India.. pic of hardwork and faith

[amitnike]

hello all... dnt know what to name put in title.. well was on drive to one of the famous forts nearby and came across this old man carrying water in 2 vessels with small kid ( maybe his grandkid .. ) walking on the dirt road.... thr are places where people have to walk for many miles jus to fetch water. this is what rural India is all about .. we with all our urban luxurys tend to forget this side of hard life quite easily... god bless em all,

http://www.geocities.com/amitnike/digipics/tlgntrip/t1.jpg

this is at a small temple atop a hill called bhandara moutain..legends has it that emperror shivaji stopped here on route back home from his victory at shiveneri fort and asked saint tukaram ( the one in the idol) for food as he was hungry .. the saint being poor man didnt want to say no to his the king.. he jus prayed and covered the food vessels with cloth and began serving food .. as the legend goes the food never finished and the entire army was fed .. bhandara in local marathi lanquage means jus tht ... mass feeding... guess its all FAITH. This pic shows the place where the saint prayed and wrote bhajans( holy songs )..and a devotee who stands thr all day playing the stringed instrument called tambura..chanting the name of LORD.

http://www.geocities.com/amitnike/digipics/tlgntrip/t2.jpg

theview from the top of the mountain..will post in landscapes too.

http://www.geocities.com/amitnike/digipics/tlgntrip/t3.jpg

comments are welcome and needed as always ..

[dewmuw]

Yep. We go to the tap and turn it on and there is water. It is only when the water doesn't come that we realise how blessed we are.

I like the images, although the first is a little dark.

[amitnike]

yes its dark.. was in the car and didnt have time to set my cam.. it was on manual and hig speed .. wud have missed thepic if i had spent time adjusting the settings ..

thanks for comments though.

[Raj]

Just changing metering mode to spot may have helped in case of first one i guess.... You can try fixing it in PS, dnt know how effective it will be.

[johnellisphotography]

Wow, it must be amazing to get to see life in such contrast to most of our own. The stories and images remind me of a James Natchwey type of reportage. I hope you are not offended but I converted those images to black and white to get to see more of the detail in them and Ive posted them below. Ill remove if you'd like. Thanks for posting.

[johnellisphotography]

Also, here is a neutralized version of the first pic. If anybody is intersted in a photoshop action to salvage ultra-high contrast images like the top one without blowing the highlights, I'd be happy to share. thanks

[amitnike]

Thanks a lot guys ... John..yes i ddi try tht one but i didnt like the grains i saw on my monitor .( dnt have ps .. using acdc :( ).n m not offenbded at all .. thanks for taking time to see if u cud improve my pics .... the bnw looks cool .. ithe 1st one is actaully a pano shot ... 1 of upper ceiling and the other of the lower part .. didnt even realise till ;later tht it was pano i had shot :).. trust me raj didnt have time to set anything ... they were jus thr .. and had to be clicked ..

thanks again

[amitnike]

i played arnd in PS a bit .. lucky i got myoffice machine at home tonite :D... guess its a bot brighter then my original posted image