Old woman

[Manfred M]

I caught this old woman with a cane, leaning against a wall in the town of Barsana, India

[rpcrowe]

Nice capture of a sad situation....

[Urbanflyer]

Nicely done--I do not see it as sad--clothes are clean and in order, body seems clean and relaxed. ground she is sitting on is not a mess. I can feel the warmth of the wall seeping into old bones. But that is my bias!!

[skitterbug]

I like this pic! The colors are beautiful and the older woman, even in rest, looks like she has a pleasing personality. I wonder if she had been out for a walk, became tired and decided to nap a bit? What it would be to feel safe, leaning against a wall without worry. Thank you for sharing!

I caught this old woman with a cane, leaning against a wall in the town of Barsana, India

[Shadowman]

Nice shot.

[RBSinTo]

Manfred,
I like the shot as presented: carefully composed and well exposed.
And the subject's expression lends a mood of serenity to the image.
My only nit with it is the inclusion of the bit of busy background in the upper left corner. A step or two to the left would have eliminated that and given you a perfectly clean neutral wall as a background to her colorful robes.
As it is, I'd suggest darkening that background area to make it less noticeable.
Robert

[Manfred M]

Manfred,
I like the shot as presented: carefully composed and well exposed.
And the subject's expression lends a mood of serenity to the image.
My only nit with it is the inclusion of the bit of busy background in the upper left corner. A step or two to the left would have eliminated that and given you a perfectly clean neutral wall as a background to her colorful robes.
As it is, I'd suggest darkening that background area to make it less noticeable.
Robert

Under normal circumstances I would agree with you Robert, but these were not normal circumstances, as Holi festivities were going on. Barsana has a population of just over 9,000 people and during the festivities an estimated half million people descend on the town, so the narrow streets are extremely crowded, even though it does no look that way in the shot. I could not have stepped back because there was a rush of people behind me. The left part of the image you pointed out was a person (actually lost of people) heading down a side street,

Framing the shot was no easier. The camera was in a full rain hood, with access to the controls through elasticized cuffs, so only the front element of the lens was exposed to the environment. The rain hood resulted in it not being easy to look through the viewfinder. The was made more difficult because of the moisture in the hood from perspiration (temperatures were in the low 30C range) and the exterior was coated with colour water and brightly coloured gulal. These were the worst shooting conditions I've ever worked under.

This shot was taken of me by my wife early in the day at one of the town squares, where the crowds were a bit thinner. The worst of the crowds were in the old city up towards the main temple.





It wasn't quite as busy as this scene, but it was getting there (i.e. there were larger gaps in the crowd), but the streets were narrower too.