Ganesh

While visiting an old royal palace in India, I was struck by the

strong effect of the good-luck bearing Ganesh brightly painted in

orange to the side of one of the entrances, many meters below me.

 

Does this composition through the stonework of the window screen work

for you? Comments and criticism are most welcome!

Excellent composition,and play of light & shade. I admire your eyes and perfect exposure. Bravo,Salvatore. I tried but could never achieve this result.

Salvatore, i really like this. almost like a jigsaw. i want to peer through and see whats there and then nice splash of colour. very nice.

A.K. Thanks. You know your comments on the picture of your land mean a lot to me. To achieve this -technically- I did two things. (1) went closer to the hole and exposed for the outside. (2) focussed with the DOF scale on the lens body, accounting for the different circles of confusion of 35mm and digital. If any of these statements sounds obscure, let me know, I'll be happy to clarify.

 

Barry, I had not thought of that as a jigsaw...but your vision of it is interesting. Thanks for your support.

Beautiful composition, as said before is a great jigsaw so well seen and composed. One truly wants to peek through it and see the other side.

 

Great shot.

I can't find a reference to the photo on the internet now, but when I saw this photo I immediately was reminded of the fashion photograph of a young woman looking through a veil of black lace. Do you know what the one I mean?

 

The stone 'veil' creates a sense of mystery in this place. The only thing maybe is that the whole wall and Ganesh seems to be leaning down to the bottom right corner which is a bit unsettling.

Regards, Lucy

Really great eye and beautifully composed. Works for me.

Some belated thanks and answers.

 

Marco, one of my ideas was at once to attract attention to the statue and -more difficult- to limit the fact that its screaming orange commanded lot of attention by itself. I see this works for you, and I am glad for it.

 

Lucy, I had not thought of the veil analogy. It is very interesting in some senses, since one might imagine the stone "courtain" in these old window to act exactly like that... protecting from the outside glance and offering some shadow from the fierce sun. As for the leaning-back of the background, you are most right...and I was most wrong in my lens purchase as I hate the distortion of the 35mm f/2, the only lens I carried in India.

 

Andrew, thanks for your support.

This certainly works for me. The picture has an added impact if you consider this might have been one of the few views a bride in purdah might have had of the outside world. Interesting to read your comment about depth of field: it had not occured to me that the circle of confusion would be different in digital. I suppose this means the hyperfocal distance indicator can not be relied on.

George, thanks for your comment. Indeed the vision through a veil, or rather a burka, had occurred to me when working out this image.

As for the circle of confusion, is indeed different, and the hyperfocal distance you read is bound to be off (you get LESS in focus than you think) by about 1 1/3 stop... I am still furious for not having realised it earlier.

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