Getting on the bandwagon

This young devotee (probably one of the minders) just about to jump up on the cart. Nikon D70, AF-S VR Nikkor 18-200mm f/3.5-5.6

Procession

Here's the procession. It's essentially a wheeled cart, with a lorry following behind it with a huge generator required to light it all up. The man just behind is holding the mass of electric cables originating from the lorry. Nikon D70, AF-S VR Nikkor 18-200mm f/3.5-5.6

Getting into the spirit II

Another shot of the same guy. Nikon D70, AF-S VR Nikkor 18-200mm f/3.5-5.6

Getting into the spirit

The celebration is punctuated by much dancing and drums from a procession in front of the statue. This was shot of course, in colour, but with a view of turning it into a black-and-white picture. There was a strong video spotlight on the peformers (yes they were filming it too), so I took a shot just as the spotlight hit this guy. Nikon D70, AF-S VR Nikkor 18-200mm f/3.5-5.6

Pina colada

From what I understand about this ritual, the breaking of coconuts is supposed to symbolise the breaking of one's ego to expose the inner divinity. This was the best of a number of shots I took of the cocounut breaking ritual. The trick when shooting things like this is not to have the camera in a continuous burst -- camera shooting speeds being what they are, you'd actually be better off anticipating the shot instead. I always set my camera to single shot mode, then trip the shutter just as I see the coconut leaving the man's hand -- sounds more difficult than it is, but it resulted in almost every single shot I took having the desired coconut-hitting-ground shot. Nikon D70, AF-S VR Nikkor 18-200mm f/3.5-5.6

Coconut

Coconuts are a big part of Indian religious celebrations and is supposed to bring good luck. Nikon D70, AF-S Nikkor 18-200mm f/3.5-5.6

Ganesh

This Ganesh statue and another one (probably Vishnu but I'm not positive) was being carted around my area from the Indian temple near my house. This was nearly midnight and the photoshoot was quite a challenge since it was quite dark and I had to push the ISO up quite a bit. Luckily the 18-200mm's VR optical image stabilisation helped quite a bit. Nikon D70, AF-S VR Nikkor 18-200mm f/3.5-5.6ED