Taking photos when traveling

As you may have noticed, most of my pictures do not have people in them.  I would much prefer to take and look at pictures with people because people are endlessly fascinating.  But having been lucky enough to travel to so many places and having been lucky enough to be raised in an extremely picturesque place myself, I have now come to realize how strange it is taking pictures of other people when they are just going about their daily lives.  Taking pictures of them makes me feel like I am treating their real lives the same way I would treat animals on a safari.  Now that doesn't hold for festivals or public events, when the whole event is sort of one big picture taking opportunity.  But when it is just people going about their lives, I usually hesitate to shove a camera in their face.  Doesn't mean I won't subtly try to take a picture of something that brings a smile to my face, but I try not to be too much the ugly American about it.

So here is a picture I tried to subtly take by turning my head in the complete opposite direction and pretend I wasn't taking any pictures at all.  I just loved the color that this man was painting his house.  I think we need more over the top, cheerfully painted houses in the states.  Who could stay in a bad mood if they passed a house painted the color of a sunflower?



Oh and not to have a spoiler alert or anything, but tomorrow is a big festival in Ethiopia and I am really hoping to get a few pictures of the festivities.  Not everything needs to be ruined by my constant fear of cultural imperialism.  Some things can just be appreciated, even by me.