Windows and Birds

In our semester in New Zealand, my daughters and I went armed with a New Zealand bird book and binoculars.  I believe in being intentional about paying attention to the environment around you and we did this through searching for birds. To this day I know more New Zealand birds than North American birds!

Last January I returned to Hong Kong for a second time 6 month tour of service.  No longer was each block and day going to hold a new experience, so I had to searched for an intentional activity to help me pay attention and focus the lense of my camera.  What did I choose to do?  I chose to look at windows.  Windows continue to fascinate me in Hong Kong and China because life inside spills over into the outside of windows.  They do not represent that same private-public boundary as they do in the U.S.

As I categorize windows in my mind, they have begun to be separated into:

Windows that are open and windows that are closed
Windows of the rich and windows of the poor
Vertical windows and horizontal windows
Neat window spaces and cluttered windows
Garden windows and storage room windows
Windows viewed from above and windows viewed from below
Exclusionary windows and windows that invite us into the lives within
New windows and old
Windows under construction and windows being replaced
Windows into nature and windows into lives
Walls of windows