At Prayer

[davidc]

Another shot from a walk around Little India, I was careful to not take any photos at all until I saw others doing the same. I went for an angle that highlighted the angles in his pose, he kept moving around a lot, changing the angle he was bending and also his hands, even going so far as to prostrate himself completely at various stages. I kept the shrine (or whatever it was, apologies for my ignorance) to give a hint at what he was praying towards.

Even though it was during the day, inside the temple was relatively dark necessitating f/2.8 to achieve a reasonable shutter speed.

6d
24-70mm @ 61mm
1/125th sec
f/2.8
iso 100


At Prayer by cedarsphoto, on Flickr

[Nina]

Hi David. Busy perusing your street photography I see even in an Indian temple. You are braver than me.

I would not be happy to present this image the way you did. Whilst I think the angle works well, the composition does not and that plastic bag is an eyesore. Inclusion of part of a female figure on the right is a distraction in my view. Do I sound like a camera club judge? Sorry!

[Mike Farley]

Hi David

I am also going to side with Nina on this one and it just has not worked for me. Too much space along the bottom and the post coming out of the man's body are both negatives and the carrier bag and piece of paper next to it are messy distractions. Even putting it at a jaunty angle has not helped.

Where I think that it really fails is lack of engagement with the viewer. Yes, you have snapped someone at their devotions, but it needs something more. Perhaps we need to see the man's face and/or maybe some more of the context. One of your favourite photographers, Martin Parr, says that he shoots around 1,500 images for every one which he uses. That staitistic gives an indication of just how rarely all the elements in a street scene come together.