# Ladies



## Peanuts (May 9, 2007)

As I take the day off to study for a Chemistry exam tomorrow (yes! No more chemistry until University!), my 'breaks' consisted of yanking out a few more Sierra Leone images worth showing. I am getting to the ones taken in the market place - in which the women of the village are generally the ones selling the products - food, bowls, spices, bed covers. Essentially, a mini mall in North American with 1/20th the prices. I was fortunate enough to be able to go down with two girls my age (as well as one of their fathers), so they could translate, as well, they used P&S. (Unfortunately I never had the oppurtunity to upload them to my HD so I don't have them to send back as prints).

Enjoy, and feel free to critique as much as you want 
1. This lady was selling 'bowls' made from fruit shells similar to that of cantaloupe. Apparently they are used for seperating substances, for instance dirt from plants, or even gold or precious metals. That was my understanding of the conversation at least.






2. This lady who was in the Kabala market is a member of the Fullah tribe - a tribe that stretches across western Africa and is known for its nomadic lifestyle, and ability with cattle and goats. In front of her sat a large basin of milk - partly curdled - in the 30+ weather. She stated that every three days, she returns to her tribe to collect the milk that will be sold in Kabala. For these three days, the milk is sold - following this time period, she sells it as butter.





3. Two ladies sat behind some blinds on a porch overlooking the Kabala market working on some beautiful embroidery for a bedspread set. Their two sewing machines, The Flying Dragons, as read by the labels, were bought in Guinea - where their trade was also taught. I did not dig any deeper, but I believe it is safe to assume that they were probably trained in Guinea during the Civil War as refugees.





4. In the covered section of the Kabala market (apparently the owners will leave their children their overnight to make certain their 'spots' aren't lost the following day) sat this young lady and her young son. I don't think there is a more universal emotion then that of the pride on her face.





Thanks for looking!


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## newrmdmike (May 9, 2007)

you have a nice and very consistant feel to the images you've posted from that trip, and they are as a whole very good.

of these i particularly like the first, second and last one.


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## Peanuts (May 9, 2007)

Thanks for replying newrmdmike.   I was actually quite surprised when I returned - as I had been originally planed for this to be a 'colour' series. But as I experiment with each photo in black and white - I just can't go back!


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## JayJay65 (May 9, 2007)

Not only are they amazing pictures, showing alot of emotion, but they tell a story.. of which you clearly tell in your descriptions.. Its also something you learn from, and its clearly the perfect picture to show with..

Very amazing work, i'd love to see more of it.. Showing the difference in culture and life and how people show importance that you cant google search (or can you?).. 

Its very amazing.. nice job


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## Peanuts (May 9, 2007)

You bring up an interesting point JayJay. Prior to going to SL, I did as much research on the country as I could - and out of all honesty, it is quite sad how little there is. Most of it relates to the civil war, and that generally talks about the country as a turmoil of angry people, instead of as individuals. You expect to see signs of the civil war everywhere you go. Instead, what you are greeted with are people who are resiliant and overwhelmingly motivated.

Upon my return, I had plenty of people asking me, "Was it just like _Blood Diamond?" _Well, yes and no. On the streets, of Freetown in particular, were groups of men (usually) who had lost a limb, or more. The most powerful sight I saw was that of a boy, probably 10 or 11, whose skin appeared to be melting right off. I can only assume it was done during thte war. Yet, these were contrasted to the eagerness and generousity of the people of SL. When we went into a smaller village to visit a school built and sponsered by the NGO, we were offered large plates of groundnut stew, (In their culture, it is very rude to reject such an offering, so you have a few bites, thank them, and put it to the side, and they can feed it to their families later) The media defintely doesn't communicate the progress being made in countries such as SL. I hope that in the future I have the oppurtunity to return to SL for a longer time period then a week, as I doubt the experience could be matched.

Thanks once again  I have a few more images posted at my site, which you can get to through my profile.

Edit: Sorry about all of the spelling errors! I am not even thinking about spelling right now with all of this chem lingo running through (and right out) of my head! As you can see, the ladies were indeed not making 'breadspreads' but 'bedspreads'. Oops


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## danir (May 10, 2007)

Great pictures again.
I'm still amazed to see how calm they all look when you take their pictures.

In the last one it's not only the mom's expression but also that of the baby that makes it so interesting.

Dani.


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## Dougie (May 10, 2007)

I like them all. Could have been in National Geographic. I'm drawn to the woman's eyes in #2. She appears to be at ease with having her photo takken. Good shot friend


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## Tangerini (May 10, 2007)

I can't express enough how much I love the photos I've seen from you and this trip.
My favorite of these is the last.  I really like the darkness and the expressions on both the woman's and baby's faces.


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## Chris of Arabia (May 10, 2007)

You're in serious danger of getting another nomination for POTM here Peanuts. Probably for #2, but it's a close run thing with #4. Truly beautiful photography and as Dougie said, could easily have been in NG, Newsweek or something similar.

>;o))


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## oCyrus55 (May 10, 2007)

Again, :thumbsup:


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## Peanuts (May 11, 2007)

Sorry for not replying earlier - had one last Chem paper to finish up today!  Thanks for all of the compliments, far from NG quality, but hey, maybe someday I an shoot one with some resemblance.  

Perhaps now that I have more time on my hands, I might get one more thread up


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## Big Mike (May 11, 2007)

I really like these and look forward to see others from your trip.


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## Torus34 (May 11, 2007)

National Geographic quality in both content and technical competence.

Bravo!


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## stellar_gal (May 11, 2007)

Wow! Those are very inspiring.  Thanks for showing us.


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## deggimatt (May 12, 2007)

These are amazing, thanks for posting !!


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## oCyrus55 (May 12, 2007)

Torus34 said:


> National Geographic quality in both content and technical competence.
> 
> Bravo!



I totally agree

Hey, what post-processing did you do?  If you explained it somewhere else, let me know


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## Peanuts (May 12, 2007)

Hey sorry, just saw this one. 

Really it is quite simple, just a mixture of curves, masks, burning, dodging. I actually emailed it to a friend a few days ago so I will just copy and paste from that conversation.

For colour images, I just add a second layer with a masks, and use curves. Any blown highlights that weren't there before, I bring back using the mask. After that, I touch up the highlights and shadows using the burn/dodge tool - and if I feel something REALLY needs to be brightened up, I use the sponge tool at a very low opacity - or will rework it in curves. Then I save the full resolution image, as well as a smaller image that has been sharpened and convert the colour profile to sRGB.

Black and whites - I have just been playing around with my technique for these ones.

I generally convert all my images to colour first, and then choose which ones to go to bw, so most of these have already had the above 'treatment' per say.

After that, I make a gradient map (err.. I think that is right) layer through the layers palette (I am sure you already know where it is - but it is the half black/half white circle)

Next is Channel Mixers where you check 'Monochrome' at the bottom. Then I just play around with the levels. Most people say they should all add up to 100% by the end but -- mine are almost always 10-20% more then that. I watch only the skin tones here

Then I just click the eye beside the channel mixers level to see where any highlights were blown (there are generally lots), so using the mask tool on the channel mixers level I bring back pretty much all of the background generally.

I combine all of the layers here (Shift+Ctl+E)

Create a duplicate layer (Ctrl+J) and burn and dodge. This is probably where all of my finer work is done - and perhaps it is a waste of time, but... it makes a bit of a difference. Once again, I always hide then bring the layer back while I am doing it to make sure I didn't completely screw so mething out of proportion.

Oh! One thing I forgot, is sometimes I will bring the catchlights or highlights in the eyes out just a tad in BW, as I find they usually get lost. The dodge tool always makes them look muddy (even when on highlights) I find, so I create a dup layer, and curves, then bring back only the eyes. Sometimes that is too much so I decrease the opacity.

Other then that, I add a bit of a warm tone by adding a layer, Colour Balance (same place as Gradient Map and Channel Mixers)

Wa la  Hopefully that all makes sense. I just did that from the top of my head, so if you happen to have any questions - feel free to ask.


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## GoM (May 13, 2007)

Wow, amazing series...

I really have to get off my ass and see what people post more. This is fantastic stuff, Peanuts


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