Lead me to the light - my images of Wesak Day

[mobbes]

A little late but better than never :)

I took these pictures at the Sinhalese (basically Sri Lankan) Maha Vihara Buddhist Temple in Kuala Lumpur on the eve of Wesak Day. For those who are not familiar with Buddhism, it's supposed to be Buddha's birthday and the highlight of the Buddhist calendar. Here's the Wikipedia page on Wesak Day (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Vesak_Day).

#1 Monks lining up for the 1st pooja or prayer session
http://calvinzworld.com/photos/DSC_3467-1.jpg

#2 Volunteer acolytes carry the basic offerings of flowers, fruits, candles, oil lamps and sweets for the pooja altar. As they pass, devotees would touch the offering trays. I'm not sure why they do that but I think it's to get blessings.
http://calvinzworld.com/photos/DSC_3469-1.jpg

#3 The volunteers pass the offerrings to the chain of monks leading to the altar. Here a monk happily passes a tray of fruits to his colleague onward to the altar
http://calvinzworld.com/photos/DSC_3473-1.jpg

#4 A little girl is captivated by the many candles and oil-lamps as her father lights up some joss-sticks
http://calvinzworld.com/photos/DSC_3506-1.jpg

#5 A traditional candle sits in front of a modern electric lamp
http://calvinzworld.com/photos/DSC_3518-1.jpg

I have chosen the theme of "light" to share my vision of Wesak Day. I hope you'll enjoy these images. Apologies if the image quality of these low ambient light shots is found wanting. Thanks

[chuah406]

great shots! captures the atmosphere well.

[asris]

Nice lowlight photos. U've got steady hands. :D

[mobbes]

great shots! captures the atmosphere well.
Thanks chuah :)

Nice lowlight photos. U've got steady hands. :D
Thank you asris. Actually I don't have steady hands ... if you look at the exif I shot no slower than 1/40 which is very holdable for short zooms :)

[ShaolinTiger]

Lovely shots, you've captured the spirit and feel of the occasion very well.

I really love the golden hour blue sky in the first two and the child's pensive expression illuminated gently by the candle-light.

[mobbes]

Was searching hi & lo for this thread :) Wow, it's been one year since 2007's Wesak Day ... so fast

Well, quite a lot has happened in the past year ... I even started a photoblog (http://www.kckongphoto.com/) & I've done a photo-essay (http://kckongphoto.com/?p=61)on this year's Wesak day in my blog. Instead of starting a new thread, here are some of the images from that photo-essay:

#1
http://farm4.static.flickr.com/3257/2510134247_6720c60f66.jpg

#2
http://farm3.static.flickr.com/2312/2510134569_203d7609fc.jpg

#3
http://farm4.static.flickr.com/3270/2510134951_57d028671f.jpg

#4
http://farm4.static.flickr.com/3223/2510135371_a6876908ff.jpg

#5
http://farm4.static.flickr.com/3031/2510968546_245a461786.jpg

#6
http://farm3.static.flickr.com/2072/2510135759_3da0a0d117.jpg

All of these were shot ambient with high ISO and my guiding principle was to try to get directional light to achieve pleasant light & shadow.

Hope y'all like these ... do have a look at the photo essay where I share my thoughts in the embedded captions. If you like them, I'll appreciate if you'll pen some comments in the blog.

And for these I've posted here, feel free to suggest titles for the images and think about the thousands of unfortunate people esp children who died in the Sichuan quake ... not forgetting the cyclone victims of Myanmar too.

Thanks & Peace to the World

[newdaddy]

Wow!! These r so well captured, excellent low light shots!!:bow_down: hv not seen these type of quality photos for somtimes:thumbs_up::thumbs_up::thumbs_up: