Commuters jump off the Water Taxi's in Dubai Creek. These boats are called "Abra's". The Ruler personally subsidises these Taxis so that the price of a crossing has remained at 15 cents for the last 30 years.
Vivek: Excellent shot. Well seen, conceived, and executed. Would be interesting to have approached as a blended exposure, to darken up the background elements. IMHO deeper toning on the background elements would have completed a National Geo-like image. Nice as-is, though. --Joe
Guest
01-May-2004 06:59
Thanks for encouraging comments. This is the first time I took this kind of shot. It was inspired by a photo of people rushing around a Railway Station in the latest POPPHOTO Magazine. I thought 1/3 sec should do the trick, but that needed f/22 on my 17-40L, giving more depth of field than I needed. Cloned off other boats in the background that were too sharp and distracting. That explains that litle surf on the placid creek at 9 'o' clock position.
The Abra dropoff point is a lively and confused place. About 5 boats hit the pier per minute with about 20-30 people on each Abra. As you can imagine, it is a mad confusion of people getting into and out of boats. I tried to depict "confusion in movement" ie show movement without actually showing individual face details.
To make matters worse, I could not photograph any boat with a Lady on it, else I would be behind bars immediately ( or atleast given a hard time for a few hours at the local Police station)
Replaced with +15 Saturated version based on comments below
bee1000
30-Apr-2004 22:24
I think this is a good shot - excellent capture of the people moving while the boat stayed sharp. I'd like the color/contrast to have more punch, though.