Taken earlier this year in Nepal and probably not the type of image that many people would associate with that location.
I was walking through a small back street in Kathmandu when I saw this construction site. Peering in from the street, I could see the man tending to the concrete mixer, building debris scattered on the muddy ground and directional light pouring into an otherwise gloomy environment.
I took a couple of photos from outside but wasn’t satisfied and realized that I needed to get closer if possible. I caught the eye of the man and gestured to come into the site, he nodded in agreement and I stepped over the rough entrance.
Several points about that. Firstly it says much about the friendly and welcoming people of Nepal and secondly, it says something about the lack of rules and regulations. Could you imagine the same scene and access in a developed country? Not a safety hard hat, high visibility vest or barrier to entry to be seen.
In processing the image, I decided fairly quickly to go to a black and white presentation as there were only muted colours in the scene anyway. I choose to use plenty of contrast allowing the shadows to go to black as this was how I saw the scene at the time. The location was dark with only some details being picked out by light coming in from a couple of high windows. Finally, given that the image was taken at a fairly high ISO with some resultant digital noise, I introduced a film grain effect as well, although at this image size it may not be obvious.
Check out the Nepal 2017 gallery! ~KD
