Thaipusam 2020 on film

Another long post, but I don’t fill like splitting this story up, hey that’s my third post about Thaipusam this year.

The first Kavadi bearer

On arriving at Farrer park MRT, we met our first Kavadi bearer.

Pots bearers

And then more devotees waiting for the traffic light.

The little devotees

And the older ones

Then when moving inside the temple the devotees are assembling the Kavadis

or prepare their offerings

While others use their phones to snap their friends.

Looking proud

Family and friends accompany the devotees.

The drummer

A member of a Chinese groups of devotees (and a friend of a friend)

This one goes into a trance.

Pictures above are taken Ilford HP5 shot at box speed, I used not to be a big fan of this film, but actually I am very satisfied with these results. The pictures after are done with the Kodak TMY 400, not exactly my usual Tri-X, but i generally quite like it.

Actually I don’t see any difference, so I may shoot more of the cheaper HP5 going forward.

Still osculating but looking more steady.

Holly smoke

One of the priests of the temple

Preparation is everything

All shots with Leica M6 Classic and most of them with the Summicron 35mm F2 AsphvII (the last version), processed at the usual lab (well dropped at Ruby and they get the usual guy do the work) and scanned at home with the Epson v800.

Advertisement

Thaipusam 2020 – What to expect

I am by no means a specialist of Hindu religion, so please forgive any mistakes, I am happy to be corrected. This is a a small guide for fellow shutterbugs on what to expect on next Thaipusan day.

This year Thaipusam falls on 8th of February, it is a Saturday so there is no excuse for not going out and shoot ; and Thaipusam offers many different photo opportunities.

The Chariot at Sri Thendayuthapani Temple (2013 Nikon D700)

The eve of Thaipusam, on the Friday, the Chariot of the temple will take Lord Murugan for a day’s visit to his brother Lord Vinayagar at Layan Sithi Vinayagar Temple on Keong Saik Road. Along the route, he stops at several places, including Sri Mariamman temple on South Bridge Road (Singapore’s oldest Hindu temple), to greet the goddess within, a manifestation of his mother. He then continues on to see his brother.

On Clemenceau Avenue (2009 Nikon F4)

The Chariot leaves around 6pm and comes back around 9pm ; then it is parked in front of Tank road temple and visited by many devotees. Later in the night starts the Thaipusam procession : devotees start from Sri Srinivasa Perumal Temple (Serangoon Road aka SSPT) at 11.30pm.

Inside Sri Thendayuthapani Temple (2016 Leica M4 Cinestill 800)

Doors at Sri Thendayuthapani Temple (Tank Road aka STT) will open at 12.01am on 08/02/2020. You can enter the back of the temple and watch the priests opening the inner shrine, and then let the devotees came in and receive their blessings. The activity is quite low around that time but it gets busier around 2am.

2019 inside STT (Leica M6 Ilford Delta 3200)

Devotees will keep on leaving the Serangoon Garden temple until midnight on Saturday. My usual routine is to reach Serangoon Road temple before 8am. The sun is still very low and and the light inside the temple is dim. The temple and the nearby parking area are used to set-up the kavadis of the devotees and prepare themselves for the procession. Groups are constantly setting up, so no pressure to shoot. All of this happens under canopies to the light can be tricky.

2011 Inside SSPT (Nikon D700)

You can follow one group all the way to Tank Road, or walk a bit faster and move from group to group. Beware, when you reach Clemenceau Avenue, the only way to get inside the temple is to queue with the devotees until you reach the temple. I never did it 10 years, but if you do you will be able to enter the temple by the front door.

2013 Ready to go (Hasselblad 500CM)

If you are not that brave enough, you can walk along the queue of the devotees and arrive at the back of the temple. Where you can see devotees exiting the temple then arriving at the rest are and disassembling the Kavadis. Moments of rest and relief.

2013 After the procession (Nikon F3)

Finally if you go on the path of the procession at night you will see lighted-up kavadis!

I have no idea of what happens at both temples after the last devotee leaves or arrives

2018 – Leica M262 – 35mm Summicron asph v2 

So plan for a great day : you can shoot from Friday 6pm to Midnight on Saturday.

A few advises:

• The Chariot procession can be fun, especially if you spot it in town or upon its return to Tank Road. But chasing it may be complicated.
• The evening when the temple at Tank road open is interesting, I have been two or three time, I may skip it this year
• During the day I prefer going the morning like getting ready to shoot at 8am for a couple of hours
• You can spent another hour at the disassembly area

Practical: the places will be busy, many visitors attend all stages of the event, and many buddy photographers, hot (but I never felt the need to bring water), and yo have to leave your shoes outside of the temples (I don’t mind, but you can also bring flip flops and put them in your bag)

Technical stuff: I shot with DSLR (from 17 to 200 mm), SLR, Leica film and digital and the Hasselblad. This is a busy event, so you don’t have much time to fiddle around. Last year I shot only with 35 and 50mm, with a couple of shots on 28. With 28 and 35 you get a lot of “noise”  in the frame, maybe something around 80mm would be nice if you want to shoot portrait or the actual  moment piercings are performed (I am a bit less interested in this now). People are super friendly but I avoid to be too a nuisance and to thrust your camera in people face, show some respect.

For film: I used 400 ISO for B&W in the temple in the morning , for the night events I used 3200 Kodak TMZ or Ilford Delta and Cinestill 800.

For more information you can visit the Hindu Endowments Board website https://heb.org.sg/

You can see some of my past posts on Thaipusam here.

Thaipusam 2019 – A roll of Ilford Delta 3200

Nearly one year ago, in January, I went to Tank road in the middle of the night to shoot a roll of Ilford Delta 3200 at the Sri Thendayuthapani Temple for the Thaipusam ceremony.

The orchestra

Thaipusam is a Tamil Hindu ceremony where devotees walk from Sri Srinivasa Perumal Temple in Little India to the temple in Tank road.

The priests

It is interesting to shoot the ceremony at both temples ; at Little India where they start the pilgrimage or here where they finish it.

I favor the little India location early in the morning ; it is already very busy, but manageable. But for a couple of years I go to Tank Road in the evening before ; it is general quiet, the action (if I can say so) is more subdued. Pilgrims flow through the temple, receive blessings and walk out.

At the back of the temple is a resting aera and pilgrim receive tea and nibbles.

A Chinese Hindu devotee

This year I tried a roll of Ilford Delta 3200 with the Leica M6 and the Summicron 50mm version 5. The result is quite nice, the M6 does a good job once again, the light meter is working very well once again.

Giving offerings

I rarely shot the Ilford 3200, but must say the result is quite good. The grain is nice but controlled, the contrast is good. As I said somewhere else I think high ISO film give good results if you scene has a minimum of contrast.

Collecting ashes

These were shot around 11pm, on the first evening, it is very quite just when the priest open the inner sanctum of the temple. Alternatively, you can come around on the next day and take pictures from pilgrims disassembling their Kavadis.

–

The inside on the temple of the day itself is over crowed and their is no shortcut, you have to follow the devotees from Penang road, I am not sure how long it will take. Surely a great experience, but you will need a good couple of hours.

The friendly volunteer

04790

Get ready I have 2 or 3 rolls of TRIX that I shoot the next day.

Walking out of the temple

Get ready, this year the Thaipusam procession is expected to start from SSPT on 07/02/2020 from 11.30pm.

 

Panguni Celebration – Singapore

So what happened since the March Photowalk? No pictures ? Well a bit of the contrary, I have been in a film frenzy and I now average 2 rolls a week, but then this takes  a lot of time to process and there is little time left to put this us in a post. Also of course has there’s been a bit of travelling, but that will be for other posts…

So at the week after the March photowalk, on a Wednesday morning, was the celebration of Panguni.

Panguni is a Hindu celebration similar to Thaipusam (you can see my post for this year here). In Singapore it is held two lunar months after Thaipusam, in the Yishun area, at the Holy Tree Sri Balasubramaniar Temple.

Like Thaipusam it involves body piercing, carrying Kavadis, music, friends and family support.

It is always amazing from the outside to see people going through this ritual. But you can also find some laughter there.

Panguni is a lot smmaller celebration that Thaipusam and it is less crowded. A lot less photographers and onlokers as well. Some of the people I spoke to pput the emphasis on the local dimension of the ceremony.

Pictures are done with Leica M4 and M6, with Summaron 35F2.8 and Summilux 50F1.4v2, using Kodak Tri-X. I also shot some colours pics but they did not make it through the selection.

Fire Walking Ceremony – Sri Mariamman Temple – Singapore

Fire walking is a South Indian festival honoring the Hindu goddess Sri Draupadi, who is the wife of the five Pandava brothers who walked on hot coals to prove her purity.

This is the first time I can go to this ceremony. Total respect for the amount of faith, the sense of community and probably the amount of pain going on there.

The devotees arrive from Little India, a couple of km away in groups, some chanting, some with music, some singing and dancing.

They then arrive a few hundred meters from the Sri Maramiam temple and wait in a staging area.  All of this is very well organized; groups are allowed to pass from one area to the next by the organizers in order to organized the crowed. Some devotees told me they were expecting 5000 people.

I have seem this man many times in Thaipusam in the past years, seeing these people years after years in the viewfinder is one of the attractions I find in photographing these events.

I asked one of the Hindu man in the public how do the devotees group themselves; he told me they are friends and make a kind of team that make each of them stronger and helps them going through the ritual. Like a sport team he told me, doing this on your own would be much more difficult.

I did not really thought I could enter the temple, but as I was close to the entrance, one of the organizer asked me if I wanted get inside. I removed my shoes and they even gave me a plastic bag to carry them and I was moved inside the temple. Actually there is a special track for visitors and a different one for devotees.

The track goes along the fire pit, and although we are asked not to stay there too long I could witness two men doing the ritual.

This one above, was walking very casually (so to speak).

This one was more in running mode, you will notice the flower petals he through in the air before starting.

Walking out of the main temple area, people are waiting and resting and going through other stations, I must admit I am ignorant of what the whole pilgrimage consist of after the fire walking itself.

Outside people are resting.

The ground of the temple is covered in yellow power, probably not saffron more likely curcuma, clearly these feet have been walking through fire.

I saw a few times some ethnic Chinese Hindu in Singapore, here is one who was looking to be quite in pain,

I hope you enjoyed this post.

For my Hindu friends if you find a picture of yourself and you are not happy with that, let me know and I will remove it from this album, if you like them, let me know I’ll be enchanted. I am never sure if my schedule allowed but I would really enjoy meeting one of the groups and following you over an extended period of time to produce a photo-book of some sort.

Needless to say that these picture for my own interest in photography and the pleasure of sharing. They are a not for commercial use.

On a side note: I am a donkey sometime; when I pass at the temple on the afternoon I see this older gentleman of a photographer that I meet every year at Thaipusam. Not only did I not take his portrait but I did not ask for his contact. He carries a Nikon F5, if somebody knows him let me know.

Camera: Nikon D700
Lens: Nikkor 85mm F1.8D, only the first one is done with the 17-35F2.8AFS

Thaipusam 2013 – The Nikon shots

This is a follow up of Thaipusam 2013 post.

All pictures below taken with Nikon D700, Nikkor 85mmF1.8D and 17-35mmF2.8. The place in Serangoon road does not have a very good light; it’s very dark prior to 9am; after this there is too much light coming from the side of the area as it had no walls (Appart when you are within the temple)

On Thaipusam afternoon I brough the Nikon F3 + 50F1.4 AIS loaded with a roll of Ilford 400 PAN. The results were not that great. We went to Tank Road were people finish the pilgrimage, chill out and dissemble the kavadis.
My favourite picture is probably the following , where the guy in the middle have someone remove the spike that goes through both his cheeks.

On the last shot below the Chinese pilgrims I met the morning have finished and pose for a group shot.

To my question “How do you feel?” their answer was “Happier”.

Puja in Sri Srinivasa Perumal Temple – Singapore

One of the last week-ends despite not feeling very well, I head to Little India without any special idea in mind and the Hassie in the camera bag. Having left my shoes outside I walk inside the Sri Srinivasa Perumal Temple on Serangoon road to find that a celebration (or puja) was held that day. I just had half a roll and could shot the following.

The is Rollei RPX 400 ASA film, the first roll I ever shot. I must say I quite like it the grain is very thin, quite good contrasts. I have a little stock of both 100 and 400 ASA of this film in 120 format in the fridge, I may buy some 35mm when I’m back in France. When back from the shop the film was quite flat and easy to scan unlike the Rollei Retro which is so curly

I am not sure if this is a set meal or an individual set of offerings for each participant; I did no stat that long to check.

One of the musicians or the ceremony at rest.

The chariot of the temple that rides out in the city for some special celebrations.

CameraHasselblad 500cm
LensCarl Zeiss 80mmF2.8 probably 1/60 F4
FilmRollei RPX 400 ASA
Digi-filmScan Epson v500+Epson Scan software + lightroom 3.6

Thaipusam 2012 – A shot in the dark

Time flies and here it comes again, as sure as Christmas in December, Thaipusam the Hindu festival of Singapore falls every year around the end of January. Unfortunately this year I have very little time to go, so I just popped in at night for half an hour. I fancied myself putting a roll of tri-x in the F4s and take a fast autofocus lens and shoot at 1600 ISO. Well that proved to be a wrong choice; my F4 is no longer what it used to be (or never was) and autofocus in the dark is not great. So that day the ratio of keepers is pretty low, 3 pictures only are worth looking at.
Lessons of the day:
– I would have been better taking the D700!
– The best pictures of the F4 were done with manual lenses! Maybe its AF has a problem…

For older shots of Thaipusam click here.

Camera: Nikon F4s
Lens: Nikkor 50mm F1.8D
Film: Kodak Trix 400 pushed 1600ISO
Scanner: Epson v500

Saddhus – Durbar Square – Kathmandu

First time in Nepal, first day in Kathmandu, first time I tip to take a picture. I was warned though that the Saddhus are living on charity and expect to be paid when portrayed. These ones were pretty cool, I had no change as just arrived I gave them 10 Indian Ruppiah, which amount at a plate of Momo (Local dumplings) bought in the street.

Camera: NikonD700
Lens: Nikkor 80-200 F2.8
Processing:LR3+PS Elements 4.0

Sri Mariamman temple : The Chariot

Sri Mariamman temple : The Chariot

[Anglais]The temple has been undergoing some renovations and in the Temple warming (May Maha Kumbavishakam) took place in May 2010. Including the parade of the Silver Chariot on 31st May.

Photo: Singapour: Silver Chariot of Sri Mariamman temple

Camera: Nikon D80, Nikkor 50mmF1.4/S
Touch-up:Lightroom 2.x / Bibble Pro 5/ PSP Elements 4.0