Diwali, also known as the festival of lights. A day to celebrate the triumph of good over evil and light over darkness. This festival is celebrated all over in India, but especially in North India, which is where I’m from.
I love Diwali for two reasons. The first obviously being firecrackers (firecrackers are awesome and that’s that).
The other reason that I love Diwali is that it presents quite a few opportunities to take beautiful pictures. Diwali is celebrated over two days, but the main festival is celebrated on a new moon night. The pitch-black night with softly glowing diyas, and firecrackers lighting up the sky, is simply *chef’s kiss*.
The number of photo opportunities is therefore infinite. I have been trying to learn photography for about a year now. I would love to say that I am good or even decent, but that would be a lie. However, I got out the camera and snapped some shots on both days, hoping to get at least a few nice ones. Let me say that I was not prepared for how good they came out. Usually when I take pictures, maybe 5 out of 30 aren’t completely terrible. This time, almost all of them were so good that I was shocked. Now again, when I say, “so good”, I mean compared to my what I usually produce. They aren’t anything special or world class, but I still like them as this was my first time getting a bunch of decent pictures.
Now onto the pictures themselves. 
These were taken on the first day of Diwali. They involved me getting up close and personal with the diyas. I’m not even kidding when I say the camera was in very real danger of catching on fire. They were some of the first pictures I took and mainly involved a lot of experimentation as this was the first time I was taking pictures at night. I’m mostly happy with how they came out. I just wished that I had composed them better. Right now, they look a little messy and all over the place. It isn’t clear what exactly I’m trying to show in the first two.
These pictures were again taken on the same day as the previous ones. These are all of a really beautiful diya holder which is in the shape of a Ganesha. It was kept on a table and the garland of flowers wrapped around it, provided an opportunity for some really soft, glowing pictures.
With these pictures, I knew exactly what I wanted. I’ve noticed that in most of my pictures I really love having a shallow depth of field. That is evident in all of these pictures.
The one really bad habit I had while taking these pictures was that I could NEVER hold the camera straight. Therefore, most of them came out wonky and unusable. Even in these you can notice the slant of the pictures towards the left.
We are back to me completely invading the personal space of these diyas. These pictures had me lying on the floor with the camera lens an inch away from the flame.
They were taken on the next day, that is the main day when Diwali is celebrated.
Again, the shallow depth of field is very clear in these pictures. I learnt how to compose my pictures in a better way and therefore I liked these ones a lot more than the first group. These are some of my favorite pictures of the night.
These pictures are exactly what they look like. I saw some candles on a table and thought they looked pretty. I played around a bit with how to frame them, because the flames looked very cool, especially since the background was completely black. I wanted to show the glow and highlight the pink of the candle. However, trying to show that on camera was HARD and unimaginably painful. What you are seeing are some of my better attempts.
Now, we come too my favorites aka the firecracker photos. Taking these
photos was probably the most nerve-wracking thing I’ve ever done.
Firstly, this was my dad’s camera I was using, so the pressure to keep
it in pristine condition was immense. Secondly, although I’m not scared
of crackers, the loud bangs startled me enough that I nearly tripped
several times, and therefore almost dropped the camera (my DAD’S
camera). Thirdly, trying to take the pictures without getting burnt was
like trying to take a bath without getting wet. Otherwise known as
trying to achieve the impossible. The fact that I actually got some
decent pictures is something I will always be proud of, because it was
NOT easy. The trick with these pictures was to underexpose all your
shots. You couldn’t do too much because otherwise the pictures would
come out dull and muted, you also couldn’t do too little as they would
then come washed out. You had to focus on the brightest part and then
take the picture. The best way is to use a zoom lens, as it’s the only
safe way of getting these pictures.
Don’t ask me what I was trying to achieve in this picture. The honest to god answer is I DON’T KNOW. I don’t even remember taking this picture. It was only later when I was going through the camera did I find this. I know that I took it since my dad and I were the only ones using the camera and since his hand is in the picture, it had to have been me who took it. I honestly don’t even know where I was standing or what I was doing when I took this picture. This photo will forever remain a mystery to me.
We
finally come to my two most favorite pictures that I took over the
course of both days. I again knew what I wanted in both of them, but I
was sorely unprepared for how pretty they came out. Like I mentioned,
almost all the pictures came out wayyy better than I expected. In the
first one, what surprised me was how sharp the image came out. It didn’t
appear as sharp through the viewfinder and therefore I was pleasantly
surprised by the end result. The second picture is of a flowerpot. Just
before and just after it explodes, a small flame comes out of it. I
wanted to capture this small flame, when the flowerpot had just started
to spark. I took the picture and got what I wanted. The unexpected
element in this, were the small softly glowing embers floating all
around it. They just added an extra something to the picture and I loved
it.
All the Diwali pictures you see, involved a lot of experimentation
and a TON of completely unusable pictures as well. Some of these
pictures were complete accidents.
However, I’m happy with them as I’m still learning, and these are
honestly not bad for a beginner.
© 2021, Anika Agarwal. All rights reserved.
