WRITING PROMPT RESPONSE
Side View Mirror Photography in Thailand
A different light onto what’s behind you
I’ve recently shared an invitation to a writing prompt. It’s a photography challenge of capturing what is behind you — through a mirror. My suggestion was to capture the world in your side view mirror. But you could use any mirror.
And since I just relocated to Thailand I also got myself a new way of transport. No, it’s not a car. Of course, it’s a scooter. So here I went out and about capturing whatever appeared in the mirror.
There is so much going on in this picture below. First of all, yes I’m standing at a red traffic light in a busy junction in Thailand. I did take out the GoPro because I could see the countdown until the lights switch. In Thailand, there’s often a number counting down next to the actual traffic so that you know for how many more seconds it will be green or red. This one said “180". Seconds it is. Kind of helpful I must say.
Back to my picture. There’s a plastic bag lying on the road in front of me. Very typical for Thailand. Unfortunately.
Let’s look into the mirror. You can see those two locals sitting on the bike behind me. Both wearing a mask and a helmet. That is not normal. Usually, they wear the mask but no helmets.
And then there is the tuk-tuk behind me. Of course, we’re in Thailand. There’s always a tuk-tuk somewhere in sight in Thailand.
Moving on. I drove to this lovely park the other day to go for a walk along the beach. But before getting off the scooter, I decided to take a quick capture of what's behind me.
After my casual walk through the park, I went back on the bike and drove over a short bridge to a small island. This was what I saw when I looked into the mirror. Some ocean, a pier, and a hilly mainland behind it all.
And in between all of it, lots of fishing boats. Fishing is one of the main industries in this region.
On the tiny island are a temple and some shrines. I captured this one as I was looking out at sea.
I turned around again and drove a bit further down into the city. Then I took a turn right and drove a small alley leading to a restaurant built on the water. When I looked back I saw the road I came on, a skyscraper and the houses of the city center.
This was my second post on photography in the side view mirror. If you also want to join, here’s the initial writing prompt:
And here is a list of awesome writers who have joined so far:
Denise Darby with “Morning Reflection in the Side View Mirror”
K. Barrett with “Looking Forward to Looking Back”
pockett dessert with “Look Back: Beautiful Reflections Of My World”
Join my email list here if you would like to read more photo essays or sign up for the Medium membership to receive unlimited access to my and other writer’s stories out here (I will receive a commission fee in return).
