"They shall not grow old......"

[davidedric]

Re-visiting some older images. Any C&C most welcome - wasn't sure how best to present this.

A bit of background. These are the graves of British soldiers who died building the Burma Railway. The cemetery is just a little way from the notorious Bridge Over The River Kwai, which is very peaceful now. One thing that struck me were the differences from the war graves in Northern France after the D-Day landings. There, they are mostly young men - I have this image of an Ohio farm boy who had never seen the ocean before, cut down within minutes or hours of landing. Here, these are mostly older soldiers, perhaps less able to survive the privations.

Dave

[Kaye Leggett]

That's a very moving photo and I think a perfect capture

[Kodiak]

•
Hi Dave,

Though technically ok, this shot, IMO, would be somewhat better if started
say from the top left to bottom right for its compositional aspect.

[Shadowman]

Nicely composed.

[davidedric]

Though technically ok, this shot, IMO, would be somewhat better if started
say from the top left to bottom right for its compositional aspect.

Many thanks.

You are quite right that it is compositionally stronger (though unfortunately I have to crop rather a lot away to get the angle). On the other hand, it becomes a different image too. I was trying to give the impression of the line of graves stretching forever. Interesting

[marlunn]

I prefer the original - it evokes the thought of a railway line going into the distance and that was what they died for

[ied]

I much prefer the first one.

Irene

[John 2]

First one for me as well Dave.

[NorthernFocus]

Definitely a moving image when one knows what's behind it. The angular composition doesn't work when cropped from the original version. It would have to be shot that way originally I think. Had it been shot with a really wide angle lens from a low perspective and from the front side of the tombstones with foreground in lower right and extending to infinity in upper left it would have looked totally different than the crop.

All that said, I agree with the prior comment that shooting it in this manner does make it resemble a railroad. Nice job.

[Kodiak]

I was trying to give the impression of the line of graves stretching forever. Interesting!

Dave, are you trying to tell me that I drink too much? ;-)

The suggestion was for "prior to shutter release" and not for rendition.
I certainly must have poorly explained myself. This rendition does not
work since all the perspective is taking the viewer straight to hell! This
the kind of decision to be considered and taken at composing and prior
to shutter release. After, it only a suggestion because there is nothing
to do any more.

The impression of the line of graves stretching forever would still be there
if composed with a diagonal prior to shutter release. I don't drink so much!

[Mike Buckley]

In the first one, consider cropping at the bottom to eliminate the bright red flowers. Also consider cropping at the sides so the lowest marker or at least the dirt fills the bottom of the frame.

This is a difficult scene to photograph. Perhaps next time get much lower, fill the bottom of the frame with a grave marker, and let the enormous number of graves be displayed in the distance. I'm a fan of diagonals, so I agree with Kodiak that a diagonal might work especially well in the capture.

[davidedric]

Dave, are you trying to tell me that I drink too much? ;-)

No, but I think maybe I do I realise what you intended, I was just playing around there was no point in posting. Sorry.

Thanks for the other suggestions, which I will certainly take heed of. This was taken almost five years ago - I hope I'd do better nowadays.

Talking of poignancy, this is one of the individual graves. I took it because he was much the same age as my father (they weren't all older men), and was a member of the Manchester regiment based just a stone's throw from where we lived.

My father also enlisted in the infantry, and spent the war in India, but in South East Asia HQ. Why? Because when he left school at fourteen and went to work for local government his boss insisted that everyone learned shorthand and typing, and in the days before computers soldiers with those skills were very rare and vital. Otherwise, well it just makes you stop and think

[dabhand]

The difference between #1 and #2 clearly demonstrates the difference between how strong a composition may be considered if one is creating / looking at it with a real understanding of the subject or if one is assessing it purely as a technical creation.

Forget the film (bridge over the river kwai), the real soldiers involved suffered tremendous privitations and though perhaps not intentionally, Dave's image is very strong and emotionally very moving - IMHO the only way he could have made it better would have been to include even more markers.

steve