Camera Solutions

When troubled by back-focusing, consult a Nepalese Shaman.

As you may see in this shot, the fellow in the background is in perfect focus, while the people I wanted, in the center of the shot, are fuzzy. I've had this problem once before with this Nikon, and it cost me nearly $300 and several months of life without Nikon while I awaited a "firmware update." The back-focusing is sporadic at this point, which means I miss about a third of my shots. I will see how it goes.

What's actually happening here is a wonderful little festival that Bella's mom found out about. We spent the day there today. The man in the mask is Prajwal Ratna Vajracharya, a priest of one of the Tantric Buddhist lineages of Nepal and a ritual master of the Charya Nritya dance. He was apparently explaining something about this camera to Gauri Rajbaidya, who works with the group Colored Pencils, but I loved the picture they made together, even though it's out of focus.

What made this festival much more than another vague "celebrate diversity" gathering is the very perceptive Master of Ceremonies, a man who is outspoken and honest about international violence, racial and ethnic distrust, and various kinds of human cruelty. He (a Muslim) and his wife (a Buddhist) took turns introducing the performers, and they talked openly with the performers about human trafficking, abuse, and the wars and other forms of violence that led people from Russia, Micronesia, Laos, Indonesia, Haiti, and beyond to re-start their lives in Portland. I was at first amazed and then deeply moved by this man. Read the link if you have time and are interested in genuine international dialogue. I've put a few more pictures of the festival here. Most of them are in focus, though I'm worried about this back-focusing trend.

I have not been on Blip much the last few days and can't be commenting for the rest of the weekend. Hope to catch up next week.