Kailasa Temple, a photo from Maharashtra, West

Photographer's Note

The Kailasa Temple, the Cave No. 16 of Ellora Caves, 40 km from Aurangabad. This is the world’s largest monolithic sculpture, i.e. was created from a single piece of rock!!. Three huge trenches were cut into the rock of Ellora cliff face, moving 200,000 tonnes of rock. This cave/temple was hewn from the rock by 7,000 workers during a 150 year period in 760AD.

This picture comes with bonus: I have added 4 other POVs in the WorkShop, please have a look there too. 5 pictures in 1, a bargain!!
POV1
POV2
POV3
POV4

I hope you like it, and my note and pictures help you appreciate this wonderful place.

I repost a version with different frame and colour contrast

Truja, Photo65Net, jhm, belido, Charo, Atousa, robertosalguero, steliosk, dareco has marked this note useful

Critiques | Translate

Truja (4953) 2008-02-29 6:50

Hola Jorge,
hacía tiempo que no coincidíamos por aquí ;-)

Impresionante vista del Templo Kailasa, sobretodo el encuadre que has realizado destaca la belleza histórica del sagrado lugar. La imagen parece caer en picado, es extraordinaria la profundidad hasta llegar al suelo!
Sólidos colores e interesante definición de imagen, vaya que es una pasada de foto!! y mola mazo!!! ;-)
Y el juego de POVS es para quitarse el sombrero, genial!

Un abrazo compañero, Jordi

Balwant (588) 2008-02-29 7:35

Great photo and colour, and tremendous place to visit Regards, Balwant

Clementi (52511) 2008-02-29 22:26

ciao George ,
welcome back, impressive job of the man,
that it has carved the cliff.
nice shot with beautiful colors and clarity.
have a nice week end
Giorgio

Photo65Net (43120) 2008-03-01 0:40

Jorge,
Very nice catch of these old masterpieces.
I like the details you caught here, and how you managed with contrasts.
Regards,
JB.

jhm (122366) 2008-03-01 1:06

Hello Jorge,

You show us a very well picture about the old Kailasa Temple, the Cave No. 16 of Ellora Caves.
What a old nice stone sculptures, splendid oriental culture.
Very well, thanks for sharing.

Have a nice weekend,
John.

belido (19934) 2008-03-02 3:27

Hi Jorge,

this is simply INCREDIBLE! How could they built this in 760AD??? Wooww.
This is the most complete post of a theme I've ever seen in TE. I really mean that...beautiful capture with great light management and nice natural colors. Ver very very well done!
Regards,
Carlos

Charo (51174) 2008-03-02 15:19

Hola Jorge,
Un lugar espectacular que gracias a la inclusión de la gente podemos apreciar su grandiosidad. Excelente luz y detalles.
Cordialmente
Charo

Atousa (7097) 2008-03-03 8:32

Salam Jorge,
Very interesting informative shot..I like the details n the people give good scale here.
thanks for sharing,
Regards,
AtousA

robertosalguero (196) 2008-03-05 21:52

Hello Jorge,

The time taken to build these temples is interesting. I can imagine how hard it was back then to build such huge buildings, sometimes carved out of rock faces. Excellent perspective with the inclusion of people to give us an idea of size. The colours and sharpness seem a bit dull but overall is a nice image. Gracias por compartir.

Roberto

Silvio1953 (98051) 2008-03-07 11:20

Hi Jorge, superb view of this wonderful architecture, splendid light and colors, I like WS too, very well done, have a good week end, ciao Silvio

gracious (20025) 2008-03-09 10:42

Hello Jorge,
Thank you so much for sharing this ancient place with us which very well captured!
good use of the lights to brings out the details of the craftmansship for their superb job!
well done with thanks
Tony

pboehringer (770) 2008-03-09 14:32

Jorge,
a great bargain!!! For some reason a place that never hit my retina and frontal lobe. In other words, I never saw any shot or heard about it. Huge suprise to see that something like that even exists. What an extraordinary place that people created here over a period of 150 years.
The light conditions seems to be extremely difficult. You need to have the sun up in the sky, otherwise everything is in the shadow. However, having the sun up in the sky makes certain areas in deep shadow in other portions in the harsh sunlight. This must be the ideal place to do serious HDR or to use some good ND grad filters. It seems that the best light on the building is POV3.
This series would deserve single posts and not this overinflation of bargain!
Peter

Stepan (27210) 2008-03-10 10:58

Hard to really figure out that place but the compo is interesting with the tiny visitors, the shadow and the pov you chose. A crazy monument...
Stéphane

steliosk (4802) 2008-03-11 10:07

Hmm I think you wished having 10-20 lens with you that time you captured this.
Lovely capture my friend, all POVs

Regards
Stelios

dareco (17134) 2008-03-13 11:18

A very interesting place and I have enjoyed all of your images. Thanks for the 'bonus'. This must have been such a great experience for you. I especially like the lighting and details. TFS

sagar (2408) 2008-03-23 7:38

Hi Jorge,
This a fascinating shot. Having been to the place almost 15 years back, I can still racall the strange feeling that grasped me when I stepped into this place and thought how they managed to build it and that it was built almost 1500 years back.
Beautiful vision of the monolithic sculpture. You brought back the same feeling that I had 15 yeras back.
Regards,
Sagarneel.

danyy (0) 2008-03-31 15:12

Bonjour Jorge,
je suis impressionné par ces constructions enfouies dans le roc. Elles auraient besoin d'un coup de plumeau, mais sont déjà bien photogéniques de la sorte.
J'aime le cadrage qui permet de voir les alentours.
Bien à toi.
Daniel.