Travel Photography: The story behind the photos, female Elephants dress up for the occasion, kaleidoscope of colors Rajasthan, India.
The story behind the photos…
female Elephants dress up for the occasion.
The envy look…female Elephant full body make-up, Jaipur, India
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© Gunther Deichmann - www.deichmann-photo.com
Fancy meeting an Elephant in a beauty parlor, now that would be something right, but this is what happen in Jaipur with the exception the parlor is outside.
Who is going to be the prettiest today? Elephant body decor,
Jaipur, India
Copyright all Rights reserved. Mandatory credit with image use:
© Gunther Deichmann - www.deichmann-photo.com
During the Jaipur Elephant Festival Elephants turn into a kaleidoscope of colors not only decorated with body paint but also with elaborate glittering materials made form cloth.
Some of these majestic animals are covered from head to toe literally, ready for the yearly parade in Jaipur that is held and coincide with the Holi Festival. (festival of colors)
In India Elephants are regarded very precious since the old days and this is well illustrated in the Hindu Mythology.
The modern look...Elephant body decor, Jaipur, India
Copyright all Rights reserved. Mandatory credit with image use:
© Gunther Deichmann - www.deichmann-photo.com
According to some legends at the time of ‘Samudra Manthan’ when demons and Gods were busy in churning the ocean Gods were fortunate to receive an elephant called “Airavata” which later became the divine vehicle (vahana) of India
Since then the Elephant has become a symbol of royalty in Indian culture and many festivals are associated with it.
Jaipur Elephant Festival is perhaps the only festival where Elephants are given prime importance.
Lady in blue… Elephant body decor, Jaipur, India
Copyright all Rights reserved. Mandatory credit with image use:
© Gunther Deichmann - www.deichmann-photo.com
Flirting with me… Elephant body decor, Jaipur, India
Copyright all Rights reserved. Mandatory credit with image use:
© Gunther Deichmann - www.deichmann-photo.com
"Elephants cute manicured toe's", Jaipur, India
Copyright all Rights reserved. Mandatory credit with image use:
© Gunther Deichmann - www.deichmann-photo.com
During the festival, Jaipur comes alive with elephants, dancers and musicians, which draw visitors from all over the world. The elephants parading their decorated trunks and tusks however the most noticeable feature of this festival is that all Elephants who take part in this festival are female Elephants.
So there you have it, even in the Elephant world females go to the Beauty Parlor and dress up in the best attire for the occasion.
Besides having a raging bull in the crowed could spoil all the fun and festivities.
Wow…what a nice behind… Elephant decor Jaipur, India
Copyright all Rights reserved. Mandatory credit with image use:
© Gunther Deichmann - www.deichmann-photo.com
If you like to experience this amazing kaleidoscope of colors and roam around those gorgeous female Elephants then why don’t you join us on our GD Photo Workshop in 2013.
Part of our itinerary is Jaipur before leaving for Jodhpur the Blue City and the Thar Desert with its Camels.
For more info please Click this LINK.
Pls. Note: All images have been processed with Aperture 3 no other software or Photoshop has been used.
GD
What a pretty girl…ready for the big day…
Elephant decor Jaipur, India
Copyright all Rights reserved. Mandatory credit with image use:
© Gunther Deichmann - www.deichmann-photo.com
GD Photo Workshop & Aperture 3, Happy Holi from Jaipur Rajasthan India
Happy Holi from Jaipur in Rajasthan India...
© Gunther Deichmann - Happy Holi in Jaipur
The GD Photo Workshop Gang or better known now as "Baba G and the Shutter Bugs"... thanks to Tony who took out the copyright on the spot for this new tagline.
© Gunther Deichmann - Happy Holi in Jaipur
© Gunther Deichmann - Bebet is really
in the Mood... our onboard Sadhu.
After spending "2 hours" in the shower and trying to get all those beautiful colors off my body...never mind the clothes I have found the Time to wish everybody a very Happy Holi... India's most colorful Festival...& where everything goes.
The whole Gang... except for two using now Aperture 3, we installed it a few days ago in New Delhi, the performance is great and I had no complaints so far. But now back to Holi...an amazing festival as Jamie will explain below, thanks Jamie that you volunteered to do the main write up tonight...giving me a welcome hand and break.
© Gunther Deichmann - Some of the Gang Members...
Bonfires, twigs, pyres and leaves
Evil spirits burn as Holi proceeds!
With a shake, a nod and cheery Happy Holi! greetings from everyone to anyone who was anyone and ‘no-one’, it would appear that the Indian caste system literally dissolved into a puff of rainbow powdered dyes and colored water today.
Rajasthan was alive with a different spice and we daren’t say we weren’t pre-warned. We were told that on Holi, everything and anything goes. And they weren’t joking either.
Jaipur was vibrating with wild celebrations, drum beats of Indian rock and roll ala Shankar and its stimulating sisterly companions, raving bashes not only of the carnivalesque kind but apparently even veiled beatings and the none too unusual vengeance murders that ‘happen’, but as we were reassured, those only ‘happened in other cities and very rarely in Jaipur so not to worry Ma’am and Sir’. Well homicides or not, I’d secretly pocketed my pepper spray under my white cotton shirtdress, just in case the crowd got a little too piquant for my taste.
© Gunther Deichmann - Jamie is getting her "Make up"
applied by a local
© Gunther Deichmann - the Boys having fun in the streets of Jaipur
The crew was ready and itching to go shoot some color. Truth be told we’d been primed the night before, armed with hair oils, super skin moisturizers, caps, camera “condoms” in all shapes and sizes, throwaway t-shirts, shorts and the lot.
Ok, ok I confess I was the only one with the excessive concern for hair oils, cream based moisturizers, shower caps, disposable cotton underclothes, emergency eye drops, SPF 50 lip balm and goodness knows what else I had stashed in my sling bag. Another one bites the advertising dust! Newspapers (and Tony) had been playing up the dehydrating effects of the dyes on skin and hair, and GI Jane as I may be, I’d certainly had no wish to walk around Incredible India with post-Holi skin lesions or a kerosene scrubbed frizz.
© Gunther Deichmann - Tony is getting his picture taken
by a 150 year old Camera
© Gunther Deichmann - Amazing, old meets new...
the "shutter bugs" & the local street photographer
The glow of the warm afternoon sun didn’t let us down, and neither did Bebet’s smooth cone shaped crown – fondly Pink city’s extremely popular pink duomo of the day! Luis was busy keeping out of trouble while GD, his usual monkey self, got the children squealing around him, unable to decide whether they thought he was funny or scary or both.
I didn’t blame them – a seriously hot magenta, violet and salmon colored faced GD is quite a hair-raising sight! The rest of the crew stayed on track, a yellow-green Joerg staying cool and entertaining the locals with amusing conversation (or was it the other way around) while a blushing red Tony kept the beggars from pulling our clothes and cameras. Hubert was cool as a cucumber sauntering back and forth across the streets, side stepping the cows like a weathered local.
© Gunther Deichmann - 150 years later...but still in use,
the processing is done right on the street.
© Gunther Deichmann - Jamie's turn in front of the
old Plate camera...but please don't move...
And suddenly “150 rupees only, 150 rupees just you look Sir top quality photograph black and white please you look only”. No thank you no thank you no thank you no no no no no and then we stopped. We’d gotten so used to the mendicants following us around for the past 2 hours, pushcarts, trolleys, gypsy children and all across town that literally the replies (as polite as we attempted to remain) just came out of us naturally.
Right on the yellow powdered street hung a few carpets on a stairway which acted as a backdrop in front of (lo and behold) a 150 year-old plate camera, impressive in size as well as quality and sharpness . We later found out that the owner and his brother had inherited it from his ancestors and they have been in the photography business since ‘a very long time Ma’am’. Old meets new!!
Thousands of dollars of equipment strapped to our necks, I found it oxymoronic that for 150 rupees ($3 USD), each of us were as excited as kids on Christmas morn and happy as pie with our old fashioned black and white photos that were washed and developed in a pail of water on the street, ready in less than 10 minutes, and hey, it came with a negative too. Now since the digital age, we haven’t been that pleased with a self-portrait in a long time! What better way to end a picture-perfect day?
Holi Hai!
© Gunther Deichmann - back at the Hotel for some cold
Beers before the "two hour" shower.
Travel Photography & Photo Work Shop in India, celebrating the Holi festival
Happy Holi...
© Gunther Deichmann - the start of Holi a priest during last nights
Pre Holi event blessing everybody with multi colors.
I am in a bit of a rush today...need to get out in the street again with my students to celebrate the Holi Festival the most colorful of all Indian Festivals in Jaipur Rajasthan India.
© Gunther Deichmann - Holi has started...
So please forgive me if this will be a very short Blog today, we're having a great time and the highlight will be later tonight, yesterday we went crazy at the Elephant festival which was so fantastic. Today we're going to get covered in color from top to bottom and last night we participated at a Temple the pre Holi event, with huge fires lit up all over town.
© Gunther Deichmann - the night before Holi
Sorry have to run now...but so much more later, thanks also to Aperture 3 uploading has been easy and fast, I am already at some 4000 images.
© Gunther Deichmann - it is going to get a lot worst today...
GD
