Fear not, the lack of posts lately is not due to me having been eaten by a tiger or contracting rabies from a monkey, I returned to London from India two weeks ago and since then have been busy with shoots and also editing the images from the month long trip.
Last leg of the journey before my return to Delhi saw me in Jaisalmer which is a desert town in Western Rajasthan near the border with Pakistan. It was one of the highlights of the trip and whilst there I met a fellow photographer who apart from taking great pictures was also a thoroughly nice bloke. We went out shooting together on a few occasions and although I don't think I've ever done this before it was a great experience, the fact there was two of us I felt led us to get better access than we would have done otherwise.
In the shot above you can see me showing the image on the back of my camera to a couple of kids I've just photographed. This happened A LOT during the trip and it was always charming to see the reactions of people when they saw their image displayed on the back of the camera.
The image below shows the occasion when we wandered into the grounds of a Jain temple that was being renovated and happily snapped away. I must say it was quite refreshing to be able to casually wander into a place and ask 'photo okay?' (which it usually was) rather than encountering suspicious and jumpy officials which unfortunately is all too often the case in the West
As I mentioned, throughout the trip people loved having their photo taken. This was especially true whenever I came across a group of children who would quite frankly go bonkers when they saw my camera with cries of 'photo photo' at the tops of their little voices - the sequence below from Varanasi is a case in point:
Being able to show a person the image you've just taken is great but it would also be good to have the option to give the images to them. On a couple of occasions I was asked to email pictures to people (which of course I will) but this lacks immediacy and more importantly in a place such as India the vast majority of people do not (yet) have access to computers.
My fellow photographer anticipated this drawback and quite brilliantly overcame it with the use of a Polaroid 'PoGo' mini printer. This pocket sized Dye-Sub printer plugs straight into your camera via USB printing wallet sized images, the bonus of it being a Dye-Sub printer is that it produces instantly dry prints as the process uses heat rather than ink.
If people are only too happy to have their photograph taken then it is great to be able to return the favour by offering them a print of their choice there on the spot. The image below shows when we returned to visit a family to give them the prints that had been shot the day before. It was so nice to see their reaction as they were handed their photographs and it was obvious that it was very well appreciated.
The printer is relatively inexpensive and I will definitely be getting one for my next trip, my thinking being that the investment in this item will make your subjects more appreciative and open to you ultimately offering the chance of better pictures.
Please note - the first two images in this post are reproduced with kind permission by Ignace Mouzannar
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