Under the African Sun, a photo from Kouffo, South

Photographer's Note

Back to Dogbo and sunny pictures!
While Benin is a quite well educated country (more than 95% of the children go to school), during holidays many young people help their parents working in the fields. And when something has to be carried, it's always easier to put it on the head!

I hadn't much choice for my compo, the child was pretty far from me (zoom x12) and walking quite fast, and many people walking in the street passed in front of my camera. I would have liked to have the complete shadow but didn't manage. I have added contrast and a bit of green, which I discovered enhanced the details of the pic.

Retour à Dogbo et à des photos plus ensoleillées!
Bien que le Bénin soit un pays très scolarisé (plus de 95% des enfants vont à l'école), pendant les vacances beaucoup de jeunes aident leurs parents pour les travaux des champs. Et lorsqu'il faut transporter quelque chose, c'est toujours plus pratique de le mettre sur la tête!

Mes possibilités de composition étaient assez limitées, l'enfant était assez loin de moi (zoom x12) et marchait assez vite, et beaucoup de gens marchant dans la rue passaient devant moi. J'aurais aimé pouvoir cadrer l'intégralité de son ombre mais je n'ai pas réussi. J'ai ajouté du contraste et un peu de vert, car j'ai découvert que cela faisait ressortir les détails de la photo.

Nottinghill, designsoul, Vagabond, alainh, bibiweb, gaby, vbourrut, xevi, alejandroguzman, saamb ha contrassegnato questa nota come utile

Critiques | Translate

Nottinghill (1089) 2005-08-09 12:48

I like colors and the hot sun apparently visible on your photo. the sharpness and overall image quality is surprisingly good taking into accont the zoom used. is this a camera with shock compensation ?
thanks for sharing

Vagabond (5848) 2005-08-09 12:58

Hard work. Good capture ..

designsoul (17843) 2005-08-09 13:00

Well, Anthony, if you didn't have much time to compose the shot the way you would have chosen under ideal circumstances, you still took a wonderful picture with a strong point of view and magical African colours. The strong point of not having the shadow of the boy is that this way he is more monumental, making the image also stronger! Very nice shot, bravo.
Sarolta

alainh (33209) 2005-08-09 13:10

bonsoir Anthony
une jolie prise de vue. le coup de zoom etail la bonne solution. peut-être aurais tu pu aussi garder l'ombre du bambin.
amicalement
alain

gaby (19819) 2005-08-09 16:37

Hi Anthony parfaitement réussi avec un splendide cadrage dans le sens du mouvement - très belles couleurs et joli cadre -
Bravo c'est une grande photo
Merci et bonne soirée
Gaby

bibiweb (8) 2005-08-10 3:36

Salut Anthony,
Compte tenu qu'elle a été prise sur le vif, c'est une belle image! J'aime les couleurs vives et le personnage est bien cadré avec un léger décentrement.
Bien vu!
Brigitte

vbourrut (32482) 2005-08-20 11:56

Salut Anthony,
Une image interessate, belles couleurs sur un cadrage bien pensé. Je ne suis pas un grand fan de lisseré en couleur, mais c'est une affaire de goût :-)

A bientot

Vincent

oochappan (4880) 2005-09-06 21:27

I was doubting with a very good portrait(3ltle birds) but choose this one as it is very pleasnt to see in a sober compo and colors are great.

alejandroguzman (4684) 2005-10-22 3:20

Hi Anthony:

SUPERB picture.
I really like the composition of this DAILY LIFE scene. Just perfect.

Great DOF, colors, definition and the light.
U really captured very well the movement in this boy.

hugs
alejandro

saamb (1008) 2006-05-20 17:07

Anthony,
your note is very interesting. we see a beautiful photo. very warm colors and a boy with brushwood in walking. good composition and frame. i like this
SAAM

goodwill (4274) 2006-05-24 22:16

This reminds me of the Gurukul days of ancient India, when the students would leave the parental homes and live with guruji(teacher) upto the age of 16-20. The schools were in the forests, far away from the madding crowd.The students were taught
Mathematics
Fine Arts
Weapon Training
Meditation
Scriptures, their meter
Political Science
The language was Sanskrit.
The most astonishing and most interesting thing to know-neither students nor their parents paid anything to the teacher. The teachers always bore the expenses. The sutdents were supposed to serve the teacher in every way , be it looking after the cattle, "bringing wood from the forest" for sacrificial fire etc. Till today we worship Sun as was worshipped in ancient times in many parts of Africa.
Seeing your snap reminded me my own ancient and majestic culture. It seems the young boy is carrying the wood to the Kitchen.
Now the position has reveresed. Teachers have become professional. Cost of education has risen to higher levels.
A report by UNO says that an average Indian spens almost 50% of his income on the education of his children.

Thanks once more for rekondling in me the sheer majestic past of my own country India.

So keep it up and a bundle of thanks for sharing such a master piece.

Regards

Rajeev