Praying

[Manfred M]

This is another shot of people praying at the Atsuta Shrine, in Nagoya, Japan. I was thinking monochrome on this shot, just to simplify the scene a bit. The colour image is all that brightly coloured but B&W simplifies things quite nicely.




What I especially like about this shot is I managed to get the three people that are the main figures in profile.

[RBSinTo]

Manfred,
Very nice. There is a feeling of serenity to this image that I like very much, and while we can't see any of the shrine, it is obvious from their poses that these people are praying, which tells the story nicely.
My only criticism is why didn't you move either a step to the left to completely show the man in the background, or conversely a step to the right to hide him behind the woman in the foreground?

[Manfred M]

Because a step to the left would have shown the busy courtyard of the shrine (full of people milling around; this image cropped a bit of that out already) and more of the backs of the people than I would have wanted to.

People are in and out quite quickly. Most of the prayers seem to last under 30 seconds, other than the woman, who was there for a good 20 minutes, not moving. Its not like the Christian prayers, where people are "more predictable" in their praying habits.

As for seeing the shrine, the whole grounds are the shrine. Unlike Christian, Hindu and Buddhist temples, there isn't a site with relics (so far as I can tell). There seem to be especially sacred areas (that to an outsider look fairly ordinary).

This is what the people praying are facing. I took this shot roughly from where the woman was, but almost against the fence.

[Shadowman]

Nicely captured and converted.

[bnnrcn]

Hi Manfred. I like the shot. May be you can hide the man at the back a bit more by reducing the tone of the grey on it. Well, he is not very noticeable anyway because the other three are mostly in dark blacks.

The second image looks nice with lines and patters , it might look nice in BnW too

[NorthernFocus]

More interesting stuff, Manfred.

[IzzieK]

I agree with Binnur, Manfred...Would it take a lot to remove the man via Content Aware? I like the conversion...