[et_pb_section fullwidth=”on” specialty=”off”][et_pb_fullwidth_post_title admin_label=”Fullwidth Post Title” title=”on” meta=”on” author=”on” date=”on” categories=”on” comments=”off” featured_image=”on” featured_placement=”above” parallax_effect=”on” parallax_method=”on” text_orientation=”center” text_color=”dark” text_background=”on” text_bg_color=”#ffa700″ module_bg_color=”rgba(255,255,255,0)” title_all_caps=”off” use_border_color=”off” border_color=”#ffffff” border_style=”solid”] [/et_pb_fullwidth_post_title][/et_pb_section][et_pb_section][et_pb_row][et_pb_column type=”4_4″][et_pb_text admin_label=”Text” background_layout=”light” text_orientation=”left” use_border_color=”off” border_color=”#ffffff” border_style=”solid”]
The Making of “Wah, Taj!”
Who hasn’t heard of it? That most wonderful Monument to Love. One of The Seven Wonders of The World. The One and only Taj Mahal…
Photographing it would be a breeze. If it weren’t for the fact that it ranks among one of the most photographed monuments on the face of the planet. And personally, I do dislike making cliche photographs – that’s just not my style – a photograph must be uniquely me – my personal vision, my personal style…
I made this photograph on the last day on one of my annual Five Stops of Light India Photography Tour. Before sunrise, my workshop participants and I headed off to this vantage point I’d discovered. We then waited for the sun to rise and the fog to clear. The former did, the latter didn’t seem to be in much of a mood to cooperate. I finally decided to trip the shutter as a bird flew across the frame, knowing that I wouldn’t have any detail in the structure itself worth writing home about; but that wasn’t my purpose anyway. As I mentioned, the cliche image just isn’t my style – my focus here was to capture the shape of the structure which is what I did.
In post-processing I boosted contrast to accentuate the shape of the Taj as well as the foliage in the foreground. I also applied a nice warm-yellow graduated filter (the better to give a warm, inviting feel to the image). In ending, I added a texture to the image to give it that weathered and cracked feel of an old parchment. My aim was to try and recreate the magic felt by those early western explorers — the awe they must have experienced upon finally breaking through the jungle and setting eyes on this truly magnificent building for the first time.
[/et_pb_text][/et_pb_column][/et_pb_row][/et_pb_section]