Spinning prayer wheels, Jokhang Temple, Lhasa, Tibet, 2004 photo

Phil Douglis | all galleries >> Galleries >> Gallery Seven: Making time count > Spinning prayer wheels, Jokhang Temple, Lhasa, Tibet, 2004

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26-JUN-2004

Spinning prayer wheels, Jokhang Temple, Lhasa, Tibet, 2004

The streets adjacent to the Jokhang Temple are lined with prayer wheels -- these still spin from the touch of Buddhist pilgrims. I used a shutter speed of about 1/60th of a second – fast enough to hand hold the camera with ease, yet slow enough to get a touch of movement in the wheels. These wheels are meant to spin. A shot of them in a static state would be virtually meaningless.

Canon PowerShot G5
1/50s f/4.0 at 9.1mm full exif

other sizes: small medium large original auto

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David Clunas		30-Jul-2005 20:25
This is my favourite of the series, I would have expected more DoF from f4, but this always seems hard to achieve with the none SLR cameras, so it works to your advantage here. Consequently I am not sure where the focus point is, but the composition is leading me to the still wheel four rows in. I feel pleased that this is the case, it has halted me and held me contemplating . . .

Phil Douglis		06-Dec-2004 19:51
Glad you made the point, Dave, about using the level blur appropriately, depending upon our context for the subject we are blurring. I sensed that these beautiful prayer wheels would mean nothing if totally blurred, because most of my viewers would not understand the meaning of what they were looking at. So I used 1/60th of a second as a shutter speed to only suggest motion, rather than emphasize it. I knew that blurred athletes are easier to comprehend, so I felt free to abstract them, emphasizing speed and violence with blur with a shutter speed of 1/8th of a second. Thanks for bringing this up. It's an important distinction.

Dave Wyman		06-Dec-2004 17:45
I agree with you and Tim - I love the sense of movement, but it's not so extreme that there is not some detail with the wheels. Comparing this to your more recent hockey shot in this gallery, the hockey players are quite blurred. But the significant blurring just indicates the frenetic action, and we know what hockey players look like when they are not moving so quickly. But we wouldn't necessarily know what the prayer wheels would look like, so the level of blurring here is spot on. Dave

Phil Douglis		16-Jul-2004 18:34
You are right, Tim. Each wheel spins at a different rate of speed, depending upon how hard it has been pushed by a passing pilgrim. The amount of blur I capture thus varies from wheel to wheel.

Tim May		16-Jul-2004 17:59
I like that while there is movement which is wonderful one of the wheels was caught with enough stillness to get the detail.

monique jansen		14-Jul-2004 13:07
you could not mistake this for being anywhere but in a buddhist context - love the warm colors too

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