I was fooled by the same sound twice. To date I am still trying to photograph the culprit, in vain. Which is more helpful to a photographer, albeit an amateur, the sight or the sound? More raw/unedited pictures from an old Samsung. 2020 May.
Today my random thought wandered to the sound of things rather the sight of things. Which is more important to a traveler? The sound or the sight? A photographer will choose sight anytime. A video recorder will want both.
For a writing person, we imagine lots of things, from a picture that tells a thousand stories. But sounds may be simpler to work with, like the happy noises made by the local’s children right now in the park!
Nevertheless, I have been fooled too, by sounds. After house (with a park) and dog sitting for a friend for several occasions I spoke as a passing remark on the long distance phone, “you know, one of the houses nearby seems to have a faulty alarm that went off all the time.” I finally solved that mystery much later. After settling in another house (with another park), one day I woke to listen to sounds and found the same alarm go off for hours. So I told the friend when she called to check how thing were in a new place. When I was ready to host a high tea, I invited her. While eating English muffin, I casually remarked, “There it is, another alarm going off and nobody cares!”
The outburst of laughter that followed was remarkable as it was indeed out of character. With tears rolling down her cheek, she finally uttered, “O you poor… bumpkin! Have you never heard of the marvel of a real life cicada’s song?”
I have been trying to photograph a cicada ever since, to no avail. And I no longer pride myself for recognizing sounds of various species/things.
2023-02-07
p/s: What’s black and red and heard all over? A cicada, of course. The chirping and clicking noises of the male cicada are actually a species-specific mating call that can be heard by females up to a mile (1.6 kilometers) away. (Googled)
It is hard to describe how one feels about old cars. These are from the 1950s. A 1953 CHEVROLET Model: Corvette, made popular by John Wayne, and a 1954 Kaiser-Darrin. One thing that is striking about these two is the cream colored exaggerated bonnet. These were taken from the car museum and I was merely a traveler visitor using a Samsung mobile phone camera. I like the cream color. Somehow it reminds me of another much smaller car I used to own. Alas, I do not have a photo of it. Nostalgic memories often associate with a good time. Yes, I did enjoy driving the tiny machine. In fact I liked that car so much that I owned two of the same model at two different times. I finally grew out of it and set my heart on bigger vehicles. But over the years, having changed my favor many times I now park myself in the middle-range driving a medium foreign made with supposedly best performance, best re-sale value and reportedly most economical in terms of gas consumption and maintenance. How my taste and priority have changed.
sound mind journal 