Is it bad?

Today was a very eventful day for me. I went and got a change of scene. Had a despedida for a friend, commuted to Katipunan and back, and rode a tricycle--angkas. I rode a tricycle! And it was angkas!

Riding side-saddle on a trike on a major road-- the sun just right, the wind (and pollution) rushing at my face and through my hair was magical for me.

I experienced the smells of Katipunan that one doesn't normally experience in an airconditioned vehicle. It sounded very different too. The doppler effect of the horns and the engine sounds rushing right past you, the hawkers, the vendors, the takataks-- it was as foreign to me as german class. I had a cars bumper mere inches away from my leg! I walked past very smelly manholes and storm drains, and all kinds of people. My friends were just short of slapping me to hide my camera and act like this was nothing new-- that I was no stranger to all those. But I was a stranger, in my homeland, sadly, and the experiences were all new to me. And I'm asking, is it bad?

They too, were asking me what I was photographing. They saw nothing photograph worthy, nothing nice-- no notable beauty. I did. And I'm asking, is it bad?

Are my shots so bad, not beautiful, that no one ese understands them? I reasoned that it might take a special eye to see the beauty in the mundane, as cliche as that may sound. They reasoned that it did take a special eye to find that kind of beauty but I didn't have it. Ouch. But I still saw beauty.

I see beauty in the cris-crossing electrical lines. I see beauty in discarded cigarette butts on the sprakly asphalt. I see beauty in mud, in puddles, in vines growing over electric transformers.

I may be insane, but I'm still blessed to see beauty in the mundane. :)