“Git Up!”
Bagan, Burma 2011: A farm woman drives her bullock cart back to her village.
I was hoping for a scene of bullock cars trailing clouds of dust with the temples of Bagan in the background. No luck. We were there in fall and the planted fields were ready for harvest.
Yesterday, I looked over my bullock cart shots and found this one. If I couldn’t make this work, I would be out of luck. The rest should be deleted. I may have overworked this but luckily, in Photoshop, we get “do-overs”. That’s why I call this blog, OTT or “over the top”. It’s easy to go too far.
I love the cart. It’s a work of art. It was all wood and handmade, naturally. Look at the spokes in the wheel. Why do they have so many? Wagonwheels used on the farm when I was a girl had only 6 spokes. The woman sits on her haunches on the floorboards. There is no seat. There are no collars on the bullocks to help them drag the cart. I’ve never seen a collar on a bullock in India or elsewhere. They place a wooden board or pole in front of the animal’s hump. That seems like it might be painful as there is no padding, but guess not. The bullocks would readily break into a trot when she urged them with her whip.
Still Life with Onions
Burma 2011: Two elderly Buddhist nuns were sitting by the roadside resting. They had their kit spread around them. Their food consisted of these onions and a can of dried milk. The can was beat-up and maybe held something other than dried milk. I didn’t like any of my nun photos, but thought I could work on the onion still life. Maybe this too is OTT. It, too, is a vintage look. I hope you aren’t getting sick of vintage, because I’m not.