Sep 19 2012

Weekly Photo Challenge: Everyday Life


This week’s WordPress Photo Challenge, has me wondering why we find everyday life in strange countries that we visit, far more interesting, and photo worthy, than we do our own everyday life. Do you think that a foreigner would bother taking pics of the never-ending digging up of verges along our stretch of road?

Maybe they’d find the necessity for this ugly security fence, really fascinating. 🙂

What could be more inspiring than a workday traffic jam in South Africa?

Wow, just look at this rubbish dumped by some odious person who couldn’t be bothered to drive to the dump!

I guess it’s just so nice to visit a different kind of everyday life, and that’s why we take vacations.

Wash-day in Lisbon, can be so picturesque, and worth a photo indeed. 🙂

Market day in Marrakech somehow seems far more exotic than at my local market.

Maybe it’s because we don’t see this sort of scene back home.

Our markets are far more sterile and well-ordered, and you don’t have to watch your step to avoid the donkey poo. 🙂 ( We all look as though we’re on a pilgrimage, with our heads bowed.)

We don’t usually go around taking photos of workers going about their daily routines at home, so why do you think that we do it on holiday?

I don’t know about you, but I wouldn’t dream of going up to my local fish counter with camera poised at the ready.

And the mode of transport there, is much more photogenic than the SUV’s in the car park of my local mall.

No boring old truck  or  panel van for this merchant. He’s got his donkey loaded up to the hilt.

All these people are just going about their usual everyday business, and now here they are, displayed for you all to see, on WordPress. 🙂

For more interpretations of the theme, just click here.

123 comments on “Weekly Photo Challenge: Everyday Life”

  2. Pingback: #200 « The Sophomore Slump

  4. I love seeing people around the world in their unique environments, and this is a great collection. Definitely magazine worthy. I especially like the fish shop, perhaps because of the lighting, and the composition is really good, too, setting the mood.

  5. oh fantastic pictures! and you are right – your lady in Lisbon looks like my lady at the window – love the shots of Marrakech – and we saw chickens like yours in a market in Hong Kong – brings back so many great memories!

  6. Think we are so used to home (wherever that is) that we need to work at finding a new angle to make shots interesting and appealing to ourselves, though the normal may well be fascinating to others who live elsewhere.

  7. This was an excellent contrast of lives. You’re very observant of details, and I really enjoyed reading them. My favourite photo was the last one, the loaded donkey.

  8. It is strange that people take the most unusual pictures when on holiday. I had hundreds in boxes and then turned to digital. A lot of pictures I took i have thrown out as the seemed to serve no purpose. In the UK I seemed to have taken a lot of scenery green fields and old buildings that i can`t place now. At least with digital I can just delete them or put them on a spare disk. Thank`s for reading my blog. Leo

  11. What a fascinating, honest , true rendition of everyday life. In reality, life is a mixture of the good and the bad, of beauty and ugliness. How we chose to live one makes all the difference. Of course, it may take a while to brings a change that will make our surroundings clean, peaceful, happy.

  15. Pingback: Weekly Photo Challenge: Everyday life | Autumn in Bruges

  16. absolutely spot on AD! I used to take umpteen photos of things which were just plain stupid and would have held no interest to me at home in Cape Town. These days I take so few photos and at times even forget my camera…which isn’t always good! 🙂

  17. Stunning shots again…love grandma in Lisbon!!!! Did pop round to Umhlanga mall sun afternoon on my way to the airport but you were not playing the piano!!! 😉

  18. You never fail to impress us. These are equally magnificent as your actual travel destination pictures. Actually, probably better as I have many favorites… the workers and grandma’s laundry. 😀 These are magazine worthy pics as you mostly have.

  19. Great interpretation and photos. I was just thinking the same thing. I just travelled to a bunch of European cities and when I came back I thought about what tourists would take photos of in Colorado – and there are the same things that I saw abroad, but they lose their interest when you see them every day. Great post, as always!!

    • Thanks so much, and glad you enjoyed this post. Now it seems that I’ve got us all wondering what’s so fascinating about other people’s everyday life. 🙂

  21. You’re right about local every day life not being quite as hot as it is in Marrakesh 😉
    I think the fishcounter at PnP might look strangely at you should you start taking pics!!
    I would much prefer to do shopping anywhere but here 😉

  23. Why indeed is everyday life in some foreign place more interesting? Maybe, we are not yet so jaded about them. They are passing fancies for guests. But this I tell you – I will love to take photos of the donkey but will not dream of having to take them everyday to get me to places. :-))

  25. I’am sure your right, this type of scene is not normal. But I haven”t lost the comfort of seeing seeing some of them.

  26. These are all incredible photos. Market day in Marrakech is my favorite. All tell a story all by themselves. You bring up a good point about taking photos of everyday people in vacation locals. I think, we are fascinated by their ability to go through their daily lives despite the hardships they have to muddle through. We need to remind ourselves – perhaps, when we are back home – that we are indeed very fortunate.
    Great post …. !!!!!

  30. I love looking at everyday life in other countries. It is amazing how it varies. You see looking at that barbed wire surrounding that house would make me really nervous.

    Love the donkey photo – made me laugh!

  32. Well, I like them too, those scenes from abroad…I think it has got to do with the differences – only, really. The differences from your own daily life. No matter what the differeces are. But, it´s the love that counts, isn´t it?

  33. What a great post. I loved it…Instead of the beautiful shots of touristy places in your area, you chose to point out its flaws…garbage, barbed wire, ditches…all annoying parts of everyday life. Love the photo of tourists, heads down…the donkey pilgrimage. 🙂

  34. At least we don’t have many abused donkeys, even with our security fencing and constant digging at the same pavements! I see you just missed getting a picture of the taxi overtaking all the cars there, over the white line and in the face of oncoming traffic.

  40. Couldn’t agree more with you, Ad! I seemed to ignore all the happenings back home (no matter how unique they might be to foreigners) and definitely would not bother to capture them with my camera. However, feast my eyes with ordinary scenes in a foreign country and I would not let the moments pass by!

  41. That’s an interesting take on why we go on holiday and whether we only photograph daily life whilst in a foreign place. I take photos of daily street scenes wherever I am – holiday or not. But I think you have made a valid point – perhaps most people only get their cameras out for family events and holidays?

  43. What a great insight on this challenge, Sylvia! Isn’t it just so true that the things in our own everyday lives seem so mundane and unphotogenic?? Yet when we go to foreign countries those same things seem so quaint and charming? Very interesting thoughts! The wash day in Lisbon and the loaded up donkey are very charming, while the garbage dumped isn’t at all!! Yet, would we take pictures of garbage in foreign countries?? I have taken some in Oman I guess, just to show how it irritates me…. and how a beautiful place can be spoiled by rubbish! 🙂

    • Thanks, Cathy; just my quirky sense of humour. 🙂 I’ve also taken photos of garbage and roadworks in Phuket, but trashed them when I got home. I couldn’t imagine why I’d taken the trouble. 🙂

      • There is so much trash in some places, like India and Vietnam, that I was overwhelmed by it and wrote about them in my blog. Somehow though, I couldn’t force myself to take pictures! Love your quirky sense of humor!!

  44. Absolutely fantastic take on this weeks theme, the photos are fantastic; they say so much about everyday life. I love them, especially the one of the donkey. It´s amazing how everyday life can be so different depending on the country and its traditions! Great post, really enjoyed it! G 🙂

  46. I love your photos of everyday life in other countries. You get a feel for the people and their cultures. Thanks for sharing.

    BE ENCOURAGED! BE BLESSED!

  47. Interesting post and question you’re posing. I am also guilty of this. I took pictures of removal mem using a mobile crane to deliver furniture to the top floor of a brownstone house in Boston, a van carrying dogs in window seats with “Doggy Day Care” signwritten on the side, also in Boston, tree planting in New York that was completely mechanised, no spade or shovel in sight, a special escalator for shopping trolleys at a supermarket in the UK. These are just a few examples. The unfamiliar is always interesting no matter how mundane it is.

  50. oh no it takes all sorts hey – the ups and downs! interesting selection of pictures though except for that one! but I know it happens and you can’t just ignore reality – or can you?

  52. These activities of our daily life, routines that give us the opportunity to enjoy the life that God gave. I love be creative and keep it moving. Thanks for sharing my friend @Adin, fantastic photos you have

  53. Hi Ad,
    What you are saying is so true! I have found that when I have been overseas I have had an obsession with buying their souvenirs yet I would never ever buy the typical African things that are offered here! Of course the tourists that come here love to buy our African crafts. Photo’s are of course also taken in abundance but who would want to take photo’s here in JHB of the dirty buildings or the digging in the streets as you have shown. Great post as always.

    Regards
    GAIL

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