Gujarat

Here’s part II. You can see part I here.

And here’s some larger sized ones:

Not many tourists seem to make it to Gujarat. And to be honest, if you’re not going to take photos, I think I’d recommend other parts of India.
 
However, I was there purely to shoot with Maciej Dakowicz, so as a location, it didn’t disappoint.
 
Because they see so few Westerners, most people were very happy (often too happy, in fact) for us to use our cameras; it’s easy to shoot, but it’s impossible to get a minute of peace.
 
We started in Ahmedabad, which is a city of some six million people. Here’s part one of my shots from around the city and the Jama Masjid (mosque), with some larger sized images at the end of this post.
Also, as a side note: I think that if I let an Indian barber cut my hair, it would come out like the boy’s in the purple T-shirt below.
 

Tip: hit Ctrl-F11 to browse full screen, so you can see the portraits without scrolling.

On these last two you can click the image to see it in a larger size:

In January I went on a photo trip with award winning street and travel photographer Maciej Dakowicz (of Cardiff After Dark fame).

My usual bag is shooting interiors, portraits, weddings and general corporate and marketing stuff, not travel and street photography. So this photo trip was 100% a learning experience for me. I went into it not really knowing what kind of photos I wanted to produce, but by the end I realised that what I really love is shooting places, spaces and people – lucky, as this is what I already focus on.

So, I’ll start blogging photos from the Gujarat trip over the next few weeks, but here’s a sample of three totally unrelated images for now.

This was one of my first shots on the photo trip that I liked, I think on day two. I really liked all the horizontal lines here and the different element in the foreground and background. The trader also posed well. Also, the guy next to him looks a bit like a cooler, slimmer, Gujarati version of Anthony Worrel Thomson, don’t you think?

A nice clean image, taken towards the end of the trip on the little island of Diu. Shot with a 35mm, I wish I’d also had something wider with me to get more of the blue sky and coloured flags in. But it’s ok like this I think.

This was the last place I shot on the trip, on the ironically named Relief Road in Ahmedabad, a city of 6 million people – the largest in Gujarat. I waited as long as I could manage in the mad crowds, trying to avoid getting run over, but this was the best moment without too many auto rickshaws filling the foreground, while having a point of focus in the form of the guy in the light blue shirt. I was gutted, though, that it this point, the crowds on the stairs and walkways in the background suddenly dropped off. One of the main things I learned from Maciej about street photography is that you have to be patient, wait and make photos happen. I’ll be looking for scenes like this when I visit Mumbai next month, and I’ll stick around for as long as it takes… You can also see a black and white version of this photo on my flickr.

I’ve posted a few other shots on my flickr, so do have a look.