A favorite for all the right reasons

Out of 1,987 photos that I brought home from Peru, it is a very unlikely one that has become one of my favorites.

We were in the middle of a tour in Lima when I saw these four musicians walking down the sidewalk. I had a flash of The Beatles crossing Abbey Road in my head and lifted the camera above the window sill of our tour guide's van.

As with much of the trip, I was carrying the 5D, this time with the 24-70mm. It was a complete grab shot, no time to frame it well as we drove by rather quickly.

The bad...
It is way out of focus, exposure was off (hence the color wackiness I created in Lightroom for this version) and the composition could be better.

The good...
Four musicians with an unlikely (at least for N. America) combination of instruments walking in unison down a street in Peru. The building makes a nice and interesting background... a hint of crosswalk stripes (a la Beatles)..

As a personal trip photo, I love it. The fact that I got a frame at all surprised me, and after playing with it, I found a color setting that fits the mood...

Go figure.

So remember, while proper composition, lighting, posing, metering, lens selection etc. etc. etc are great, the real essence of photography is capturing a moment that can be kept, inspected and remembered in detail. Sometimes the beauty is in the imperfections.

And, sometimes it really pays off to have a camera at the ready.

Happy Shooting

don j.