Woke up at 5 am(*Achievement Unlocked*) and set out with a bunch of college mates for Sowcarpet, the North Indian hub of Chennai. This was the first time I was going to shoot holi and so I did a lot of research on how to protect your gear and how to shoot in testing conditions. I will share some of those with you later.
If it's your first time, it is going to be a very memorable experience shooting holi because it's about two things that photographers love the most: Colors and Smiles, all over the landscape.
Here a few things that you need to take care of before you set out to shoot:
1. Protect your gear:
It's easier said than done as I witnessed first hand that however you protect it, a little bit of powder will always slip through the smallest of openings. But powders are easy to get off of your camera, it's water that does most of the damage and you should do well to not let that happen. There are professional solutions for this such as this. But if you cannot get it before your shoot, you can always make such a thing yourself. Here's what I did, actually @enthupotato was the one who made it for me so I guess conjuring up a sister works well, if you don't have a one.
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| Don't let rubber bands over your focusing ring or your zoom ring. |
And get em' old clothes. Nobody cares how you look, at the end of the day you'll be all purple, blue, pink, yellow and green only. If you have old t-shirts that are white, use em, you'll have something to keep as a souvenir from your first holi shoot.
3. Mustard oil helps
I hate mustard oil's smell but if you apply it on your face the night before holi you'd have an easier time removing the rang off of your face. Didn't do this myself so I can't vouch for it personally, especially because it's mustard oil. But hey, if you are a office goer then it sure will be nice to get rid of the color ASAP.
4. Don't carry all your lenses
For the simple reason, you won't be able to change them while you are shooting with all kinds of colors splashing around. All your hard work will go in vain if you let even a little tinge of water seep into your sensors. If you happen to have a couple of cameras, that'd be awesome. You can mount each one with one lens, a prime lens and a wide lens would be my choice. Some people prefer telephotos, I don't really see its use. Also, make sure you have charged your battery fully and have spare memory cards.
5. Evaluate the situation
When you get to the location where you are shooting(In my case, it was sowcarpet.) evaluate the environment and situation before you start shooting, talk to the public on how they usually celebrate, where you could find more action, which places work well as aerial vantage points of wide shots of the crowds. For all this, you need to reach a little early and do some groundwork.
6. Stay safe and enjoy
After all, HOLI HAI! :)
As for me, I live in Chennai and went to Sowcarpet, North madras, to shoot this year and had a wonderful time. We reached at around 6 am, which is too early the land looked deserted, no one was awake, yet. We all had a cup of tea and some biscuits and headed to "Mint Street", where we found some children just getting ready for the day ahead. We took some shots of people who had celebrated holi the previous night and were sleeping, all tired. You know I can keep going on about how great it was, but a picture always says more and so here are my best pictures from the shoot. I do feel a bit sad that I couldn't get more shots of holi in "action." but nothing I can't rectify next year. Cheers. :)
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| Done and dusted. |
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| Poser. |
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| Burst of yellow. |
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| Captain Planet. |
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| Krishna. |
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| Odd women out. |
View all photos at:
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