November / December - Travelling in India

27 Jan

Fruit and Veg trader in Bangalore, big smiles from all the family.

Street photography in India

India is a magical place for me and also my truly second home. I like to visit often and stay for a while when I’m there. In photography terms, I’ve described it as one of the best places on earth for Street Photography and I stand by that because it never disappoints.

Everywhere you look, there is a feast for the eyes, filled with colour, charming people and big smiles which is why I love doing street photography here. People are warm and friendly and enjoy being photographed which is quite unlike most other places.

It has been an ambition of mine for some time, to write a book on my travels around India. Finally, with more time available, I’m going to make that happen over the next year or so. The big question is will it be released before my next trip to India?

Over the last decade, I’ve made many trips and met lots of lovely people with stories to share. I’m going to start a project of Indian Short Stories here on my website as a teaser for my forthcoming book. Please take a look in the projects section.

Gear I use for photography in India

India is a very dusty place and the last thing you want to be doing is changing lenses to get the right angle for a photo whilst out and about. You’re almost guaranteed to get dust or dirt onto your sensor, or into the shutter mechanism which will at least, ruin your photos, worst ruin your camera.

For all my trips, I've used a 1 camera, 1 lens approach meaning that whatever I go with, the lens doesn’t come off while I’m outdoors. I’ve mostly used a 35mm or a 50mm lens in the past but in 2024, I decided to use two cameras. Both were Leica rangefinders with manual focus prime lenses but one was shooting Ilford F-PAN, ISO50 black and while film and the other was a digital M. The lenses were interchangeable so I used a 24mm f2.8 mostly on the film camera, and a 40mm f1.2 mostly on the digital camera.

I was extremely happy with the photos in 2024, but this year, with some other trips inside India planned, I wanted even more flexibility to frame shots at different distances, but definitely no more weight in my camera bag which slows me down considerably, especially at airports.

The Leica’s are ideally suited to street photography due to their small size and unassuming (to most) old film-camera looks and draw little to no attention in India. However, they are heavy for their size. So how can I get more flexibility but less kit? Easy really, I used my Sony A7RV and a 24-70 f2.8 GMII lens.

The Sony setup is really not my ideal choice for street photography, but in India, where street photography is actively encouraged by the locals, the more ‘pro’ looking setup, is not a set-back. I wouldn’t use such kit in a country like Morocco where Street Photography is positively discouraged, but in India, it’s ideal to have extra focal length flexibility. Furthermore, the Sony kit is weather and dust sealed, making it ideal for the dusty climate. The Sony camera and lens combo was substantially lighter than the 2 Leicas, but fitted in the same low-profile bag (Peak Design 3L sling bag).

Pictures from my 2025 trip

I’m going to keep the gallery small in this blog, and tell the stories properly in my ‘Project’ section which will be a taster for my book ahead of when I get it published.

You’ll hopefully notice that there is a very ‘filmic’ look to my photos from this trip. This is entirely inspired from shooting film.

Many of you will know that I love black and white images too, but it seems a real shame not to bring out the wonderful colours and hues in India, so I’ve chosen to stick this year with digital images, processed by me to look more ‘filmic’ and all in colour.

Each group of six images below is from a different place and is just a small sub-section of this trip.