National Geographic August 2007

I was observing the cover photo on the August issue of National Geographic. The cover story is called, "Maya: How A Great Culture Rose and Fell". This title is quite a passive version of the famous books The Rise And Fall Of The Third Reich or Roman Empire. But it's a good attempt at variation. There probably aren't many other choices if you want to keep the title simple. There is a Mayan pyramid shot in the night on the cover. Its haunting and ghostly feel is created by overexposing the photo in the night. The photographer probably took a 7 to 10 second exposure (possibly more) to bring out the reflection of spotlights on the pyramid as if the light was emanating from the pyramid itself. Ironically I was experimenting with this very same effect when I was taking night photos of south mumbai from my friend's flat that overlooks the Cooperage maidan. By taking 8 to 10 second exposures, the night would seem like a ghotstly day, with light skies in which you could see clouds (to the naked eye, the sky appeared pitch dark). I thought I was one of the first to expirement with this kind of photography. But the NG cover proved I was wrong.