15 – fi misr
- February 10th, 2010
- Posted in Electric Spaghetti . featured
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At a masjid fi misri just before maghrib I find jidatee* with her nose in His Signs, while a metronome of bone on bone keeps time with each fatha, each kasra. Those knees creak as much as the scuffed plastic of her chair.
She’s not really my grandmother. I hear only one word out of her hundred. “Ana la atakalam arabiyya”, that’s what the guidebook told me to say. “Er er er, ana talibah, min junoob iffrikiya”, that was today’s lesson.
Jidatee, who’s not really, fingers the cloth of my jacket before pointing to my skin. I think she’s trying to ask me why I’m not black. “Er er er, ummmi, er er er, ummi’s ummi’s ummi er min Hindee-yah”. I hadn’t yet learnt the word for grandmother or the greatness thereof. Jidatee brings her finger to her forehead to make a little circle in the middle. “La, la, Muslim” I say. Sounds a bit like a song, and we laugh before we pray.
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*arabic for my grandmother
This started out as a poem, but I couldn’t.
I ran one of those vintage photoshop actions on the photo of a window in Masjid Bilal. It’s just down the road from our flat in Madinat Nasr. I’ll be posting more pics soon. Perhaps I should retitle my 20-ken project to “The Year of Shooting Recklessly”. I’ve been a bit suck about the writing. Our place is on Naguib Mahfouz street, so I’m trying to channel some prolific writer spirit. So far all I’m filling up with is karkadey and basboosah. Good gorge, Cairo’s wonderful.
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Nice one:)
Photoshop is the king of graphics progs, always good to make friends with it.
Are you holding the cam properly? Place one hand under it so that your pics are not ‘shaky’ and your elbows should be drawn close to your body – it curbs involuntary jerky movements
Thanks:)
I used to be much steadier on my muk-en-druk. I find now that when I shoot on manual on a dslr I need to have much more control, especially when I’m trying to get a good depth of field on a close-up. I think I may just be spastic.
I’m going to try your tip right now.
Good gorge! I’m glad!
More piccies please. I’m quite impressed with your photography skills.
I need to learn. There’s some beautiful shots but I can’t seem to capture it on camera
I’m still learning. I don’t have a steady hand and a lot of my shots come out shaky (apparently there’s this trick snipers use to steady the hand – breathe in and breathe out as you click). Getting close to things always make for good shots and Naeem’s advice to me was to plan the picture in your head before you take it.
And then there’s always photoshop to fill in the gaps. Though purists will gasp at the very thought. I’m just a dabbler.