Rajshahi, Bangladesh
had a nice day at the Silk Village at Rajshahi..... haven't visited the silk producing facilities before.... and I was a bit surprised to see easy access with a camera.... actually they do appreciate documentation there, as it helps to promote the industry....
its one of those weird, but interesting experiences, seeing all those worms creeping over and under.... I would've loved to have a macro lens with me to do the job.... but in absence of that, I concentrated on some environmental documentation.... wasn't my intention to make a photo-story out of this, but certainly it was an eye-opener in many respects..... something that might just give that push one day.... :)
learned quite a few things.... its interesting to know that we grow these creepy-crawlies ourselves rather than trying to use some sorta bug-spray!!..... its a weird world!!.... you never know what can give you what.... nothing in this world is without a reason.... they all have their uses.... these bugs come to this world for a mere 45 days!!.... and within these 45 days, they give us 500 yards of silk!!!.... unbelievable, isn't it??.....
I used a single SB-900 with a shoot-through white umbrella for the shoots.... the light was on VALs (acted by my wife and alternatively my sister-in-law).... trigger was with Elinchrom Skport radio trigger..... didn't want to take any chances with SU-800, in case I ran into some out-of-line-of-sight lighting requirements....
my thanks goes to Sapura Silk for letting us shoot there and also thanks to the employees there for their generosity.... special thanks to Ms. Naznin for explaining everything in so much detail....
a very short life they have.... they hatch to mate and produce the eggs..... after that, they die...
the eggs hatch and produce the worms that take around a month to grow up.....
a whole garden of plants just to feed the worms.....
constant monitoring is important to make sure that the worms do not reach their maturity in the inappropriate place....
their colour says when they are ready to start making their cocoon....
the worms are then placed in a maze-like place where they cover themselves with the cocoon..... and that where the silk comes from.....
the worms are then killed and the cocoons boiled to get the silk.....
then the silk is readied for the next processing.........
raw silk has quite a colour.......
the silk then goes through various machines to be ready for commercial use....
