Tom Bourdon - Travel Photographer

Holi in black & white

Tom Bourdon — Fri, 05 Mar 2010 15:15:42 +0000

While there is no doubting the main photographic attraction to the holi festival is the incredible vibrant colours, I have a collection of images that work well as black & white images, I love the simplicity of black & white images & how the eye isn´t distracted by colours and therefore more prominence is places on shapes & lines. Even without the colour this is still a very interesting event.

If you´ve been following the blog regularly you´ve probably seen all the shots already but I thought I should let you know that I´ve also updated my Holi gallery with the latest photographs, in full amazing colour.

Holi – The festival of colours

Tom Bourdon — Wed, 03 Mar 2010 10:58:43 +0000

I think the title says it all. The festival of colours & you can certainly see why it’s called that. Among several other things this festival celebrates the arrival of spring and the colour is comes from fine powdered paint known as gulal that fills temples and towns all across India.

From here I’m off to Delhi for a couple of days before returning to the Kumbh Mela, so I should have some more pics very different celebration soon.

Holi 2010

Tom Bourdon — Tue, 02 Mar 2010 08:13:59 +0000

Holi 2010, finally over after 5 days of total madness & ridiculous colour, things here in Mathura have calmed down somewhat & the clean up has begun. I wanted to get at least one image up on the blog as soon as possible, so here it is. This was was shot inside a temple a couple of days ago and I was blessed with some great streaks of light. Expect more photos tomorrow.

March 2010 wallpaper

Tom Bourdon — Sat, 27 Feb 2010 12:42:21 +0000

This short, but extremely busy, month nearly caught me out with regards to the monthly wallpaper, I’m normally pretty good as far as being organised goes but having been traveling for so long & with no real routine I seem to be losing track of time some what.

It was shot at the Kumbh mela a few weeks ago. I should be able to get some more holi pics up on the blog in the next day or 2, but at the moment I’m so busy shooting the festival, so hang tight.

How do you put this image on your desktop ?? well….

Click the link below that matches your screen resolution then right click the image and click ‘Set as desktop background’ or ‘Use Image as Desktop Picture” on the Mac. If you want different sizes just let me know.

1024×768 | 1280×800| 1280×853 | 1440×900 | 2560×1600

Holi 2010 – A postcard from Mathura

Tom Bourdon — Fri, 26 Feb 2010 16:10:17 +0000

Finally back online after what seems like ages.

I’m in Mathura, Northern India. It’s said to be the birthplace of the Hindu god Krishna & the place where Holi is celebrated on the grandest scale, & from what I’ve seen its true. The celebrations for Holi slightly differ in different regions but the main concept stays the same, the concept of throwing brightly coloured paint over absolutely everything, particularly tourists & those carrying expensive camera gear (… Ohh what fools )

Here’s a quick shot I took yesterday, of course I’ll be adding more over the next few days but if you can’t wait that long check out my gallery from Holi in 2007

Taking time out to improve

Tom Bourdon — Fri, 19 Feb 2010 10:56:36 +0000

I’ve had a few days off from shooting. In fact I haven’t shot a single frame since last Friday. Some of you may view this as me being lazy, but its far from the truth. When I was at Kumbh mela I shot literally thousands of frames, often from sunrise to sunset. Needless to say the images in my ‘To process’ collection was mounting up and I was burning out, so many people, so much noise, so much to shoot, it never stopped, for weeks.

So I’ve taken this time not just to put my camera down and give my back and shoulders a rest from such weight but to work through my images and closely examine what I’ve shot and more importantly what I haven’t shot. I’ll be back shooting the the Kumbh mela shortly and I’ll go into it knowing what’s possible and what’s missing the shots I’ve already got. Photographers are spoilt a little by this event not only because there is just so much to shoot but because it goes on for so long, allowing time out to take stock. How many photographers are actually doing this I’m unsure.

I’ve been on the road now for 5 months now and I’m starting to miss some the creature comforts of home, reliable internet access and red wine are just to mention just two of them.

I’ll be in Mathura for Holi celebrations which promises to be another incredible experience, I shot this colourful celebration in the same location in 2007 and it was so good, I’m doing it al over again.

Kumbh mela – Online gallery

Tom Bourdon — Mon, 15 Feb 2010 07:42:53 +0000

The observant of you will have noticed that I now have a Kumbh Mela gallery on my site, I’ll be adding more images to this if all goes well.

Last Friday saw the first of the royal bathing days for the Kumbh mela, this one was called ‘Shivratri’ – the birthday of the Hindu god Shiva. On these sacred days thousands of naked and semi clad naga sadhus proceed to the ghats to bath in the Ganges. Naga sadhus or naga bubas are said to spend most of their lives with out even the most basic of possessions including clothes. In reality most have blankets and jewelery while a few have mobile phones and some, get this, even have the luxury of a TV in their tent, my hotel room didn’t even have a TV!! anyway I digress.

Its really is a spectacular sight to watch these ash coated warriors walk, run & dance to the ghats for bathing, although difficult to shoot as an estimated 2 million pilgrims were in town to watch the procession.

I’m now in Delhi, sorting out a few personal things, washing my laundry for one, before heading off to khajuraho for a traditional Indian dance festival. If all goes well I’ll share my images with you shortly.

As always I’d love your comments.