Buddha Upon Hussain Sagar

Buddha Upon Hussain Sagar, originally uploaded by JordanH.

17.5m high of pure modern Buddha, baby. The Buddha Purnima is situated on an artificial island in the middle of Hussain Sagar in Hyderabad. When it was first brought across the lake from shore in 1985 the barge carrying it across capsized, killing eight and sinking the Buddha to the bottom where it would rest—undamaged—for two years until it was recovered.

The hand raised is the hand mantra meaning "No Fear," making this Buddha a Buddha of compassion. My friend Jeremey bought me a book on Buudhist art a few years ago. That definately made this trip to India more interesting.

Jim, Srikanth, and I took a boat across the lake, said "hi!" to the Buddha and I snapped this shot as we circled around it on our return. The mustardy colors of the sunset didn't look bad in the original version of this shot, but converting this image to black and white and adding contrast definately made it look better to my eye.

I used the spot meter on a darker portion of the budda, locked exposure, and recomposed in an effort to capture maximum detail without having the Buddha become just a a silouhuette against the bright setting sky. The backlighting certainly reduced contrast and darkened things up a bit more than I would have otherwised liked. I'm still pleased with this shot overall, however.