Pic(k) of the week 8: THE RED DOOR AND THE COW - VARANASI, INDIA

After attending Vineet Vohra's "How to Street" workshop as part of the Xposure photo-festival in Sharjah last November, I knew I had to go to Varanasi, India. Vineet, like many other Indian Street Photographers, has done a lot of great work in Varanasi, the Northeastern city along the holy river Ganges (Ganga in Hindi).

Well last week, I finally managed to tick off Varanasi of the bucket list. I spend almost an entire week by myself, shooting the colorful streets and riverbanks of the Ganges. 

Once I complete the review of the recently announced Fuifilm X-H1 camera (check out my Instagram for more), I will be dedicating an entire blogpost to this amazing Street/Travel photography adventure!  For now, lets have a look of one of my favorite images of the trip which was shot the very last day...

The image below was shot midday (who says you can't shoot in harsh light?) in a narrow alleyway. As I approached the street corner, there were two other photographers who were clearly also drawn to the exciting light and the red door. After a brief chat, they both left but I decided to stay a bit longer. I could see there was definitively some potential at this place. 

When a cow appeared at my left, I knew I had to act fast. I especially like how the cow is looking at its own shadow and how the person walking in from the right, adds to the composition. It also adds to the urban myth that bulls and cows are attracted to red. Well, it seems completely wrong as all cattle is colorblind to red anyway. Don't ask me how they found out but this one remained calm!


Image details:
  • Fujifilm X-T2 with the XF23 f2 lens
  • ISO 200, 1/1000s, f4
  • RAW development in Lightroom CC using the Classic Chrome camera profile     
  • Photoshop CC 2018 to straighten the door frame a bit
While waiting for the extended blogpost about my visit to Varanasi, please visit the link here

Remember: "Street Photography is like fishing, you never know what the catch of the day will bring".

BJORN







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