The Incredible Faces of India photographic journey, organized by Joe van Os Photo Safaris, promised travels into the heart of India and its diverse cultures, conjuring up images of ash-covered yogis and throngs of colorfully adorned tribespeople—and it certainly did not disappoint! The central “focus” of this photo tour was the world’s largest gathering of religious pilgrims, the Ardh Kumbh Mela, and its millions of devotees—while we made productive use of our own photographic pilgrimage along the banks of the mighty Ganges. As an additional cultural experience, we were excited to have the opportunity to photograph the nomadic and colorful desert tribes of the Great Rann of Kutch in western India. [Text in italics here and below is taken from the trip report by our leader, Eric Rock]
We spent our first day in India mostly sleeping in the stately Imperial Hotel after a red-eye flight from Hong Kong. Next morning we met up with our guide Eric Rock and the rest of our group to begin our tour "Incredible Faces of India"
On the first morning of our photographic adventure our group of twelve gathered to capture the rich photogenic sites of “Old” Delhi. Here we found the bustling city scenes and incredible variety of street people to be a great way to shake the dust off of our cameras and get comfortable with the visual kaleidoscope that India has to offer. The crowded Delhi markets are a great place to explore with a camera. The buzz of people and crowded streets, food vendors and colorful merchants provided our group with an unending array of subject matter.
A visit to a temple provded a brief interlude of quiet and serenity, before tackling the traffic ('organized chaos in Delhi, just chaos everythere else') to get to Old Delhi
Deli: Humayun's Tomb
After a return to our hotel for a brief respite and bite of lunch, we wandered out for a visit to Humayun’s tomb which offered up its iconic prototype Taj Mahal architecture and the surrounding colorful landscape in India’s muted sunlight at days end.
created 07/13/2014
