Snap! Crackle! Click! India Wedding Photos

The excuse for us to go to India was a relative's wedding. And being a wedding photographer, I obviously took photos during the events. It was actually more difficult getting shots that are different than I usually take during a wedding gig. While I'm always trying to be creative on any job, I usually take some stuff which is standard across the board since the clients are looking for certain things at a minimum. So I tried to stay away from those typical shots this time. And since I wasn't a lead photographer I had the chance to roam around and not capture every little thing. Even then, I kept thinking about all the different shots I could get of the ceremony details. So I had to stop myself from falling into that "rut".

What I tried to do is thinking about the wedding from the perspective of a guest, which I rarely do. Even when I attend a friend's wedding here, I'm always looking over at the photographer or videographer. I annoy myself sometimes with not being able to take my mind off that stuff...I'm sure I annoy my wife much more offten :)

Anyways, so I tried to stay in the crowd as much as possible and stayed away from taking photos of the bride, groom, and their parents. And here's a few of the shots I took....click through to see more about each on Flickr.

Mandap Mandwo...with a little zoom action. No Photoshop!

Trying to get the feel of the rush through in an image. Touch is such low light.

More baraati rush.

Onlookers

Captured Photographers. Notice the second guy talking on his phone even when events are going on.

There are more in Flickr so head over there to see the rest.

Ch-Ch-Ch-Changes

After every trip to India I get questions such as "so are things really different in India?" It's a basic question that I'm sure every person gets when they return. The obvious answer is "Yes" since India's a developing country. And there's usually an undercurrent of woe when talking about how fast India is developing like "Man, I can't be-LIEVE that people are doing XYZ there now!"

[On a quick side note, if you think about visitng ANY place after 5 years, you're bound to see changes varying from subtle to significant. Heck, in the last 5 years, even Milpitas has changed a boatload!]

So usually, when answering this question I focus on the visual changes to the country either in terms of buildings and fashion or things that you find on TV. This time however, the biggest change I noticed was much more subtle.

And that is the the onslaught of credit cards and loans. First off, I'll say that I'm a happy consumer who greatly appreciates credit cards and home loans. But while I'm a heavy user of credit cards, I NEVER rollover a balance on my credit card from month-to-month. Also, even though we have a HUGE mortgage to pay off, before wading up to our knees in loan debt, we carefully thought about our long term plan for housing since carrying this size loan is not a fun thing to do permanently.

That being said, my description about the coming of a credit-based lifestyle in India does indeed have an undercurrent of woe. The main reason for that is the likelihood that many middle-class people are going to get caught in the web of too much credit card debt. Not to say that Indians don't have a good financial sense, but until very recently, India really ran on current accounts. Basically, whether payment was made with cash, check, or some sort of draft, the money being exchanged by lay people has heretofore been real money that already belongs to them.

That obviously isn't the case with credit cards and loans. And that's what scares me. The easy availability of credit cards is a real problem here in the US where such things have been very common for at least 25 years. I've known a few people who just couldn't control themselves with a credit card in hand. Even if they may know that the money is not actually their's, they get this feeling that regardless of how much they spend, they'll figure out a way to pay it off eventually. It's this capitalist can-do attitude that can be great most of the time, but can also get you in trouble if you can't follow through.

And trust me, Indians are masters of can-do. And with easy access to credit, my gut feel is that people will get a few credit cards and buy the nice clothes they really want. They'll get a car loan so they can quickly have their own car. And when they acquire this debt, the feeling will be that even if they can't pay it off now, they'll l be making more money in the future so they'll be able to pay it off in the near future once they're earning more from the higher paying job they're going to get in six months.

There's obviously a big chance these people will get caught in a downward spiral. I haven't heard many anecdotes about people actually getting caught up in this, but I've seen the signs from various companies looking to offer credit to anyone who wants it. It could be the Citibank hawkers outside the Bombay airport offering a credit card to anyone who can show them a boarding pass (as in, hey if you can afford a plane ticket, you can afford a mountain of debt!). It could be the car ad with a big starred section offering up credit to people who need it.

And so that's the biggest change in India I've been mentioning to people. The development of a credit based economy is certainly good and will help the Indian economy grow by leaps and bounds. I just hope that the users of this credit don't forget that it's just credit, not cash in their pocket.

Snap! Crackle! Click! A few shots from Mumbai/Bombay

I'm a bit lacking on words right now, so I'll just mention a few photos I took while in Mumbai...click on each photo to go to the Flickr page for more description and to leave comments




The Taj Hotel in Mumbai on a sunny day. I wish I had my wide angle lens. Given that it was my first day in India, I really regretted not bringing it and thought that I'd really miss it. But in the end, I rarely thought about lens selection the entire trip since I had a good all round lens on me.

Silver Plaza shopping for jewelry. Mind blowing how efficient they are here with showing you the exact selection you're thinking about. It's almost like they're reading your mind. December is NRI (Non-Resident Indian) season since Indians from all over the world take their vacations at that time of year and so many are doing wedding shopping.


Dark magazine stand on the streets of Santa Cruz (Mumbai). In reality it wasn't this dark and creepy (the sun was just setting), but I love what's possible when you can control your camera well. The only photoshopping I've done to this is cropping and adding a bit of brightness to the light bulb.

Snap! Crackle! Click! Let the image parade begin...

Rather than work through all of my photos and then post a final gallery, I've decided to post photos little by little. I've already edited about 1/2-2/3 of the photos I took while in India so I'm going to pick out specific ones...either just because I love the photos or because there's a story to tell.

For all these photos, I'm posting them up at Flickr so click on the image to go there and leave comments if you want. Also, since I'm posting more photos to Flickr than I'm actually including in my blog, check over there to see a broader selection.

And with that...let's begin with some village children...



As I mentioned on Flickr, there's just something about this girl that catches my eye. She's obviously a very pretty girl, as are so many of these village children. But her attitude was really what made me think twice after I took the photos. And while this isn't my favorite photo from my trip, I knew I'd want to post it first just because it left an impression.

And what else left and impression?


"Want Pen!"

I'm not sure why pens are such valued items in India, but ever since I was little, my cousins over there would always want my pens. While we've all grown up, these kids are still having a blast hamming it up and asking me for any pens. In fact, I took extra pens with me to India since I just knew there would be an occasion to hand them out.

So enjoy, and come back soon.