This article appeared in March issue of Terrascape, a travel magazine where I write a column on photography.
We undertake long journeys with the intent to find something new and interesting, see interesting things that the world offers us and acquire a wider vision and fresh perspectives of life. Photographers too, strive to bring in such new perspectives with every image they take, trying to make composition beyond the jaded repetitiveness suffered by everything famous and in circulation.
How often have you seen that perfect image of Taj Mahal with its precise symmetry reflecting in the still waters? You would perhaps see it in every travel brochure, magazines or in countless personal and commercial websites. Although it is a monument of unsurpassed beauty, you would have seen the same stereotypical image so many times in the past that it no longer brings in the freshness and awe you felt the very first time you saw it in photographs.
This brings in one of the biggest challenges faced by travel photographers—to look beyond such obvious composition and bring in different perspectives that infuse freshness into even the most photographed entities. They spend hours looking at their subjects, trying out various perspectives and searching for inspiration to bring out a previously unseen charm.
Bringing out new perspectives to the same subject requires spending ample time to study the subject in leisure and understand it better. One can discover new ways to project the same entity by looking it from every possible angle. The subject may reveal a new façade or motif from a different corner, from a faraway location or from a high vantage point. The structures in its neighbourhood may add to the beauty when seen from a carefully selected corner. Hours of studying the subject may reveal a previously unseen fragment of beauty rarely observed by most people passing by. It calls for patience and perseverance and an urge to look beyond the ordinary, though nothing can be as helpful as an innate fascination to your subject.
It also helps to visit your subject in different times of the day when the quality and position of the light can vary and affect its appearance considerably. Morning fog can create a dreamy mood while the orange hues of the evening sun can bring its colours alive. Tastefully done artificial lighting in the night can greatly enhance the contours and depth of a subject.
Like change in daylight, change in season too can make drastic difference to the way things appear. If your subject is a vast forest landscape, its hues change from dark green before fall to a dull brown during winter and to lush colours in spring. Monsoon can change the complete mood of the location and bring in a surge of life in the surroundings.
The key to making better images and showcase new perspective lies in spending a lot of time and make repeated visits to observe and gain familiarity of your subject.
Images: The cenotaphs of Orchha in Madhya Pradesh may just elicit a passing interest if you see them from their vicinity. But spending a few days walking around the town and looking at them from different places in different times of the day, they reveal beautiful abstractions otherwise unseen.
India Travel Blog reader Bala sent me an email and asked me a question about travelling with expensive equipment.
Love your work, regular reader of your Travel & Photography blog.Have a request, since you are prolific traveler and photographer would love to see a blog post on traveling with expensive camera gear in India. Kinda tips, suggestions & experiences.
I usually do carry expensive photography equipment with me during my journeys. My digital SLR costs a lot of money and so do my lenses. Since I spend a lot of time taking pictures of a variety of subjects from monuments to landscapes to birds, I tend to carry at least 2 lenses, sometimes more. If I am likely to stay at one place for a long time, I also pack my laptop, which allows me to work on the move. Together, they are expensive enough that I can’t afford not to be paranoid about loosing them. Yet, with photography being one of my greatest passions and my livelihood partially depending on it, I can’t imagine leaving home without them. Naturally I always keep an eye at my equipment and ensure that it never leaves my hand during the journey. Here is how I care for my camera gear when I travel.
By Bus. I often make overnight bus journeys if I am going somewhere within 8-12 hours distance from Bangalore. I can’t sleep in a bus, so I don’t really require maximum comfort. Instead of keeping my camera bag on the luggage rack above the seat or in the luggage box, I keep it on my lap through the journey. If I get down when the bus stops for a break, I necessarily carry the bag with me. At times when I have a lot of luggage, I split them into two bags and keep all the valuables in one bag which remains on my lap. My legs used to pain a bit after a few hours of keeping the (often heavy) bag on my lap, but now I am so used to it, I feel I am missing something without a bag on the lap.
By Train. Usually my train journeys last longer than a day. Although I have never experienced it myself, I presume theft in long distance trains is fairly common. Like in the bus journeys, I ensure that all my expensive equipment are in one bag and keep it with me all the time. Another risk in train comes during the night. When I drift into sleep at night, someone may flick the bag even if it is right next to me. If possible, I try to stuff the bottom of my bag with some cushioning material (a jacket, shawl or anything possible) and use it as a pillow. If not, I put my arm around a strap and let the bag lie next to me. Let me admit, I am very very paranoid about my luggage during train journeys.
By Air. There is not to much to worry about safety of equipment as long as it is not checked in. No one can steal your bag, open the doors and runaway with the booty! But it is important to take all the equipment in a carry-in baggage, so that they are not mishandled or stolen.
Safety in unknown places. Sometimes it may be a bad idea to walk alone in the middle of the night with a big and obviously expensive looking camera. It pays to ask for advice with your hotel owner, your guide or anyone you know and trust before you head out in an unknown location. I have probably not gone out alone in the night, but many times I find myself in deserted places early in the morning. But such places are usually remote, like a village in the middle of Himalayas, somewhere in a forest where we have camped or some such places where safety is not an issue. But I would be more careful if I were to plan shooting the streets of a city in the middle of the night. It may be a good idea if there are 2-3 people together in such occasions.
Get an Insurance. If your equipment is worth a lakh (Rs.100,000) or two, it would be prudent to spend another thousand rupees to get it insured. While my equipment are insured and I have known a few photographer friends who have done the same, I do not know of any one who has made a claim. If you know of anyone who has claimed insurance for theft or damages to photography equipment, do share the details in the comments. It doesn’t cost much to have them insured. I paid just Rs.800 per lakh for insuring my equipment.
Experiences. Personally I have never lost any equipment due to theft or robbery. But I do know of a friend, a professional photographer, who had all his equipment – a camera and a few lenses – stolen. Obviously it was very painful. He had saved money to buy a car, most of which had to be diverted to buy new equipment. How was it stolen? He had given the bag to a friend to keep it during the bus journey. This friend had kept the bag somewhere in the luggage rack. The bag was missing when they reached the destination.
While I haven’t lost any equipment, I have occasionally seen my equipment getting damaged because of carelessness. I once mounted my camera on a tripod on a rocky shore and turned out to see someone calling. The tripod was not standing firm. Before I knew I heard a thud. The tripod was on the ground and my camera’s LCD was broken. Thankfully it did not fall with lens facing down, which would have left me a lot more poorer. But I still came home poorer by about Rs.7,000. The camera was insured, but the disorganized person I am, I still need to claim the money.
If you have any tips about safety and caring for your equipment when travelling, do let us know by leaving a comment.
If you have any questions for me on travel photography, you can write to me here.
In September, I gave a 30-minute presentation on Photographing mountainscapes at Club Mahindra Whispering Pines Resort at Mashobra near Shimla. The audience included the winners and jury of Club Mahindra My Trip of a Lifetime travelogue contest.
In this presentation, I took some images from my archives and spoke about a single feature in the image that made me take the picture, or a feature that stood out in the image. Below are the slides of the presentation.
