(Sony A55)This shot was done at a Lama temple cum monastery known as Yong He Gong in Beijing. It was originally one of the imperial courts of an early Manchurian emperor of the Qing dynasty, but was later turned by his successor into a Lama temple apparently for national assimilation purpose. It remains the largest Lama temple outside of the minority-autonomous regions in China.
Today, there are still Lama monks holding religious congregations and meetings in the temple. This shot was successfully made from a higher point which was secured by the author some 20 minutes before the scripture chanting session started. The A55 was manually pre-focused and turned to AF-C but with the AF mechanism temporarily disengaged, allowing the AF to quickly chase the focus only upon re-engagement. The lens was Minolta’s 75-300mm midrange cannon, which allows for zooming to roughly 480mm with the APS-C sensor.
The shot was captured for the contrast of the more intense facial expression of the older monk and the playful faces of the two younger monks behind, which is accentuated by the different orientations of their heads and the hopefully right aperture value. The colour, light and shadows seem right to just give the image a religious atmosphere.
It is one of the two shots for the scene. The final image has been cropped a bit to highlight the subjects.
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