Mursi under the rain Photo

Photographer’s Note

*******Light conditions were not very good due to the rain. If anyone has any advise as to how to improve it I would appreciate it.************

This is the photographic mecca of people photography in Ethiopia, the mursi tribe.

The Mursis are mainly known for this:
Some of their women have their lips cut from a young age so that they can fit a plate in their lips.

The whole experience is a little bit disapointing, as you must drive a while to get to one of the closest villages, and these are where all the tourists go, so there is a feeling of being in a human zoo. One SUV arrives as the other one leaves.

As one gets out of the car one is besieged by people who are touching you and badgering you in order to take (paid) photos of them. It kins of takes the joy out of it.

Normally I stole the photos in the tribes in the south, but here because of the rain, it was not very easy so I only took 4 photos at the Mursi village.

In the workshop you can see the road conditions getting into the village.

Henryk_Bilor, Photo65Net, ndb1958 has marked this note useful

Critiques | Translate

Henryk_Bilor (20365) 2006-09-28 14:05

Hello Daniel
Hmm, interesting image, but it is awful what they do with women... Nice capture with good dof.
Regards

Wow, I just saw the road in WS - hard to go with MTB ;).

Photo65Net (43084) 2006-09-28 14:12

Hi again Daniel,
I really like this "combo-portrait".
Although I'd like to see more light on this faces, so I made a WorkShop.
I really hope you'll like it.
Good job !
Regards,
JB.

[workshop] [compare] +

Polonaise (5627) 2006-09-28 15:32

Here is my proposition (workshop).
The picture is too precious to loose it.
Those foreground colors are rather dreadful (shades can be such a pain in the ...) and the only solution that came to my mind was: To convert it into B/W.
g.
PS: Let me know what do you think, Daniel?
PS: Workshop stuff is pretty cool.
Won't you consider to upload it as a regular post.

[workshop] [compare] +

t0mmm1 (5434) 2006-09-28 17:47

Hi Daniel,
courious note and nice photo. No problem for the dark faces on the picture...everything is repairable... but a car ;)) I saw you were in troubles because of the mud... oh difficult road.
Have a nice day,
Tomi

barrufeto_77 (25611) 2006-09-29 1:06

Hola Daniel.

Sips, una pena el tiempo la verdad. Ahora, el aro este que tiene la mujer con el plato este es realmente impresionante.

Un saludo, Oscar

greg64g (11193) 2006-09-29 3:42

salut Daniel

dommage que les visages soit assez sombres, peut etre le flash aurait ete sympa,
au fait as tu eu l'occsion de visiter le Dallol ? j'aimerais bien voir des photos
greg

Izobretenik (1264) 2006-09-29 5:21

Photo impressionnante. Là, on peut pas dire que tu ne sois pas dans le concept TE :) Je me demandais pourquoi la jeune femme de gauche avait le visage découlinant et ta note m'a répondu. Je ne sais pas quoi penser de ces plateaux. Je suppose qu'il s'agit de rites ancestraux et je me vois mal juger ces rites avec mon regard d'Européen japonaisé.

Vrai que les visages sont un peu sombres en regad de l'arrière-plan mais ça n'enlève rien au plaisir selon moi.

Izo

vala (59) 2006-09-29 6:25

Hola Conchudo....

El retrato está bien, pero ganaría el doble si hubieses utilizado un flash de relleno, porque el fondo está bastante más iluminado que el primer plano, que es donde está toda la información...

Saludos.

ndb1958 (9228) 2006-09-29 9:45

Hi Daniel,
even if I saw it several times on TV or some journals, it always impressing seeing these lips. I look and I look and I can not beleave it. Faszinating!
A stupid question: did she ever kiss?
Nice capture of the 2 of them.
Nino

zips (1941) 2006-09-30 23:54

Nice composition and expressions on the ladies faces. Under those extremely backlit conditions, you might think about using the partial meter, metered off the darkest point, and shooting in RAW to leave yourself with room in the post processing phase.

Great Job.
Aloha, JB

tinamunk3 (6382) 2006-10-06 6:34

Hi Daniel,

The colours look a bit strange on my monitor but this sure is an interesting image. The plate in the mouth and the HUGE holes in their ears are just amazing.

:) Tina