Checking Her Fingernails Photo

Photographer’s Note

My tribute to Mohammad for his Rice Paddies' Series. Here's mine, not from Iran, but from luang Prabang, Laos.

On the way back to the Kwangsi Waterfalls, I made my wishes known that it is my ardent desire to take pictures of people working in the rice paddies. The road was rather narrow but my insistence paid off. Our tour guide parked the van and I went off to rapidly take shot after shot of people working in the rice field. After 5 minutes, our guide said it's time to move on. I wished I could stay longer. But knowing me, that "longer" might have been forever. If you have this beautiful a scene, who wants lo leave?

Rinie_Hoff, carper, Michael_Gan, naxius, timotey, ChrisJ, elihesamian, pridel, nwoehnl, Georges, Jeppe, orme, jhonny_blue, kikvel, rabani, jrj, cmartos, Albrecht, vagabondtravels has marked this note useful

Critiques | Translate

Rinie_Hoff (9334) 2004-08-17 2:19

Hey Manny, missed you, nice that you're posting again!
You really got a funny scene here. I can imagine, if you care about your nails, that being in the water all day long, must be a pain in the neck. Especially the girl in the red shirt is great.
The scene is lovely, but you turned in into a very fine picture for us, with a pefect DoF, and light.

cgrindahl (6109) 2004-08-17 2:22

What strikes me in the image Manny is the clothes these women are wearing. One appears to be wearing Nike athletic trousers, another a stylish jeans jacket and our lady of the fingernails fashion jeans. What a contrast to the traditional planting of rice, or are they harvesting... ;-)

This is a lovely capture, daily life in the rice paddies of Laos. Although there is plenty of activity the tight composition and nicely controlled depth of field helps keep our focus on these women. A couple of hats are a bit blown out, but it appears the lighting was a challenge here, if I'm to judge by the glare on the water. You handled it well. Good to have you back after a long weekend.

carper (65598) 2004-08-17 2:29

Wecome back Manuel,
Very nice composition you have for us, good colours and a nice depth in the photo, very good job

flydragon (0) 2004-08-17 2:46

hello Manuel
verry nice compostion and dof
beautifull scene of rice field
i agree with your note, i also cant move
specialy when i am in a rice field , its a magic place
well done
Simon

Michael_Gan (2772) 2004-08-17 2:53

Wow Manny, this is an excellent capture. The contrast between doing the hard and dirty work and the girl/woman worrying about the looks of her fingernails is fabulous! Apart from telling us a nice story, this picture is also a typical example of a perfect DoF: every woman very sharp, slightly closer to the camera as well as slightly further away from the camera everything is blurred. Excellent!

naxius (16679) 2004-08-17 3:10

You can thank you your guide for us Manuel because you have posted a very nice human life picture. That's good to see how people live in their country when we discover a new area.
This composition is simple but it is really well managed: good colors, DOF and obviously workers.
Thank you.
Alexandre

timotey (1926) 2004-08-17 3:18

Very amazing picture with a great technical quality by a very good use of the depth of field, a choice of a vertical frame and a composition keeping all these women at work in their posture that let us believe that they think about their fingernails. Really astonishing shot, very well done !

elroyie (2750) 2004-08-17 4:15

Great picture with excellent DOF and colours, you caught them very good and those hats are great in the frame, well done!

ishai (4093) 2004-08-17 4:16

Manuel
Well captured daily life
First thing that I noticed is the old authentic hats,
But the funny thing is that they all wear jeans and modern cloths
I guess the girl in the back is still dating and is concerned with her nails
The old women looks at you like see saying not to close don’t disturb
Good composition well done

ChrisJ (70443) 2004-08-17 4:27

Good dof & repetition.

elihesamian (26091) 2004-08-17 4:39

I take my hat,Dear Manuel!

Cordially thanks,As I said befor,really I'm an amateur in photography,and I'll try to more learn here from you and the other dear friends.

Now,It's a pride for me,and with your let,I add this Praiseworthy shot to my theme:"Rice Fields" & a favorite for me,too.

I'm very glad to see this admirable shot,I was waiting for your shot about rice fields,You did great with posted it.

let me don't say about compo,light,dof,...here for this pic:)
Thanks,Manuel!

cyril (2748) 2004-08-17 5:13

Great picture.
Colours are so vivid and the composition is good too.
I like the DOF in this picture which is really decreasing from the foreground to the background making the scene just more attarctive.
Cyril

deekay (166) 2004-08-17 5:24

excellent DOF. you also managed to get all the women sharp and give lots of depth to the picture. one funny thing is that it seems the hats all have a different exposure: a bit overexposed on the edges and underexposed in the center. anyways, cool shot!

avis2avis (4244) 2004-08-17 6:27

Very nice colors and a nice daily life shot. Excelent DoF too! As mentioned by Gan, the DoF allows all the characters to be in focus and leaves everything in the foreground and bg slightly blurred. How do you get this dynamic focus?

pridel (233) 2004-08-17 8:23

Manuel, it's a very pretty photo. I like much the compositon which leaves the bottom of the image to the top of the hats. The colors are truly very beautiful. The girl on the right gives much energy to the unit.
congratulations
Pascal
I'm happy to differently see your success than in portraits.

nwoehnl (120) 2004-08-17 14:08

Manny, in between your gorgeous portrait work, I always enjoy to see you presenting scenes of people in their environment. This is a very nice and colorful shot from the rice fields, with a good positioning of the characters, and a perfect DOF. The hats add a wonderful graphical touch. Beautifully done.

Jeppe (18623) 2004-08-17 16:35

Very fine capture and a bit funny pose - after all the fingernails a bit important for this young woman. I like the compostion and DOF of this fine capture as well - you did a very fine job here Manuel.

orme (6746) 2004-08-18 1:47

A great composition, Manuel. Excellent DOF. You captured the girl in a great pose. I especially like the five 'hats' against the green background. Well seen.

jhonny_blue (4954) 2004-08-18 6:22

Wonderful picture, very nice colours and a perfect DOF !
Perfect Manny !

Georges (11185) 2004-08-18 10:22

Trés belle scene pleine de vie ou la profondeur de champ parfaite donne toute la valeur a l'image.
Bravo pour les couleurs trés bien saturées.

kikvel (4772) 2004-08-18 10:26

Very nice Manuel!

Really nice.
DOF is great, I like it.

K.

harold (2271) 2004-08-19 2:01

Des couleurs éclatantes bel ensemble très belle réussite. Bravo Manuel.

maphoto (8076) 2004-08-19 10:29

Great vertical composition Manny, very sharp and great DOF, I like picture like this making me learn more about other places and daily life routine, very well done.

jrzufferey (7249) 2004-08-19 15:42

La culture du riz. Une belle scène de la vie rurale de ces travailleurs dans les champs. belle image. Amicalement/jr

rabani (9421) 2004-08-20 2:30

Hie Manny, long time no see. I have been meaning to come by your gallery to learn a few things or two about potraiture.This scene is pretty funny almost irony. How could anyone being bothered with manicure on a padi field anyway? This teaches me one thing;even when you are doing manual labor, nothing wrong being pretty doing it. The short DOF really makes these five ladies stand out very well.

ma-tibou (4566) 2004-08-20 4:21

Toujours des compositions riches en couleurs et en emotion. Bravo Manuel. Très beau portrait de groupe.
Amitiés.

jrj (34779) 2004-08-20 5:41

Very interesting shot form the rice fields. Fun point of the 'nails checking'.
Nice 'daily life' shot from this part of the world Manny

kaychambers (1196) 2004-08-24 2:59

Once again, Manny, you present a fantastic image here. Great presentation, fabulous DOF and the moment you have successfully siezed makes imagery stand above many others. Your command of explaining the situation so eloquently compliments your photography beautifully.

Well done Sir,

Regards,

Vic, Singapore.

OOPS, pts day after tomorrow perhaps?

waskahegan (0) 2004-08-24 12:43

A good picture of traditional agriculture, to answer your note I am much less surprised to see it where you it, than where he did.

cmartos (6086) 2004-08-27 4:29

A wonderful scene, really nicely captured. As Curtis said, the clothes they wear are really astonishing, I agree with him, what a contrast. The picture itself is splendid, full of life and spontaneous. I like the all different atitudes. Nice colours and excellent shallow DOF. A very fine catch and a nice tribute Manuel!

rdans59 (263) 2004-09-16 14:52

Hi Manny.... good to see you back!
I just love this image. Rice harvesting is hard working, but this shot gives also a certain serenity and beauty.
I like the DOF very much. Just the essential is in focus and the rest is left over as "feeling" of landscape.

RGatward (19749) 2004-09-18 3:44

I've jst caught this great shot for the first time (well, you posted it whilst I was away). Perfect timing, and everything else. Pts later.

marcon (135) 2004-11-10 12:00

Your taking always the right focus on the subjects of your portraits, so giving the perfect feeling of the subject itself, whatever he does, lets me stunned every time. Ok, you have a digital camera so probably you can choose the shot with the best DOF, but I think that your ability is instead a real talent! :)

faubry (32415) 2005-01-09 10:09

ouah !! i like this scene of life you ave enough time for take this wonderful shot
thanks
francine

quahcc (0) 2005-04-20 1:53

a busy photo you got here, manny. nice color composition against the paddy field.
good job
cc

Albrecht (11211) 2005-09-22 13:17

Hi Manuel
Great shot; wonderful colours and all those people in different positions and clothes. TOP!!
Greetings Albrecht

vagabondtravels (6115) 2006-09-11 23:48

Great dof and pov. You nailed the focus.
Good work.
Ben