Fisherman's Gloves

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It is probably a question of personal affinity that I find the fishing boats on the pier in Krk so rewarding in terms of pictures. In spite of the small number of possible positions to photograph from I always find new things worth to be picked out.

Even the main winch offered new details again. Exposing and later on processing these images is a bit tricky as the red channel is often in danger of clipping, so dial down exposure compensation and do not "expose to the right" what would be my usual technique. Playing with layers in bibble5 then helps to bring out the details sufficiently.

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catching fish in the waves

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since my first official visit to batticaloa and kalmunai, fishermen were the subject of numerous shots, from beach overviews up to portraits, details of their catch and their tools. this time i brought two small albums as tokens of my gratitude for their acceptance of my photography.

trying to find the essence of the pictures, i am reviewing the raw files several times, judging back and forth which picture to pick and which to reject, also modifying details here and there.yesterdays posting included the scenery with the two men walking, which i had already posted here. the new version crops out the sky, and i like it much better now as for one thing the sky was a bit too rosy, but also because the lack of sky now gives a stronger impression of a vast and powerful ocean.

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landing the leviathan

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the recitations of the muezzin woke me up after a short night, but i was grateful for this invitation to start the new day early. my hotel was next to the beach - the tsunami at that time had not done much damage as the structure was new and sturdy concrete - so after 10 minutes i was out in the golden light. walking around, not yet decided on what to concentrate, i suddenly saw a scenery that reminded my very much of hemingways "the old man and the sea".

the presence of me photographing probably made the crowd surrounding the swordfish even bigger, and before negotiating the price they wanted group photos to be taken.

for roughly 170 US$ the trader made the deal, and soon after one of the fishermen came up and chopped away the non-marketable parts, leaving only the torso to be iced and kept for transport.

the crows were already waiting for the remainders of this beautiful animal, one of the fastest in the sea. ironically, while prices especially of the red-tipped-fin subspecies are high up for assumed aphrodisiac effects, in europe the meat would not be allowed to the market: swordfish collect great amounts of cadmium and quicksilver, and the older and bigger the specimen, the higher the concentration of the toxics

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fishermen at sunrise

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the beauty of sunrise again. the kitsch-or-not-kitsch debate i have decided for myself to be not-existing anymore: beauty is a superior principle, taste is something indivdual and nobody has to like or dislike what i happen to like. for me this beauty (and my activity of capturing it) has a high value of its own, otherwise i would not bother to overcome jet lag, face tmvp militias in the form of 16yr old boys wearing kalashnikovs (oh no, not terrorists, on the "good" side!) and walk to a beach lugging around 2 kg of glass and electronics. so much for motivation.

even the klichee-like sunrise with palms: i don't want to resist. those early morning moments, between night and day, are mysterious, powerful, promising, loaded with energy, still quiet but already carrying the noise of the day - they are just great.

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silvery sea

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if there is a single one photographic situation that i do like most, it's backlight in all its variations. it gives so much opportunity for drama, for hiding distracting things, for abstracting from a world full of diverting colors into the essence of shapes and silhouettes. in the picture above as well as in the prior "kalmunai fishermen" the beauty of form is intensified.

in grey past a.k.a. my film days, backlight was always difficult, specifically when shooting slides. in my experience, dslrs are well suited for backlight especially in situations where you can easily chimp or bracket. and my sony a700 seems to keep a lot of highlight information in its raw files for discovery with a suitable tool, lightzone in my case.

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