Vesak, the holiest day in Buddhism, presents another great opportunity for capturing prayer images.

The day has special significance for me as a photographer, for it marked my comeback to photography after a break of more than 10 years. And what better way to commemorate my comeback than with my favourite subject of prayer, or “Spiritual Photography”.

Vesak marks the birth, enlightenment and passing of the Buddha. A myraid of activities are held in Buddhist temples throughout Singapore. But for the photographer in search of prayer images, the place to go to is Bright Hill Temple.

The setting is idyllic. As you approach the temple, you hear a soothing chant over the public address sound system.

It is a sharp contrast to the Hindu festival of Thaipusam – my other favourite event for prayer image photography – where the music is very loud and lively, and the temple ground is crowded and somewhat chaotic.

BUY THIS PRINT

At Bright Hill Temple on Vesak Day, the attraction for photographers is “Three steps one bow”.

This is a gruelling ritual where devotees walk three steps forward, fall prostrate to the ground, open their palms, rise, take another three steps forward, and repeat the sequence all over again.

It takes well over two hours to complete the route around the vast temple grounds, and that's not countring another few hours of waiting time.

Thousands of people take part, organised in groups of about 50, each group led by one or a few monks. As you can imagine, this is quite a special event for prayer photography.

The above photograph, from Vesak 1981, is my absolute favourite prayer image. The lady could not prostrate to the ground, so she just bowed. Yet that was enough to send perspiration dripping down her cheeks. I managed just three photographs of her and this one happened to have a “distracting” bright glow in the background.

It was not easy to photograph prayer images such as this. For one thing, most of the procession takes place in darkness, from past midnight onwards. Once the sun is up, it gets to hot for the participants.

Moreover, the devotees are constantly on the move. There is not a lot of time to compose and focus the image. You'll have to plan what sort of prayer images you want to capture, compose that image in your mind and, once it forms before you, quickly snap that photograph without any hesitation.

You will have another chance at the same image three steps later, and again three steps later – provided you are able to move forward and not be hampered by the crowd of onlookers and fellow prhotographers, provided the background, lighting and other factors don't change too much. The other thing you could do is to take multiple shots of the same prayer image the moment it falls into place.

Vesak and its prayer images have such strong attraction for me that it marked my return to photography two years ago in 2003. But so far, I have not been lucky in being able to capture prayer images of similar quality.

TOP

Vesak occurs in May. But March to May 2003 was when Singapore, along with most of Asia, was hit by the viral disease, Sars (severe acute respiratory syndrome). I was also very seriously ill during that period, not with Sars but with, of all things, chicken pox!

Yet I was so determined to make my comeback to photography – and especially to capture more Vesak prayer images – that the moment I got slightly better, I went shopping for a new lens in preparation.

My old 70-210mm zoom lens – some of its rubber components – had melted from disuse. I needed a replacement because my 35-70mm zoom lens would not get me close enough.

Here was the lucky part. I found one of those new, China-made, plastic lenses that come with a very affordable price tag. And because the economy was so badly hit by Sars, I bought it at a special “Sars price” – with a huge discount. I paid just over S$200 for it, although the usual retail price was about $280.

But, as I was to discover later, the lens was not that great. It was great value, no doubt. But it fell short in terms of image quality, the autofocus took forever and, because the lens was light and long, it resulted in a lot of camera shake.

Came Vesak 2003. I was not yet fully recovered and still had a low grade fever. Yet I stubbornly – and some would say irresponsibly – went along. I wanted so much to re-visit Vesak and return to photography.

At the temple, visitors had to be screened for fever and other signs of illness. I nearly did not make it but after a 20-minute rest from having to walk quite a distance to the temple, my body temperature dropped just enough for the health volunteers to let me through.

Then came the big disappointment :-( Because of Sars, the “Three steps one bow” was cancelled, along with other Vesak Day activities. There were no prayer images to capture. I had to wait another year.

TOP

On Vesak Day 2004, I happily took a cab to Bright Hill, which was just a few minutes from my home – only to realise that I had arrived too late. I entered the temple grounds just in time to catch the last few stragglers of the “Three steps one bow”.

In less than five minutes, the event was over. I had arrived after 9am. I did not recall it ending so early the last time I was there, but that was more than 20 years ago!

I did manage to capture a couple of prayer images, however, including this one:

In a way, I was glad I missed it. If not, I would have photographed the event and gone home, thinking that was all there was. But because I missed the “Three steps one bow”, I wandered around the temple grounds in search of more prayer image possibilities.

And I came across a large hall filled with devotees – mostly dressed in black robes – chanting. It was somewhat similar to the “Three steps one bow”. They would chant a verse, bow to the ground, rise, chant another verse, bow again… and go on and on.

The advantage of such a routine was that I could anticipate their movements and so plan my compositions accordingly – especially since they remained at the same spot.

Unfortuantely, it was indoors, lighting was poor, my zoom lens wasn't fast (f4.5 - 5.6), I was using average speed film (ISO 200 negatives), I didn't have a tripod... in short, I was ill-prepared for taking photographs under those conditions.

Well, the hall was overflowing and there were some people along the corridor. The lighting still wasn't great, I had to hold my breath for longer exposure and hope my camera didn't shake. In the end, I managed only a few shots of prayer images – of hands holding prayer books.

These prayer images – including the one above, of the man with only his mouth showing – are not super sharp. But they are the best I have. The rest showed very much worse camera shake :-(

Oh well. It is mid-April as I write this. Vesak 2005 falls on May 22. Barring unforeseen circumstances, I will be back again, to capture more Vesak prayer images.

This time, I will arrive early. And be better prepared!

TOP