Tag: India
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Vintage Camera Test: No 2 Hawkeye Model C Anniversary Edition
This week’s vintage camera test is an interesting one (yes, but aren’t they all?), despite its rather long name. Waaaay back in the late 1880s, a small company called the Boston Camera Company introduced a model called the “Hawk-Eye” Detective camera. The Hawk-Eye Detective camera was unique in 1888 because it enclosed all of the…
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Documenting the Dhobis
British soldiers may know the terms “doing your dhobi” (laundry) and “dhobi dust” (detergent) – but they may not be aware of these terms’ origins. A photographer friend recently spent several hours negotiating, on behalf of a small group of photographers, entry into a local “dhobi khana” or “dhobi ghat” – i.e. a community where…
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Mylapore’s Annual Kolam Contest
When I first arrived in southern India, I blogged about the “kolams” made by millions of women in India every day. So it turns out this is also a competitive sport of sorts! Over the last four days, the Mylapore Festival has been ongoing, and one of its main attractions has been the kolam contest. [side…
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Hanging Around in Hyderabad (Post #3)
For my third and final post on our trip to Hyderabad, I’m sharing a roll of Tri-X 400 film (black and white) I shot with my Ricoh Super Kr-5 II, a camera that’s barely vintage, having been manufactured in the mid-1990s. And, amazingly, for a roll of 36 photos, every single shot came out in…
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Hanging Around in Hyderabad (2nd Post)
A few weeks ago I had the opportunity to spend a week working in Hyderabad, a city of 7 or so million in the Indian state of Andhra Pradesh (which is in the process of splitting into two states – but that is another story). During my work week, I had little to no time…
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Shooting with the Ansco Anscoflex
A couple of days ago, I posted about some “found film” that had come from a 1950s Ansco Anscoflex. I had originally bid on an unidentified roll of film on eBay, and when I found out that the seller was also offering the camera on which the roll had been found for sale, I bought…
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Photowalk in Georgetown (Chennai, India): the Flower Market
Third in a series of posts about a photowalk taken in northern Chennai, in a section of town called Georgetown. I’ve mentioned a few times on this blog that there are people – mainly older women – all over Chennai who make a living by stringing together flowers and selling them for about a dollar…
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Photowalk in Georgetown (Chennai, India): Poses
This is the second in a multi-part series about a recent photowalk in Georgetown, one of the most dense parts of Chennai, and virtually the only area to retain its colonial identifier. In a couple of days I hope to also post about the flower market, and the colorful photography opportunities it offered. But first…
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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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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: 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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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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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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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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Chennai Fish Market
Living on the coast has its benefits – fresh fish! Unfortunately, when it all gets gathered in one place, the smell of fish becomes so strong that I quickly lose interest in actually eating any. But it’s good to know it’s there and suggests that what’s being sold in the shops is likely also pretty…
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More Scenes from the Hood
Sharing some more general impressions from my neighborhood. I go walking around for 15 minutes and every time I come back and feel like I’m about to start reciting “And to Think that I saw it on Mulberry Street.” Today’s post is nowhere near as dramatic – but this is literally 15 minutes’ walking, and…
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Riding in a Rickshaw
This post is from the point of view of the auto rickshaw – or as I like to call it, “the scourge of the developing world’s road network.” OK so maybe that’s a bit over the top; but as exhibit A, I present the fact that in Mumbai, they have banned auto rickshaws from the…
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R.A. Puram, Chennai in Photos 3
This is the second part of a post describing a 90 minute “photowalk” around my new neighborhood in Chennai, India. Everything you see is within a 500 meter radius. So continuing yesterday’s story, the main destination I’d had in mind when starting this walk was yet to come. The other day I had heard drums…
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R.A. Puram, Chennai in Photos 2
This morning I decided to take my camera for another jaunt around the neighborhood in what seems to be called a “photowalk”. So I discovered today. It wound up being kind of a crazy 90 minutes or so – I came home soaking wet (sweaty) carrying a bag of jasmine and my forehead covered in…
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Driving in Chennai: Timelapse
In time-lapse photography, it’s common to keep the camera pretty still and let the subject do the moving – or if at all, to move the camera very slowly. But it can also be fun to do a moving camera time-lapse, especially when you want to convey something about the sometimes frantic (at least to…
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Got Drones?
Lately there has been increasing mention of the use of Unmanned Aerial Vehicles (UAVs) for unexpected purposes. For example, both India and Namibia have been experimenting with the use of UAVs to control poaching, thanks to a $5 million grant given by Google to the WWF. Here’s a video showing how it works in Namibia (here’s…