[Leica] Varanasi

[Jayanand Govindaraj]

Bob, Douglas
Thanks for looking.

The important aspect of this trip is that I was on a boat most of the time,
facing the ghats, so you capture the overall mood/atmosphere and photograph
people facing you. If I was on foot on the ghats, all I would get is
photographs of the backsides of people, one of my pet hates, because the
action is usually at the congruence of land and water! Of course, the
excellent stabilization built into equipment today also helps a lot with
night/low light photography in general. I got sharp images using a Nikon
Z9/Nikkor Z70-200mm f2.8 combo, which is pretty heavy in aggregate, with
shutter speeds as low as 1/5s. Technology is absolutely amazing.

Cheers
Jayanand

On Tue, Dec 27, 2022 at 6:40 AM Douglas Barry <imra at iol.ie> wrote:

> Impressive place, Jayanand, with equally impressive images, however, the
> stand out for me in the collection is "Cremation at Night". I'd regard
> it as probably the photograph of the year on the LUG.
>
> Douglas
>
> On 23/12/2022 03:03, Jayanand Govindaraj via LUG wrote:
> > Neela & I had gone on a trip to Bandhavgarh National Park, followed by
> the
> > temple town of Khajuraho, and finally Varanasi on the River Ganges, one
> of
> > the oldest continuously inhabited cities in the world, and the high seat
> of
> > Hinduism. To start with a few impressions of Varanasi, mostly seen from
> > boats on the river, as the hotel we were staying was situated on the
> river,
> > and not accessible by vehicles - only by boat, or on foot - so a lot of
> our
> > movement was on boats:
> >
> > Ghats are access points on any river/water body. There are 84 ghats in
> all
> > on this stretch of the Ganges - some a few years years old, and some
> > thousands of years old. This is a view from the terrace of our hotel,
> which
> > was situated on the river at Darbhanga Ghat:
> >
> >
> http://gallery.leica-users.org/v/jayanand/Varanasi/varanasi/Varanasi-20221206-050-Edit.jpg.html
> >
> > The ghats are interconnected, so it is possible to walk from one end to
> > anther on the rivers edge, taking in sights like this one - shaving of
> > one's hair is a common act of piety and penance in Hinduism:
> >
> >
> http://gallery.leica-users.org/v/jayanand/Varanasi/varanasi/untitled-20221209-896-Edit.jpg.html
> >
> > Varanasi is probably the holiest city in Hinduism, and the main temple
> here
> > is the Kasi Viswanath Mandir (the tower of which is visible just to the
> > left of the central lamp post in the photograph). As it is also Prime
> > Minister Narendra Modi's parliamentary constituency, it is getting a much
> > overdue facelift, including this modern, clean and efficient access to
> the
> > temple from the river:
> >
> >
> http://gallery.leica-users.org/v/jayanand/Varanasi/varanasi/Varanasi-20221206-184-Edit.jpg.html
> >
> > The Ganga Aarti is a photogenic, daily tourist spectacle of a tradition
> > thousands of years old, offering prayers to the goddess Ganga, after whom
> > the river is named, on the banks of the river, at Dasashwamedha Ghat, by
> a
> > dozen priests. It is about an hour long, and these are some views of the
> > ceremony from the river - a variety of props are used - conchs, lamps of
> > different types and sizes, incense, fans made of reeds as well as peacock
> > feathers, among others:
> >
> >
> http://gallery.leica-users.org/v/jayanand/Varanasi/varanasi/Varanasi-20221206-199-Edit.jpg.html
> >
> >
> http://gallery.leica-users.org/v/jayanand/Varanasi/varanasi/Varanasi-20221207-151-Edit.jpg.html
> >
> >
> http://gallery.leica-users.org/v/jayanand/Varanasi/varanasi/Varanasi-20221207-181-Edit.jpg.html
> >
> >
> http://gallery.leica-users.org/v/jayanand/Varanasi/varanasi/Varanasi-20221207-185-NEF_DxO_DeepPRIME-2-Edit.jpg.html
> >
> >
> http://gallery.leica-users.org/v/jayanand/Varanasi/varanasi/Varanasi-20221207-591-NEF_DxO_DeepPRIME-Edit.jpg.html
> >
> >
> http://gallery.leica-users.org/v/jayanand/Varanasi/varanasi/Varanasi-20221207-732-NEF_DxO_DeepPRIME-Edit.jpg.html
> >
> > These two young men seem to be more interested in their smartphones
> rather
> > in the spectacle going on:
> >
> >
> http://gallery.leica-users.org/v/jayanand/Varanasi/varanasi/Varanasi-20221206-206-NEF_DxO_DeepPRIME-Edit.jpg.html
> >
> > The floating of small lamps in the Ganges is a ritual done to pray for
> good
> > health and well being of your loved ones:
> >
> >
> http://gallery.leica-users.org/v/jayanand/Varanasi/varanasi/Varanasi-20221207-104-NEF_DxO_DeepPRIME-Edit.jpg.html
> >
> >
> http://gallery.leica-users.org/v/jayanand/Varanasi/varanasi/Varanasi-20221207-095-NEF_DxO_DeepPRIME-Edit.jpg.html
> >
> > In Hinduism, the belief is that all your sins are washed away by dying in
> > Varanasi, and being cremated on the banks of the River Ganges, so this
> is a
> > constant activity. The main location is Manikarnika Ghat, where multiple
> > cremations happen 24/7 through the year - here are impressions taken at
> > sunset, and at night:
> >
> >
> http://gallery.leica-users.org/v/jayanand/Varanasi/varanasi/untitled-20221208-881-Edit.jpg.html
> >
> >
> http://gallery.leica-users.org/v/jayanand/Varanasi/varanasi/Varanasi-20221207-780-Edit.jpg.html
> >
> > Finally , a portrait of a young man I caught while disembarking from a
> boat
> > at night, both in B&W and Colour:
> >
> >
> http://gallery.leica-users.org/v/jayanand/Varanasi/varanasi/Varanasi-20221207-087-NEF_DxO_DeepPRIME-Edit+B_amp_W.jpg.html
> >
> >
> http://gallery.leica-users.org/v/jayanand/Varanasi/varanasi/Varanasi-20221207-087-NEF_DxO_DeepPRIME-Edit.jpg.html
> >
> > Please see LARGE.
> >
> > Comments and criticism, as ever, welcome
> >
> > Cheers
> > Jayanand
> >
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>
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