What to shoot on a joint festival like Janai Purnima & Gai Jatra as a Stock photographer?

No doubt, Nepal is a country of rich culture, diversity, ethnicity and moreover festivals. Every year, we celebrated a number of festivals occurring all over the year. These festivals not only brings joy, peace, and harmony among the people, but it also brings opportunities, business and moreover moments, that every photographer loves to capture.

In regards, the flow of festivals tends to begin every year mainly after the inception of Janai Purnima and Gai Jatra. These two famous and widely celebrated festivals of Nepal touches different ethnicity and cultures while it is celebrated back to back in Nepali month of Shrawan.

So, as a photographer what to shoot on these festivals?

If you love to capture festive moments then these festivals will be a good start to build your festive portfolio. Well, it would be great if you can shoot peoples and their acts with proper model release form but the festival is all about crowds and it will be pretty hard to approach them for model release form. We still encourage photographers to go for it, but there's simply a way to capture its theme without any model and use it for commercial purpose.

Wondering how?

Here's the catch.

At first, you need to understand what the festival is all about and where will people normally go to celebrate it. Since Nepal is a former Hindu country and most of the Nepalese festival comes from the Hindu religion. Pashupatinath and Lord Shiva's temple all around the country will be the first priority for Hindu devotees on most occasions.

Same goes with the Janai Purnima festival, also known as the festival of the sacred thread. It is one of the most important and sacred festivals for Brahmin Hindus where they perform rituals and wear a thread as an affirmation to their status. Devotees go to nearest Lord Shiva's temples take a holy bath in the nearby river and perform the rituals in the presence of Pujari or Pandit.

Get your gears and camera ready as we have a place, rituals, and a holy thread to focus on.

Images reflecting rituals, thread wearing or taking a bath can be a good option to reflect the overall theme of Janai Purnima.

pic: Nepalsanctuarytreks

Look at this shot, it represents the sacred threads which can be wear in the chest by Brahmins and in the wrist by other devotees. It reflects the purity of Janai Purnima without any model being used.

pic: insidehimalayas

We got this photo from the twitter of US Embassy Nepal. This aerial shot of Pujari/Pandit performing the rituals perfectly signifies the importance of Janai Purnima to Brahmin people. Though the photo consists of models, they are not recognized from any means. This is indeed an outstanding shot.

Changing of Janai (the sacred thread) is an important part of this festival. Look at this shot, the photographer has perfectly done his job capturing the crucial moment of thread changing ceremony.

Since we have touched the Janai, let's see some other examples of Janai Purnima photos.

pic: deccanchronicle

It's a photo of a devotee performing the rituals in front of the Holy River and sun. Though the photographer has used a model in it the photographer has fantastically focused on the main subjects, Janai and hands.

pic: avax.news

Now, this one is pretty simple but to the point. Janai Purnima is the only festival where one thread can describe the whole purpose of the Festival.

Oh yes, you can always go for the distant shots. Doing so, you can capture the whole scenario and you might not require to sign any model release statement.

Most of the Hindu temples in this particular day shares the same scenic view. If you wander outside the valley, Gosaikunda and Kumbeshwar are other famous shrine destination for Janai Purnima.

If you are thinking of going there, I bet you will have a wonderful time with the scenic view and the blend of the festival.

Well, that's not the end. Janai Purnima consists of another widely celebrated festival that reflects the love and strong bonds of brothers and sisters.

Rakshya-Bandhan also falls on the same date as Janai Purnima every year. In this festival, all the sisters tie Rahee on the hands of their beloved brothers and pray for their long life and prosperity. In return, brothers offer gifts, chocolates and other favorite things for her sisters.

Now, that's a real chance to witness and capture the sweet moments between brothers and sisters. Like, we said earlier, it's better to shoot the real moments of brothers and sisters but then model release form might ruin your mood.

If that's the case then here are the few things that you can focus on and it does not require a model release form.

The first one would definitely be a Rakhee and you can try different things with just a Rakhee. You just have to be creative here.

Rakshya Bandhan is also about sweets, gifts and other elements that reflect its theme.

Similarly, you can come up with shots like this. It's simple but clearly reflects the theme of Rakshya Bandhan.

Not to forget, the special moments where a sister ties Rakhee on brother's hand.

pic:ibtimes

Well, that's not the end, we have one more special thing to cover before we wrap up Janai Purnima and head to Gai Jatra.

Janai Purnima is quite popular with beans and delicious food. It is the day, where most of the Nepalese will have Kwati's in their home. Kwati is an extremely pleasant food made up of varieties of beans that have the power to cure a cold, and cough whereas it is rich in proteins.

Well, Kwati is definitely worth a shot in Janai Purnima.

Well, that's it for the Janai Purnima. Now you know how to catch the theme of Janai Purnima without the use of Model and release form.

Let's move on to Gai Jatra, which is another famous festival celebrated all over Nepal. If we look at the history of Gai Jatra then it’s old as Malla Kings and our history. The festival first came into beginning after the death of the son of Malla ruler. The king back then summoned all the people who have lost someone all over the year to ease the mourning of Malla Queen.

Since then every year thousands of people gather around Basantapur Durbar Square to remember their deceased ones in the form of Cow. The huge parade marched towards Durbar Square is something worth taking a shot.

Gai Jatra parade is kind of special as the LGBT community also come forward and celebrate their existence in the form of Parade.

So, what to click on this day as a stock photographer?

Since, the festival reflects cows, the LGBT community and the death, there will be a lot of things to focus on this day rather than a specific model on your photograph.

You can simply focus on the people who have decorated themselves as a Hindu god or a form of a cow.

pic: tribune

Likewise, you can capture the beautiful and traditional dance of the Newar community.

pic: nepakipa

If this didn't work, you can always count the distant shot.

pic: nepakipa

Similarly, you can focus on the LGBT parade.

pic: nepalitimes

Last but not least, Lakhe dance. The fearsome Lakhe has always been an integral part of Nepalese festival. And, they are definitely worth a shot.

pic: asiaone

Well, experiment with your shot. The festivals are on their way, it's better if you can understand the theme of the festival and click accordingly.