In October of last year Susan Flickinger traveled to the country of Myanmar. She hoped to experience their culture before it adapts to the inevitable changes that come with opening the doors to tourism… and, of course, she wanted to take some pictures.
In a country filled with gorgeous photo ops, Inle Lake (where this photo was taken) stood out. Having the lake ringed with mountains on three sides; the water vibrant with luminous blue; and a fishermen wearing clothes that perfectly complimented their surroundings, the photographer’s life was made easy.
The hotel where Susan stayed was was a lovely series of floating cottages linked together with piers. She noticed right away that the fishermen often rested and visited with one another in a small area just off of one of the piers. At first, she began shooting with her camera facing towards the sunset. This produced lovely lighting, a mediocre composition since the fishermen were too far away to be a compelling subject.
Susan’s experience was this: “I vowed to get up before sunrise (never a personal favorite) to try again and this time the fishermen were closer to the pier. Using a tripod and my wide angle lens, I took around 20 pictures. They were “fine,” but nothing special. As the sun came up over the mountains, I put away the tripod and started to head to breakfast when these three fishermen drifted close to the me. I snapped a couple more pictures and crossed my fingers that they’d look as good in the computer as they did in the view finder.”
Much to her satisfaction, the photo turned out awesome! Hooray for post processing! Susan captured most of what her eyes took in that day, but with a little help from the sliders, she was able to fully capture this moment of beauty on paper.
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Post processing settings:
Susan bumped up the highlights and contrast; then went to the HSL slider to add more luminosity to the yellows, giving the fishermen’s pants a bit more pop. She shot the photo with a Nikon d5100 and a Nikon 10-24mm lens. The camera was set to aperture priority, f/4.5, 1/100 sec., ISO 320 and was shot at 24mm.
