If I could I think it would be great fun to carry a little brownie box camera around and take old fashion black and white pictures. Frankly, the olnly real color photos I've taken before have been druken bar pictures, which do have their artistic niche. I bought a digital camera before I left on my trip, and I don't want to sound like someone who's just bought their first color T.V. but it is awesome. Sure it's convient, smaller, and all those other things. But here's the kicker, as Norm Chad would say, it makes taking picutres an interactive process. Before I would take pictures and what did my subjects get out of it? Maybe some months later they got a print in the mail, but really nothing else. This stopped me from taking pictures, to drum up the courage to ask someone for something when I knew there was a good chance that they would get nothing in return, couldn't do it. Yesterday after hiking around a National Park right outside of the village of Abaca, I started taking pictures with my digital, at first with my usual passivity, but then something happened. I showed the kids there picture and they got a kick out of it, making fun of one another and then posing for another picture. The two hours I spent waiting for the truck to drive us back to Lautoka, passed like a minibus on the main highway. Without doubt the most fun I've had taking photos since I was 'bout tall as a tumbleweed. By the end there were group portriats and I handed my camera over to some young up incoming photographers.

I still love the grain, the process of printing, and the feeling you get working with Black and White film, but digital photography has earned a big spot in my heart.

P.S. Pictures will be up once I get to New Zealand