"Bhante Sujatha (right) of Crystal Lake watches Saturday as final preparations are made before the Blue Lotus Temple's Visakha 2009 Buddha Day Celebration to honor Buddha at Congregational Unitarian Church in Woodstock. Monks, including Sujatha, from McHenry county and the surrounding states traveled to participate in the celebration of Buddha's birthday, enlightenment and death."
Today was one of those days when I look at my assignment schedule and know its going to be a great day for photos.
I know very little about religion and I'll be the first to admit it. So when I showed up to photograph a Buddha celebration this afternoon I was as lost as a six-year-old at Six Flags without their mom or dad. Lucky for me I had two things working in my favor. First, I was an hour early. Great photos can be found before and after an event. Second, I could not have more welcomed by such a great group of helpful and honorable people. Everyone was glad to see me and willing to answer all my questions.
I wandered around inside the church for a while before I moseyed outside to find some of the Monks and others hanging a large flag around the entrance to the church. The wind was making the task a challenge for the group but when it was finally up and in place it put a smile on organizer and monk Bhante Sujatha's face as seen above.
I ended up staying three and a half hours to cover the entire event. One of the greatest things about my job is the fact that I get to experience new things every day that I probably wouldn't come across otherwise. Everything about the celebration was interesting.
After they finished inside the church, the processional walked down the street and around the famous Woodstock Square (Groundhog Day was filmed here). The processional of more than a hundred people drew lots of attention as residents watched from their doors and even drew looks from folks at the shops in the square including a large contingent at Starbucks.
I really wish I had an audio recorder with me because this would have lent itself to a great multimedia piece. I came straight from home to the assignment and it never even crossed my mind. I didn't realize until I was there that I wished I had the recorder with me.
-JCE
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