You know how you look at someone you absolutely love and see all the good things you want to do to them? Yeah, just looking at these tomatoes I had that Halo moment. I could see future, bright with a salad and three different kinds of stew!

Saturday is market/grocery shopping day (if I can’t find the time during the week. Markets are far less crowded on weekdays) and everything looks fresh and beautiful today.

Pepper!

Basket of Tomatoes and

As I expected, a camera is a bit out of place in our local market. I got a few side glances and surprising questions like “are you a journalist?”. Mostly, sellers were helpful and interested if I was buying their produce. Others want payment for taking pictures. I think they’ve got the notion that all pictures are worth something. However, they aren’t clear on how to value it.

some Ugwu

Basket of Onions and

This mallam suggested I pay N5k for a picture of his hens, which I hadn’t been interested in. Shutterstock pays me $0.25 per download, multiplied by current exchange rates, that’s N91.25 exclusive of tax. At N5000, the image of his hens in a filthy pen would have to be downloaded 55 times for me to recover that expense. I had to laugh. I told the mallam not to worry, I didn’t want a picture of his tired birds anyway.

Learning photography for this blog has made me appreciate the beauty of ordinary things. Everything is beautiful, it’s really a question of lighting, angles and your perspective.

Fruit Section

Watermelons and Bananas

Plantain

Crayfish, Ogbono and Egusi

Palm Oil

This post is only to share the beauty I saw this morning. You’ll find the large versions on my Shutterstock account. Enjoy.