Wesak Day – Bokeh Paradise

At the Buddhist Maha Vihara Termple in Brickfields is a tent where hundreds of oil lamps are kept lit. It is a photographer’s paradise.

Some newbie photographers think ‘bokeh’ is as simple as an out-of-focus background. It is more than that. It is how the lens render the out-of-focus point(s) of light in relation to the part that is in focus. There is an aesthetic and subjective quality that depend on the lens, aperture and distance.

Here, I manually set the focus of the Sony FE 70-200mm G OSS lens onto the middle row of glass lamps. The blue blobs are daylight from outside and the orange is a monk in saffron robe.

Sony Alpha a7R, ISO 160, f4, 1/250 sec.

Wesak Day – Eternal Flame

Silhouette of a volunteer topping up the oil lamps. Love how the camera handled the colour balance of warm colors from the flames and cooler bluish daylight seeping through.

Sony Alpha a7R, ISO 100, f4, 1/125 sec.

Vesak

Vesak or Wesak Day is celebrated today (3rd May) here in Malaysia and also in Sri Lanka, Laos, Cambodia and a few other countries.

Other Asian countries such as Thailand and Singapore celebrate on 1st June 2015. India, Nepal, Indonesia, Myanmar, Vietnam, Japan, Taiwan and China observe the festival on a different day.

The variation is due to the different lunar, lunisolar and Gregorian calendars used.

Buddha Day, as it is also known, commemorates the birth, enlightenment and death of Gautama Buddha.

Golden statues photographed at the Thai Chetawan Temple in Petaling Jaya.

Follow me on Instagram too, also at @tvsmithmy

Happy Vesak.

Sony Alpha a7R, ISO 1250, f4, 1/160 sec.