The f8 Group: Photography and Occasional Commentary: Photo Critique Night in Gonder

Here are four of the best from each participant on the tour. There was no brief other than to provide 15 images for some feedback. We had the slide night in Gonder, an Ethiopian town famous for its European style castles - people here refer to it as Ethiopia's Camelot and I can see why.
Photoshoppping was permitted although most image are straight off the camera. For the purpose of uploading I have selected a range of subjects from each person - really to showcase the diversity of the subject matter as well as the quality of the photography.
Ethiopia is an amazing country for photography - the people are in general quite interested in foreigners and usually do not mind having their photo taken - this I believe is a bit different to the Southern part of the country where the tribes people charge for photos taken. Or so I have heard.
I am blown away with not only the variety of the images but also by the quality. The light here is intense so you are constantly compromised with heavy black shadowing. The only true way to avoid this is to shoot early or later in the day - an age old solution for photographers. Using RAW files also helps deal with extreme contrast, as do UV protection filters and even Polarisers...