A small wave..........from a faraway place.

There is a story about which I will post in a few days. What do

you think of the image itself before I tell you the story. Louis

great depth

I like it!

I

Brilliant shot! I like the selective DOF, the colors...

Great shot - not sure if the two dark borders work positively, but it definitively caught my eye.

How about the story now? :-)

Digitally put together, isn't it? I'm not sure you could get this kind of perspective with a 200mm.

A great photo, digitally commposed or not, doesn't matter.

I promise I have the neg exactly as you see it, the only thing I did was to blur the background a bit to create emphasis on the child. See the story below.Louis

I was on a trip to Morocco, through the Atlas Mountains. It was about for 4.30 in the afternoon after a hot and very dusty journey of many hours and we were rushing to get to our accommodation for the night. We had driven along the mountainside on a track which was barely wide enough for our landdrover. We hadnt seen any other vehicles for over two hours thank god, as there was absolutely no where to pass. The edge of the track, which was near the summit of the mountain, dropped straight down to the valley floor 100s of feet below. The journey had been long and very tiring and our greatest concern was that we might still be on the track as night fell. We turned a corner and came to a small village; they had heard us coming and all the children came running out to stand alongside the road. We slowed down and handed sweets out the window to all the children. We could see ahead that there were other children who were further along the track but way below us. They saw us and started to scramble up the mountainside in their bare feet and by the time we reached the point above them they had scrambled and onto the track to get their sweets as well.

 

During the entire journey I had been sitting beside the driver at the front and I could open my window without everybody being choked with the dust stirred up by the big wheels. Therefore I had been able to take shots whilst the landrover was moving. (I use the Canon and had the focus set to follow focus, which means that as you sweep the camera around things come in and out of focus automatically).

 

We came out of the village at the start of a quite long U bend and the others could see a small child down below the track at a hut on the other side of the bend. She started very quickly scrambling up the steep hillside of sharp shale and rocks. Unfortunately we were faster and she had just got up over the edge when she realised that she wasnt going to make it over to meet us.

 

As you can see from the photograph she just stopped dead at the edge of the steep mountainside and raised her hand to give a small and very tentative wave (of hello and goodbye), and with that we were past and away in a cloud of dust. Life can be so fast, I only ever saw that small child through the viewfinder of the camera and even then for the briefest of moments but even the image of her wave was one I knew I would not forget. I was sad that after all her effort that she didnt get her small present and now the photo is a sad reminder of that evening. We arrived at our stop for the night after nightfall and later as we went to bed the boss told us to hurry as he was switching the electricity generator off in 10 minutes.

Louis

 

 

I find the "un-natural" blur distracting from otherwise very well captured moment.

Is this better Mark?

When a piece of art has what it takes to deserve being named so, you don´t need any story to get the message. It´s good to know what happenned, how the shot was taken, etc. but I felt the same about the photo before reading the cover story.

Great!.

Doing some crop would improve the rating, I would crop to the sides and little in the bottom

I didn't crop the top as I wanted to let you see the mountains and the evening light coming through. I thought the crop at the bottom was already enough as I wanted to create some distance/depth from the child. louis

The background blur seems quite abrupt around the edges.

Also, if the background is so blur, then the forgeound should be some what blur, too.

Yes, I like the "no blur" version more as well. its more natural.

Yes Louis, in my opinion it is better.

Color looks nice but it's not clear to me why you chose to include so much of the surroundings if they are out of focus. I would probably have zoomed in much closer on the subject or brought her (him?) closer. Just a suggestion.

I tried masking both sides of the "no blur version" on the screen and like it better. Just a humble opinion.

 

How is this -Cropped and no blur. I still prefer the first image I put up.

louis

I love this! Thats all I can say!

very good

Very interesting DOF, digitally or not. I find this a very intrigueing shot!

Love the crop and the blur. Maybe a little to strong on the right (blur), but good job.

Greatb composition. Depth of field is