I am overwhelmed when people ask me how do i go about shooting on the Indian streets!
I can speak only Hindi and English and hence its not really possible for me to speak to the local people on the streets who speak a different language altogether. This is also important keeping in mind that I interact with people from different states and different cultures almost every month.
I go in groups but then the group does not shoot together. We reach a common place in the market and then branch off; each one shooting what they like shooting. I like shooting portraits and hence one would have seen it in my photo stream.
http://www.flickr.com/photos/happyhorizons
However taking that is not easy, as i said i don't speak their language. So if i approach a vendor, and just shoot, they may get offended. So what I do is first I try and adjust to the situation.
Will go there and even without thinking of shooting my main subject, I will shoot around 4-5 snaps of his/her surroundings. It could be flowers, vegetables or just the street ans as abstract as shooting pillars...
By this time the curiosity in my main subject has arisen and they are ready to get shot.
But I still will not take "the" picture that i am thinking of or have in mind. I will then show them the photographs that I have just taken and then will probably point the camera to them. If they agree then they will get alert and their shots don't look candid.
Thus I will shoot them and show them that posed photo of them and pretending to go... while on my way out when their attention is not on me.. but the joy that they have received on seeing photographs on the camera, I will then shoot the photograph that I had pictured in my mind.
It takes time and patience, but 8 out of 10 time i would come back really satisfied! I just follow the instinct and speak the universal language of smile!
Some really nice Candid shots that I took
Have a nice day!
3 comments:
Shooting photographs in the streets of India is, I think, one of the best experiences that anybody interested in people photography can have.
It is not only the very different subjects that you can find just in one street, but specially the attitude of people about being photographed. In many places I've visited, even in places where I can fluently speak the language, it is very difficult to get people to accept being photographed.
The only place I've visited where the reaction to being photographed was nearly so open as in India, is Cuba, but then there I can speak the language (and if there's something more difficult for a Cuban than saying no to a photo is stop talking...)
Thanks a lot for ur comment Albert!
Wonderful Dude. I love your technique. I do almost the same, but I try my hand with my language skills first :)
Cheers!
-Aditya Bhelke
http://365-days-photo-project.blogspot.com/
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