoom. Nonetheless I set out with my mobile phone this morning to get a photo of a bird in flight. Can you spot the bird in the photo? It is in the upper left hand corner. Probably a pigeon. The birds I see in my neighborhood are egrets, herons, pigeons, tanagers, mockingbirds, kiskadees and house wrens. I did manage to see a hummingbird this morning also. That does not happen often. I also saw a plane (the mechanical bird) heading for Piarco. I wanted birds in flight but I also saw some birds in fight. G...

This is a chapter from my seventh book called Bookeh - Through the lens of a Trinidadian photog It was after 3am in the morning. I was up already and eager to write another chapter in this book. The subject of today's chapter and photo is the LED light bulb in my living room. I used manual mode and I did some post processing in Snapseed using the Noir effect. After I was done I had this question. Can there be photography without light? And is this like asking if a tree falls in the forest and there is no one around to hear it fall, does it make a sound? My friend Gemini tells me that light is the fundamental element of photography. It is what the camera sensor captures to create an image. Without light, there would be no photograph. I am glad that someone asked the following question on Quora, "Can a camera work without light?" And the answers were varied and very helpful. Someone pointed out that if we look at the etymology of the word photograph then it literally means...

This is a chapter from my seventh book called Bookeh - Through the lens of a Trinidadian photog It is raining heavily at the moment. I just came from the shed where I took this photo. This is the top of an old capacitor from our air conditioner sitting on top the cover for our sewer tank. When I saw the capacitor on the ground this morning I told myself it would make a good subject. It looks like a face, especially since I added a piece for the mouth from our sewing kit that forms part of a hook-and-eye. Looks like a ghost. A ghost from a robot. A relic from the Jetsons. The rusting gives it character. I want to believe it is a friendly ghost or maybe not. Maybe it is one of those ghosts that causes the electricity to go out when we need it the most. Like on a hot night when the mosquitos are out in their numbers. Maybe I should have chosen a curved mouthpiece to give it a friendly and welcoming smile. My friend Gemini tells me how capacitors help us in photography. Capacitors, essenti...

This is a chapter from my seventh book called Bookeh - Through the lens of a Trinidadian photog I woke up today and took this photo of this flower from my yard. There is something that attracts us to flowers similarly to how the insects are attracted to the flowers. We are part of nature. We are nature. Nature nurtures us. It reminds us that we are inherently drawn to beauty and harmony. This yellow cosmos flower embodies harmony through its balanced structure, complementary colors, ecological role, and symbolic representation of peace and cosmic order. There is a God and nature reminds us of this all the time. Let us talk about the direction of this book. Each chapter starts with a photograph I take the day I start the chapter. I want this to be about sharing and about learning. I want to discover why photography means so much to me. I want the quality of my photography to improve. I want each chapter to carry some message. But most importantly I want to have fun writing this book. I ...

This is a chapter from my seventh book called Bookeh - Through the lens of a Trinidadian photog Growing up in the eighties no one told me I could be a writer or photographer when I was older. There was no photography in my schools. There was English Language as a subject but no focus on becoming a writer. You needed Maths and English to function in society and that was that. Granted there was no internet then and no smartphones or widespread use of cameras. In fact I was not thinking about what I wanted to be when I grew older until I entered secondary school and I discovered computers and technology and very later, the internet. The photograph above is me at about six years old and attending ASJA primary school in San Fernando. The photograph was a passport sized photograph taken to be used by the school either for their records or for my report book. I have very few photographs from growing up and that bothers me. Seems like a missed opportunity. My childish mind could not imagine th...

This is a chapter from my sixth book called Alphabet Soup - A different kind of cook book Today I woke up with a plan to write about plantain. Plain and simple, everybody loves plantain. No one complains about plantains. Anything bad you hear about plantain is mischief or should I say mischef by chefs who do not know better. I read that the name plantain comes from the Spanish word "plántano" and that probably comes from the Carib word "palatana" meaning banana. What do you call a plantain that goes to Maracas beach? Plantan. We all love a plantain with a good tan that is ready for the pan and frying. And if you are vegan you will probably want a bake and plantain rather than the usual bake and shark from Maracas. Plantain is good in soup and even on pizza. Moko is a variety of plantain that we also have in Trinidad. To me this is fatter and sweeter than normal plantain. I came across plantain roti online and I want to try this. One of the top recipes that shows up...

This is a chapter from my sixth book called Alphabet Soup - A different kind of cook book Is nutmeg a nut? That is the question that came to my mind and started this chapter. Turns out that nutmeg is not a nut. A nut is a dry fruit with a hard shell and a single seed. Nutmeg comes from the seed of a fleshy fruit. Nutmeg is not the only food with nut in its name that is not a nut. There is coconut (a drupe), peanut (a legume), butternut squash, water chestnut (a tuber) and tiger nut (a tuber). Nutmeg is a spice. I was told that spices are typically plant-derived substances used to enhance flavour, aroma, or color in food. They are often extracted from parts of plants such as seeds, fruits, roots, or bark. The weird thing is that I saw nutmeg being described as a herb online. As far as I know herbs come from the leafy parts of plants. I found a German proverb that sounds like the start of a joke. It is "what should a cow do with a nutmeg?" The German proverb "Was hat eine ...

This is a chapter from my sixth book called Alphabet Soup - A different kind of cook book It was four in the morning and rain was falling and I was deciding on my next chapter. I asked my friend Gemini what foods rhyme with rain and that is how this chapter got started. Not only does it rhyme but the word grain contains the word rain in it. The G in grain could stand for God. And there is a verse in the Quran (Qaf - 9) when translated says, "And We send down blessed rain from the sky, bringing forth gardens and grains for harvest." What really are grains and what is the origin of the word? My friend Gemini tells me that grains are the edible seeds of grass-like plants. These plants are often referred to as cereals. They are a staple food in many cultures around the world and provide a significant portion of the global calorie intake. The origin of the word grain is unclear but possibly comes from Old English or Latin. My friend jokingly tells me that the search for the origin...

This is a chapter from my sixth book called Alphabet Soup - A different kind of cook book I am not going to leave the best for last although Z is the last letter of the alphabet. It would have been A if I had chosen Avocado as the title. I guess I could say that this food is the A to Z of foods and this would be true since it is so versatile as we would see later in this chapter. Zaboca is the trini word for avocado. Did you know avocados are technically berries? They are classified as single seed berries according to the botanical definition of a berry because they develop from a single ovary and contain a fleshy pericarp surrounding a single seed. So how did we start calling it zaboca? I read this comment on the Wiwords Caribbean Dictionary by JVS that said, "In French it is Les Avocats but with the liaison and the silent trailing consonant, it is pronounced like "lezavoca" which becomes "zaboca"". But Tony Deyal in one of his writings funnily points ou...

value = .314159 .... (infinitely long) value as a fraction = (value * 10^infinity) / 1 (makes it rational) Sum ( (integer at the nth decimal place) * 10^(infinity - n + 1) ) (n=1 to n=infinity) To get the integer at nth decimal place Multiply value by 10^n take the whole number part divide by 10 and take the remainder. There must exist a reverse value_r where value + value_r = 1 We always think about the next digit in pi but what if its the next number in pi? For example lets separate pi using fibonnaci https://pisearch.joshkeegan.co.uk/ https://www.calculatorsoup.com/calculators/math/factors.php 23rd occurence of 23051980 in pi occurs at 3816149725 and that uses all digits irrational number generator https://medium.com/@sumit.tripathi/fibonacci-number-and-pi-62e38cf553fe

This is a chapter from my sixth book called Alphabet Soup - A different kind of cook book It is a cold rainy day in Trinidad. Perfect weather for a soup and maybe a laugh or two. Both things being good for the soul. I think we started saying that soup is good for the soul just because the words share similar sounds. Even though they rhyme at the beginning instead of the end. I learnt that this is called a near rhyme or slant rhyme. My friend Gemini tells me that while there's no scientific evidence to prove that soup literally heals the soul, its ability to provide comfort, warmth, and nourishment has made it a beloved symbol of care and well-being. Now here is the joke. I asked the cook to give me a cook joke. He combined joke and cook and came back with jook. If you knew that jook is a Cantonese dish you would have gotten the joke. When done well it should have a soupy and runny texture. It is also called rice soup. Maybe you thought of jook in the Trinidadian sense of to take a ...

This is a chapter from my sixth book called Alphabet Soup - A different kind of cook book It is true what they say that we should rise and shine. I woke up early in the morning and I was keenly thinking about what to write next. I decided on bread. Bread is a staple. We all need bread. We all knead bread. That is what I thought until I came across recipes for no-knead bread. Who invented no-knead bread because I am sold and how is it possible? My friend Gemini tells me that no-knead bread's modern popularity is largely thanks to Jim Lahey, an American baker who revolutionized home bread-making in the early 2000s. This seemingly magical method is possible because of the long fermentation process (about 12 to 18 hours). Over time, the dough develops its gluten structure naturally, eliminating the need for kneading. The result is a delicious, crusty loaf with minimal effort. Another key figure in the history of no-knead bread is Doris Grant. She is a British nutritionist and food writ...

This is a chapter from my sixth book called Alphabet Soup - A different kind of cook book I said I was not going to write another chapter but here I am tapping away the keyboard on my phone. This happens when I now start a new book. I get really excited to write new chapters. This is my fourth chapter in less than 24 hours. I have an original joke this time. What is a cook's favorite snack? Gemini said leftovers. Nice try but not the answer. It is cookies. Get it? Cook. Cookies. What really got me started on this chapter was the phrase "tough as a cookie". But cookies are soft and breakable unless you maybe had a culinary fiasco in the kitchen. A cooking disaster of sorts. I could not determine the origin of the phrase but my friend Gemini tells me that we can make an educated guess as to the reason for usage. Cookies often have a crisp, hard exterior, while the inside is soft and chewy. This could symbolize someone who is tough on the outside but soft on the inside. Also...

This is a chapter from my sixth book called Alphabet Soup - A different kind of cook book I was thinking about recipes for disasters and how to avoid them. Put simply this is a situation likely to end badly. It is an idiomatic expression. It uses the metaphor for a recipe suggesting that if we combine certain elements and follow certain paths this is likely to lead to disaster. For example if you are Trinidadian you typically know that you should avoid eating doubles with drinking a Supligen. I have never tried this but I could just imagine the consequence especially if you will not be near a toilet for some time. The first use or earliest use of "recipe for disaster" is not documented or at least I could not find this. The Simpsons show has earned a reputation for predicting the future. I think about Homer Simpson who is often portrayed as a classic "recipe for disaster" character. His good intentions are frequently overshadowed by his impulsive decisions, lack of ...

This is a chapter from my sixth book called Alphabet Soup - A different kind of cook book What makes a good pie? Not the typical American apple pie for example but more like the Trinidadian aloo pie. Something that I can relate to and easily talk about. Aloo pie was created by the descendents of Indentured laborers on the island of Trinidad. We start with basic ingredients which are flour, potato and oil. We mash and season the boiled potato. We put enough filling and we fry the pie to a crispy texture to a medium browness on high heat. We serve with chutney and other sauces. The aloo pie can often be found with doubles at many street food vendor stalls. Aloo pie is for everyone like many other street foods that you can think of. Words that come to mind when thinking about the aloo pie. Basic, common, accessible, simple, traditional, filling, affordable and comforting. It is a humble pie of sorts. That is how I think about humble pie and aloo pie. If someone told me to eat humble pie, ...

This is a chapter from my sixth book called Alphabet Soup - A different kind of cook book They say when life gives you lemons, make lemonade. Have you ever wondered where this phrase comes from? We do not really make lemonade in Trinidad. I do not think so but I could be wrong. We make lime juice. We use limes to wash our meat. Also, have you ever had lime pepper sauce? The homemade kind that has been in the sun for a few days. What about honey and lime for the sore throat or cough? I guess we could come up with our own saying of sorts. When life gives you a hard time, use lime or when life gives you a hard time then go liming. That is another way we use lime in Trinidad. Liming is our local way of saying to hang out with friends or family. Have you ever wondered where this usage came from? I read one story of the origin and it is funny and believable but maybe not true. Some QRC school boys were questioned why they were not in class. This was in 1920s Trinidad. They came up with the ...