The Exiled Prince Photo

Photographer's Note

The Ramayana is a great Indian epic that is loved all over South East Asia. The story of the Ramayana greatly inspires the Balinese, the Balinese version though differs from the Indian version. Many of the Balinese dances are based on this great story which is often depicted in the form of Legong dance, which is considered to be the most graceful of the Balinese dances.

The full story is massive, and told only in episodes. The most popular episode tells the story of Prince Rama of Ayodhya (situated in the present state of Uttar Pradesh in North India), his wife Sita, and his brother Laksmana. They are banished from their kingdom and wandering through the forest.

Because Rama and Laksmana are seen as idealized personifications of beauty, they are played by women in a Legong performance. The woman dancer here is playing the role of Prince Rama. Sitting in the darkened BG are the musicians, the gamelan players.

We had gone to see the Ramayana Dance at the Puri Saren Agung in Ubud, also known as the Ubud palace. The troupe presented a few glimpses of Balinese dance and music before going on to the main feature of the day, the Balinese Ramayana. As the Gamelan music began, one could visualise the infinitely varied Balinese landscape. Dance, melody and the accentuated rhythm of gong, drums, and cymbals together formed an indivisible whole. The delicate headgears, the silks on slender waists and simple expressions made the show an exercise in beauty and delicacy.

Focal length = 386 mm
ISO 400

I have to admit that it was not easy to capture the graceful & swift dance motions effectively with my camera, especially due to the longish exposure coupled with long zoom. I rested my camera on the backrest of an empty chair, while taking the shot.

Today and tomorrow, i.e 8th and 9th November, India is and will be celebrating Diwali. In North India, Diwali is celebrated to commemorate the return of Prince Rama, his wife Sita & his brother Lakshmana to Ayodhya, after spending 14 years in exile. In fact the Balinese Ramayana ends there.

Riley, sayat, siolaw, faubry, everlasting, vinicio, Gerrit, ribeiroantonio, edytungkal, mphotographies, emjleclercq, josepmarin, ChrisJ, Dpbours, pierrefonds, vincz, cunejo200, plimrn, Budapestman, Partha_c ha contrassegnato questa nota come utile

Critiques | Translate

baba_flies (8829) 2007-11-08 6:22

Hello Angshuman! She has so much grace in her dance and expression. I always admire how they use their hands but also their eye work to make the dancing complete. I can follow your problems you had while taking photos but you have mastered the barrier extremely well I find. Ubud is a very fascinating place (and it seems that it still is), and you have brought some of the essence over with your photo. Very well done, Barbara.

ecoli1946 (259) 2007-11-08 6:24

Bonjour Angshuman,
Excellente photo. D'abord un sujet bien choisi, bien cadré et capté avec juste un léger flou des mains qui ajoute du mouvement et de l'atmosphère. Le visage est parfaitement au point... et ce ragard! Les couleurs très belles et saturées juste ce qu'il faut... pour garder cet atmosphère de mystique.
Bravo, Réjean

sayat (2949) 2007-11-08 6:52

Amazing shot Dear Angshu. It brings both the player and the audience but most of all, your caption of the graceful hand motions is amazing. The shot turned out quite well even at ISO400 with a camera that is said to be very noisy. Great job indeed.

siolaw (38294) 2007-11-08 7:01

Hi Angshu,
Nice light coloring the dancer... good focus on the face and motion blur of the hand indicating movement. She pops out nicely on the dark BG..
Greetings
Laurent

everlasting (17692) 2007-11-08 7:37

I love the colours here Angshu, so rich. She is so full of grace and you framed here so well givign her space to move. The two onlookers add to the composition IMO.
Happy Diwali

jonathan_hart (21276) 2007-11-08 8:59

hello Angshu
great portrait, well composed, very well !
warm colours on the subject, good BG, excellent shot :))
regards
jo

carper (96) 2007-11-08 9:23

very nice Angshuman
a fantastic composition, with fantastic light a good portrait and a fantastic dof, exelent photojob here, well done, have a good day.
gr. jaap

Scharan (14144) 2007-11-08 14:33

Que belo retrato Angshu.
Luz, cores e ótima nitidez. Um trabalho muito bonito, meus parabéns!
GA
Vera

Gerrit (59968) 2007-11-08 16:03

Hi Angshu,
fantastic portrait in splendid light. The catch of the interaction with the public is absolutely great.
Groeten Gerrit

ribeiroantonio (22730) 2007-11-08 19:14

This is a great photo with a superb sense of motion and beautiful colours. Well done.
Antonio

edytungkal (4551) 2007-11-08 21:03

Very nice picture from Balinese's dancer with great expressions on her face.
I like how you have placing the dancer on the right with contrast dark bg, maybe just a little biy annoyed by the musician's face on bottom. Nevertheless itis a very well picture with nice colours and good sharpness, thanks Angshu :-)

daniel

emjleclercq (15778) 2007-11-08 23:46

Excellent portrait of the dancer on the right of the image, despite the soft light. It is also sufficient ot distinguish the viewers seated in the background, but in a discrete way which does not disturb the main center of interest.

All the best,

Emmanuel

mphotographies (1976) 2007-11-09 0:46

Hey Angshuman,

The lighting is just wonderful, smooth texture, right timing on her movements, her eye lines to the space on the left gives a good balance in composition. Well taken shot!

Happy Diwali!

Jom

faubry (35447) 2007-11-09 0:50

helo Angshu, very nice portrait, a lot grace.. beautiful expression , i like human faces behind, great because isnt was a lot light....
soon, francine

josepmarin (59385) 2007-11-09 1:37

Hi, my friend Angshuman,
with the lens of 386mm and without tripod? you have a good pulse my friend. I like the elegance, the glance and the smooth movements of the dancer, caught very well in this frame. The difficult light and the resistance with a very dark BG have not prevented you to take an excellent photo, as usual.
Nice work,
Friendly regards,
Josep

sabyasachi1212 (19779) 2007-11-09 1:58

Dear Angshuman,
Never easy, capturing these dancers and you have done some splendind work pushing your camera to its limits. Great light, perfect positioning of the subject.
Subho Deepavali
Sabyasachi

Paolo (41258) 2007-11-09 3:08

Hi Anghsuman, bautiful portrait, with excellent quality, composition and good colours.
a bit too dark, but a great note.
thansk,ciao

ChrisJ (160104) 2007-11-09 3:17

Hi Angshuman

A fantastic daily life scene & superb portrait of the Balinese dancer. I like the sidways glance of her eyes. The dark bg accentuates the colour. Excellent sharpness & framing. Tfs!

Dpbours (222) 2007-11-09 4:15

Hi Angshu,

Wonderful this one. I didn't manage to go one of the dances in Ubud, but you did pretty well here in capturing the inside mood during the dancing. Yes, it must have been pretty dark there, but you managed well for sure!

Greetings,
Dennis

pierrefonds (103621) 2007-11-09 4:27

Hi Angshuman,

A nice image of the Balinese dancer, the photo has a good composition, sharpness and nice colors. Thanks for sharing.

Pierre

vincz (19113) 2007-11-09 5:33

Excellent quality image. Amazing you got this quality without a tripod. Composition and crop are perfect, could not be better. Beautiful colours as well.

prumod (8300) 2007-11-09 8:30

hi anghu...
very nice pose you've brought.. nice frame and positioning is attractive with this exposure....
greetings...

cunejo200 (7281) 2007-11-09 9:55

Hello Angshu, The facial expression, the pointed fingers, the make up, and the positioning of the dancer in your frame. These are what I like in this image. Regards, Danilo

Graal (103040) 2007-11-09 23:21

Hi Angshuman,
very nice portrait of dancers, good DOF and pleasant warm colours. Interesting note. Good work.
Gr., Aleksander

Stepan (27210) 2007-11-09 23:31

You can imagine I enjoy that.
The off-centering is excellent, the frame is OK and the light management fine. And the side-glance is impressive.
You did it very well and it was probably very hard to do. Excellent.
Stéphane

partha (14023) 2007-11-10 0:57

Amazing shot. Excellent placement of the dancer and perfectly timed. Not easy to have such shot in a compact one.
Regards.
partha

axiotea (21651) 2007-11-10 7:05

Hello Angshu
I like the way you've framed the dancers with their beautiful costumes while the spectators (maybe, musicians?) in BG are watching them. Very good exposure, nice details and excellent color tones.
Cheers
Marilyn
Happy Diwali!

prezntime (3946) 2007-11-11 20:03

Man...that orange lighting...so lush. I love these dancers, with all of the bright clothing and ornamental jewelry, their eyes are the storytellers. So strong and feminine a shot you have here...THe framing is very well done. THe slight characters to the bottom left add a bit of story...
Good shot Angshuman.
Chris.

batalay (41261) 2007-11-11 20:45

Hello Mr. B,

Another fabulous action shot of a Balinese dancer. Set against the black background where there is nothing to distract, this make a powerful image. Well done photograph and an excellent note.

I've been quite inactive lately, with the pressures of the new book plus the "day job" teaching, but I'm very happy to see this on my brief return.

Warm regards,

Bulent

noborders (1010) 2007-11-12 1:52

This is a splendid photo, the dark BG is great, details of costumes and most of all face expression excellent - I get the nostalgy of that beautiful island when I look at your photos !
(Prince or princess ? often not very clear in that part of Asia... But of no importance, of course !)
Best regards,
Cath.

markstaples (15670) 2007-11-12 10:20

Hi Angshu
I like this portrait very much and think that it works very well placing the subject on the far right like this. I like particularly the light on the dancer's face. Very nice work.
Best wishes
Mark

ndb1958 (9289) 2007-11-13 4:57

Hi Angshu,
an excellent portrait of the performing Legong dancer. Beautiful tones and lightning, nice composition. I like the little motion blur on the moving hands.
Nino.

plimrn (21344) 2007-11-14 5:41

Hi Angshi,
I had to step backward to pick of this amazing work!! The framing is perfect with its focus on the eyes and the hands and the space for the dancer to cast his/her beautiful eyes towards the audience. I also know that it is difficult to get such lush, natural skin tones with stage lighting and high iso. The sharpness of the face as eyes shows the steadiness of your hands and the effectiveness of improvised tripod; while the motion blur of those fingers adds life to the compo. Very well done!! Adding people to your portfolio really adds an important dimension to the stories you tell; as always, I read the your fascinating note with great interest.
HLJ, Pat

clic (23804) 2007-11-14 16:15

Hello Angshuman
You captured a fine portrait of this performer by means of a fortune tripod: Her exotic expression and clarity of costume details and mainly the off-center position for a suggested glance on players convey the festive spirit.
Soft light against a darker backdrop eases attention on her face.
Best regards.
Robert

Budapestman (82620) 2007-11-15 2:58

Dear Angshu,
This is great, I like the fantastic composition and the magnificent details, clarity and sharpness is perfect. Beautiful portrait, I like it very much. Have a nice day
George

Partha_c (2029) 2007-11-21 10:41

Hi Angshu. Nice shot with a very good POV and sharpness. I wished the full crown would have been there but do understand the difficulty you mentioned in your note. Not sure -- I smell some similar phonetics between Ubud and Ayodha. May be both are concerned with Rama. Regards.
Partha

ayansadhu (1502) 2008-02-02 8:01

This is an excellent shot where the danseuse has been fantastically portrayed by her looks, expressions, hand gestures & overall the ambient light...all works great...

thaprem (2566) 2008-08-13 6:48

Angshu,
A very Engaging compo for this wonderful expression... Timing & execution sparkles here...
So much a pegging shot, it just holds the eyes so strongly...
A lovely one...
Cheers,
Prem.