Brightly Colored Woman Sandals

Brightly colored women sandals I saw at a supermarket in Cimahi in the west of Bandung. Very eye cathing!

Colorful Glasses

Colorful giant decorative glasses at The Valley, a restaurant at the top of the hills of the Dago area in the north of Bandung. I think they add a nice touch to the spacious and cozy interior.

August 2010 Theme Day Post: Bright Colors

These brightly colored velvet letters in boxes are sold on the road side at Pasar Baru (new market) area. As with any letters, you can compose them into any words you like. And words are the magic thing that can turn the unknown into something or somebody, turn hatred into love and vice versa, etc., etc.

This post is Bandung Daily Photo's participation for CDPB August 2010 Theme Day: Bright Colors. Click here to view thumbnails for all participants

Colors in the sky

Slowly but surely rainy season is setting in. Some days the sky is just dark and grey. But that doesn't mean that there are no colors anywhere. In fact, there will be a lot of colors in the city in the next three months as we are gearing up for the Helarfest. More than 70 events and festivities hosted by more than 30 creative communities are going to take place here from this month till the end of December. Sunny or rainy, it's always a perfect time to visit Bandung - and this week's skywatcher blogs.

Rose Sky Over The Pentagon

This dilapidated building, now fenced off and slotted for demolition, is called The Pentagon because of its shape: It has five sides and five angles. It used to be the home of The Faculty of Language and Art Education of the Indonesia University of Education (Fakultas Pendidikan Bahasa dan Seni, Universitas Pendidikan Indonesia), Bandung. I used to study here, so I have a lot of memories about this building.

This photo is part of the series of photos I took last Friday (see my Skywatch Friday Post of 28 November). I took about 80 shots in about an hour before the sunset, following the change of colors of the sky of that magnificent late afternoon. This is an unedited, un-retouched photo. The colors and everything in it are as taken and recorded by my faithful 3.2 megapixel pocket digital camera.

Colors of The Street # 3: Lanterns

These colorful hand-made lanterns (lamp shades) are sold at the road side of Jalan Cilaki (Cilaki Street) behind Gedung Sate, Bandung.

The young guy who owns this mobile road side kiosk and sells these lanterns says that he used to work for a bank before the 1998 financial crisis when he was forced to take a very early retirement because the bank had to downsize the number of its employees.

His lantern business began as a hobby. Now that hobby has turned him into an employer employing about 15 young people from his neighborhood. He says he's happier now because not only can he make a decent living from this small business of his, he can also help others who need job.

You might wonder how much these colorful lanterns (lamp shades) cost. Depending on the size, design, and material, they cost somewhere between 15,000 to 250,000 rupiahs (about 1.3 - 20 US dollars).

What can we learn from his story?
Skills, creativity, and entrepreuneural spirit are very important in times of crisis.

Colors of The Street

Last week, a couple of photographer friends from other cities came over to Bandung and asked if I could accompany them for a photo hunting. One of them happens to be the kind of photographers who like street scenes (street photography) and the other is one who is more interested in geometry and architectural photography. To accomodate their different interests, I took them to the city center (Jalan Asia Afrika, Alun-alun [The City Square], Jalan Braga, and a couple of different other places around the area where the streets are "alive" and where some of Bandung's most important architectural heritage are located.

The photo hunting tour I gave was quite productive. Each of us could get quite a great number of photographs that we are quite happy with.

I took this photo with my Canon Powershot A510, a small pocket camera that I always have with me. I was interested in the colors of these cheap but attractive belts sold by a street vendor at Alun-alun Bandung (Bandung's city square). I framed tightly to emphasize the interesting color patterns of these belts and deliberately included that card "OBRAL Rp 5.000" to give the photo an informative touch. "Obral" is the Indonesian word for "sale". At the current rate, Rp 5.000 is equal to about 50 cents US dollars. Very cheap indeed for their attractive colors and design.