Akha Hill Tribe Woman - Street Portrait
by cosney

Comment by CNovack:
Voted earlier coming back to comment.

Fabulous work capturing this woman in her environment. Very much a National Geographic type shot. Light, color, clarity, composition are all top tier work.

Akha Hill Tribe Woman - Street Portrait
by cosney

Comment by tanguera:
Marvelous face and attire, although I find the stuff in the bg very distracting. This is such a powerful image, I might have brought down the brightness and saturation behind her to make her even more prominent.

Lavender & Bee
by cosney

Comment by cosney:
Thanks everyone -

Lavender & Bee
by cosney

Comment by MaryO:
Exceptional detail for a bee in flight.

Lavender & Bee
by cosney

Comment by tanguera:
Did that bee just turn and look at the camera???

Tuol Sleng - S21
by cosney

Comment by ekmai:
Congratulations on a new PB Pete, and finishing in the top 50 for 2011 :)

Tuol Sleng - S21
by cosney

Comment by cosney:
Thanks all for the comments.

The picture was taken in Toul Sleng (S21) Genocide Museum in Phenom Penh, Cambodia. It is a old school which was converted a prison for political prisoner / undesirable by the Khmer Rough in the 70's.

It is a very powerfull place you can feel what happened there - in other rooms are pictures of the people who came through S21 and were ultimate executed, in some case just because they wore glass or spoke a foreign language.

I wanted to capture the atmosphere of the room and how you imagine it could have been. S21 is famous for it reddy brown faded tiled floors; but, I felt B&W was the only way to show the true atmosphere.

The box on the bed is ammumnition box if you need any more confirmation this is a tragic place.

the post processing is simple technique found on you tube involving gradient map and high pass filters with strong vignette to add gloom and pull in the eye.

Message edited by author 2012-02-24 10:37:11.

Tuol Sleng - S21
by cosney

Comment by tanguera:
Simply love this image.

Tuol Sleng - S21
by cosney

Comment by Anthony_D_Archer:
Congrats on the Top 50 finish Pete!

Tuol Sleng - S21
by cosney

Comment by gsal:
Beautiful lightning. Many photographic elements of form and shape, texture and space, make this image so brilliant. Congrats. 10 from me.