Category: Places
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Photowalk: Chintadripet
Chintadripet is a community contained within a bow of the Cooum (or Kouvam) River in the center of Chennai. Though I have no idea what it means, the community was once called Chinna Thari pettai due to its history as a weaving community, eventually shortened to Chintadripet. Today it is home to “Richie Street”, where…
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Sunday Photowalk through the ‘Hood
Monsoon season has come to Chennai, India. According to the weather reports, it’s only raining in Chennai. But it seems that all the rain which should have fallen elsewhere is also falling in Chennai. So when I woke up this morning for the planned photowalk in town (with other photographers) and heard the pouring rain, I…
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Testing the Kodak Retina 1a
In today’s world of camera that are fully automatic, and only the hard-core photographer bothers to worry about and understand concepts such as aperture and ISO, managing to get decent photos from a camera where you must set everything manually can be fun and rewarding. So I loaded my newly-received Retina with a 36-exposure roll…
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Vintage Camera: Kodak Duaflex II
One of the key aspects of the vintage cameras I collect is that they should function. This was the case with the Kodak Duaflex II, a plastic (bakelite) camera manufactured from 1950 to 1954. It is normally held at waist level, and you look down into the brilliant glass viewfinder, which shows where the camera…
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Photowalk: Diwali
This morning, we rose early to go on another Chennai photowalk, especially for Diwali. Again the route chosen for the group took us near the Kapaleeshwarar Temple, in Mylapore – which I blogged about a few weeks ago. At this point, many of you will be asking, “What is Diwali?” If you ask the question…
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Photowalk: Triplicane
After the long series of posts on Goa, we’ve been back home again for a few weeks, and I’ve been able to join another photowalk. This time, it was to the part of Chennai known as “Triplicane”, which is one of the oldest parts of the city. Much of the city that became Madras and…
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Going to Goa: Spotted at the Beach
During our trip to Goa, we took a trip to Palolem Beach, locally considered the most beautiful beach in Goa, and the setting for the opening scenes of the movie The Bourne Supremacy. Luckily we were there before the tourist season, which means there was space to walk along the beach as vendors worked diligently…
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Going to Goa: Rome of the East
When I asked some photographer friends what I should look to photograph in my (then-) upcoming trip to Goa, I was told, “Churches! Goa is the ‘Rome of the East’”. I did some digging around and discovered that in fact “Old Goa” with its many churches is a UNESCO World Heritage site for that very…
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Going to Goa: Sights on the Streets
If you ever find yourself planning a vacation in Goa, it’s pretty easy to hire a local driver to get you around. For foreigners, the temptation is to just rent a car and save money, but hiring a car plus driver is actually pretty inexpensive – plus you get someone who can navigate the traffic…
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Going to Goa: On the Beach
Sharing a few photos from our recent trip to Goa, a former Portuguese colony in west/south India. One of the things tourists love about the beaches here is how clean they are. Whether it’s the currents, the population size or some other reason, we can definitely say there is a huge difference between what we…
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Ayudha Pooja in our Community
The other day a group of colleagues living close together and all of the domestic staff they employ came together for an annual tradition called the “Ayudha Pooja.” This is something which Hindus, especially in South India, have celebrated as long as anyone can remember. Traditionally it is observed on the final, or ninth day…
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Going to Goa: Sahakari Spice Plantation
One thing you can do when you’re visiting the Indian state of Goa, on the south/western coast, is to stop by a spice plantation. Presumably the spice plantations that dot Goa and other parts of India are remnants of the once-extremely-profitable spice industry which drove Europeans farther and farther across the globe in search of…
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Going to Goa: Shri Mangeshi Temple and Procession
We recently took several days to visit Goa, a small state and former Portuguese colony on the western coast of India. For one of our outings, we hired a local driver, “Seby”, to take us around for the better part of the afternoon, to see some of the local sights. One of the places we…
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Chennai Photowalk Part 3: Kapaleeshwarar Temple
…as far as this particular photowalk goes, I’ve saved the best for last. We initially went into the less-trafficked entrance entrance to this amazing temple, following the lead of the Indians in our group, and after a few photos, were ushered out and told to come in the other entrance. But not before I scored…
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Chennai Photowalk Part 2: Streets at Night
It seems strange to think that, after 2 months living in this city, we haven’t really been out at night. I’ve been out very early and there are a surprising number of people up and about – this is the time when the trucks are unloaded bringing new stock to the shops. But in the…
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Chennai Photowalk: In Search of Golu
Golu, also known as Kolu or Bommai Golu – the “festival of dolls” – has come to Chennai. Golu is celebrated during the festival of Navratri in southern India. I find the background of the festival confusing, not knowing many of the stories relating to Hinduism, but the festival manifests itself in southern India in…
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The International Coastal Cleanup: Chennai, India
Today we joined thousands of Chennaiites in taking part in the 2013 International Coastal Cleanup. Regular readers in this blog will recognize that Chennai struggles to maintain clean beaches and waterways, like many large urban areas on the coast. It was impressive to see the number of people involved and active in this annual event.…
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Passing Out in India (It’s Not What You Think)
I had the honor and pleasure of attending the Passing Out Parade at Chennai’s Officers’ Training Academy (OTA). To “pass out” of a military academy means, in a number of countries, to graduate, or move on. In the case of this particular passing out parade, 350 graduates went from being cadets, to being junior officers…
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Ganesha Chaturthi, Chennai Style (Part 2: Video)
Yesterday I explained a bit about the festival currently ongoing in Chennai (and across India) – Ganesha Chaturthi – and posted some photos. It’s hard to really capture the atmosphere of the event with photos only – a video in this case is much more helpful. After watching this video, if you think this is…
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Ganesha Chaturthi, Chennai Style
Today was day 7 of Ganesha Chaturthi, the Hindu festival celebrating the (re-)birth of Lord Ganesha, the son of Shiva and Parvati. To celebrate this festival, many Indian families display a statue of Ganesha in their homes, and after making specific types of offerings and engaging in certain rituals, will immerse the (usually clay) statue…
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At a South Indian Wedding
We had a unique opportunity to attend a South Indian wedding reception the other night. And I knew it would be an excellent photo-op, so I brought along my Ricoh with flash and a couple of rolls of film! As I understand it, a wedding in India used to last several days, but for practical…
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Reflecting on Afghanistan, 2006
Today, September 11, was a day of service to the local community. A group of Americans and Indians did some cleanup, painting, and entertaining of children at a local school for the mentally handicapped. The idea was to get out and do something for the needy, either in honor of those who lost their lives…
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More Adventures with Redscale Photography
What’s redscale photography? I didn’t know either at first – I saw some “redscale film” for sale and started asking about it, and found out that it’s nothing more than ordinary film, but reversed. Photographic film has layers of chemicals in a certain order to produce the best effect, and as light enters the camera…
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Indian Entrepreneur: Kolam Maker
A successful entrepreneur is someone who offers a solution to a problem. Far too often, I spot people weaving in and out of traffic on foot, trying to sell motorists one type of useless knickknack or another: long, twisty balloons, feather dusters, national flags, wire/bead animals. But we found a guy in Pondicherry who has…
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The Dune Eco Beach Hotel
We stayed at a wonderful, somewhat funky beach resort north of Pondicherry – “The Dune” Eco Beach Hotel. It’s an eco-friendly hotel/resort consisting of a bunch of different huts and houses scattered over 35 acres of lush landscaping. In addition to efforts to be “eco-friendly”, they are also art-friendly, playing host to a crafts and…