In January/February of 2020 I took a group of photographers to India for a little over 2 weeks. We hit the highlights of New Delhi, Bandhavgarh National Park, Agra, Jaipur, Jodhpur, & Jaisalmer for the Desert Festival.
My main gear for this trip was 3 Canon bodies a 5D Mark IV, 5D Mark III, the 90D, & my new iPhone 11. I paired these with a Canon 100-400L II, Canon 70-200L f/2.8 II, and a Canon 16-35L f/2.8 II, my trusty BlackRapid Yeti double strap, and my Tenba Shootout 32L camera bag (which was full of all my other goodies).
India is a mix of amazing, confusing, and absolutely unexplainable activity, colors, sounds, sights, smells, and rich diversity. There are examples of virtually every known type of societal division; six major religions – Hinduism, Islam, Sikhism, Christianity, Buddhism, & Zoroastrianism; two major language families – Aryan and Dravidian, with 18 official languages and innumerable dialects and tribal languages; three racial strains – Aryan, Dravidian, and proto-Australoid; and over 4000 castes, hierarchically ranked, endogamous, and occupational. It was this we wanted to photograph.
But where does one begin to photograph this chaos (a word most folks think of when they have not visited India)? India today is unfolding a story of a billion plus people, or more precisely, one sixth of the world’s population, on a big move as India’s large and complex systems rapidly moving top-down and the country emerges as one of the fastest growing economies of the world. The shadows of a vibrant consumer society are taking shapes and urban population is exposed to massive change in life style, consumption habits, and cultural conditioning.
A common place to begin telling any story of India is with her people and places. It is these that I exposed my guests to and as we shot we all experienced an India that embraced us and opened her arms to our needs, whims, and even our most selfish requests.
India has a photograph around every corner. It does not matter if you are in the city or in the villages. The people and places of India are as vast & diverse as Sherwin Williams paints – and often times even better and brighter!
We even took a few days to explore and photograph some wildlife. I was not the luckiest person with the tigers this trip but I did use the occasion to test a new Canon crop-sensor DSLR – the 90D – a 32.5MP, 10 fps wildlife machine.
We ended the trip in the desert outside Jaisalmer for The Desert Festival. We used the time to create some classic desert images with a camel, a camel driver, the sand dunes, and an awesome sunset. Not the first time to shoot this but I am always blown away by the beauty of the desert.
As I plan the next adventure we’ll take to India I also look forward to a new group and new images. I am still inspired by India; let India inspire you and bring a better understanding of her places and people to you.