The girl on the balcão

One Saturday morning (few months back) Anuja and I decided to go to Bodega Café, located at the Sunaparanta Centre for the Arts at Altinho. I had been to this place a few times and love the huge old Portuguese house, the gallery which showcases some excellent work of art, and courtyard, the ambiance, and the daily changing menu. A very good place to sit and relax reading a book, or chat with few friends.

This snap was taken casually as Anuja was jumping around all excited in the shady Portuguese style balcão (balcony) with wrought iron railings, and decided to jump on the railing and swing a bit. The photograph captures this with the blur on her feet depicting motion, and the expression on her eyes, and body posture. You can definitely feel she is having fun! The balcony itself appears as a silhouette because of the bright and hot afternoon light, giving a very nice feel to the image. I would have preferred if the background outside the balcony was less burnt, but it was impossible to keep both the subject in light and the outside less bright without using multiple exposures and joining them up. I used a 50mm lens with f/4 and 1/40 sec and ISO 200. This setting ensured, that the subject was bright, and the background not too bright, and the slow shutter speed allowed the capture of movement.

Personally I love this snap because it represents how life should be, full of happiness with child like enthusiasm with a swing in your leg on an old Goan-Portuguese balcão. As someone rightly said “Add life to your days, not days to your life”!

Anuja thanks for the excellent pose, this photograph would not be complete without you. Bodega and Sunaparanta thanks for the excellent time I have each time I visit your place.