India from Slides prt17: Temple in the Dunes

Cut the Crap | digitized from slide

To give an impression of how the slides look before, and after; the next three images. I digitize them with a Rollei DF-S 190 SE; and process them in Lightroom. This is a bad one, with the ‘white-blow’ on the lower left side; and the color-change-gradient on the right. Sometimes these injuries give the image a little extra.

Unprocessed Slide-scan | digitized from slide

Processed Slide-scan, color | digitized from slide

Processed Slide-scan, B&W | digitized from slide

India from Slides prt16: The Chennakesava Temple in Somnathpur prt3

Backside | digitized from slide

The last ones from this temple.

Arcade1 | digitized from slide

Incredible Sculpture prt11 | digitized from slide

Incredible Sculpture prt13 | digitized from slide

Incredible Sculpture prt12 | digitized from slide

Arcade2 | digitized from slide

Vivid | digitized from slide

Left wing | digitized from slide

India from Slides prt15: The Chennakesava Temple in Somnathpur prt2

Interior1 | digitized from slide

Inside the temple it was dark, with some artificial light. In stead of 12.800 ISO and Auto-whitebalance I only had 400 ASA daylight-slide-film I could use… Very good for the mythical atmosphere, i must say 😉

Interior2 | digitized from slide

Incredible Sculpture prt8 | digitized from slide

Incredible Sculpture prt9 | digitized from slide

Incredible Sculpture prt10 | digitized from slide

Ceilingdetail1 | digitized from slide

Ceilingdetail2 | digitized from slide

Ceilingdetail3 | digitized from slide

India from Slides prt14: The Chennakesava Temple in Somnathpur

Front view | digitized from slide

One day a student, or something; a really nice fellow from a small village, wanted to show me a very fine temple. It was in Somnathpur, about 35 km. from Mysore. He knew exactly which buses we had to take. When the next bus stopped in front of us he jumped inside, threw his sweater on a free seat, so that I could sit, while he stood right behind me. This subservient behavior felt a bit uncomfortable for me; but I let him do his thing and he was enjoying his trip a lot. When we reached the temple, he stayed outside and waited patiently till I had seen it all. The Chennakesava Temple was built in 1268 C.E. under Hoysala king Narasimha III, when the Hoysala Empire was the major power in South India. According to the books it is one of the finest examples. Must be true. I was speechless.

The Entrance | digitized from slide

Incredible Sculpture prt1 | digitized from slide

Incredible Sculpture prt2 | digitized from slide

Incredible Sculpture prt3 | digitized from slide

Incredible Sculpture prt4 | digitized from slide

Incredible Sculpture prt5 | digitized from slide

Incredible Sculpture prt6 | digitized from slide

Incredible Sculpture prt7 | digitized from slide

India from Slides prt13: In the Junkfood Restaurant

Waiting | digitized from slide

When we got hungry we decided to go for some ‘junk-food’. On the street was a huge kettle with little, one-bite, fried, crunchy balls floating around. You were supposed to take one out; eat it; take another one and count how many you ate for the payment. They costed almost nothing. It was quite busy around the kettle and before I could catch one, we were kindly invited inside. We got the special treatment. Inside was a small corridor with a few wooden benches. After a while a nice lady served us a plate with three crunchy balls; some salad and some delicious sauce. Unfortunately I only took some shots from the special atmosphere in the little corridor, but believe me I’ve never had so much fine taste for so little money.

The Gods and the Fan | digitized from slide

Distance | digitized from slide

India from Slides prt12: In the Garden of the Mysore Palace

Shweta varahaswany temple | digitized from slide

Another day in Mysore. In the Garden of the huge Palace was the Shweta varahaswany temple. We were the only ones around. I liked the atmosphere and was amazed by the architecture and the sculptures. In architecture I like a basic, geometrical structure (does not have to be visible; as long as you can feel it); on which the more detailed parts can grow. These temples are extreme examples of that; they develop into almost insane, but still well controlled details. A sort of rational nature.
When it got dark there was a concert inside the palace. Raga music with sitar and tabla played by Indian musicians that were as famous in India as Eric Clapton or Sting in ‘the west’. In the palace was only room for very important people; but in the garden were speakers all over the place so that other people could also listen to the concert (for free, notes the Dutchman 😉 ). The huge palace-garden was very crowded and everyone was listening with a lot of attention, while the palace filled the garden with the glow of a million little lights.

To the Gate | digitized from slide

Simple main geometry and well controlled fine details | digitized from slide

Guards | digitized from slide

Speaking the Language of a Flower | digitized from slide

Courtyard of the Temple | digitized from slide

Quatre Mains | digitized from slide

In Harmony | digitized from slide

View from the Backyard | digitized from slide

Shweta varahaswany temple by Night | digitized from slide

Enlightened Mysore Palace | digitized from slide

City on Fire | digitized from slide

India from Slides prt11: The day of the Oven

My bedroom | digitized from slide

I woke up for a special day on the farm: pottery-day. People would come to the farm to be part of firing the oven with ceramics they made. It was part of a project to learn them new pottery techniques. They had made water-jars all their life. But ceramic water-jars were replaced by plastic ones, that still looked like the ceramic ones; but were made in mass-production and therefore cheaper. So their source of income had completely dried out. The project was initiated by Padma, who had studied pottery on a school of arts. She had teached the water-jar-makers how to make candlesticks, vases, mobiles and other things that might make some money. The people had dressed themselves in their finest clothes and they had walked for more than 4 hours to reach the farm. It was a special day for them. In the afternoon, when the oven was on fire, some government people came along to see how the project they financed was doing. Well, the project was hot!

Base material | digitized from slide

Strange New | digitized from slide

That’s the way | digitized from slide

Inside the Oven | digitized from slide

Closing the Oven | digitized from slide

The Waiting | digitized from slide

The Financiers | digitized from slide

The Heat is on | digitized from slide

Checking the results | digitized from slide

After a long and Busy day | digitized from slide

India from Slides prt10: On a Nail

On a Nail | digitized from slide

Still fascinates me; still don’t no why.

Giacometti’s Angel

Giacometti’s Angel | Nikon D700 | Nikkor 24-70mm. f/2.8G ED | 70mm. | 1/80 | F6.3 | ISO 200

A 90 degrees turn.

India from Slides prt9: Diverse

Still Life in the Morning | digitized from slide

I’m tired, so just a few shots today.

My Companion on the Wall | digitized from slide

The Firm | digitized from slide

Drinking with the Gods | digitized from slide

See-through | digitized from slide

The KitchenCrew (not nervous) | digitized from slide