The Goddess Kali
Mar, 2023Views
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Behind The Lens
Location
This photograph was taken in Val David, Quebec. We snowshoed through the woods to see an Ice Cave we visited 15 years ago. It was difficult for me having never snowshoed. I was way over dressed and along the way I tripped and almost injured my eye with a walking stick I broke off from a tree.Time
We arranged to rendezvous near the location at 1pm in the afternoon due my friends schedule. Not the best of times for capturing magical light but this was the plan.Lighting
Well, the lighting was nothing special because it was midday. At least the sun was in a good position for the photograph. I was not expecting much because the ice cave did not form or we were at the wrong place but in the right vicinity. Photographing with reflective snow everywhere makes exposures difficult. You have to overexpose for the shadows. I was photographing with the cameras bracketing mode with three exposures; a stop between each exposure. Plus my camera was set to overexpose by one stop for good measure.Equipment
I was only carrying my Sony A7c with the kit lens. I figured 28 mm wide would be wide enough for the photo I was hoping to take inside the ice cave. I wish though I had a 24mm wide angle lens or a 16-28mm lens for good measure.Inspiration
I was out there as always to take a weatherpix for CTV Montreal's weather section of the broadcast. I was not expecting or even imagining taking a photograph like this. It just happen as I took several bracketed shots and got very lucky with how my friend Liz moved her arms during the exposures.Editing
Because of the different exposures between the photographs I had to burn the arms in to make it look consistant. Then touch up a few aspects of the snow to make the image the best it could be.In my camera bag
I am rather broke these days and cannot afford much for equipment because of the extreme costs of the different lens for this Sony Camera. I also made the wrong choice of buying the kit lens but could not afford the others lens I would prefer to have. If I do bring my camera bag with me I only carry lens cleaning tissues.Feedback
Photographing in the sun on snow is really difficult and you need to bracket to get the right exposure in the end. This photograph was not what I was expecting to take and just happened. I saw this immediately as an interesting image because of my love of India. I immediately thought of the goddess Kali who has many arms in many of the images I have seen of her. This photograph is a fluke. I was not even thinking of this when taking this image but want to do more things of this nature in the future now that I captured this unexpectedly.
