Since today is the beginning of carnival I thought it would be appropriate to post something connected to it. This is a friend of mine putting the finishing touches to his make-up that would go with his costume before he ventured out.

This was one of the rare instances of me shooting in jpeg format. Later, while reviewing I realized how much more ‘safe’ shooting in RAW is. Since I’m still not very good at getting proper exposures the original of this shot came out very dark. In RAW, the latitude for error correction is much greater, not so in jpeg. Still, I managed to get something back and I think the photo now conveys something of what I wanted it to in the first place. If you are looking at the focal length in the exif data and wondering where the rest of the image has gone, yes, this photo is cropped!

This can be a companion piece to the one I posted a couple of days [back here](http://www.visual.arthedains.com/index.php?showimage=160). It is from the same place but looking in the opposite direction. Don’t even ask me why I used such a shallow aperture for a photo like this. I think I shot this without thinking! And that tone is just the result of using a different white balance, cloudy in this case, as simple as that!

Oh, carnival starts here tomorrow so I hope I’ll be afforded some good photo opportunities! As they say here Kolle Alaaf!

Where does compassion for a subject in one’s novel begin and desire to finish the story end? Is it right to use actual people to write something and hope that they will die soon so that you can finish writing? Do we as a society have the moral right to take the life of another human being even if that person has killed someone? Are we capable of realizing how momentous and irreversible death is?

Writers, I think, are highly selfish people. They live for their craft and characters and usually interact with society insomuch as it often gives them ideas for new stories. To them nothing matters more than getting a story down on paper and most importantly finishing it. They have to maintain a unique relationship with their characters. They have to be honest and caring but detached enough to not get personal and impose their own view on the people in their books. It is this conflict that Capote struggles with as he writes ‘In Cold Blood’, arguably his most famous work.

On one hand he is a narcissistic man in love with himself and on the other hand he has a compassionate heart. He is unable to detach himself from the people who form characters in his book. He wants to finish the book but for that to happen the protagonists have to die. So he vacillates between not helping them find a lawyer so that their appeal against the death sentence cannot go forward and hating himself for being so self-absorbed.

He cannot help himself from developing an affectionate bond with a person who has murdered a family in cold blood. He begins to care for him. He wants to help him delay the inevitable. But deep within all this affection is his selfish desire to be done with the book, a book which he has proclaimed, even before he has written a word of it, as his best. So he struggles to find a moral center, a justification for what he is doing, and he fails.

Philip Seymour Hoffman justly deserves all the praise he has been getting. His is a sublime performance and is one of the best I’ve seen in recent times. He achieves the rare distinction of slipping so much into the character’s skin that you no longer see the actor; you only see the character he portrays. He carries the film solely on his shoulders and never falters. The moment near the end of the film when he truly realizes what is about to happen, the way Hoffman breaks down made my eyes water with genuine empathy for what the man was feeling. It was a supreme achievement. Praise should go to the director Bennett Miller as well. It is hard to believe that this is his first feature film. To show the internal conflict Truman Capote underwent when writing one of the most important book’s of the 60s in such a brilliant manner; Miller can be proud of the perfect jewel he has crafted.

Thanks for the nice comments yesterday, much appreciated. This is one of the few macro shots from the shoot along the Rhine. Again, I played around a bit with PP on this. Used selective color and contrast to make the leaf stand out better against what is a slightly cluttered background.

Yesterday, after days of dreary rain, the weather here cleared suddenly. To not miss the window of opportunity I immediately took off with my cameras and went towards the Rhine river. I got a few pics which I’m happy with. You can expect to see them over the next few days.

This one is from the top of one of the bridges over the Rhine. This photo has gone through substantial PP as I wasn’t happy with the way it had come out. Mainly, I increased the dynamic range to make the clouds stand out better, which was the original intention behind taking this shot. In the end, I’ve to say I like the way this photo has come out. When I started PP I had no idea I would end up with this!

Finding very good deals, I splurged and bought myself two wonderful cameras recently, one is the professional film camera, Minolta Dynax 9 and the other is the excellent Minolta Dynax 7D, the bigger sibling of my existing 5D. The former, now sadly discontinued, I bought cheap because of a defect and so is sent for repair but I took the latter out for a spin yesterday and today. The 7D is a superb camera to handle, fitting like a glove into my hands, with every control at your fingertips like in the old film cameras and not buried in some hidden menu feature. Due to Minolta’s exit from the camera business there are some really good deals to be had for the 7D (or the 5D). If you are looking to buy a dSLR I’d very strongly recommend this (or the 5D). I’m sure you will not be disappointed by them.

This is from yesterday’s shoot. It is the shop front of the recently opened Peek and Cloppenburg store. The building was long time in the making, needing nearly four years to finish after a series of delays. Clothes are really good, but of course, it is uber expensive and only for those whose wallets are really heavy!

Since I haven’t shot anything new, here is something from my old film archives. This is from a trip to Keukenhof-the famous tulip gardens in Holland, roughly two years back. I’m not sure if you will like this as it is quite abstract and there is not much detail in the photo. But it somehow appeals to me.

This is from the same shoot as [this](http://www.visual.arthedains.com/index.php?showimage=143). I could not come up with PP I liked on this until now so it was just lying idle in the folder from that day. Today, I revisited it and got something a little more to my liking. I think the main spoiler in this photo is the light. I used the on camera flash for this and it is just not good enough for macro shots. I wish I could afford one of those ring flashes!

Thanks for the nice comments on the previous photo. Today’s photo is from the same shop window as the one [here](http://www.visual.arthedains.com/index.php?showimage=129). Only this time, I included a whole lot more in the frame. Somehow, I’m not very satisfied with the PP on this. Something is missing. But I decided to post it all the same. Do let me know what you think.

This is the final photo in a series of three photos of the Dom. This was a pretty difficult photo to shoot as it was shot in the night, handheld, and using the dim available light. With any other camera it would have been impossible to get a sharp image. But as my 5D has anti-shake built in I decided to give it a try. I got a decent shot on my second or third try, not completely sharp but that was taken care of by some sharpening while PP.

As I’ve a couple of things that need to be done before Wednesday I’ll be very busy and unable to post a photo tomorrow. So see you on Wednesday again!