Matara monk school, a photo from Southern, South

Photographer's Note

This place might speak to at least one person in this forum...
Some others will think "Oh no, not the buddhist monks again" ;)

Anyhow, this is a monk school in Matara southern Sri Lanka. Thanks to him, the lead monk was in his own words very excited to speak to a foreigner and allowed me to photo about anything I wanted for a couple of hours. My 8 yrs old daughter was very interested on how was a school abroad.

Classes of different grades were taking place in a same rough and dark concrete building, -these are some students from the first grades- : natural lighting is not effective for studying I guess, but heavenly for photographying.

While I cannot say for spiritual learning I can attest the Mathematics level was quite good for the terminal grade, it took me some time to resolve the equations written on the blackboard...

hispic, thaprem has marked this note useful

Critiques | Translate

CedarBough (74) 2003-05-04 8:48

As an environmental portrait this is great, though I do wish (or hope) you took some that were closer in on the group. (And hope you add them later).

On the technical side, the shot appears to have been lightened in PShop or something, and there are no true blacks... looking too grainy for my taste.

The expression of the one boy looking our way is great, and it's also nice that there aren't a bunch of faces turned towards the camera.

Of course I'd rather see Buddhist monk shots than the shots that don't speak to me... like most landscapes, unless incredibly well done. Keep uploading them, without hesitation.

gringofil (0) 2003-05-04 8:49

Very nice rough feel to the whole picture and great detail.

BobTrips (1857) 2003-05-04 10:58

I'm giving you a cropped version in Workshop.

One reason it to eliminate the over exposed 'outside' on the left. The other is to make it able to better see the students.

With cropping one looses some of the bleakness of the surroundings, which is unfortunate, but gains the ability to see the people.

It's a great image, it has an un-posed spontaneity about it, great colors. If you had posed it I would have suggested moving the one student who is blocking the teacher.

[workshop] [compare]

rziya (542) 2003-05-04 11:27

I think you should try a tighter crop. At least Eliminating the upper and right side. The students, especially the one standing and the one sitting with his ack to the camera, looks very promsing as individual portraits.

You have both light and dark parts in the photo and the exposure is somewhere in betwen. And only the places in between has right exposure.

BTW: You have selected medium as Black and White.

philip_coggan (11) 2003-05-05 21:28

A real sense of place - the essence of environmental photos. My eye goes direct to the little boy who is turned to face the camera, with his lovely smile. I do regret that the teacher is blocked, though, and that the colours of the robes are so washed-out.

Now some stupid stuff: If I were taking this (how I wish I could go there! - maybe some day), I would frame the photo to exclude the view outside the window, maybe simply moving the camera more to the right (it depends on what there is further to the right). The aim would be to concentrate attention more on the group of children (the bright galre of the empty window draws the eye, but there's nothing to see), and, if I'm lucky, to get a better exposure on the interior. I would also move slightly to the left in the hope of getting a view of the teacher - but the posture of the little monk looking at the camera is vital, he really holds the picture together, and nothing should allow him to lose that pose.

mcreider (673) 2003-05-07 13:43

Beautiful color composition, a good capture of atmosphere of alienation (your's, the Westerner, from the kids, altho they are smiling and not really concentrated on their studies)

clodreno (0) 2003-12-24 5:59

As always the story is nice and ... The picture also very good.
Like the smile on the standing monk.

roshangar (1682) 2004-02-14 14:56

I like lighting here!very nice pic .

A-la-N (2025) 2004-06-28 7:08

thank's for this little strory

avis2avis (4264) 2004-11-02 6:44

The light is good here and the atmosphere ready for a great shot but something is missing. All the characters are too far back to make for a strong enough subject I feel.

sohrab (7439) 2004-11-02 9:22

this is an absolute beauty.
i like your choice of space a lot here.
i read avishek's critique right now.
i think if they were closer, the feel would be totally different
i guess the feel of the classroom would be gone. too close would make this a pretty claustrophobic image in my opinion.
you're right the lighting here is heavenly
take care :)

fixed (3836) 2005-10-23 9:14

magnifique celle-ci également
une image harmonieuse avec ces tons marrons et cette lumière diffuse
belle scène et beau témoignage
cool !
Arnaud

ruisc_pt (11584) 2013-03-04 10:54

The light is wonderfully captured Luko.
Nice daily life picture.
TFS
R