°The money-phant, a photo from Tamil Nadu, South

Photographer's Note

Here in Madurai those elephants are kept in stables within the walls of the Meenakshi Temple where they eat, sleep, walk and go to work like this one, painted and ready to go to the main entrance of the sanctorum to be part of the religious act of blessing people for a coin.
They are trained from young to gather coins with their trunk and in exchange on order of the tamer to put their trunk as a blessing on the heads of the visitors of the temple, yes on order as you would pass closely he doesn't know better then to put his trunk on your head but no he is not allowed, first the coin that he swings straight to the hand of his tamer then the blessings, an enchanting attraction for the public.

You could say that his life is tilted (hé Francis), not knowing his natural environment, whole his life living between walls. Every respectable temple has their own elephants. During the mating season they can become dangerous and many accidents happened already in Kerala where they attack their tamer sometimes deadly during this period. Not so many elephants are left in Tamil Nadu, lucky there are still some reserves in the mountains where they can breed in a natural way.

A TE-spot on info for travellers, wich one do you like most (links to WS)?

oochappan ©®

Emile, arindam_thokder, elihesamian, lestans, jhm, jmdaoudal, alvaraalto, Fixfocus, rowanb, gary91, ChrisJ, ramesh_lalwani, Tue, thaprem has marked this note useful

Critiques | Translate

arindam_thokder (3987) 2005-11-11 8:15

Hello Henk,

The animal act in India is trying to stop this kind of practices but once this have connection with Religions and Temples, things get difficult. If we look into the eye of this elephant everybody will fill Sad.

Technically the tilt crop is really good and innovative. Nice

Arindam

bebel (7588) 2005-11-11 8:21

hello Henk
nice frame with this tilt up on left, as the elephant's life was too difficult... When I was in Pondicherry, I was blessed (béni) by Ganesh-elephant too...
nice lights and colors. Are the elephants happy in India ? In France, we have this link about circus life for wild animals.
à bientôt
Pierrot
Samba the elephant

Emile (20352) 2005-11-11 8:32

I like the artistic tilt of your picture. Very well captured. The colours contrasts are great. Good expression on the face of the young person.
Very well done Henk.

eleparc (24063) 2005-11-11 8:41

This must be the day of the elephant... Claude just posted another portrait of an indian elephant yesterday;-) i like the tilt here that brings a special touch to the overall shot... nice shot!
Eric

elihesamian (26149) 2005-11-11 8:41

A very good tilt you made for this scene when the man and elephant was moving,this made a nice dynamism for the shot.
The quality as always in your works,is great,and I like the light and shadows playing here which well rendered,also those red/white lines are nice graphism for background,I like it,Henk,well composed and great one,very useful note,too,Thanks,
Yours
M

lestans (17258) 2005-11-11 9:32

Ciao Henk!! Nice this elephant going up in diagonal! I remember the elephants I saw when I visited Menakshi temple in Madurai.... I have also a shot of one of them but... ;-))) I feel very shy to post Madurai photos near yours!
Poore animals working as beggars. But this one is not the most unhappy, I saw in TE some very well done pics that made me so sad:
http://www.trekearth.com/gallery/Asia/China/photo265538.htm

Ciao!!! Livia

Amirsun (2122) 2005-11-11 11:22

Hi Henk!
Nice shot with great angled composition. Very good dynamism and very good use of the diagonal coloured lines in the background. Nice shot with the peek action of man.
Tanks for posting.
Regards
Amir

jhm (211736) 2005-11-11 11:53

Goedenavond Henk,
Wat een rage op TE, iedereen wil precies eens in een schuine hoek werken, een fantasietje dat eenmalig leuk is. Ik vind uw foto's te mooi om ze op een buitensporige manier te presenteren. Het bewijs zijn de twee andere met de olifanten hoe mooi deze zijn, ja zelfs plezig om naar te kijken. Deze vind ik niet mis door de rood/witte lijnen die als contrast dienen tegenover de donkere olifant.
Mooi weekend gewenst, of is het werken geblazen!
John.

jmdaoudal (82) 2005-11-11 12:44

"his life is tilted" ours too at the moment of search for an expressive style.
This is the first example of flat tilted shot I see, and I must say this is expressive too.
The quality is quite good with Iso 1600 acceptable noise on the Elephant, the elements in are balanced and the "cornack" is very expressive. Of course then there is a + with this photogenic wall I know now.
Compliments
jean Michel

alvaraalto (42804) 2005-11-11 16:39

Hallo Henk,
Mooie informatieve rapportage. Zowel de tekst als de foto’s. De scheve weergave van de olifant is een mooie illustratie van zijn scheve verhouding tot zijn natuurlijke omgeving.
Groet Rob

Fixfocus (9385) 2005-11-11 17:05

Hoi Henk,
Beautiful lightmood in this wonderful street scene and the red and white background,-great!
The pictures in the WS are more than a addition they would deserve an own posting.
Prettige weekend,
hermann

rowanb (864) 2005-11-11 23:39

nice tilt and colourful backdrop
very informative note!!
rowan

gary91 (15348) 2005-11-12 3:48

Hello Henk,
A BIG picture today ;-)
Funny tilt you have used, which gives an original view of this incredible animal.
We can see the difference beetween the guy who seems to be proud of him and the look of the elephant, which seems sad.
A nice shot once more.
Regards. Christian

ALSOM (6616) 2005-11-12 4:41

I like this one too.
Wonderful composition with the red/white background from whih the elephan stands out incrediblement. It's weird you managed to tilt the shot as the elephant should not be very light ;o). I love how the elephant's face is nicely decorated.
TFS, Al.

greg64g (11193) 2005-11-13 3:42

Hi Henk

This is a very interesting shot, and about the elephant story. my favorite is this one and with the little girl. i am impress too about the 1600 iso, noise looks correctly controled.
cheers
greg

ChrisJ (171852) 2005-11-13 3:43

Hi Henk

The elephant has a steep uphill climb! I like the tight crop & frame. Good color & sharpness. The red & white 'candy stripe' is a good addition. Congratulations!

Tue (92402) 2005-11-14 18:32

Goedenavond Henk,
Een zeer mooie foto van deze olifant en zijn begeleider. De lichtval is ook leuk hier. Het gebruik van de tilt is goed gekozen, prima werk.
Groeten,
Lars

thaprem (2566) 2005-11-15 4:55

Yes, An elephant in a temple is pride!..More so in kerala where one can see a big procession of Elephants during pooram.
Often in the temple I feel very sad for the elephant while looking at their Eyes...Once a prominant fighters in Chola/Chera/Pallava Army, when aged were sent to temples to have a peaceful life. It is said that Narasimha varma pallava, when invading the chalukyas, had to cross the river in full flow to launch the attack, used his entire array of elephants as a bridge to let his entire army cross over & went on to win the war.
Now they have been reduced to a gnomic characters, by collecting money from the devotees too satisfy teh stomach of himself & the mahout.
His Times have passed!!!....
That is what I feel from the diagonal showing teh elephant on his way out!...

Prem.

rajhema (1873) 2005-11-22 8:19

Having elephants in temples is the oldest tradition Henk. During the days when no motor vehicles were there, Elephants were used to pull heavy things. Besides, It is considered a pride to sit atop and walk around. Kings and deities were taken around the temple for "Darshan"(devotees to worship!). And it has evolved into this sad part. But so far I noticed changes happen very slow in India. No new things had replaced older things overnight. So hopefully these things will go. In my childhood, there were several days elephants pass by my house and I get the trunk blessing. The weight of the trunk on your head is quite an experience for kids. Kids get so excited to touch the elephant. My son is not getting that opportunity here. Your picture is slightly noisy. why?