A monument to love
As a travel photographer, I try to capture the soul of the places I visit, and this time I choose the symbol of love, the Taj Mahal
The Taj Mahal is considered to be one of the Seven Wonders of the World, and every year many international – as well as more local – travellers visit to see its eternal beauty.
In July 2015, I visited the Taj Mahal, the famous monument to love in Agra, India, with one of my friends. I first took a walk around the complex, which is quite big, and then decided how to frame the monument for my own aesthetic viewpoint.
In order to make my Taj Mahal series special, I wanted to capture a portrait in which I used the iconic building as
the background to the image. The weather was cloudy and the Taj Mahal was looking really out of this world. A Mexican girl was a visiting and waving her sari in the air. It appeared to me that she was really happy to be there. I approached her for a photograph and she gave me permission. I composed the shot and requested that she cover her face with the sari. I used the Canon 16-35mm f/4l IS USM lens, and was really happy that the photograph came out so well.
In the same photo project I have also captured an early-morning sunrise shot during the winter, which I captioned Pearl Glow at Taj.
In complex lighting conditions like this it was difficult to get the same image in a single exposure because of the uneven falling light. I used a Canon EOS 6D, which does have a good dynamic range, but still there were still limitations that could bring unwanted noise to the image if it was captured in low light. So, to avoid these issues, I blended two exposures to make a noise-free image which could then be used for large prints. In this particular image I used a luminosity masking post-processing technique to match the exposure of the sky and the foreground.
I have visited Taj Mahal in different seasons to capture its beauty in summers, winters and monsoons. My thought process behind shooting this mesmerizing structure was to capture it not with a photographer’s point of view, but with a spectator’s eye, with different angles and perspectives.
I have visited Taj mahal in different seasons to capture its beauty in summers, winters and monsoons