boats, boats and more boats, Varanasi.

Boats, boats and more boats! A recurring, and fairly obvious, theme on the River Ganges at Varanasi. Today I present a selection of shots with the boating theme, each one a little different from the others.

Row of boats, Varanasi.

Whilst the repetition of these boats lined up one next to another initially drew my eye,  it’s the presence of the human figure that helps to make the image.   What was the man doing?   Well, it’s a little hard to tell from the picture,  but he was tending to a fishing line that was hanging over the side.

Boats at water’s edge, River Ganges, Varanasi.

Not as many boats,  and no human element,  but I liked the presence of the dog quite nonchalantly wandering through the shot giving the image a quirky sense.

Stepping between boats, River Ganges at Varanasi.

Timing!   I noticed this man walking about on one of the boats and anticipated him stepping from one to the other.   A good case for having the camera at the ready with focus acquired and appropriate shutter speed and aperture set.   Given that the image was captured with the sun high in the sky,  it required some adjustment in processing to recover some of the shadow detail.

Boating on the Ganges, Varanasi.

Once again,  this is an image where I was drawn to the human element present.    The final image,  however,  owes a good deal to careful post-processing based on a blending of two different RAW conversions of the same file in order to get a satisfying balance between the sky and the foreground.

Boat eye, Varanasi.

Finally,  no people,  no dogs,  just some interesting details.    Again a bit of thought was put into the processing with selective sharpening and a subtle vignette to hopefully draw the viewer’s eye to where I want it to go.

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Carrie says: 27 July, 2010 at 2:56 pm

Well Kevin my eyes were drawn to certain things but on photo #2 guess what they were drawn to. You have a dog. They were drawn to all the other proper places on the other photos. Loving all your wonderful captures. Carrie