The Apostoles
by Koen Pieters
closing part of a documentary series on a ceremony that takes place at Wat Bang Phra, a temple in Nakhon Chaisi, Thailand. After the main part of the ceremony we were invited inside the temple. We were brought to a big, dimly lit room, filled with people, either accompanying their friends, or waiting their turn to be tattood the traditional way by one of the temple's monks. Some of these monks had been busy for over 24 hours. In the room it was very quiet. The photos I took there in very difficult circumstances - little light, hardly place to stand - reminded me of tableaus I had seen of Jesus and his apostoles.

For those interested, more information can be found at www.bangkok-daytrips.com/tattoo-temple.html

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Comments
fantastic series, I love this. outstanding.
in my opinion one of your all time greats a stunning visual feast of yes painterly proportions. great use of light koen a wonderful image.
yeah, it's okay I guess
;-)
I can see some noise on some areas of the image, but technically it's brilliant in some other matters. I love that 'rinascimento painting' powerful light. Leuk foto, Koen
dank je David. Thanks
Great street capture
Dank je Jef
This is impressive stuff Koen, good to see on here. The light and colours are beautiful. In an ideal world, I guess it would be good if the monk was more central and we could see more of the person at the extreme left, but you've pulled off a fantastic shot in obviously challenging conditions. It's almost like a Caravaggio painting.
thanks Steve. this is nearly full frame. had a full frame version at 1000 pixes, but as OE requires 950 pixels, I prefered cropping a bit off the rhs rather than resizing it. As it is a total scene with many details, I figured it was better to crop, in order to keep the details as big as possible. So, (yup, there's a point to all of this babbling) can't really recompose it. I checked other shots I have. They're all from the same place. So not really in the middle. I guess because I simply couldn't take that extra step. Probably some people were sitting there and Thai people are very conscious about feet. They are considered the lowest (as in most basic) part of the body, so stepping on someone with your feet could be taken as an insult.
I read somewhere that in some cultures in Asia (can't remember if it was Thai) it is considered very rude to talk to someone while standing with your feet pointed forward, as in pointing them at the person. Do you know if that's true, and is it Thai?
Not sure what you mean Ursula. Last time I pointed my feet forward while I stood, I fell :-)
Now you're being funny. :) Forget it, it was probably some tall tale again, I'm always falling for stuff like that.
don't know the exact technicalities Ursula. but here in thailand (I supposed in other buddhist countries as well) it is perceived as very inpolite to point your feet towards others. So when they sit down, they'll not likely sit with their feet before them towards another person (and certainly not towards monks). They'll always sit like in the photo or with their feet behind them. I remember an american director made a film about 2 years ago. The poster featured the main character sitting barefoot on the head of a large buddha statue. eye-catching image, but he had to take it down after people here protested about it. The feet... lowest part... on the head... highest part... big insult.
Thank you, Koen. That's probably what it was. Appreciate the time you took to write all of this :)
Excellent documentary shot! Good colours. The noise you mentioned somewhere under doesn't disturb the total impression.
Thanks Lars for the feedback
great image Koen, this has a perfect fly on the wall documentary style. mal
Thanks Mal. It was so crowded in the room that you can take that fly on the wall thing literally lol
Buzz off then!.....;))))
Brilliant work, Koen! Perfectly captured, like it a lot!
all the best
Codrin
cheers Codrin :-)
a beautiful documentary photograph, every things are in place.. colors are perfects, and we are hanging upon his gesture.. like in your picture.. clever focus too.. superb
thank you Flo. Think I got a bit lucky with the focus. basically had to use 2.8, which is pretty narrow, because of the dim light. Not sure anymore on who I focused... on the monk's face, or on one of the two guys sitting immediately next to him, or on the back of the man lying down. Might have been the latter. Luckily the monks face just comes into the focus area.
wonderful!!!
grazie ! :-)
wonderful. Very clever focus in this, you've achieved remarkable depth by focussing on the laying person's hair. Lovely colors and the best thing the story. Magnum style this.
thanks Bert. Was a bit worried about the noise showing. it was already at 800 ISO and using a bit of that shadow/highlight thing in PS brings out the noise even much more in certain areas. besides, always have the impression that photos are showing a bit brighter on OE than on other applications. I tried to counter it by darkening the photo more than I did for epz for example, yet still it shows brighter... and the noise is more visible
Congratulations. A wonderful photograph.
Thank you Edmund
good one!!
Thanks Lucian
Very good documentary shot...
Merci Laurence :-)
Great light and the story you tell gives power to the shot. Good captured
Best regards Carola
Thanks Carola
Like the way you have treated the colours and the PP. Looks a bit like a Dave Hill photos.
Funny, I said the same thing on another photo in this series

Love this one Koen, everything is just right - the serious mood is very well captured
yes, the ones Tommy is referring to are probably 'better' examples (allthough one shouldn't really try to compare them to mr. Hill's photos, wasn't trying to copy that style, and frankly, if I was, I did a terrible job lol), but I did do some of the things in PS I did on those photos, be it in a much lesser degree, as I wanted to keep it looking natural above all. Thanks guys :-)
Wow! Very good to look at.
thanks Ursula. Very pleased with this one. Had it lingering around a long time on my PC before I started working on it. Glad I finally did :-)

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