334. Sadhus and Shivaratri
Photo By: Abishesh Joshi
Posted Date: 20th February
Description:
If there is a time when one has to visit the Pashupatinath temple, Maha Shivaratri is it. Celebrated in honor of the Great Lord Shiva, large number of pilgrims and holy men (sadhus) come to the temple from all over Nepal and also India.They spend the night lighting sacred fires, singing praises of the deity, and keeping a constant vigil to greet his descent to earth on the grassy hills around the temple.
One of the most fascinating aspects are the Hindu sacred men – yogis or sadhus. Smeared with ash, away from the everyday concerns of the world, they can be seen all around the vicinity. They, naked with no sense of shame, have mastered cold and heat, hunger and sensual desire. These wanderers, thin but powerful, with fierce intelligent eyes, live a life detached, seeking union with Lord Shiva.
Thank you for your blog article.Really thank you! Cool.
Nice Photography man!
Blue sky behind the object,dim green trees,small temples made by stones,other ‘jogis’ around & angle of photography is nice.Even the man on blackT-shirt and jeans pant is looking unsuitable.
the picture is fantastic.. i could still make a small crop around so the sadhu falls under even more attention and also to cut off the edge’s distracting subject.. i also agree with Dreamsky bro.. i myself was also thinking a fill in flash would make the pic way dramatic and punchy… good job aniway.. keep it mathi Abisekh!!
CONGRATULATION! Abishesh. Hope to see more such winning photos from you here in Life in Nepal. Keep posting.
Nice Photography!
@comment reader,
Ok (Howzzzzzaaat!!!)
can any one write short and sweet reply it is very hard for us to read it
Dear Dreamsky, I lack knowledge of arts and Principles. 😕
Surrealism in Photography is described as abstraction of reality. Since photography was supposed to capture images which seems real interms of our daily life, Some photographers came out of this and tried different techniques to express themselves. I also believe that art is the medium of expression but it has been debated since it’s emergence. 🙂
I too respect your opinion and hope we can share our opinion further too.. 🙂
Hidden treasure !!!
I discovered the convergence point only after reading the comment. Reminded me of the Da Vinci Code ehe..
Btw,I was guessing this to be 16mm but EXIF tricked me (why? 🙄 )
and Dear Lucida, May be Cubism can be better attributed as the abstraction of reality. I would interpret Surrealism as the expression of imagination and dream. It is just a matter of how we see things and interpret. Art should be the medium of expression not a topic of debate 🙂 I respect your opinion though.
Seems like we have a bit of a debate going on in here…
well about the picture, i shot it at low angle at 16mm because i wanted to present Sadhu as the centre of all perspective lines… and about sadhu being underexposed, trying to get the exposure right on the lower portion would’ve overexposed the sky…i prefer a bit of underexposure than a washed out sky… 😆
Thank you all for your comments..
Dear Dreamsky, I aprreciate your opinion. My point was only regarding the picture “Sadhus and Shivaratri”.
Photography has many wings, though in Nepal we don’t have culture of discussion, sharing and experiments we do whatever our seniors have done. We don’t question, we just follow.
Surrealism is abstraction of reality. Many Photographers argue that Black and White Photography is pure Photography. But isn’t B&W images a far cry from reality. Even Color picture, we capture a fraction of second in our film or Digital Sensor, but aren’t those picture different from what we see through our eyes.?
My point is there is a bit of surrealism in every Photographs. Photojournalism itself has many arms. When we talk about Photojournalism we only think of News Photographs. But many creative Photojournalists are pursuing this art within the boundary of Photojournalism. We can find them in the form of many Photo-essays, Stories, and Documentary projects. They are very powerful expression of human values, and the way of life.
Being a student of Media, I find myself close to Photojournalism but I’m not a Professional Photojournalist. I’m a learner and I’m striving to learn the visual language.
In my opinion Simplicity fits everywhere.
Dear Lucida, discussions certainly enrich our knowledge. Thanks for sharing the link. The ‘watch maker’ metaphor is indeed powerful and thought provoking.
I too believe in simplicity and do worship Picasso. But I still find myself spellbound by the works of surrealistic artists which are inherently not simplistic. In fact I am really influenced by the surrealist movement since a long time back (so is my nick ‘DreamSky’ 🙂 ).
It is subjective. For me the ‘expressions of imagination and dream’ are more intriguing and I find myself searching for these expressions (ingredients?) in the work of art/photography. No offense to photojournalism, but I want an escape from the reality even in photography. Reality is stale. If not, there must be a touch of ‘those ingredients’ somewhere.
I think simplicity best fits in the path of abstraction.
Discussion is key of learning and I enjoy it. I don’t agree with you DreamSky. I believe in Simplicity. I don’t agree that “Ingredients” do make any picture good rather I prefer Simplicity. If you try to add many things in a single frame that it does nothing but confuse the viewer. You must have heard Nepali story behind how god created Camel…!!
Here is a very famous and Powerful expression of Simplicity by great painter Picasso…. I think this equally applies in Photography too…
http://blogs.princeton.edu/wri152-3/nbisaria/archives/001985.html
In contrary to above discussion,I find this picture an amazing photograph. All the ingredients ( ‘Blue Sky’ , ‘Low angle approach to the subject’ and the wonderful ‘Wide angle perspective’ ) instantly made me go WOW! when I saw this for the first time. This is a very creative and artistic shot. We seldom see Shudhus photographed under the sky. Most of them tend to be stale closeup shots. Its subjective but I personally find wide-angle-distortion a killer lense effect in photography.
My only comment is – use of fill-flash could have made this shot even better.
Witty description. Excellent!
Well composed shot! Abishesh. My thumb up. However choice of 18mm focal length gave this picture somewhat odd perspective which is because of lens distortion ‘falling walls’ as mentioned by Lucida. I think focal length between 28-mm- 35mm could be best options. I agree attempt of making sky azure is bit overdone. Beside a gawking boy behind the Sadhu everything within the frame harmonized with its ‘subject’ SADHU.
Abishesh! Keep posting, we love to see your creative work here in LIN.
Jai Sambho… Happy Shivaratri 🙂
Abishesh well tried. Shivaratri is coming near, picture shows the mood around Pashupatinath Temple.
But I want to comment something regarding picture hope you won’t mind.
I find sky a bit “overdone”. It’s distracting the eys from main subject which is a bit under-exposed. Picture on the left is also very distorted, wall of temple near sadhu seems falling down, which I found a bit odd.
Still you are there and can take many pictures. Best of luck.Keep clicking.
Its nice!! 😎
The cool blue sky is adding rhythm to the mood.
Though, the guy in the jeans is distracting the mood.