Diamonds On The Soles Of Her Shoes

DSCF3030FUJIFILM X-Pro1 (14mm, f/5.6, 1/125 sec, ISO1600)

What’s a visit in India without visiting a palace? Right after the Charminar we went to see the Chowmahalla Palace which is located almost next door. There is a restriction you should be aware of: no professional cameras and tripods allowed!

Good thing is that I neither had a tripod nor a professional camera with me. Just my Fuji X Pro-1. I was entitled to enter but I got a tag for my camera for whatever reason. It seems that though India is a paradise for photographers it is not the most photographer friendly country I can think of.

DSCF3009FUJIFILM X-Pro1 (14mm, f/5.6, 1/450 sec, ISO200)
DSCF3013FUJIFILM X-Pro1 (14mm, f/2.8, 1/160 sec, ISO500)

But the people are great. I talked with this gentleman who restored the furniture of the palace. Before I walked on I asked if I could take his portrait. He agreed and luckily he did not smile into the camera but just got back to his work. A true craftsman!

I changed the slowest shutter speed in the ISO menu to 1/160s to be on the save side and took one shot.

DSCF3020FUJIFILM X-Pro1 (14mm, f/7.1, 1/1100 sec, ISO200)
DSCF3028FUJIFILM X-Pro1 (14mm, f/4, 1/125 sec, ISO800)
DSCF3030FUJIFILM X-Pro1 (14mm, f/5.6, 1/125 sec, ISO1600)

The pictures of the cleaning ladies in the Palace are my favorites of the whole trip to India. I really like the palace shots in general. A wonderful place for photography! Just don’t forget not to bring your DSLR!

This was my first trip to Asia after I updated the firmware of XP1. Finally Fuji allows me to set a minimum shutter speed in the Auto-ISO menu. That was my biggest issue with the X Pro-1 when it came out and I was extremely happy when they finally fixed it with the latest update.

Otherwise the camera would choose a shutter speed of 1/30s for the 14mm lens which is fine for static subjects but of course would not be short enough to stop action. The high ISO quality of the XP1 is truly great so it makes sense to choose a shorter shutter speed to be on the save side even if you have no plans to shoot action. In the picture below the curtains were flapping in the hot wind. With a shutter speed of 1/30s they would be blurred.

DSCF3033FUJIFILM X-Pro1 (14mm, f/5.6, 1/125 sec, ISO2000)
DSCF3035FUJIFILM X-Pro1 (14mm, f/5.6, 1/125 sec, ISO2000)
DSCF3040FUJIFILM X-Pro1 (14mm, f/4, 1/125 sec, ISO640)

The palace is such a great place to photograph and my XF14 is the perfect lens. You can’t take those images with the kit zooms. They are just not wide enough.

It seems that the 14mm ( 21mm in full frame ) is just perfect. Wide enough to create dynamic images but not too wide to avoid the unnatural, distorted look that plaques ultra wide lenses. The images it creates do not throw any attention to the lens. It’s a kind of anti-fisheye lens. Its biggest advantage is that there is zero distortion. Zero! Now that I got used to the 14mm it almost makes me sick when I look through the viewfinder of my Canon 6D with the 16-35 or 24-70 attached. Two super lenses but of course there is some distortion.

Today it doesn’t seem to be a big issue because distortion can be corrected easily in post but I think it is always better to start with the best possible picture instead of relying on software.

DSCF3044FUJIFILM X-Pro1 (14mm, f/4.5, 1/125 sec, ISO1600)
DSCF3057FUJIFILM X-Pro1 (14mm, f/2.8, 1/125 sec, ISO4000)
DSCF3062FUJIFILM X-Pro1 (14mm, f/4, 1/125 sec, ISO1250)
DSCF3063FUJIFILM X-Pro1 (14mm, f/4, 1/125 sec, ISO1600)

The only thing to watch is to keep the camera straight. If you tilt upwards or downwards you get aberrant lines which are as annoying as a massive distortion. But this is something that can easily be checked in the viewfinder. No need for a bubble level or tripod. Which is not allowed here anyway.

At the end of my first week in India I finally visited an old palace to get an idea of the unbelievable luxury of the times where maharajas ruled. There are no more maharajas but there are some very rich people in India today while most of the 1.3 billion people are still extremely poor. There is obscene luxury right beside poverty. Such a big contrast that you won’t see in many other places in the world.

India is a developing country but it seems that so far only a view people are able to participate on the growth. Some regions develop extremely fast while others fall behind. “Islands of California in a sea of sub-Saharan Africa.” as Armatya Sen described it: “there is something vicious about the Indian inequality”. Half of the Indian households have still no access to an indoor toilet. That’s two times the population of the USA lacking the most basic amenity in the year 2014!

India is a great and colorful place that’s full of life. A photographers dream full of great pictures that can be found on every corner. But India is also a very poor country where millions of people still live in a way that we can not even imagine. And this poverty can easily be found on every corner. And that is something that is very hard to bear.

DSCF3087FUJIFILM X-Pro1 (14mm, f/4, 1/125 sec, ISO2000)
DSCF3088FUJIFILM X-Pro1 (14mm, f/5.6, 1/600 sec, ISO200)
DSCF3093FUJIFILM X-Pro1 (14mm, f/2.8, 1/125 sec, ISO2000)