Holy Trinity Cathedral - as most Cathedrals are, is an impressive building. We never went inside (or up the tower as I like to do). But it does give an impressive welcome to the compound as you enter the gate and look up the avenue towards it.

The Bishops Residence - another beautiful building. A warm welcome inside too. There are diocesan offices in the house as well as the Bishop and family. It transpired that I already knew the Bishops daughter and son-in-law from the conference in Nepal last year!

Rev Fiona Gardner, Bishop Saddiq Daniel, Sandy Sneddon and Chris Hoskins

Suniya and Serena-Zoe James - Suniya is one of the friends I made at the SACYN conference in MAY 2010, she also attended the Church of Scotland National Youth Assembly last September.

Bishop Danie took us on a tour of the compound - showing us the various buildings and resources in the compound

IBTIDA means “New Start” and the project works with people who have abused and become addicted to drugs attempts to give the clients just that – a new start in their lives.

Through a process of cold turkey, prayer and counselling, support over a period of several months, 40%-45% of the people who come to IBTIDA stay clean or reduce their dependency to less harmful substances.

Just across the wall from the Bishops Residence lies Trinity Girls School. The Principal, Mrs Irene Pearl, took great pride in telling us about the school and showing us around.

The girls in the school were delighted to see Fiona. In no time at all she was surrounded by a massive throng of pupils, all wanting to say hello and shake her hand.

As with everywhere else in Pakistan, the kids were wonderfully curious!

Instead of playground footie, they were playing playground cricket here! A chair instead of wickets!

We visited the Seminary in the Holy Trinity Compound, it has limited resources and a small staff, but its dedicated

Peace Out!

I got very frustrated with myself on Thursday. We were out visiting projects in Thatta and Badin, in the Sindh province. Areas affected by flooding this year and last.

One of the places we visited was a village called Bachyo Jogo. A village of maybe 15 huts, perhaps a population of 90 (these numbers are very rough, not exact!). About 50 people in all came to see us.

My job was to note stories and take photos. Both of which I managed. But, I’m not happy with the results of my photography. The images are good, exposed well, composed fine. But none of them really stand out to me. I had high hopes for what the results would be and didn’t hit them.

Some people will say the photos are great and I should be happy. But I’m not. I know I can do much better, and it highlights, to me, reminds me, humbles me into remembering that this visit was my first ever of this type. It was my first chance taking photos in this setting. So why should I expect my photos not to reflect that!? I know as I gain more experience I will improve, but it frustrates me now that my pictures aren’t as good as I’d wanted!

There are a few challenges about taking photos out here in Pakistan. Firstly, the biggest problem is the light. Being so far south means that the sun sets very quickly and early. This gives less daylight hours to use. The light is also extremely harsh between 10amish and 4pmish, it glares on everything, creates very harsh shadows and flattens everything. It keeps photographers on their feeting and constantly trying to adjust settings and lighting to make it more flattering.
Secondly is the time span. We were in the village for less than an hour. To get the kind of images I’d hoped to, I now know that it involves spending more time in a village getting to know the people, getting comfortable with them and allowing them to get comfortable with me. But I won’t always have the time, so I know within myself thay I need to cut out those brief seconds of hesitation and just do my job.

It’s good to be reminded of my shortcomings, to not let me become big headed!

I find it hard while we are travelling, driving in our cars. We drive past so many excellent photo opportunities. But I know we have little time to stop!

This week I will have the chance to spend longer at the projects we are visiting, and I’m confident my photos will reflect that increased comfort around the people I’m with.

Peace Out!

“Although Asim Butt used the camera as a tool with which to build the theme and composition construct of his painting, he relished the idea that the camera could see beyond the confines of the apparent and superficial and reach into the realm of inner consciousness”

Askm used his camera sometimes in place of, or to supplement his sketch book. What intrigues me about this statement is last phrase. I’m not sure if I agree with it, if I see that as part of my photography, but it’s most certainly making me think.

The poem is:

“I paint because it allows me to stare shamelessly,
To be able to flesh out an idea, emotion or commit to an image,
a shadow of the world around me.

I paint because there is a spill-over of energy within that must find form or else it will haunt and twist me.

I paint to commit to an act of magic and pleasure,
for myself, for the love of my audience,
and for an abstract notion of my myse’s gaze.

I paint to validate mysrlf
And to discover surprises within and without.

I paint as a penance for my inadeqaucies.

I paint to understand the World around me and to own and disown what I desire and dislike about it.

I paint as a political act:
to express my power over power larger than myself.

I paint to create what it is I want to see,
to fill an absence in the World”

Again, I’m not 100% what I think, but I am provoked to though, perhaps to flesh out my own version of the poem : “I photograph because….”

Art was certainly not a side of Pakistan I expected to see, and perhaps such exhibitions aren’t common, buf this is a nation who are not shy at expressing themselves, especially not with colour! I think art is a window into a society, a culture, so I am glad we were able to experience it to this extent!

salam-o-alekum

For the last 6 years, since Linda and I got married, I’ve been employed in full-time Christian Youth Ministry. It’s been….an experience. Plenty of highs and lows, unfortunatley more lows than highs. But thats chat for another post, tonight I’m focusing on the new thing God is doing with Linda and I.

7 years ago, at CLAN Gathering I was prophesied over, the prophecy was that I was going to serve God with my hands. At the time, I was still planning on having a long career in youth ministry, with a focus on sports ministry – so I assumed the hands was to do with American Football! Then, 4.5 years ago, January 2007, Linda bought me my first digital camera, a Fujifilm S8000. She bought me it at a point in my life where I was starting to struggle with depression, a struggle that hasn’t long ended. It was during this time that I threw myself into photography, it was an escape, a way for me to block out everything. Within a couple of years, I progressed from my Bridge camera onto a DSLR. As each day has passed, and passes still, I fall more in love with photography. I grow in my understanding and technical ability, I grow in how much I understand how little I know and still need to learn! I’ve gotten to the point where all I can imagine doing is photography. I’m always dreaming up new projects to do, new places to go. Always reading about new techniques, new challenges, new ways to do things. I’m sure I drive my friends and family nuts at times talking about and constantly taking photos! One hing that has emerged from it all, that is very apparent to both myself and Linda, is that I have a passion for Humanitarian photography, for photography that tells the story of real people’s lives and moves others to react to it. Photography that is powerful, meaningful, striking, beautiful, challenging, heart-breaking and intimate. Photography that will make a difference.

That’s the abridged version of the last 6 years, which brings us to the point of this post.

Hoskins Gallery.

In April this year, Hoskins Gallery was created. Linda and I had both gotten to the point where the stress, depression and dissatisfaction I was facing in my various roles in Youth Ministry was just entirely too consuming. It was time for me to move on, I was burnt out, nothing left to give. We’d been contemplating opening a business together for a while, and we got a good kick in the right direction. Linda still had a few months to go at Uni and that was without doubt the most important thing to be focused on, but at the same time, we felt it was time to take a step of Faith and venture into the unknown.

Hoskins Gallery is a photography and fine art business. Obviously, I am the main photographer. Linda is the creative director. As well as producing prints (she has a degree in printmaking from Gray’s school of art) Linda plays a vital role in the photography side of things, helping to arrange poses/ props etc so that I can have my eye on the shutter the whole time to make sure I don’t miss the moments or the light.

As we start out, our main focus is on wedding and portrait photography, primarily based in Aberdeen and the surrounding area, although more than willing to travel! These two areas are where the biggest market is and where we think it is right for us to start to get our name known. Currently, we are a purely mobile service. Based online at www.hoskinsgallery.com we have a portable studio that fits in almost any house. The dream, however, is to, as a business, own a property where we would have a studio for portrait and lifestyle photograhy as well as a studio for Linda to create her artwork from. We would also like a gallery space within our premises, where we can have exhibitions of our work, the work of peers in the photography and art world as well as up and coming artists/ photographers. One area of photography we, I, are very keen to expand into is the Humanitarian field. I don’t think I could have picked a harder area of photography to aim for. An area where you need to take exceptional photographs (I have a way to go yet) but you also need nerves of steel, on top of a compassionate heart, to be able to focus on and process the realisities of human life you will invariably come across. I anticipate it to take around 5 years, if not longer, to break into this field. Partly because of the growth I need to do to be better enabled to work in this field, but mostly because of how long it will take to buld a good portfolio in this area. That being said, my first trip where my role is that of a Humanitarian photographer starts on Monday. On Monday, I leave for Pakistan for 11 days with a small group from the Church of Scotland World Mission Council. It’s my first trip in this role, butnby no means the first step on the journey.

All in all, despite the weekly uncertainties, this is an incredibly exciting time for Linda and I. We hope that we can rely on you for your prayers and support (perhaps your business too!?). And I look forward to sharing more of this journey with you on my personal blog here, and our busness blog on our business website.

Peace Out

I’ve been very, very inactive on here over the last wee while, something I”m not happy at all about!

I’m not sure why I have been inactive, I’m certainly not short of things to write about – CLAN Gathering, Tearfund, World Mission Council, Canada, Cyprus, Hoskins Gallery, Starting a business, Pakistan…..if these things don’t make sense, that’s because I’ve not been keeping this up-to-date!

I’m hoping to remedy this over the next while, if I am fighting against writers block then the only way to deal with that is to write!!

Anytime I write on here, I’m a wee bit nervous about how it will be recieved, so it’s definitely not fear of how I write or what I say being the issue! Although, at some point, I do want to have the courage/ strength to blog about my experiences over the last few years!

I’ll leave it there just now, other than to say, one of the things that’s been keeping my so busy recently is that my wife, Linda, and I have started our own photography and art business, Hoskins Gallery, you can check it out at www.hoskinsgallery.com

Suffice to say, we’re very excited about it!!!

Peace Out

Two roads diverged in a yellow wood,
And sorry I could not travel both
And be one traveler, long I stood
And looked down one as far as I could
To where it bent in the undergrowth;

Then took the other, as just as fair,
And having perhaps the better claim,
Because it was grassy and wanted wear;
Though as for that the passing there
Had worn them really about the same,

And both that morning equally lay
In leaves no step had trodden black.
Oh, I kept the first for another day!
Yet knowing how way leads on to way,
I doubted if I should ever come back.

I shall be telling this with a sigh
Somewhere ages and ages hence:
Two roads diverged in a wood, and I—
I took the one less traveled by,
And that has made all the difference.

Robert Frost

It is not a calamity to die with dreams unfulfilled.
But it is a calamity not to dream.

It is not a disaster to be unable to capture your ideal, but it is a disaster to have no ideal to capture.

It is not a disgrace not to reach the stars.
But it is a disgrace not to have stars to reach for

Not failure, but low sim is the son”

Benjamin E. Mays

One thing that I’ve learned a lot about throughout the course of the year and especially through these trips is photography. Photography is one of my big passions and I got my first DSLR, a Canon 50D, last November. It’ been a very educational year photography wise. I’ve learned a lot in general about photography, and these 3 trips have all acted as catalysts for learning new techniques, better techniques, improving my eye, improving my vision and especially forcing me to ask myself why I love photography and what I want to convey through it.

That question cannot be answered in this post! What I want to share with you just now is 3 collections on my flickr page – the photos from Nepal, Canada and France. I want to share with you all a part of me – and every photo I take is very much a part of me. Some of them are just photos of things/ people that I though to be worth capturing, some of the photos are me trying to say something with my craft/ art. If you have any comments/ criticism/ praise about my photos I would love for you to leave comments, either here or on flickr. I want o get better and can only do that if people offer honest opinions about my photos.

so here are the links to the collections:

Nepal
Canada
France

Peace Out

AFAS-exhibit-poster