Thalappoli Maholsavam Festival - Kochi

[Manfred M]

We have spent the past five days traveling through some remote (and some less remote) parts of Kerala, India. Kerala is a state in the extreme south-western part of the country and is a bit more laid back than other parts of the country we have been to. This is the first time in those five days that I've had internet access, so I thought I'd share a few of the shots that I've taken.

Our first stop was Cochin, formerly known as Kochi; which is the city we flew into. One of the temples, close to where we were spending the night was celebrating the Thalappoli Maholsavam festival which so far as I understand is dedicated to Ganesh, a Hindu deity who is an elephant, so elephants were a major part of the celebration, as were a large group of musicians playing horns and percussion instruments.

These are event shots, taken in the middle of a large crowd and just around / after sunset, so the lighting was quite low and tough to work with (the GX7 is not a great low light camera).

Let me apologize in advance. I have limited tools to do the PP work here in India, so these are going to be reworked when we get home.


1. Establishing shot - six beautifully decorated elephants, with three persons standing and / or sitting on each. Fans and umbrellas were part of the decor.





2. Mahout - someone has to steer the elephant, so the mahout or driver sit up front.





3. Musicians - some large circular horns were part of the music





4. Getting ready to parade - the musicians have marched off and the elephants are getting ready to follow them down the street and to the temple.

[Shadowman]

Nice series.

[Mike Buckley]

Very colorful and informative! What is the significance of the elephant bearing the yellow umbrella and the other large decorative piece that is unique to the group?

[Manfred M]

Very colorful and informative! What is the significance of the elephant bearing the yellow umbrella and the other large decorative piece that is unique to the group?

I haven't got a clue, Mike. Perhaps some of our Indian members might be able to shed some light here.

[rpcrowe]

Wonderful set!

[IzzieK]

The commentary and the images are all wonderful to begin with to begin each images. Good angle on #4 too. Tejal has uploaded so much of the Ganesh shots but she doesn't respond much to other's images so perhaps Nandakumar who is very active in this group might...I like the other shots too.

[Dave Humphries]

Another fascinating set,

Good to see the elephants had a snack before they moved off

[Sergio M.]

Agreed, another enjoyable set.
One of the things I like about this and your other sets is the consistency of exposure and processing between photos.

Sergio

[Manfred M]

Agreed, another enjoyable set.
One of the things I like about this and your other sets is the consistency of exposure and processing between photos.

Sergio

The "trick" I use is to use one of the WB presets, rather than Auto WB. That way there is a consistent "look" between images when I open the images in Photoshop, as this setting comes across in the EXIF data. I might do minor tweaks in WB in post, but find this approach does result in more consistent looking images.

I could set WB the same across the board in ACR / LR, but this approach is far easier to use.

[Dave Humphries]

The "trick" I use is to use one of the WB presets, rather than Auto WB. That way there is a consistent "look" between images when I open the images in Photoshop, as this setting comes across in the EXIF data. I might do minor tweaks in WB in post, but find this approach does result in more consistent looking images.

I could set WB the same across the board in ACR / LR, but this approach is far easier to use.

Yes, I think this is a "trick" I need to take up, for the reason you give, I am currently doing it in ACR manually - tedious now I have started shooting batches of similar pictures.

[NorthernFocus]

Interesting parade/festival. Amazing how calm the elephants are with all the commotion.