Many things have been written about Ganesha festival in Mumbai. It is an integral part of Mumbai culture. Immersion after 11 days is a big event. Even one percent of Mumbai population participates in this event, then participation is around 1.3 lakh people!!! It is just an unbelievable thing for someone who has not seen such a crowd. Every road, area, housing society go on procession.Children, teen, teen+, twenty five+ , thirty+ sixty+ all are there in this event. Bollywood music and dance are the major part. Many people use drums and bhajan. BUT DANCE REMAINS THE SAME. You can see in these photos.
As a photographer, it was challenge to shoot with low light or in focus lights. Shutter speed , ISO and aperture- I played around but not with great success. I started to shoot with 70-210-3.5-4.5 Canon USM lens, without flash. Most of the shots were blur or dark. I changed to 60 mm 2.8 macro, even that was not very adequate to capture the movements, being a macro lens it hunts lot in dark area and focuses slowly. Finally I used my 580 ex flash with 60 mm macro. For wide angle views, Canon S100 P&S camera. For most of the photos- Camera setting was f 2.8/3.5/4.5-iso1600 (max on my camera),1/200sec and flash was set to TTL (with exposure bias occasionally ).
My daughter was afraid of the crowd, and hence I made her to sit on my shoulder and tried few shots, but she was moving rhythmically and adding to the camera shake!!. After an hour or so, she was tired and went back to home with my wife. Now I am free (but exhausted) to do bit of photography. My aim as a photographer was to bring the feel of the event and the energy of the people mass to viewer. I don't know how much is achieved. I found it truly difficult to compose and make sharp or intended shots. I appreciated the photojournalists lot more that day and I saw the photos in the news paper with more respect.
This Ganesha visarjan was held in my residential complex, Mumbai. Total four big mandals are set in different locations. All will start procession around 7 pm and they will cover 1 km in 3 hrs!! and move to sea for the immersion. I did not go to see the final immersion since it was too late and photography in that particular part of the sea was not allowed!!.
Ganesha .............. close up.......
Sitting on the lorry and waiting for the journey... crew are checking final arrangements!!
These few shots to show the crowd, I used slow shutter speed to show the movement.
These are the children- opening dance-men
Aarati is offered............
Common to see the shoulder dance, here is one.............
Oh, mother is showing her kid the dance and other onlookers
Good hair style and dance style too
Elsewhere, out the world ............
Oh look at that, bit shy to dance............
Friends cheer................
His favorite song played and he is singing and dancing along ...........
He was true character.. tall boy and seen in many photos
He got this whistle and adding more decibels to already loud music
Three idiots watching around- may be bit sophisticated fellas- we dance only in pubs!!!!!!!!
Middle age is the golden age- we dance too
I liked this one a lot...... happy friends
Now DJ has given a break and girls are in serious talk , what steps for next beat
Oh these chaps that I am a journalist and posing for a photo
Tired taking rest on sidelines , meanwhile their friends are doing some twists
Nasha ( intoxicated by music and dance)
This group I followed quite sometime and they were joy to watch.
Look at the batman -
Kar ke dhikaya!! we did it ........
Hidden deep in the crowd- saying wow wow ..
It was a very humid day- after a long dance taking rest - covered with sweat
This guy seems to be a regular gym goer- he will dance for a while and go to side and do some stretches, checks his tight shirt and get back to the crowd............
Aajaa, come one .............
ooooooooooo .......
Again batman in full swing .......
What happened? some pain, someone stepped on his feet- I checked - nope, his slipper's bar ( Hawaii slipper ) was out, he was trying to insert that back in position..... don't give away to wild guesses as I did!!
Once slippers are ready - back to dance
Strange look!!
Ever lasting ........ anything possible in this dance frenzy
How about me......
Posing... for a photo
Now he is in full swing......
Chalore , karenge dance , isa vala step then dusra vala step...
Shoulder dance. bit heavy beats
One above the other then......
Twist and turn look at me
Almost at the end crowd is bit tired now!!!
Panorama kind of crop to show the crowd
This one is visarjan of our Ganessha in near by well.
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