Finale - Holi

[Manfred M]

The Holi celebrations in Nandgaon, India climax occurs in the temple, where people celebrating the event flock in, looking relatively clean. By the end, everyone has been exposed to the brightly coloured gulal powder and the predominantly red dye in the water (yellow is used as well).

While it might not look like it, it is the same temple (and same part of the temple) where I posted some traditional dance images from. Dance

1. Men with their barrels of coloured water get ready to douse people from the roof of the temple.





2. The two levels of the temple fill up. The top level is relatively busy, but not as messy as the ground level.





3. Gulal of all different colours is thrown in the air.





4. Some people head up the the higher areas of the temple to take a break. A selfie is always a good way to remember the festivities.





5. The festivities honour the Hindu god Krishna and his consort the goddess Radna. In the minds of the celebrants, all women are a "Radna" and get special treatment.




6. The finale - the men get together. There are just a few photographers around.





7. As the festivities break up, spontaneous dances break out on the way to the temple exits.

[Mike Buckley]

Very informative series! The combination of color in the air and on the people, the extent of the crowd and the perspective all come together for me in the second photo. The man standing on the corner of the upper level provides both scale and an anchor point that makes the image so much stronger than if he had not been included.

[Urbanflyer]

Thank you for a great experience through your wonderful images!

[Donald]

Again, travel/documentary photography of the highest standard. A pleasure to view these.

[rpcrowe]

National Geographic quality!

[Manfred M]

The man standing on the corner of the upper level provides both scale and an anchor point that makes the image so much stronger than if he had not been included.

Thanks Mike. That is the reason I used this particular image. I have the man in a couple of other shots, but his pose in this one was the strongest; he's a photographer shooting down into the crowd.

[ST1]

Excellent series Manfred, I wonder how long it takes to clean up after such a colourful occasion.

[Andrew1]

I've read of problems experienced by photographers in regards to some of those very fine powder particles getting inside their lenses. I imagine it could be more related to a less expensive extending zoom but even with the plastic covers the camera gear must take a rather detailed cleaning after such an event.


[Mike Buckley]

If you look through Manfred's threads about his photography of the celebrations, you'll see detailed explanations of the clean-up process including photos of how he protected his equipment. Doing so will also provide you the benefit of viewing many more great images.

[Manfred M]

I've read of problems experienced by photographers in regards to some of those very fine powder particles getting inside their lenses. I imagine it could be more related to a less expensive extending zoom but even with the plastic covers the camera gear must take a rather detailed cleaning after such an event.


As Mike mentioned, I have covered this before, but for the shoot we had rain covers that had cuffs for the hands to get at the controls. Opening of the rain cover was attached to the lens hood with gaffer's tape.

A bit of the gulal and dye did get onto the camera body through the cuffs because we did end up removing our hands from time to time. Likewise, the lens hood and clear filter got contaminated as well. I washed the rain hood, filter and lens hood with clear water. I used a soft bristled brush to do a general cleanup and moist cloth to wipe down the protected part of the camera body and lens afterwards.

The downside is that one is stuck shooting a single camera / lens combination for the full day. A few people had two bodies prepared this way. Internally focusing / zoom lenses work best.

Shooting was difficult as moisture from perspiration was constantly fogging up the rain cover from the inside and gulal and coloured water hit the outside...

Here are two members of our group; with covered cameras and covered in gulal and dye.

The hardest part of the cleanup job was us. One had to go bare-footed inside the temple and we were walking through a mixture of wet gulal and dye. We coated ourselves with coconut oil as a protective measure (and we got most of the colours washed off after a long shower), but the soles of our feet were unprotected and it took about 10 days to those to lose the colour.


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[selig1656]

Terrific journalistic series , well done in all aspects with the exception of the first pic , I like them all .

[Manfred M]

Terrific journalistic series , well done in all aspects with the exception of the first pic , I like them all .

The first shot, is what cinematographers refer to as the "establishing shot". It's not meant to "wow" anyone, but rather set the scene or context of the rest of the series by showing a view of where the events are taking place. It's necessary to tie together the series; the rest of the shots are detailed shots showing particular events.

I try to use this technique any time I am trying to tell a photographic story.

The single shot (#10) also fits into the story.

[Shadowman]

Nicely done.

[All3n]

Nice set, really caught the action with the colors. Perfect focus and blur! thank you for sharing

[Tringa]

A interesting thread, Manfred. I have really enjoyed the descriptions and, of course, the photos. The numbers 6 and 7 above are particularly good, IMO. There is something almost other worldly about number 6.

Dave

[Dave A]

Wonderful series. Tough shooting conditions often produce the most amazing images.......like these.

Dave

[Rainforest]

Can't think of a thing to add to Judith's comment: "Thank you for a great experience through your wonderful images!" Just super.