River Traffic on the Niger
Mali 2002: Somewhere on the Niger River between Timbuctoo and Mopti
We sailed past this pinasse because ours had a motor. We sat on wooden benches, three of us on a bench under a canvas canopy that protected us from the bright sun. I don’t remember it being hot. I think it was November. You can tell that the Niger is rather shallow because the pinasse in the photo is being poled up river.
You can see a Bozo hut on the bank of the river if you look at the right hand corner of the photo. Bozo are a tribe of fishermen and use these huts like a fishing camp. They fish for Capitan, also called Nile Perch: a fish so huge that just one can fill a wheelbarrow. Meaty and mild tasting and covered with inspired sauces, it is a mainstay in local restaurants. But it is a predator and has nearly destroyed the other species of fish in the Niger.
The photo above, from a scanned slide was grainy and contrasty and predominately blue (sky and river). It seemed boring despite the interesting patchwork sail billowing out in a beautiful ‘c’ curve. I tried and tried to change the blue color, making it more saturated, less saturated, adding a warm gradient, a cool gradient. Nothing worked. Then I thought of adding one of my textures and voila, I was happy with my photo. I used a shot of peeling paint and it gives the clouds and water just enough color and texture to make the photo look like a painting.
The color of my peeling paint was dark red and yellow. It worked nicely with the blues to create some touches of green, gold and a faded purple. To my eye, the water is much more interesting with the varied colors.
I often photograph textures and colors for my ‘prism’ library as I call it. If you like this type of photo, you can do the same. If you don’t want the color of your texture photo to impact the colors of the photo you are working on, you can desaturate the texture photo. If you have a person in the photo and don’t want them to look as if they have a skin disease, make a mask and paint out the texture over their face and any other skin areas.