India, pumping water

Unlike here at home, in modern-day USA, when I’m traveling in India, there is usually NOT a tap that one can open to get water. What there is, is a pump reasonably close at hand - go there with a bucket, and get your water.

I saw this scene developing but had only seconds to “arrange” or “compose” the photo. I knew what I wanted, the fellow pumping water into the bucket, and the lake behind him. I had the scene all finished as a color image, but thanks to several people here in this forum, I’m almost always wondering how the scene would look in B&W. I instantly fell in love with it. I’ve got to admit, I went right to Fuji Across 100, and adding a red filter darkened the background just enough.

DF1_3695.NEF (34.0 MB)
DF1_3695.NEF.dop (15.6 KB)

One last thought - on my last visit, I very deliberately brought my Nikon Df, figuring that by the time I left for home, I’d be in love with it. Things didn’t work out that way, and I was sorry I hadn’t brought my D780. The Df now seems to be going up, and up, and up, in selling price, and I expect at some time in the near future I’ll sell it. But despite that, most of me still believes the camera doesn’t matter (that much), and for the photo to be interesting it is up to me, not the camera. (But one of you in particular is always reminding myself that I can achieve a better end result with a better camera- and I now believe her, most of the time.

That assumes some of you will find it interesting. Maybe you’ll all see it as a boring scene, not worth capturing. If I would have taken ten more seconds composing, it wouldn’t exist at all, other than in my memory. Right after the shutter went “click” the fellow stopped pumping.

4 Likes

I like it very much. I wouldn’t change a thing. It is probably my favorite of all the images you’ve ever posted here. For these kinds of candid shots I would think your digital Leica would also have been a good choice.

Mark

Wow, thank you.

For photos like this, the Leica would be a good choice. I usually limit myself to two cameras, a Nikon, and lately my small and light Fuji X100f. It might have been as good as the Leica - not sure.

I’ll be going back again later this year.

@mikemyers A pleasing monchrome image Mike, that work well cropped 1:1