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Old Monk



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Contest Finalist in The Minimalist Marketplace Project
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Behind The Lens

Location

When I was traveling through China, I had a chance to visit Tibet. And while I spent most of the time with the group, I had a chance to explore Lhasa on my own one day, and I decided on visiting Sera Monastery. The monastery is usually outside the normal tourist circle, so it was mostly me and the monks.

Time

I made it to monastery around mid-afternoon, with a sun high up and shining over the roofs of the structures.

Lighting

Nothing overly special was required from the light perspective, I just needed a clean light to showcase contrast between white and red.

Equipment

The shot was taken with Nikon 5100 with 18-200mm lens (great all purpose travel lens).

Inspiration

I am a big fan of people watching, and seeing an old monk in bright red cloths performing a ritual walk in front of white wall that looks just as old, that contrast itself perfectly reflected the time in my mind.

Editing

Very minimal post-processing, only light color cleanup for better contrast.

In my camera bag

I generally travel with my Nikon 5100, defaulting to 18-200mm all purpose lens with 35mm on the standby. Depending on a travel location, I may take my SB-700 AF Speedlight, but I usually prefer to shoot without flash.

Feedback

Tibet was a great place for those who enjoy people watching. Native features is a mix of Mongolian, Chinese and some other traits, which produces fantastic portraits, and the culture itself (clothes, buildings, etc) takes from the same cultures, resulting in very colorful setups. If interested specifically in monk-related shoots, I would recommend traveling off the beaten path and visiting less famous monasteries. Those are significantly more authentic, and gives you a chance to capture real action. As far as the shot itself, two things are important - vision and patience. Try imagining how the final shot will look like, after cropping and post processing, when you're setting up and when you do - wait for the moment. I saw this monk walking up from a distance and sat there waiting for him to align perfectly against the wall without anyone else around. And probably just as important, don't be stingy on the number of shots you take. Sometimes you need to take 100s of pictures of the same things to get that perfect shot.

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