Just for Fun No C&C will be given: The sun sets...

Maris Rusis said:

Rajan, this a glorious sunset with a superb foreground.

Are we the only people who realise that the decade ends on December 31, 2010 and not December 31, 2009?

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;107867 said:

...on this decade.

Rajan Parrikar: Sunset on this Decade

Original

​

Rajan,

Thanks for permitting me to edit your [ Sunset on this Decade. Yes, images such as these can be dismissed as mere sentiment, unoriginal. Still, I do enjoy such sights and there's payoff each time I look. This picture does not pretend anything at all. So, that's fine a stance for me too. So, I'll not pretend it's profound or anything outstanding. But neither are the beautiful trees we pass every day, nor birds soaring above. Your sunset is just like that, splendid and not at all rare for most of us!

So, what you have picked to mark the end of the decade is "within reach of us all", just by opening our eyes. A lot of events, good and bad might have befallen us during this period. But, at least we can say, "We made it a little while longer, in spite of ourselves. We're here on planet earth, pretty well intact, with enough resources to be hopeful."

That's anyway how such a picture has me feel, simple gratitude that we all are here a little longer. We can screw things up, or we can look after this place. It's up to us!

Frame v. Matte: Now how should the picture be presented? I do not like dark frames. However, at OPF we went with a blue background to the page. So how do we make out print stand out more, if that's needed? Sometimes a matte may be used to better advantage than an imprisoning dark frame. (In my opinion, just my point of view, I'd avoid these like the plague, unless there's some commanding need for it by your esthetic senses). A light matte, instead, just allows the print to own its own "territory", so to speak, with no encroachment from anything else nearby.

So here I offer two alternate presentations using a light matte with a fragment of red to go wth the pictures, but with no alterations to the actual mage.

Rajan Parrikar: Sunset on this Decade

Cropped Version I AK with permisson

Rajan Parrikar: Sunset on this Decade

Cropped Version II AK with permssion​

In simple terms, the first picture with richer sky, is most charming, fitting with our expectations for a romantic evening. The second is a more challenging form to accept, as the sky is given up for more sea.
After all, the sun is setting, not the sky. This picture, then is far less romantic, sentimental and more blunt. The sun is setting, (like in Bob Dylan's "The Times They Are A-Changin'", you'd better take note!

Bob Dylan's "The Times They Are A-Changin'"

Come gather 'round people
Wherever you roam
And admit that the waters
Around you have grown
And accept it that soon
You'll be drenched to the bone.
If your time to you
Is worth savin'
Then you better start swimmin'
Or you'll sink like a stone
For the times they are a-changin'.

Come writers and critics
Who prophesize with your pen
And keep your eyes wide
The chance won't come again
And don't speak too soon
For the wheel's still in spin
And there's no tellin' who
That it's namin'.
For the loser now
Will be later to win
For the times they are a-changin'.

Come senators, congressmen
Please heed the call
Don't stand in the doorway
Don't block up the hall
For he that gets hurt
Will be he who has stalled
There's a battle outside ragin'.
It'll soon shake your windows
And rattle your walls
For the times they are a-changin'.

Come mothers and fathers
Throughout the land
And don't criticize
What you can't understand
Your sons and your daughters
Are beyond your command
Your old road is
Rapidly agin'.
Please get out of the new one
If you can't lend your hand
For the times they are a-changin'.

The line it is drawn
The curse it is cast
The slow one now
Will later be fast
As the present now
Will later be past
The order is
Rapidly fadin'.
And the first one now
Will later be last
For the times they are a-changin'.
​

I hope Rajan that these two offerings are of interest to you. I know you have tried many versions, perhaps this approach might add some new choices to explore. I'd rather think that in the challenging times in Goa where rich village life can be wiped out in one handshake or favor to developer as the land for real estate and industrialization is far more valuable the the humans on it.

Now make sure you have listened to Dylan's haunting song and then, after that, consider my modest version II of your picture again as, perhaps, being more in line with the stark choices faced by folk you worry about. However, it's for you to work out whether I speculate too much or maybe I am close to the mark on this one! I'd love to know what was on your mind!

Thanks for sharing and your generosity,

Asher

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