Wai Kroo Tattoo Festival: Update

Following up from last week’s post and slideshow about photographing the Wai Kroo Tattoo Festival in Thailand, here are a few reflections on the day.

I’d seen photos of the Tattoo Festival before attending this year but nothing can really prepare you for the unpredictable nature of the event when it’s in full-flow. I guess I was lulled into a false sense of security when we first arrived as the tattooing itself is generally a pretty peaceful affair. There was a great sense of reverence in the little rooms behind the main temple as participants sat quietly around the tattooists, shuffling forward to make their offerings and calmly placing themselves in the hands of the monks when their turn came to receive the sharp end of the tattooists’ needles.

Once outside though, the atmosphere rapidly shifted up several gears. Although people in the crowd sat quietly, when one of them became possessed and entered a trance-like state they would begin to shriek or growl, shaking violently until either their friends managed to calm them or they broke free of their neighbours’ grasp to leap up and begin their manic sprint towards the front.

There was no way to predict who would leap up from the crowd next except to listen out for the unworldly sounds they would utter but with a crowd that large it was soon all but impossible to place where sounds were coming from. This made the event a challenge to photograph and I decided that the best approach would be to try and concentrate on getting one type of shot at a time.

I’d used an 85mm f1.2 for the tattooing itself as it coped with the low light really well and meant that I wasn’t forced to ramp up the ISO too much.

Once outside, I switched to a 70-200 f/2.8 IS lens in order to focus on details in the crowd and to isolate participants from the background. I really like this lens and although it’s bulky the weight actually gives it a very balanced feel and I think having a substantial lens forces me to ground myself and place my feet firmly, not a disadvantage when people are hurling themselves at you from all directions. Shutter priority enabled me to choose my favourite panning speed, which is invariably 1/30th second and then to stop down from there to increasingly slower shutter speeds. Most of the panning shots were taken at 1/30th with a few at 1/60th when the speeds of the possessed runners seemed to be increasing.

One of the things I really wanted to achieve at this festival was to get in close to the action. I like the long-lens panning shots but I’m most pleased with the wide-angle shots, invariably taken at the wide-end of a 16-35mm f/2.8 and often with a burst of fill-flash. It did mean, however, that I really needed to be on my toes if I was to avoid being knocked to the ground. The advantage was that most of those running full-pelt at the line of soldiers at the front of the crowd would run pretty much in a straight line so their path was usually predictable. I say “usually” because there were occasions when people would veer off at the last moment, causing a desperate scattering of photographers near the front. There were, I suspect, many photographers with bruised toes by the end of the morning.

It was blisteringly hot on the day and it took some concentration to get the shots I wanted without wilting. As the intensity of the event reached a crescendo it became a game of hit and miss, literally, and I freely admit that some of the wide-angle shots were taken with the camera at arms length, pointing vaguely in the direction of the action. I also tried shooting directly into the sun in an attempt to convey something of the heat. It inevitably meant that some shots, like the one below, show evidence of lens flare but I can genuinely claim that it was intended.

Dave T mentioned, in his recent comment, that ambient sound would really add another dimension to the slideshow and I know he’s absolutely spot-on. I really wanted to record some audio and did have my digital recorder with me but the truth is that I’d come close to being bowled over a couple of times and I didn’t think adding another distraction would be very wise at that point. I could have taken a place in the crowd and tried to get some sounds but, on the day, I chose to do one thing as well as possible rather than two things with who-knows-what results. As soon as I reviewed the image files back at home I knew that some ambient sounds would have made all the difference to the slideshow and kicked myself for not working harder but, on reflection, think that was the right decision in the day. I could really use a glamorous assistant! Any volunteers?

To wrap up some of the other questions, although I have a press pass it wasn’t necessary to show any evidence of professional status on the day and visitors were free to wander wherever they wanted. As Vanessa pointed out, there was no sign of confrontation between the soldiers and the festival participants. That’s quite extraordinary when you think that people were hurling themselves at the soldiers with great ferocity. The soldiers would calm possessed people by rubbing their ear-lobes, an action that seemed to calm them very quickly. Once back to themselves, participants would politely wai the soldier before meandering back to their place in the crowd as if nothing had happened. I’d like to think that the police and soldiers in the UK could adopt the same approach, perhaps rubbing the ear-lobes of protestors would have the same result.

Finally, if you want to know what an English photographer looks like in a crowd, these two shots are courtesy of friends from the Bangkok Photo Club who were there on the day: Mike LaPalme and Bianca Joester.

As well as a single 1Ds MKII body and the 16-35mm 2.8, 24-70mm 2.8, 85mm 1.2, and 70-200mm 2.8 lenses I had a Lensbaby Composer, which I didn’t get a chance to use, a 580 EXII flash and a Hyperdrive Colorspace to back-up to. I use a Billingham Packington bag, which is now my bag of choice in this kind of environment. Other essential accessories, a decent hat to protect against the sun (note that I’m the only person wearing a hat under that blistering sun), a Suunto wristwatch to tell me which way is north and how long I have to wait before my next cup of tea and an invaluable, all-purpose Buff, wrapped around my other wrist. Phew, I think that’s everything.

This entry was posted on Wednesday, March 18th, 2009 at 8:00 pm and is filed under Events, My work and tagged with bangkok. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed.