As I repeatedly say in my Art Of Seeing Photography Workshop, “Remember this: you’re not making documentary images (unless that’s your goal). You’re communicating your FEELINGS!”
It was a relatively overcast day in Hampi when I shot the image. With the promise of rain quite apparent, I decided to leave the DSLR behind in the guesthouse and instead chose to explore the place with my Panasonic point-and-shoot. And when I landed up here, there wasn’t enough contrast in the scene. And so I let the history of the place wash over me, and what kept coming to mind was the “Lost City” bit.
I saw, I felt, I visualized, I shot – keeping in mind what I wanted to convey. The rest was a matter of the science and art of post-processing, dictated by what my heart kept telling me: “How do you make it seem like one is transported back in time to a Lost City?”
Here’s the before-after:
And to those who think it’s all about image-editing software and the camera, I’ll steal a leaf from Mr. Miyagi’s book (The Original Karate Kid movie, skip to 29 seconds into the video): “Photography & Editing here (tapping my head). Photography & Editing here (taping my heart). Photography & Editing never here (indicates finger used to click mouse button), never here (pointing to image editing software), and never here (pointing to camera).”