Devout
Lalibela, Ethiopia 2011
My guide had his hand on my shoulder: Time to go. Like Lot’s wife, I turned back to look as I stepped through the cleft in the thick stone walls of the ancient church. My eye took it all in…a glaring streak of sunlight from the cleft falling on shrouded figures with their heads bent in prayer. Beautiful! A quick click of the shutter and we were gone.
Sadly, my camera didn’t have the capability that my eye had to take in the strong light and the deep shadows. The photo was un-usable or it would have been back in the days of film. Using Photoshop’s Camera Raw Filter, I was able to tone down the highlights and bring up the shadows. Then I was able to find certain lines and highlight them and drown other aspects in black shadow, such as a fellow photographer who loomed over the people in back. Although, now, thinking about it, I suppose the photographer adds in a Norman Rockwell kind of way. Heck, I can do another and leave him in. Photoshop: an embarrassment of riches!