The Oracles of Kerala Workshop & Ambika Temple

The pressure was on yesterday, as I asked the participants in my The Oracles of Kerala Photo Expedition/Workshop™ to complete a full multimedia project in about 4 hours. While they had worked for many hours on longer photo essays and putting those in a multimedia format, yesterday's exercise was designed to ensure they could complete a simple multimedia project within a time limit.

They were all successful.

From the left (going clockwise) is Charlotte Rush-Bailey (with a visor), Rasha Yousif, Kristine Bailey, Victoria Alexander, Sandy Chandler, John Spillane and Tony Pond.

After the hard work, we attended the rituals at the Ambika Temple. The rituals included the arrival of elephants from the Thirunakkara Festival, the cleansing of the deity after covering it with turmeric, and a dazzling display of oil-lit lamps on the streets of Udala, where these young girls were lined up carrying small trays of flowers and candles.

Update: Thirunakkara Festival

Photo © Tewfic El-Sawy

Yesterday saw the penultimate day of the Thirunakkara Festival in Kottayam, which was attended by thousands of worshippers, and is known as Pullivetta. It was a spectacular spectacular event with phenomenal pageantry including a parade of caparisoned elephants and the exchange of parasols.

Getting some of us through the throngs of people was made possible by extremely helpful policemen, who wanted us to get to the best vantage points, and as close to the elephants as possible.

The drumming and sound of cymbals were so loud that I risked rupturing my ear-drums!!!

Update: Tolpavakoothu

Photo © Tewfic El-Sawy-All Rights Reserved

As a surprise photo-shoot for the photographers participating in my The Oracles of Kerala Photo Expedition/Workshop™, I arranged for a private Tolpavakoothu performance yesterday evening. Despite having seen and photographing shadow puppetry (an ancient storytelling art form) in Bali, I had never doe so in India, where it is especially indigenous to southern Kerala.

The photo shoot took most of the early evening when we photographed the preparations, whilst the performance itself (the frenetic action of some half dozen puppet masters was something to behold) took just 45 minutes.

Tolpavakoothu traces its origins to more than 2000 years, and the Thrissur area claims a particular style of this art.

The above image is of one of the Tolpavakoothu puppets, and was made with my iPhone4s.

The actual photographs of the action will be incorporated in a future photo essay.

Update: Kathakali Photo Shoot

Photo © Tewfic El-Sawy-All Rights Reserved

Last night saw one of the most intense Kathakali performances I have ever witnessed (and I have seen quite a few of those in the last few years of my traveling to India). As followers and readers of this blog know, I am leading my The Oracles of Kerala Photo Expedition/Workshop™, and a two day stop in Cheruthuruthy was planned for a photo shoot involving the performers of this ancient art form, as well as attending a private almost 2-1/2 hours performance.

The performance and the earlier 3 hours make-up session took place at the Kalatharangini Kathakali School, and I, for one, sweated so much at the intensity of it all that I had to wipe my hands continuously to be able to shoot. I almost filled 3 full 16gb CF cards during that one photo shoot which started at 3:00 pm and ended just before 9:00 pm. On top of that, I probably videoed some 20 minutes of the performance with my Canon Mark II.

We will spend most of today in class to work on our individual multimedia photo essays, since we need to catch up with that element of the workshop. With all the photography we do, we really need to set time aside to work on these projects.

I am also preparing an evening surprise for the group members, which I think they will find very interesting.

The above image is of one of the Kathakali performers, and was made with my iPhone4s.

Note: This post's actual date is March 20 as it's written in India.

Vedic Gurukul

Photo © Tewfic El-Sawy-All Rights Reserved

Another quick post as to the progress of The Oracles Of Kerala Photo Expedition-Workshop. Yesterday saw us at a Vedic school in Thrissur. Despite the long dive from Kumarakom to Thrissur, the Vedic school's beauty and ancient learning tradition were well worth the trouble.

I was surprised to learn that the restaurant manager at our hotel was also an authority on all Keralite festivals....we're trying to convince him to join our workshop!!!

Thirunakkara Utsavam Festival

Photo © Tewfic El-Sawy- All Rights Reserved

 I barely have the time to post this today since the internet connection is somewhat iffy, but the day's photo shoot was at the Mahadeva temple for the Thirunakkara Utsavam festival. This is where I spotted this family of pilgrims. I'm uncertain of which sect they belong to, but I'll find out and edit this post shortly.

Note: These are members of a family on a pilgrimage to Sabarimala Temple, some 150 kilometers from Kochi, and they're adherents of Ayyappa.

Vietnam: Photo Expedition & Workshop

I am pleased to announce the Vietnam: North Of The 16th Parallel Photo Expedition/Workshop™ during which we are planning to explore the street life of bustling Ha Noi, the colorful villages and ethnic minority tribes around Sapa and the Sunday market of Bac Ha, the daily life in the ancient port city of Hoi An, the beauty of the Forbidden City in Hue and the fishing village of Lang Co, as well as spending a night on Halong Bay.

All the details, including a link to register interest in joining, for this exciting photographic expedition and workshop are on this website.

I will be assisted on this photo expedition by Maika Elan, a talented Vietnamese photographer and photojournalist.

I normally don't feature details of my photo expeditions on this blog until they are fully subscribed, but as I am flying to India today and returning home at the end of March, I thought it would be more practical to put it out there now.

I've already received a number of outright registrations and indications of interest, as a result of my newsletter.