Border guard

[Manfred M]

This is one of the Indian Border Guards stationed at the Wagah border crossing to Pakistan. This border crossing is not far from Amritsar, in the Punjab. The shot was taken shortly before the sunset border closing ceremony.

Three days after our visit, a suicide bomber blew himself up on the Pakistani side of the border, killing many people.




Panasonic GX7 with Lumix f/4.0 - f/5.6 100-300mm lens. ISO 1000, f/5.6, 1/500th sec at 300mm (600mm full-frame equivalent). Hand held shot.

[John 2]

It's a pity about the highlights in the surrounding metalwork Manfred but it is a nicely captured pose. Given the area's problems, were they relaxed about photography?

[Shadowman]

Nicely captured.

[Dave A]

Nice image, they sure have an elaborate uniform. You have a steady hand to shoot that long lens hand held and still get a sharp image.

Dave

[Manfred M]

It's a pity about the highlights in the surrounding metalwork Manfred but it is a nicely captured pose. Given the area's problems, were they relaxed about photography?

Actually, the security was very tight. It was about a one kilometer walk from where the transportation dropped people off. No bags were allowed and there were banks of lockers to leave them in. Metal detectors and frisking of the people attending was all part of the process to get there.

On the Indian side, the seating reminded one of a football stadium with rows of multi-level concrete bleachers (a total of six of these - it gives you an idea of what it was like to shoot these images). There was dancing in the streets, an MC to urge on the crowds, a drummer and piped in music. It was quite the ultra-nationalistic show. So far as we could tell, the same thing was happening on the Pakistan side too (we could just see a tiny bit across the border).




This shot shows 1/2 to 2/3 of one of the six stands. It thought I was shooting from inside a can of sardines...

[Manfred M]

Nice image, they sure have an elaborate uniform. You have a steady hand to shoot that long lens hand held and still get a sharp image.

Dave

Yes but I also have a fair number of unusable shots.

[IzzieK]

Very nice shot, Manfred ... but I feel that the skin colouring is a bit on the reddish side...but then ignore me...I am looking at this on a bigger monitor but using my laptop...so I can be wrong...

[bnnrcn]

Very sharp and clear shot

PS Manfred I'm seeing some sharpening halos around the face but I remember that once I saw some blur in one of your images when noone else saw, so may be it is because of my laptop or my browser

[Manfred M]

There may well be as I did use Photoshop's Shake Reduction filter to reduce a bit of camera movement softness, but you have to be pixel peeping to see it. Given the light conditions (taken shortly before sunset with a 600mm FF equivalent focal length, I expected there to be a touch of camera movement.

At 1000 ISO, the camera is a bit too noisy, so noise reduction and sharpening do give me some artifacts. I'm certainly willing to live with these. At normal size / viewing distance, it really isn't noticeable.

[bnnrcn]

I think it comes from the filter Manfred. Once I tried that filter I got a similar result. You are right that it is not noticeable at normal size, I noticed it when viewing in lightbox

There may well be as I did use Photoshop's Shake Reduction filter to reduce a bit of camera movement softness, but you have to be pixel peeping to see it. Given the light conditions (taken shortly before sunset with a 600mm FF equivalent focal length, I expected there to be a touch of camera movement.

At 1000 ISO, the camera is a bit too noisy, so noise reduction and sharpening do give me some artifacts. I'm certainly willing to live with these. At normal size / viewing distance, it really isn't noticeable.

[mugge]

Manfred, the guard looks very quizzical, even worried. To my mind.
Cheers Ole