Basket Man - KR Market, Bangalore, India
by choltmeier

Comment by pawdrix:
The guy has reasonably interesting look but honestly the tone of the skin and lack of contrast makes the image look like it was resurrected from underexposure. I could be wrong but it's making it hard to give this high marks.

Basket Man - KR Market, Bangalore, India
by choltmeier

Comment by Coley:
Nice portrait ... needs a tweek with the contrast

Streets of Bangalore
by choltmeier

Comment by choltmeier:

Originally posted by Chiaroscuro: Nice shot and congrats for the ribbon, but if I may be so bold and honest I'm disappointed. For one I feel almost all tourists come back with images with a very similar theme from India - poverty. While I agree that there is plenty of it which is right in front of your eye there are few who dig deeper to find true 'Indian' culture and the color which you mention in your description. Here's to seeing less of impoverished India and more of the vibrant India.

First off, thanks so much for your thoughtful feedback. I appreciate that you took time to look at my image, read the story behind it and provide a response. I learn most from comments like yours.

As I look over my pictures from my trip to India, many of the images are things I found to be 'different' than my normal surroundings in the U.S.-- I think that's natural that those things caught my eye. However, most of my images are potraits of people, not highlighting their poverty but showing their eyes and expressions and getting a glimpse into their lives, which happen to be very different from mine. It just so happens that I was in India during the Poverty challenge and I came upon this woman on the street. I see as many or more homeless people asking for money in my own home town. So, my intent was not to highlight poverty in India (although it certainly exists there) but to show a woman who has been through a lot in life.

I have posted and will be posting more images from India to my Flickr site called "Faces of India" that shows many people in India, in no way highlighting their economic status as this one does. My intent is to show faces, expressions and the lives of people that I interacted with in an amazing country. I don't do justice to the depth and breadth of the diversity of culture, but at least I captured a slice of humanity in their faces.

Again, thanks so much for your comments. I'd love to chat more offline if you're interested.

Basket Man - KR Market, Bangalore, India
by choltmeier

Comment by muur88:
technically i'm awful...but if you're going to get good at this shot i would think you need not worry about over exposing the background and shoot for his face. perhaps getting it great is just impossible with that much ambient light and not being able to use a light meter on him. feels like you overdid the mid range level boost in post processing to try to improve his under exposure.

Risking Life and Limb in an Auto Rickshaw
by choltmeier

Comment by Pikkel:
but fun!

Streets of Bangalore
by choltmeier

Comment by Chiaroscuro:
Nice shot and congrats for the ribbon, but if I may be so bold and honest I'm disappointed.
For one I feel almost all tourists come back with images with a very similar theme from India - poverty.
While I agree that there is plenty of it which is right in front of your eye there are few who dig deeper to find true 'Indian' culture and the color which you mention in your description.
Here's to seeing less of impoverished India and more of the vibrant India.

Basket Man - KR Market, Bangalore, India
by choltmeier

Comment by Balko:
Meets Challenge:2
Technical:3
Interestingness:1
Extra Credit:
TOTAL: 6

Streets of Bangalore
by choltmeier

Comment by Structor:
Excellent shot, congrats.

Streets of Bangalore
by choltmeier

Comment by VitaminB:
2 ribbons in a short while, and both for excellent shots. I like that you are winning ribbons for very different photographs... shows a lot of diversity. Congrats on the recent results, and hope to see more front page stuff from you.

Basket Man - KR Market, Bangalore, India
by choltmeier

Comment by stevieian:
interesting street portrait