FUJIFILM X-Pro2 (27mm, f/5, 1/160 sec, ISO640)

India is an amazing place. It’s one of the most spectacular countries you can visit. I’ve visited numerous times but hardly scratched the surface.

I went there a lot of times but only to the big cities. I visited New Delhi, Mumbai, Hyderabad, Chennai and Bangalore. And of course also Agra. But all those trips where business trips and photography was mostly restricted to after work and weekends.

But I took a lot of pictures right out of the car on my way to my customers, hotel or airport.    When I was in Mumbai for the first time we passed by the house of the second richest guy in India. You can see it in the image below. Yes, that’s a skyscraper that inhabited by a rich man, his wife and their son. A multi-storey building just for three people, aren’t they feel lonely and lost. Fear not! My colleague told me that there is a staff of 200 people serving the family. I just thought how different we are. If I would be rich I would love to have a house on the beach but it would be a nightmare to “share” it with 200 domestic workers.

FUJIFILM X-Pro2 (23mm, f/5.6, 1/320 sec, ISO200)
FUJIFILM X-Pro2 (23mm, f/5.6, 1/600 sec, ISO200)
FUJIFILM X-Pro2 (23mm, f/5.6, 1/250 sec, ISO1250)
FUJIFILM X-Pro2 (23mm, f/4, 1/1250 sec, ISO200)
FUJIFILM X-Pro2 (23mm, f/5.6, 1/500 sec, ISO500)
RICOH IMAGING COMPANY, LTD. GR (18.3mm, f/5.6, 1/250 sec, ISO500)

In the last blog post I told you that I literally slept next door to the Dalai Lama when the Hotel staff accidentally put me in the executive floor the night before his holiness and his entourage arrived at the hotel. This time I tell you that I missed Arnold Schwarzenegger just by one week! Arnie, the holiness of action movies.

When I landed in Chennai I was picked up with a BMW 7 series from the Leela Palace. I choose this hotel because it is close to the sea and more important close to the Kapaleeshwara temple. One of my favourite spots in India. I have dealt with this temple in a couple of blog posts already. When I told the driver that I’m from Austria he said “like Arnold Schwarzenegger”. I told him that all Austrians have a body like Arnie, he just couldn’t see it underneath my suit. He laughed, I laughed and we had a good talk. I learned that Schwarzenegger stayed in the Leela Palace a week ago to promote his new movie in India. I also learned that he is much more famous for his bodybuilding here and that bodybuilding is very popular in India.

He showed me a selfie he took with Arnold. Later at the check in I saw two more selfies of hotel staff with Arnie. Shoot! Why couldn’t I come here one week early. I would have loved to meet him. I’m sure his a nice guy since he took selfies with practically all staff members.

RICOH IMAGING COMPANY, LTD. GR (18.3mm, f/5, 1/320 sec, ISO100)
RICOH IMAGING COMPANY, LTD. GR (18.3mm, f/5, 1/320 sec, ISO560)
FUJIFILM X-Pro2 (27.7mm, f/5.6, 1/320 sec, ISO200)
FUJIFILM X-Pro2 (55mm, f/5.6, 1/400 sec, ISO200)
FUJIFILM X-Pro2 (14mm, f/5.6, 1/400 sec, ISO200)
FUJIFILM X-Pro2 (18mm, f/5.6, 1/320 sec, ISO250)
FUJIFILM X-Pro2 (14mm, f/4, 1/200 sec, ISO1250)

In India it was mostly hot, humid and dusty. Real challenging conditions for camera and even more so for the guy behind the camera. I spent a lot of time in cars but I also walked a lot sometimes even barefoot on an unbelievable hot ground. Sometimes the air quality was so poor that I coughed like a chain smoker when I arrived in my hotel at the end of the day. India can be challenging but it is extremely rewarding. I took some of my favourite images in India. One day I want to go there for vacation.

I shot with the X-T1, the X-Pro2 and the Ricoh GR. And while the Fujis sometimes really got very warm to the touch (almost hot actually) none of my cameras ever failed. Same is true for my lenses. Usually I took my prime lenses to India but the one time I took the kit lens it fogged up internally after I left my air conditioned car and it took a couple of minutes before I could shoot with it. Something to consider when you go to a country with a very hot and humid climate.

FUJIFILM X-Pro2 (27mm, f/5, 1/210 sec, ISO200)
FUJIFILM X-Pro2 (27mm, f/5, 1/160 sec, ISO500)
FUJIFILM X-Pro2 (18mm, f/5.6, 1/200 sec, ISO1000)
FUJIFILM X-Pro2 (14mm, f/4, 1/200 sec, ISO500)
FUJIFILM X-Pro2 (27mm, f/2.8, 1/200 sec, ISO1600)

If I go there for vacation I would of course choose winter because it is rather dry and sunny but to experience monsoon in India is also something special. The downpour can be so strong that you better simple wait until the worst is over before you go outside. We once were trapped in a small cafe and had to wait for about an hour for the rain to easy. If we would have left before I most likely would have ruined my suit. That was true epic rainfall that we luckily hardly see in Europe.

But most of the time India was just hot and humid and that was very challenging for me. I never had an issue with the heat in the Southwest of the USA because even if it’s 40 degrees or above the air bone dry which makes a very big difference. 40 degrees Celsius in Phoenix feel nicer than 30 degrees in Singapore where the humidity kills you. Now imagine 40 degrees and high humidity: Welcome to India! So it was not laziness that I used to take a taxi or hotel car to get around a lot where in many other places I just walked. It was necessary.

FUJIFILM X-Pro2 (14mm, f/2.8, 1/125 sec, ISO320)
FUJIFILM X-Pro2 (14mm, f/2.8, 1/60 sec, ISO8000)
FUJIFILM X-Pro1 (14mm, f/8, 1/250 sec, ISO1000)

I took a lot of images while being driven but most of the times I just watched the sceneries or scenes that where so bizarre that I won’t forget them. Like on this trip to a factory close to Chandigarh. Somewhere on our way I saw a death dog on the side of the road. He was dead for some time, I assume, and he was so bloated that I thought that this dog could explode at any time. The most striking thing for me was that the people just walked by barely noticing the dead dog.

It’s not that the people in India don’t care about animals. The opposite is true. The cows and the straying dogs got fed and supplied with drinking water everywhere. I saw this a lot in my travels. The people in India care because maybe they will be a dog in their next life if they don’t work hard enough on their karma.

The only exception are snakes. On this trip one of our business partners told us that he and his brother killed a king cobra when they were boys. My colleague leaned over to me and said: “The cobra most likely was still in its egg.” Trust me that even sounded funnier in German. Today I still have to laugh when I think back. And this is why to travel and to meet people is the best thing we can do. We create memories and sometimes we will remember those little things our whole life.

Hope we all can be out again soon to make some new memories.

FUJIFILM X-Pro2 (23mm, f/4, 1/250 sec, ISO250)