Tuesday, December 12, 2006

Butch Cassidy And The Sundance Kit

The Sky's (Literally) The Limit

Photograph copyright: NIRMAL GHOSH

This great image, almost like something out of a cinema verite sequence, was emailed to me by my childhood friend, Nirmal Ghosh. Regular readers of this blog would know that Nirmal is an author, photographer, wildlife expert and award-winning documentary maker. You can see some of his impressive body of work at NirmalGhosh.com but in the meantime, here is the story behind this picture, in Nirmal's own words .....

``I have often been up on my roof in Bangkok (on the 11th floor) doing my workouts and yoga and noticed the sun set in the little patch of sky that is left between the buildings that have steadily risen, blocking the sunset in the four years I have lived in the same apartment in Bangkok. I have often said to myself, I must take some pictures of this one day. This week I remembered, and lugged my camera bag up nine floors to the roof, telling myself it is good exercise (and it is, with one camera and three lenses!)

``I put on my Nikon 300mm f4.5 ED lens for the series of shots, but in the beginning because my heart was pounding from the climb, I was unsteady. Still, the shots were ok, I slowed my breathing, and the shutter speed was fast enough to compensate for the shake. Eventually I also rested on the parapet to steady myself, and took some care in composing the shots.

``The scene reminded me perhaps of the mesmerising Michael Winterbottom film Code 46 - a sort of post-global warming world dominated by smoggy cityscapes. I wanted to take the shots before lights came on in the buildings as well, so that the city looked grey and defeated - and empty - against an ominous sky. The camera is my now-trusty Nikon D70.''

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