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.

Skywatch Friday: Bandung Glorious Late November Sky

November is the rainy season in Bandung and in most parts of Indonesia in general. We had had rain almost everyday in the first three weeks of November. This past few days, however, the sky has been quite clear. Today was particularly sunny and warm and, probably as a result of this, the sunset was astoundingly brilliant amber, blue, violet, and red.

I took this photo at about 6.00 PM today (Friday, 28 November 2008) on my way home from work. This is a straight shot from my 3.2 megapixel pocket digital camera Canon PowerShot A510. I did nothing to enhance this photo in my digital darkroom except for a little cropping to remove some distracting parts and improve the compositional balance of the picture.

The building with the yellow wall on your right side is the newly constructed Al Furqon Mosque of the Indonesia University of Education (Universitas Pendidikan Indonesia), Bandung.

This post is my participation for the Skywatch Friday meme. To see other great photos of the sky posted by the participants of this meme this week, please follow the link.