A Monk's peace with the day's end.

I'm not as enamoured of this image as many seem to be. I find there's a distracting blotchiness to the shadows and the huge dark patch in the centre of the wall carving dissects the image too much for me. I would even go so far as to say, I would have totally cropped out the wall and concentrated on developing the contrast between the face, the robes and the shadow to the left. I would have kept the narrow column to the right cropping just below the brightest part. For me the face should be the focal point and all our attention drawn to it. The gold light on the carved relief, as beautiful as it is draws my attention away from what is important namely the serene rapture of his expression. I could even see the highlights on the relief as a separate image.

In a very famous scene in "Star Wars" Luke Skywalker is speeding down a narrow trench on

the way to destroying the Death Star. Not only is his margin for error in flight against him,

the chance of hitting his target is too.

 

In a revelation of insight, he takes off the targeting device ( The meter ) and trusts his

"Force". In a single burst of notion, he gives in to gut instinct and nails it.

 

Shooting certain slide films is like this for me. The very things that cause people

disappointment in a particular film cause me great joy in the narrowness of their exposure

latitude and contrast range. Kodachrome is my all time favorite in this regard, that is why I

have some 800 rolls of it to shoot over the next few years.

 

Unlike other mediums, there is no margin for error. You learn how to see light in a

constrained fashion, you learn how to see the world in "Chrome". It allows you to become

a part of it's grand limitations. And in a crescendo of all things visual coming together at

once, it screams out how your inner most voice wants to share that aching, stirring

impression that the perceived "Real World" is subjective for all living things.

 

I have been doing this so long, I am usually right on in guessing an exposure with no

meter in any kind of light 8 out of 10 times. I will sometimes shoot with out any form of

metering all day to feed this part of my soul, it's truly exhilarating.

 

I love the challenge of shooting slide film. When I nail it, I feel like Luke Skywalker in Star

Wars.

Milo, I understand the need to critique the form, light, and content. But do understand as a

true photojournalist, I am here to bear witness to, not to create. I had about 40 seconds to

make some 6 images and that was it. This particular image and all it's imperfections is the

one I chose.

 

40 seconds and then he closed the door, and the light was gone in another 20.

Daniel, and under the circumstances a wonderful job you did.

Hey! this is only ONE picture. While I have exceptions with it, I happen to like Daniel's portfolio and need to go out tomorrow and buy more Kodachrome while Walgreen's still has it and it can be developed.

It is good to see Velvia used in this kind of shot rather than in brilliant sunsets for a change. You had me fooled on the film on this one, but it is beautifully done and I can't see how you could have done much better in terms of tonal range, given what you were trying to achieve. The overall composition is very good, and the subject is interesting as well. Congratulations.

 

--Lannie

Wow! Daniel - you have taken one fine picture. I see it as two pictures in one the way it's

divided down the middle. Anybody who has a problem with this image is just flat out

jealous.

This photo is absolutely beautiful. I love the usage of shadows.

Someone in a Hasselblad group mentioned the difference between a painter and a photograph - Painters do not talk about their brushes.

 

Seeing that kind of images show me what can be done if the mind and heart is open and comes together with experience in 'handicraft' (sorry for my english).

 

Having that 40 sec - I think most of us would need 30 of them to see the chance, and much more to combine all of that what was spoken above into the correct motion of their hands resulting in an image. I just came back with two great images in my head, but not on a slide or SD, as I was too slow for all that.

 

Thank you Daniel for sharing - Ciao Axel

A perfect shot, lighting, mood - everything is just perfection. A pleasure to view. Rose