Sunday saris at the Taj Mahal

Try to see this larger...

After having been properly overwhelmed by the beauty of the Taj Mahal,

during my recent trip to India, I just decided to sit on the ground

and watch life go by... such as those young ladies on a Sunday trip.

 

Street photography has never been my cup of tea, and comments and

criticisms are much welcome. In particular, about the shutter speed,

which here I've chosen at 1/60.

Very nice...

Great composition and sparkling colors! I love it!

I discover where you have disappeared all this time each time you post a new picture, while listening to Dire Strait's "On Every Street" ... ;-)

 

This is another fine image of yours, both movement and static are depicted, and you know I love contrasts. Maybe a little rework on the horizontal / vertical lines to correct optical aberration ? Well, no matter, I am teasing insignificant-almost-non-"issues" here.

Don't think I'm bothered by the blur, the colour seems more important.

 

My first thought was the woman in the demim jacket and jeans surrounded by the more traditional dress as well as the differences in colour. I keep wanting to crop things out, though. Not sure about the arch on the right. Cropping may get rid of most of the purple woman, but enough could be left to keep the impression of the demim woman being surrounded.

 

Also not sure about the pillar on the left. It seems like a bit of a barrier for the women to walk through. I wondered if cropping the left(and maybe uptop to keep the length of the photo), creating some 'open' shapes in the square and rectangles would help the flow of the picture and the journey of the group.

 

Of course, any crop is going to take away from the vastness of the space, which I quite like. Just some thoughts. What would a portrait shot with them directly under the arch have looked like?

Salvatore, this is really a great shot! What struck me first was the wonderful color against the monochromatic background. It almost feels like a stage set or something. I also love the placement of the group of women in the frame. Leaving so much space above them gives an impressive sense of scale. I do agree with the suggestion to correct for the distortion, an esy fix in PS.

 

I would hate to see the woman in purple at the back of the group cropped out.

 

Thanks for taking us all on your travels!

Hashim, Doeke, thanks.

 

Lionel, that's a nice song. I am happy you like the girl-motion and stately-background contrast, that was exactly what I was going for, here. I've a few more shot in this series elaborating on the theme, since I spent most of the day around the Taj Mahal. As for the distortion, I am learning the hard way that even though the focal lenght in digital is the same of a 50mm (52, actually), my new 35mm does beahave as a wide angle... OK, I should know better when the laws of physics come into play

 

Stephan, I might agree on getting off the left-hand-side column, was it not for the single one being behind the girls being the only heavily-patterned object left in the frame. At any rate, being annoyed by the distortion, I think I might really let it go. Once I will be scraping the bottom of the barrel for images after having posted my favourites, I will surely revisit this. As for the girl in denim, that is just one of the aspect which make traveling in India great...there is not a single instant that an apparent contraddiction does not scream at your eyes. Still, she's holding hands with the purple-dressed one, and I cannot let the latter go.

Finally, you might be very right for the portrait shot... but re-polarising or dialing in an exposure correction (the white surface offset of 1.5 stops things) and turning the camera all at once while they walked past was too much for my sleep-deprived, heat-cooked and jet-lagged brain...

 

Laurie, thanks for your comments and support against the purple-lady cropping! The distortion annoies me, as mentioned above... and there will be more shots from this (and back-logged) trips coming up... I've still several thousands from six years to sort through. Should take an holiday just to do that, and not travel to produce many more still...

Dr. Mele, I'm not in favor of cropping this, but I'm in Hawaii and have spent the evening under palms and moonlight sipping tropical drinks so I'm probably not qualified to comment at all. However, even with the previous disclaimer, this is an almost surreal shot--it's as if the colorful people were pasted into this ethereal scene in PS. Keep the India photos coming!!!

Hi Salvatore, Taj Mahal is a very bright place. I would add more light to the picture. This would make the almost white marble more natural and also lighten the girls. The timing is ok if you want to see the movements. The position of the group of girls is perfect. They walk into the picture (rule 101). What about having the full arc in the photo and correct the distortions in PS? These are not saris. Karl

Dr Brown, it was a surreal spot altogether. Actually, I'm still thinking all of India was surreal in many aspects.

 

Karl, the warming up of the marble (through a warming filter) is intentional...but I see your point. The full arc could not fit in the horizontal framing which is needed for rule 101 (private joke of ours)... since main movement is horizontal, so is the camera. I was already at the limit of the upper terrace of the Taj, no hope of getting more in the 35mm. Actually, I thought of you up there thinking that an Xpan shot of the sunday crowds in front of the marble would have been great. P.S. I know these are not saris, but a title as "Sunday salwar kameez, occasional woolen sweaters, and dupatta scarves at the Taj Mahal" was too long...wasn't it?

Salvatore, I hope you don't mind. I was curious to see how easily the perspective distortion could be remedied. Here's the result, it was a simple perspective correction and required very little cropping.

how nice, the building seems huge and then these colourful girls rushing in, one can almost hear them chattering.

Laurie, I do not mind. On the other hand thanks for having taken the time: the shot improves with the perspective correction. Seems I cannot do it in Elments though, and I am too lazy to challenge the Gimp with that. As I mentioned above, once I get to the bottom of the barrel with the pictures from India I will start reworking them, and this will get its suggested improvements.

 

Andrea, the building is indeed huge -and magnificent- and there was an interesting contrast between the way it stood -stately- and the voices building one on top of the other.

I even would not call it street, but genre. And its original to capture (real) Indians in front. A treasure as a whole.

Past and present beautifully captured. The ladies are not wearing 'saris'. These are called 'salwar' and 'kameez'. One girl is wearing jeans. Beautiful composition.

Daily... do not try to make me blush (it's pretty difficult)!

 

A.K. your opinion is valuable to me: I found your country so overwhelming that often I could not even take pictures... information overload for my brain. As for the title, as I mentioned a couple of posts above in reply to Karl, I know these are not saris (and the girl in jeans is perfect in there). Hovewer a title like: "Sunday salwar kameez, occasional woolen sweaters, and dupatta scarves at the Taj Mahal" would have been less eye-catching!

The perspective correction does improve things. I think the direction I was trying for in my crop was to turn it from a travel shot, to more of a street shot, but not shooting street myself... I wouldn't know where the boundary lies.

 

I like the large title... a large title for a large building :-)