of “chennai sangamam”, a moonlit Elliot’s beach and my hapless attempt at photography..!

Chennai Sangamam banner.(click here to goto their home page)

The harvest fest of Tamil antiquity – The Pongal re-discovering itself as   urban thanksgiving. It’s Chennai Sangamam. More than 2000 performers will ignite the spirit of Chennai for seven days with around 4000 performances.All in parks, streets and beaches. From January 10-16, 2009….more about the event, click here on the image to the left.

The Moon.(fisrt time am clicking it so clear on my camera!)

Went along to catch a glimpse of the event, also hoping to click a few pictures of  the colorful stage show that was scheduled. The events were being held at around 15 odd places in and around Chennai. The Elliot’s beach at Besant Nagar  lured me in, with the full moon in all its glory caressing the Bay o f Bengal providing the backdrop to the stage set for the event.And a surprisingly quiet and controlled crowd, neatly seated on the sands watching the events.

With the maximum extent of digital zoom and settings on my point and shoot digi cam, here is a image of the moon! I guess it looks ‘kind of ‘ okay here, but see it in higher resolution and i bet it doesn’t look any close to how good it looks here.

Catching up with friends and chatting away for ‘i don’t know how long’ time made sure that i missed the first half of the events, which was folk dances and traditinal art forms of TamilNadu. We moved in towards the stage in time for the Colourful dance ensemble of Indian Folk- “Varna Jalam” -by Anusham Group.

Now starts my hapless attempts to ‘try to capture’ the colorful vibrant folk dances being enstaged.

I take out the camera to find that i haven’t charged the batteires! One click in night mode using flash and the LCD pops out “change batteries”.

Next, i get hold of my friends Nokia N73, which gives remarkably clear and un-blurred images, but when the distance from the stage seemingly hampered my attempts at ‘trying to capture’, i thought i’d move in to the front and take my positon amongst the pros, armed with cameras as good and huge as AK-47s and semi-automatic rifles, shooting away every moment on stage!

I see a couple of familiar faces, (or so i think!). I go find my place amongst the ‘mobile phone photographers’ at one corner of the stage.Even before i start clicking, theres is this policeman on duty who chases us away, sneering at us,”

பேரிய சினிமா டைரக்டர்னு நினைப்போ? செல்ப்பொன் வெச்சுக்கிட்டு இந்தா சீன்ன பொட்ரிங்க?!”(“u guys think you are big cinema directors..eh?! using a mobile phone camera, and putting up a show in front of the crowd?!)

I quickly take out my camera,sans the battery,atleast to show him that am serious about takinga few good photogrpahs, and yet he takes a look at the other huge black heavy equipments hanging around the necks of most of the other photogs there, and sneers at me again!

Amidst all these futile attempts to capture the event, i realise am not actually enjoying the event.Nor did i want to give up an attempt to capture a few pics. Turning around, see a familiar face, a photog friend from the photography club at my ex-place of work, whom i had met exactly 11 months ago, while clicking away on the roof-top of the Chepauk cricket stadium. Luckily he had batteries to spare and i began my mission, taking a sideward glance at the police uncle who seemed to be ‘not-bothered’ now!

the ever graceful 'Manipuri' folk dance

Trust me the folk dances were so colorful and gracefula nd vibrant! Just that my attempts at framing it with my camera failed.What followed is dismay, to an extent more than words can describe.Here are a couple of the best shots i could produce with my compact digi cam..!

this was real good! graceful and divine!

this is the famous 'balle balle' Bhangra dance from punjab(trust me!)

‘Disgrace’ these amy seem to the pros and serious hobbyist photogs out there, but i did feel a little sense of achievemnt of having atleast tried and learnt ‘how to’ and ‘how not to’ capture events like these.

another vibrant folk dance..using 'dhols'(drums)

I had to return the borrowed batteries after a while, and then went back and joined my friends to sit and watch the colorful show on display.

I had missed a lot of the folk dances, yet loved the last few dances which i was able to watch!

The best ‘click’ of the day that i think came out well, i’ve posted on my101clicks blog.link. click here.

Cheers