Travel Photography | India | New Delhi | Kashmir | Agra | Part I

© 2012 Wazari Wazir | Traveler at Pahar Ganj Main Bazaar | New Delhi India

Some of my friends might scratch their head when they know that I will be going to India again, yes I’ve been to India before in June 2010 but there is something about India that attract me like a magnet. This trip is not well plan in advance to begin with. I did not plan to make a comeback in short time after 2010 trip but the thing is, AirAsia our local low cost carrier have such a great price that I couldn’t resist. They have offered a very low price, just USD107 for a return ticket to New Delhi India from Kuala Lumpur and when everything is add-on including 20 kg luggage for return is just around USD191. It was really cheap, so I decided to grab the offer while I can and even though if for whatever reason that I have to cancel the trip, my total loss is quite minimal.

I’ve told few of my friends about the AirAsia offer but most of them are not really interested or simply have other programs on the date that I plan to travel, only Azman from Kota Kinabalu Sabah, take the offer and to cut the story short, only two of us will be traveling to India this time, for a second time after June 2010.

Preparations : India Visa

Since I’ve been to India before, there is very little preparation that I’ve to make and very little research that I’ve to do, I bought the ticket on November 2011 and will be traveling on 1st February 2012. I made the Indian Visa a month before traveling which is on 9th January 2012. I’ve to pay around USD56 for India Tourist Visa which is valid for three month. At the India Visa Centre in Kuala Lumpur, I’ve to wait for almost four hours for my turn, yes there is a lot of people here, maybe it was a peak period in India and unlike in June 2010, I’ve to wait in less than an hour until I got my turn, but times really fly, I really enjoy watching a short documentary on the TV inside the India Visa Centre which is National Geographic program titled “The Great Indian Railway”.

Unlike in 2010, this time I’ve to use online form from India Visa Centre to apply for my visa, but  still you have to submit the form manually by printing out the form and take it to the India Visa Centre and unlike in 2010, this time you will get your Visa on the third working day, including the day of your submission, in 2010, you will get the Visa stamp on your passport the very next day. On January 11t,  I get my Visa.

Preparations : Winter Clothing

This time around we travel in February, it was winter in India, even though there will be no snow in New Delhi but we plan to visit Kashmir, so the temperature there is subzero, sometimes it was -5 Celsius and normal temperature there during daylight is somewhere around 5-7 Celsius. I don’t have any experience before  visiting any country that have subzero temperature and this will be my first time. Actually I bought a “light” winter clothing just two days before traveling to India with my family. I’ve to ask the sales person there, what type of clothing that I need or suitable for winter and he ask me back about the temperature in the country that I will be visiting and then only he suggest me what type of winter wear that is suitable. The way he explain it to me like he has travel during winter but when I ask him back, his answer is No, he just get the information from the traveler buying at his shop and he personally has never travel outside Malaysia, not yet, but I trust him and I just bought a light winter wear maroon color, a pair of winter gloves and thermal stocking as suggested by the sales person there.

Preparations : Camera Equipment

Nothing much actually, this time I will bring my Canon 5D Mark II with just two prime lens which is Canon 24mm f/2.8 and Canon 50mm f/1.4. I know this is not the right or the best lens for travel photography but this is what I got at this moment and I need the extra money to cover my stay in India for almost two weeks. I did plan to get a Canon 24-70mm or 24-105mm lens but decided not to buy it now and just use what I already have at the moment. If you have the money and decided to travel, then I will highly suggest you get a 24-105mm if you are using full frame camera or get anything between 18-200mm lens because using this lens will save you a lot of times and you don’t have to keeps on changing lens to take a picture. Flash? I don’t have any flash.

I know that most of the times I will be using 24mm a lot because I like to get as much scenery as possible in my travel picture especially environmental photography but if I want to concentrate on portraiture 50mm will do. Travel photography is about people and places, there is no point having too much “Creamy Bokeh” background picture which tells nothing about the places that you are photographing. In travel photography it is always better to get some clear, well define background to tell the story and like I said before, if I want to get just a close up portrait of a person, 50mm will do just fine for me.

I don’t bring “camera bag” with me, I don;t want to look like a photographers on assignment, instead I just use a small backpack or “day pack” to carry my camera around, it is not tough like proper camera bag but it will carry my camera without a problem because my equipment is very minimal and weight is not and issue here. I know that some people like to look like a professional photographer while traveling but for me it is better or much more safer to appear as a  normal traveler and blend with the local people than to look like a professional photographer on assignment, I don’t want to attract any unwanted attention.

This time, both if us, me and Azman decided not to bring a long a laptop, so my next item that I need to have is an extra CF card, just in case I’m running out of CF card. Yes I do have few CF card that I can use for weeks but in case the scenery in Kashmir is too beautiful to let go, I bought another CF card, just extra 8GB Cf card. Other than that I bought brand new USB 32GB drive to transfer my photographs in case I’m running out of a memory. I wish I could find 100GB USB drive but I couldn’t find it at Low Yat Plaza, Kuala Lumpur. I prefer to carry a small USB Drive than an external hard drive and I don’t plan to carry laptop because my iPhone is good enough if I want to check my facebook and to tell my family back home about our whereabout. iPhone is small enough and we really don’t need to carry a laptop, furthermore there is plenty of cyber cafe in New Delhi. Other than that, we also carry an International adaptor to charge our iPhone and battery camera.

Research :

Previously I’ve travel to India, so I really don’t have much to research but still this time I need to do a little bit research about Kashmir, since I’m planning to go there, I did not mention Kashmir when I fill up the online visa application  form, instead I just wrote down that I will be visiting Agra, New Delhi and some part of Rajasthan, the reason that I did not put down Kashmir is that, I don’t want any problem because as everybody know Kashmir is a conflict area, so to make it easy, I didn’t mention about going to Kashmir.

I’ve already have Lonely Planet book about Rajasthan, Delhi and Agra but since I’m planning to visit Kashmir, I need a new book because the previous lonely planet book that I’ve does not cover Kashmir and since I could not find Kashmir only Lonely PLanet or any guide book especially about Kashmir here in Malaysia, I’ve to get myself a new edition of Lonely Planet India book, quite thick and heavy. It cover everything in India but still very few information about Kashmir and I’ve to do some research about it through the internet.

There is a conflict of information about Kashmir, some website put a warning about visiting Kashmir, some said it was ok, it was perfectly in Srinagar Kashmir and when I read about custom regulation there especially about flying to Srinagar Kashmir, I get a different information also. Some people said that they are not allowed any carry-on hand baggage on the flight and some people said, you can carry small hand baggage with a camera or laptop in it and some people also said that camera are not allowed n board or you can carry a camera but without a battery, just put the battery with check-in luggage and everything will be fine.

This conflict of information really annoy me but still I wanted to go to Kashmir. Just to be safe, I did buy a travel cargo bag to put my backpack inside, to secure my backpack, just in case if I can’t bring my camera on board, I will put it inside my backpack and secured inside cargo bag. I know that it will never guarantee it to be stolen but at least I’ve put extra protection for my camera gear.

About Kashmir, I did email one of the hotel manager in Kashmir which is Swiss Hotel Kashmir regarding the safety over there and also I need to know whether any special permit are required for visiting there and I did mention few places that I will be visiting when in Kashmir. I get a response quite fast and the manager said, Kashmir is fine, no need permit, just book a ticket and come in. With that response I immediately book a hotel there, I did not pay anything in advance, just mention to him that I will be coming on the 2nd of February and plan to stay there for a few days.

That was done and next step is to buy a flight ticket from New Delhi to Srinagar Kashmir. After quick research I chose to fly with IndiGo Airlines , it was a new company and after reading in few travel forum, most of the traveler recommended flying with IndiGo Airlines because at the moment, they have a very good track record compared to other airlines in India. They serve mostly domestic destination and also going to Thailand and Singapore as well. 

I chose a direct flight from Delhi to Srinagar because there is also a connecting flight from Delhi to Jammu and then to Srinagar, I choose a direct flight to Srinagar to save times. Return tickets to Srinagar from Delhi is around USD115 including 20 kg luggage. I’ve to mention this because if you are flying with AirAsia Malaysia low cost carrier, the ticket price that you pay does not include the 20 kg luggage, you have to pay it differently but with IndiGo Airline, the price of the tickets already include the 20 kg baggage allowance and you need to pay more for excess baggage.

About the research, some people may say that “a good traveler has no fixed plans,” I do agree to some extend about the quote but I’ve to be realistic, I don’t have a month travel time in India, just two weeks in India and I need to get back to my home country to continue my “mundane” work to put food on my table, so I need to do some research and I need to do some planning, it doesn’t matter whether things will go as planned or not but at least I know where I will be going and I know what to expect. If I’ve a month or a year of traveling time with me in India, I think I don’t need to do some kind of research so much, just get the visa and tickets and fly there but as a traveler who also happen to like photography so much and wanted to bring quite an expensive camera gear, safety is always my priority.

It is a good habit to do some kind of research, it will save your times and also it will save you from being taken for a ride. It is good to know how much you supposed to pay for your taxi from an airport towards your hotel, how much to pay for your Auto rickshaw for one hour sightseeing, what about the food price over there, how far the distance from your hotel to the nearest train station or to the airport and also the cost of a budget hotel in India. This thing is crucial to travelers who don’t have plenty of  times traveling the world, you need to plan your time accordingly and this information will help you to budget your expenditure.

As a photographer also you need to plan about the best location for your photography, about the best time to photographing certain places, where is the lighting is coming from, is sunrise good or sunset is better and to the photographers also, it will be great if we can find a hotel that is just a walking distance from the place that we wanted to photograph, like in this case I try to find a hotel that was very close to Dal Lake in Srinagar, I don’t want to take taxi or auto rickshaw to get to the Dal Lake, if I can get a hotel nearby will be better and that’s why I choose Swiss Hotel Kashmir because of its location and there is a reason why I don’t choose a Houseboat to stay in Dal Lake.

* To be continue…