After descending from the Amber Fort at Jaipur, we found a few people in the street to photograph. This gentleman was happy to have his photograph taken. Problem with such shots are the dark skin, the face in shadow and the sunlight on the white costume – it’s easy to lose detail. Careful manipulation of the RAW image and adjustment in Photoshop permitted acceptable detail to be retained in both the highlight and shadow areas. In the printed version, it’s possible to make out the fabric pattern in the turban.
This gentleman seemed to be eking out a living on the streets in Havana by selling roasted nuts. We couldn’t communicate but the camera and a small tip told him what I wanted.
As in the UK, many marriages happen at weekends and then all the couples seem to descend on the main squares in Havana to be photographed. This was one such couple.
This was the front door of a house in a back street behind the hotel in Havana. I was photographing the street scene and saw this lady approaching the security grille (as it’s hot in Havana, doors are normally left open for ventillation but intruders are kept out by these grilles). I turned my camera towards the grille just as she turned to look at me. I don’t think she was too happy to have her image taken! I was very lucky to have got both her eyes in the shot.
This was a 1940s recreation event at Rushden in the Transport Museum. Since it was close to Remembrance Day, they were holding a service on the Sunday and a number of verterans turned out. This gentleman kindly posed for me by the steps that lead down from the railway platform to the street. He wore his badges, cap and medal with pride, and rightly so.
I liked the child looking through the open window and also the adults looking from behind the child or in the seat in front. Shot in colour but I feel that it works better in monochrome.
The lads in the street were only too willing to pose for photographs. White tourists seem to have a kind of celebrity status maybe because they would be expecting a sweet or a pencil after being photographed. The colour version was too distracting – the boys were wearing red and yellow that caught the eye – removing the colour (and adding a hint of warmth) focussed the attention on the group of boys rather than what they were wearing.
I saw this gentleman smoking this cigar in a small park in the centre of Trinidad. I approached him and pointed to the camera suggesting that I might want to take a photograph or two. He nodded, and so I did. The background was somewhat cluttered and so I tidied it up. The cigar was not in the plane of focus and so was soft so I dropped in another cigar from a photo of a tobacco farmer. The finishing touch was to add a little smoke courtesy of Photoshop.
When Cuban girls reach 15 they are dressed up and photographed and/or videod looking their best. This girl was posing for the photographer in the cathedral square in downtown Havana and not wanting to miss an opportunity, I took some shots for myself.