Rajani Ramanathan  


Pushkar Camel Fair by Rajani Ramanathan
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October 2020 - Pushkar Camel Fair

About the Image(s)

Pushkar is in the centre east part of Rajasthan, on the western side of Aravalli mountains in India. Held each November at the time of the Kartik Purnima (full moon), Pushkar Camel Fair is a spectacle on an epic scale, attracting thousands of camels, horses and cattle and visited by thousands over a period of around fourteen days. The Pushkar Camel Fair attracts Indian pilgrims and merchants drawn by a devotion to religion or business. The festival and the camels have been featured in magazines and television programs around the globe. I was fascinated by this unique event, but was hoping to depict more than what is usually portrayed. I wanted to showcase the vibrancy of the culture and people here which is fast disappearing due to modernization.

I came across two different local tribes here. The Bopa and Kalbeliya are very different but both are called “gypsy” in the local languages. The lowest level in the Hindu caste system, they live without permanent homes and are seen as squatters and hustlers. Moving from place to place, sleeping beneath the stars on the outskirts of towns, the Bopa and Kalbeliya share the bad reputation of gypsies the world over. Once much sought after by kings and maharajas, they were hired to provide exotic entertainment. ”The Bopa are talented musicians and singers and the Kalbeliya are dancers and snake charmers. However, as royal audiences disappeared, the Bopa and Kalbeliya gypsies lost much of their livelihood. Today, they subsist as semi-nomadic street performers, traveling between fairs and festivals that draw large crowds. I spent a couple of hours with a family of the Bopa tribe in Pushkar fair and hence was able to capture moments with them when they relaxed.


I was looking for some of the most beautiful people on the planet, the Gypsy women, queens of the desert. The first two minutes of the video showcases the women of this region. Music for the first two minutes is the song called “Man Mohini” from the Hindi language Indian movie called “Hum Dil De Chuke Sanam” (Translated “I have given my heart away, darling). The song is describing the beauty of the woman and raves about her. Moreover the music is typical Rajasthani folk music so I thought it appropriate for the first 2 minutes.
The next section of the video again has typical folk music from Rajasthan. The song is "chudiyan khanak gayeen” from the movie Lamhe, which was picturized in the desert of Rajasthan. My intention is to portray here the vibrancy of the camel fair and showcase the people, especially the men. The Moustache Competition is one of the most popular activities at the Pushkar Mela (fair). At this war of moustaches, the men folk literally go great lengths to showcase their fine whiskers. What you see them smoking is a pipe called Chilam which is a straight conical pipe with end-to-end channel, traditionally made of clay or metal and used since at least the eighteenth century and was invented in India. You will find it being smoked for sure all over Pushkar and common to see weed being smoked in it also.


This round’s discussion is now closed!
4 comments posted




Syed Shakhawat Kamal   Syed Shakhawat Kamal
Hi Rajani Ramanathan
Your "Pushkar Camel Fair" A lovely presentation of a culture that is not known to me. Loved the video documentation. Learned a lot & also made me interested to visit this wonderful festival in future. One thing though the video documentary is little longer, which needed a little more patience to stay till last.
Cheers.
Kamal   Posted: 09/24/2020 05:47:29



Larry Treadwell   Larry Treadwell
(Groups 36 & 67)
Thank you for showing something I have never seen. The theme was interesting and you used appropriate music to set the scene.

I found the opening with title to be awkward the back and forth between the man and the woman seemed too busy and complex.

Much of what you shot was done in harsh midday light, the most unflattering of all lighting conditions. This resulted in bright, beautiful colors slapping me in the face rather than enchanting me as you promised in your write up about "most beautiful people in the world." The real killer for me was the constant zoom in and zoom out for every image change. It became repetitive and after a while boring.

The images that I will remember were the ones with mood. The light at 3:08 and 4:11 was moody and enchanting and quite excellent.

At 4:34 the shot through the camel's legs greatly revived my interest. Here the zoom worked well. At 5:31 the camel face close up was a pleasant change and quite interesting.

When photographing animals butt shots (even in the background) are not interesting to look at, and when
there are several in a row...

The food shots were interesting but since I have never had the pleasure of eating any of it I would have loved to see some real close-ups.

The sunset shots starting at 7:26 were a nice change of pace.

At 7:33 shot through the camel's legs was a interesting scene.

Throughout the presentation you would zoom in and out on the same individual or individuals several times in succession and this becomes annoying. The constant zoom in and zoom out on different people leaves the viewer feeling that the person is not really special. That you are just showing a lot of different people and that is fine. But when you zoom in and out on the same individual (or at the end on two men) several times in a row I get the feeling that this person or persons is special. But since the images are changing rapidly I never get the time to really look ans see what is important about this person or persons.

Too much of the same thing causes the viewer to lose interest. I strongly suggest that you use different camera angles and more than one type of transition to help maintain interest.

Also remember that photography is always about the light. The better use you make of light the better the presentation will be.

I really enjoyed the music and seeing the people, just not the repetition.   Posted: 09/24/2020 13:54:44



Dick Burr   Dick Burr
Rajani,

An enjoyable video of a subject that I had never heard of before, The Pushkar Camel Fair.

I read Larry's critique and I agree with alot of it but I have reservations on some of his comments. I agree that photography is always about the light, but that's not all. Photography is also and most importantly about the timing. If you are going to wait for the perfect light you may miss a once in a lifetime shot. It's much better to take the shot and fix it, or not, in post than to miss it altogether.

Larry is a judge of competition images and he is critiquing as if they were submitted for competition. In the General Guidelines for Digital Dialogue it states "These groups are for learning. This is not a contest, but rather a sharing of images, techniques, and personal reactions." These may be Larry's personal reactions but, they sound like they are coming from a judge rather than a casual viewer. Also I feel that some of his comments were based on personal preference like his dislike of animal butt shots and that's fine but not everyone's preferences are the same. Personally I liked those shots. I thought they added a bit of interest to the presentation.

On the technical side of the video, I agree that the use of the same transition throughout was not a good choice. I noticed that many of the images were abrupt fast changes from image to image with an immediate zoom in or out. It would have been better to use a fade and only use the zoom on images you want to highlight. Also it would have been better to use less images in your presentation, with a longer view time so that the viewer can absorb the beauty of what they are seeing. From 4:41 to 5:11 there were 8 shots of the camels being herded. It would have been better if you would have shot a video of that rather than using 8 still shots that were very similar.

For me, the shots that I enjoyed the most were the sunset and campfire shots.

Dick


  Posted: 09/27/2020 15:03:54



Peter Shi   Peter Shi
Rajani,
1. Really like the detailed description and the story of the native culture
2. Wonderful portrait images through out with perfect composition, lighting and colors, especially those close up faces in first two minutes. I feel like standing in gallery and enjoying the artwork
3. Very impressed theme: beauty of Gypsy women and men's mustache competition with camel and snake as setoff
4. The music matches the whole video very well
Well done!
  Posted: 09/29/2020 13:18:51