Passing Time, A village elder waits for the Call to Prayer

Passing Time, A Village Elder in Kandahar, Afghanistan passes time, waiting for the evening call to prayer.

This is an elder from a small village south of Kandahar City. While walking through this village, I saw him sitting on street corner in the distance. As we got closer he never moved

Not wanting to disturb him, I set up my settings, and put the camera in live view, and pretended to be fiddling with my sling at my hip as I took the shot.

He continued to sit there motionless for over an hour.

Finally, call to prayer came over the village loudspeakers. (despite not having any electricity, the villagers find car batteries to wire speakers to for call to prayer....and to wire cell phone chargers as well)

He slowly and painfully got up and walked to the mosque.

I never saw him again after that particular day in the village.

I like to picture him having lived in the village his whole life. Most likely he has. He has gone to pray every night at that time for decades. He has watched his whole, tiny world pass by that street since as long as he could remember. Most of all, I wonder, even as old as he is, if he actually remembers a time when violent fighting wasn't considered a part of normal life.

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Great shot! Love the window and detail on the stucco. Nicely framed. Congrats.

I would have liked to see the window and man separated a bit to balance the image. Skin tone looks too orange.

Excellent shot - I couldn't have done it with a pose, and you managed it with Live View on your hip!

Nice description of the surroundings to go with it.

dharrisphotog wrote in post #15612866
I would have liked to see the window and man separated a bit to balance the image. Skin tone looks too orange.

yeah, tell that old dude to move lol

wonderful shot, good work

superb shot

I'm not sure if they are jokes, ("tell the dude to move on" ?) or if some did not read your comments above your picture.

The "dude" in the picture, IS the picture.

Great shot.

Resolition,
my comment was for dharrisphotog, for me the image is awesome, but he commented "I would have liked to see the window and man separated a bit to balance the image. Skin tone looks too orange."

I was been sarcastic about it, it is not like every image you take is at a studio where you control everything.

this is such a great shot. love it and thank you.

Thanks for all the comments!

I'm preparing a typical series to go with this picture, wide establishing shot for the general geographic region, his village, the street corner, and the mosque he was waiting to attend. I'll have that up soon!

Great shot! Like the way you hip fired!

So here is a small series that add context and lead up to this photo:

1: The Southern Kandahar Landscape

A typical view for the citizens of the rural areas south of Kandahar City

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Nat, I think the shot is wonderful. I believe that you have covered the gist of his life in a nutshell as well.

Well done!

Great shots. I can feel the texture of sand, dust, and dirt on me. Or maybe it's bringing back memories.