Noulakaz

The blog of Avinash, Christina, Anya and Kyan Meetoo.

Photography

Independence Day in Mauritius

By 1 Comment

There is something I have noticed lately: most Mauritians do not care about the Champ de Mars independence day celebrations. This is in stark contrast with people from other nations such as France, the USA and India who put a lot of emphasis on properly celebrating their national day.

The only thing I can conclude is that Mauritius is not a nation yet despite our hymn (as one people, as one nation).

If you think about it, this is perfectly normal: a nation designates larger groups or collectives of people with common characteristics attributed to them.

Up to now, politicians have not managed to propose common characteristics that we could share and adhere to.

According to this definition, we are not a nation yet.

Flickr is a social network of people who like photography

By 9 Comments

20160207-flickr-groups

I started using Flickr to share my photos more than then years ago.

Flickr has brought me a lot of joy as, 11 years after, I have uploaded 16,165 photos which have been viewed 1,463,578 times in all (for an average of more than 90 views per photo which is not bad). Most of the viewers are members of my extended family and I thank them for that, even though only a few of them leave comments (most probably because they do not have an account on Flickr).

Yesterday, while browsing the Flickr website, I stumbled upon Flickr groups and this sentence caught my attention: “Flickr groups are a great way to share photos, post comments, and hold discussions around a common theme.” Of course, I knew that Flickr was a great social network for photographers but, up to now, I had neglected that part. So, I subscribed to some groups which I felt were interesting, both because of the quality of photo submissions but, first and foremost, because of the community of photographers participating and their level of interaction. Here are the groups I have subscribed to:

  • Canon DSLR User Group (because I have a Canon EOS 60D camera)
  • The Portrait Group (because most of my photos are portraits of family members, especially my wife, Christina, and my two kids, Anya and Kyan)
  • Nature (because I live in Mauritius!)
  • Landscape (same as above — because I live in Mauritius!)
  • B&W (because of the inherent beauty of black and white photos)
  • Macro (because this is something I would like to be able to do)
  • Strobist (because I would like to perfect my off-camera flash technique)
  • Night Images (because cameras have great high ISO performance now)

My intention is, initially, to visit those groups regularly in order to understand how they work, then start submitting some of my photos to them so that other photographers can offer constructive criticism. My intention is do discover like-minded people, talk with them, learn from them and, ultimately, become a better photographer.

20160207-photographers

Discovering La Cambuse

By Leave a Comment

We thought we knew every beach in Mauritius but, oh man, we were wrong.

Last week, I stumbled upon an article online claiming that La Cambuse was the best beach in Mauritius and I realised that I’ve never been there despite being 42 years old. Yesterday, Christina, the kids and I drove there and it was an amazing experience for us.

The place is pristine, the views are scenic, the sea is wonderful to swim in and, being so remote, it’s a welcome change from our usual Flic-en-Flac or the beaches in the North. I don’t know if I’ll go there every week-end (maybe not) but I have already told some members of my family that we need to organise a camping there. Interestingly, the National Coast Guard members train there so there is nothing to worry about as far as security is concerned.

I only hope that the new hotels being built in the vicinity won’t impact on our liberty to get there and enjoy life.