VICTORIAN SUNRISE - SINGLE EXPOSURE

Victoria Memorial Sunrise, Kolkata India

I have shared a few HDR photos of Victoria Memorial in the past (see previous two posts), but this is the first single exposure I have shared.

WHAT DO YOU THINK?  DO YOU PREFER THE HDR OR SINGLE EXPOSURE?

I'm amazed at how quickly my processing techniques evolve.  I always think my most newly processed photos look the best, and any time I re-process something I usually like the new version better than the old.  In some ways processing is similar to writing, and the first version you make is just a first draft, which gets better and better with each revision.

Can you spot the sun in this sunrise?

Photo taken Jan 12, 2012

VICTORIAN SUNRISE

Victoria Memorial Sunrise, Kolkata India

Continuing with the story from my previous post, this photo was taken with Nini standing directly to the left of the camera so that it could not be seen by the guards at the main entrance and in the middle of the grounds.  By the time the sun was this high more than 500 morning walkers were getting their exercise walking around the huge park within the gates of the Victoria Memorial.  Some were meditating, others playing badminton or frisbee, and there were several workout groups of mostly men doing stretches, sit ups, push ups and jumping jacks.  It was an older crowd, the average age was probably around 45 or 50.  It was very cool to see so many people using the beautiful park early in the morning.  Even with all of the walkers the park is so big that it was not crowded at all. In fact, I don't think you can spot any people in this photo, even in Original size.  In comparison, the crowd at sunset was massive, check out the crowd in larger sizes of this photo.

Daily photo: Jan 21, 2012, taken Jan 12, 2012

VICTORIA MEMORIAL SUNSET

Victoria Memorial Sunset, Kolkata India

Kolkata was the British capital of India and this is the memorial they built for Queen Victoria. There are many other British memorials and government buildings around Kolkata but it is amazing how the modern city has swallowed them up. Because Delhi is now the capital, it seems that the old government buildings and memorials are a bit more isolated there than in Kolkata.

When I first set up my tripod and started composing the first batch of photos, I placed my tripod on the concrete bank of a reflecting pool. I was careful not to break any rules, and we didn't see any signs warning us against it. But after about three minutes a couple of guards started hollering at me from the other side of the reflection pool, making quite a scene. There were thousands of people on the grounds and many were already staring at me. Now everyone was looking as Nini and I made our way to the guards. They simply said "no stands," and walked off.