Holi is the Hindu festival of colours and 1,000+ Oxford university students got together today to celebrate by throwing coloured paint powder and squirting water at each other. I had to keep a safe distance to avoid trashing my camera so I didn’t manage to get any shots of the masses, instead I concentrated on some portraits. Helen originally tipped me off about this get together and we planned to do a photo shoot there but our plans ground to a halt when the paint powder that was for sale ran out before we got there. Our models were Jess and Charlie (last image) and Luke (not shown here) but with only half a cup of blue powder that Helen managed to find we were a bit limited with what we could achieve. After some brainstorming with Megan we set up some shots which I shot digitally, I’m only showing my Fuji pack film shots below. It was a fun session despite the difficulty of fighting against bright sunlight and struggling to find decent shade (this is where a white sheet and two helpful assistants can come in handy).
Tech info: Mamiya RB67, 180/4.5 lens on Fuji FP100C instant pack film loaded into a sliding Polaroid back.
I once accidentally walked through a small group of Holi celebrants in Princeton, and ended up with a shirt and DSLR coloured like the people in your portraits 🙂 It’s a photogenic festival. Sometimes the photos are worth more than the gear!