Honolulu Lantern Floating Festival

bethanyb · Jun 5, 2008

Every year in Honolulu a festival is held to commemorate the lives of those who have died in the past year. Names of dead loved ones are written on lanterns which are then floated out into the ocean. The rite holds its roots in Buddhism, but this event has been expanded to many different groups.

spiffybeth · Jun 5, 2008

i think the series is great overall, but im quite fond of the 4th one.
i bet its really neat to be at one of these festivals.

250Gimp · Jun 5, 2008

Nice shots!! 4 & 7 are mty favorites

Dave127 · Jun 5, 2008

Nice I like 7&5 personaly

Snyder · Jun 5, 2008

Very nice photo story. Great job capturing the esseintial wide, medium, closeup photos to help tell the overall story. Maybe a photo of someone writing a name on one of those lanterns would have helped. And it would have been a cool shot if you had underwater housing kit and get a photo from beneth perspective. And if you could have captured some emotion from someone since it has to deal with love ones who passed one. Just things to think about when out documenting.

jvgig · Jun 5, 2008

I am a fan of 9 due to colored lighting coming from what looks like a modern event celebrating the (probably) ancient ceremony. It gives a sense of sharing between generations. The old may pass away, but life still continues.

I also like 4, but it could do without the person in the background.

bethanyb · Jun 6, 2008

Thank you for the feedback. I agree with what has been said about the lack of shots capturing human emotion... I realized what my set lacked when looking at what others had taken at the event, and I wish now that I had gotten a few shots of people. I was just shooting for my own practice, however, and have trouble getting up the nerve to point my camera at strangers.