Namaste Pushkar

So here I am in Pushkar, a small village surrounding a holy lake - 'Namaste' means hello in Hindi and I'm certainly glad to be here. After staying for a couple of (rather unpleasant) nights in Jaipur I'm glad to have escaped it. Jaipur known as the 'pink city' has a rather bad reputation and it lived up to it, however I did shoot one of my favourite images there so far during this trip.
So I arrived in Pushkar and found a great hotel thanks to a recommendation by a couple I met on the train, took my first hot shower in two days and have eaten the best food here since I started my trip - Pushkar is a strictly vegetarian place, no meat or eggs and it's great to eat some vegetables which I've been missing. This is appreciated especially since I got really ill in Varanasi (had to get a doctor to come to my hotel after four days of unpleasantness) and had been eating only bananas and dry toast, but now my appetite is back with a vengeance.
The image above was shot just outside my hotel room on the balcony, I'm staying in a converted 'dharamsala' which is a dwelling for pilgrims to the lake. The whole place is painted sky blue and lime green and it certainly makes a nice setting for your morning chai. The hotel is also really peaceful which is appreciated after the night time din of Jaipur - so quiet in fact that last night I heard a group of guests at the hotel being asked by the owner to pack their bags and leave as they were making too much noise - "You want to party go to Goa, this is a quiet place" I overheard him say as they got their marching orders.
I had a day off from shooting yesterday and concentrated on getting myself fed, watered and relaxed - I'm finding that being on the road can be quite tiring and shooting everyday is not really possible. After dinner I wandered down to one of the Ghats where the evening prayers were being sung, I was invited to sit down with the locals and see the music being played infront of us, I was sitting amongst a group of ladies all with brightly coloured saris over there heads and the music was amazing, it's one of my best experiences since this trip began - I had no camera so this memory will be one just for me...

Taj Mahal, Agra

I arrived at the Taj Mahal at around eight a.m and managed to miss the crowds there to catch it at sunrise. The place was still quite busy and as I was walking round looking for a different angle I came across this man sweeping in an archway. I got into position and kept shooting hoping I would get one clean shot with no one in the background, thankfully my patience paid off.

Sadhu next to Mother Gunga, Varanasi

I've just spent five days in Varanasi and what a contrast to Delhi. This holy city has and atmosphere all of it's own and it was hard to move on to the next destination. Plus getting the chance to meet a Sadhu is not something that happens everyday, although I did have to politely turn down the hit on his chillum that he offered me (honest)



The hotel I was staying in 'The Lord Vishnu' was great and more than made up for the noisey, damp ridden cell I was staying in in Delhi, I had a nice sized room with a balcony overlooking the Ganges which was a treat to sit on sipping my chai while watching the sun rise each morning. However I'm discovering that hotel accommodation over here is slightly different to what most people may be accustomed to.
The shot below was from my shower in the hotel and while I don't pretend to be any kind of qualified electrician I'm sure this set up can't be a very good idea, plus I can do without an audience while I'm getting myself spruced up of a morning...



I left Varanasi yesterday evening and took the over night train to Agra and arrived here first thing. I dropped my stuff at my hotel here in town, rather boringly called the 'Tourist Rest House' and headed straight over to the Taj Mahal to catch it in the morning light which was in a word - impressive.
After shooting for a couple of hours I headed over to a nearby rooftop restaurant to enjoy a well earned breakfast and admire the Taj as it bathed in the strengthening sunlight. It was only when I returned to the hotel to take a shower that I realised that the wash time wildlife combo in Varanasi was nothing compared to this place in Agra. Could it be that my hotel room contains the worlds only shower with built in pigeon coop?!

Early morning - Paharganj, Delhi

Some shots taken early this morning in the Paharganj, the street had a very different atmosphere at this time as the market was starting to wake itself. I'm here in Delhi until later on this evening when I'll be catching an overnight train east to the Holy city of Varanasi on the banks of the river Ganges.

Paharganj, Delhi, India

Here I am in Delhi on my third day in India, I've discovered that I can pick up a wi fi signal here in the hotel from the internet cafe next door so I thought I'd use the opportunity to post some images from my first few days.
I'm staying in the Paharganj area which is a bit of a tourist hub due to it's proximity to the station and like most people I'm spending a couple of days here before continuing my trip.
First impressions are that Delhi and especially this market never stop moving, there is a constant swirl of people, dogs, rickshaws, cars and yes cows all moving within about two inches of each other (and yet somehow never managing to collide). Apart from the sights, the sounds and smells are also continually bombarding your senses - It really is quite like nothing else I've seen before


The images above were taken on the main street in the Paharganj which really seems to come alive in the evenings, lots of people light little fires and huddle round them for warmth as it is still quite chilly here in the evenings. The street during the day is no less busy and the image below was taken near my hotel in the direction towards New Delhi train station. The street can feel a bit exhausting at times but the numerous local street dogs seem to take it all in their stride



It's nice to have some light to play with, the early morning light here is fantastic and seems to soften everything giving it a diffused glow. In contrast the midday sun is quite harsh and is tricky to meter for - as can be seen in the second image of the street vendor. As I'm editing the images as I go along the trip I plan to base my workflow round these conditions, shooting in the morning and late afternoon and editing during midday



Horsepower and peddle power are still very much in use here and this adds to quite a bizarre mix of the the modern and the ancient - note the girl on the rickshaw in the foreground using her mobile phone. The extremes of poverty and wealth are really apparent here


Just after taking the picture above a little shoeless street kid came up to me and offered to take my photo, the poor little scamp could hardly hold the camera in his wee hands so I gave him a bit of help by supporting the lens, not a bad shot for a novice


Afterwards I returned the service by taking a shot of him, I showed him the image of himself on the back of the camera and his face cracked into a smile, I then handed him a few rupees and he wandered off to continue his uncertain little future - be thankful for what you've got.

On a jet plane

A quick note here to say that for the next month I'm going to be in India. It's been weeks in the planning and I had planned to write posts about my preparations, kit taken and workflow strategies while on the road. Simple fact is I've run clean out of time, my cab to the airport is due in two hours and I've still got a few final things to take care of.
I'm on an overnight flight and I land first thing tomorrow morning in sunny Delhi, then I'm doing a circuit around Rajasthan taking in the holy city of Varanasi on the banks of the Ganges, Agra for the Taj Mahal, the blue city of Jodphur, the desert towns of Jaisalmer and Bikaner bordering the Thar desert and a final quick hop to the small town of Simla in the Himalayan mountains. I'll be using the train network to get across the country so I'm sure the journey will be just as amazing as the destinations along the way...

New Scotland Yard

Before Christmas was certainly a turbulent time, for a period of four weeks during November and December London saw four major protests by students against the reforming of tuition fees proposing that it will be possible for them to be tripled from £3000 per year to £9000.
The day the bill was being debated in Parliament saw the fourth and largest protest that saw widespread disorder and acts of criminal damage (partly thanks to barriers being put up around Parliament square which were then used against police and the concrete bases that held them in place being used to smash windows of the Treasury).
Another unfortunate event (apart from the attempted high treason on Oxford Street) was that one protester had to undergo an emergency operation after suffering serious head injuries after allegedly being struck by a police truncheon.
The following week saw a protest outside the headquarters of the Metropolitan Police at New Scotland Yard calling for an end to police violence against demonstrators, a few of those present symbolically sported bandaged heads and the mother of the hospitalised student was also present


During the month of protests there was quite a strange tense atmosphere in London, to act against the police containment tactics the demonstrators had resorted to splintering into small groups in order to both evade the police and cause the most amount of disruption.
One day I was shooting in the city and heard that small groups were running across the square mile bringing traffic to a standstill, when I arrived at my next job that evening at offices bordering Trafalgar Square I found the area in lock down with ranks of police surrounding a group of protesters still making their voices heard



On another note I've recently switched to Adobe Lightroom 3 from Camera Raw for editing my pictures. Initial impressions are that it has some very useful features such as adding keywords on import and a real time preview for both White balance changes and applied presets. On another note there are also a number of 'useful' features that could be better described as 'annoying'. One case in point is the message that pops over the image each time you apply a change in the the basic panel which only serves the purpose of informing you of the change you've just made (I know what change I've just made - I was the one who pressed the button...)
I've come across quite a few sites offering tips including Lightroom Killer Tips, The Lightroom Lab and Presets Heaven. For a complete workflow reference book I can highly recommend the book The Adobe Photoshop Lightroom 3 Book for Digital Photographers by Scott Kelby.
One option in Lightrrom 3 is to change the 'identity plate' located top left of the interface from the standard Lightroom logo to one of your own choosing. This seemingly vain and rather pointless option has been put to good use by the photographer Gavin Gough, he chooses to use this area to show a Greyscale gradient which is incredibly useful if you are editing pictures on a laptop screen. The Greyscale gradient can be seen below both by itself and shown in it's place via a screenshot from my Laptop.
It can be downloaded from this page on his site and I can strongly recommended using it - ensuring that you can see the division between all the blocks of grey acts as an indicator that you are viewing the screen at the correct viewing angle



As a way of taking this principal even further I decided that an even better option was to have the same image also open onscreen in a vertical position. The viewing angle can change quite dramatically as you tilt the laptop screen forward and backwards - especially on the 13inch MacBook Pro which I am now using which unfortunately does not ship with the matt screen option, only the impossibly reflective and highly critiscised gloss finish.