Shrine statues - Kamakura, Japan

This has always been a favorite photo of mine. Any comments would be appreciated.

I love this kind of photo. Was this photoshopped? (can't believe it was such a black and white scene naturally) Wouldn't change a thing about it.

I did use Photoshop to desaturate the background. Though I rarely use Photoshop to do much more than adjust contrast, levels, etc. - in this case, I wanted the dressed statue stand out as much as possible. This is the full frame, full-color shot... what do you think?

I like the shot although I would have preferred a better DOF. I know that's difficult for a close up like yours. I wonder why you placed the Mickey Mouse key holder near your hero. Is there any message here?

 

I also liked the lighted pebbles in the right corner of your original photo. If you wanted the colored character to really come forward why didn't you cropped the image around him, with only a few of the other characters?

 

I cropped the original that way and attached the shot. What do you think?

 

Anton,

Thank you for your comments, but your crop is a little tight in my opinion The reason I croppped to where I did was to keep as many of the background statues in the picture as possible while featuring only one "dressed" statue (which I emphasized even further with the desaturation). I didn't place the Mickey Mouse there - it was the reason I took the picture. I believe these statues represent prayers for lost children, and the Mickey Mouse keychain was placed as an offering of sorts. (I didn't know this at the time, or I probably would have felt uncomfortable taking the picture.)

Thanks again.

I think I would have liked the shot a lot more without Mickey but I still liked it a lot.

 

Very nice concept and not too badly executed.

 

It seem a little blurred to my screen. i hope that is just the digital version of the shot.

 

If you were able to move the pieces I would have gently removed the dark line between the little fellows as I find that to my eye it is a little distracting yet without a purpose.

 

 

Mike Sea