My Friend Lisa

My friend Lisa and I met in photography class. I’d just started living in Singapore and wanted to learn how to use my camera. The class was taught by Keith. I don’t remember much about that class. At least, nothing about what was taught. Maybe because Keith had such a thick accent. He spoke English but it was a colloquial version – twice as fast as Canadian, sprinkled with Chinese and liberally spiced with idioms. It was a Singaporean version of English, fondly called Singlish.

Most of what Keith said flew over my head. Lisa who was native but went to university in Canada, took pity on me. She acted as translator and together we puzzled through his sometimes cryptic assignments. Assignments which started out with – Take pictures of statues! And ended with – You’re doing it wrong! Get down to eye level!

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So started a great friendship. Lisa and I became photo buddies and together we explored Singapore and took pictures. Lisa introduced me to places to visit and I introduced her to places she wouldn’t have visited otherwise.

Our photo walks always ended with food or coffee. In fact, looking back, many of my food pictures include a finger or two of Lisa’s.

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Lisa and I had very different styles of photography. She loved macro and nature photography. I tried it a few times but I preferred pictures with people. Sometimes people would be too polite to walk in front of my camera but Lisa would always oblige.

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Sadly, our photo walks ended with my return to Toronto. Lisa and I keep in touch online – she tells me all about the newest food crazes in Singapore – and we reminisce about the past times, like these.

Today’s post brought to you care of Friendly Friday Photo Challenge: FRIENDSHIP

All Photos taken in Singapore.