For our first photography tour in India, I wanted to do something different than any other photography tours in India. First, the idea is to visit different places than where all other photo tours go to, and Kolkata seemed like a great place to start. The other main idea was to blend travel and street photography workshops, trying to capture more unique images of India than the expected postcards. On day one we settled the mood for this tour, which is, in my opinion, the most intensive photography workshop Pics of Asia is offering. This really is for people willing to push themselves out of their comfort zone, and photograph different things with a different style than the usual travel images we often see from India
Given that this photography tour has been more like a street photography workshop, from Day 1 to Day 7, there is no need for me to reveal a detailed itinerary. The goal of this workshop is to push people out of their comfort zone and try and capture images influenced by the mayhem of the streets of India. India, being so photogenic, we spent a lot of time walking the streets, going to certain locations at a certain time of the day, but mostly walking the streets.
As you can imagine, this isn’t the easiest photography tour Pics of Asia is offering. It is required for participants to already have an advanced level in photography and to be able to spend most of the day walking through the busy streets of India.
Kolkata – Varanasi Street and Travel photography workshop – 7 days.
We are spending the first three and a half days in Kolkata, staying in the same hotel, and the next three and a half days in Varanasi, also staying in the same hotel.
Kolkata:
The first 4 days of this tour are spent in Kolkata, home to the yellow taxis and intense street life. The city offers everything from busy street life, markets, indoor workshops, and of course its famous riverside near the Howrah bridge where people come bathing in the Ganges during the day.
Each day is organized so I can introduce new concepts about street photography depending on the level of advancement of the participants. We go from quiet to busy streets and organize photo reviews in the evening once we are back at our hotel.
Varanasi:
Unlike Kolkata where we rarely met any foreign visitor, Varanasi is a much more popular place among tourists, and for good reasons. For the next 3 days in Varanasi, we can photograph real travel images and apply our newly acquired street photography skills to come up with a new and more unique genre of images. It is much more chilled out than Kolkata and its maze of narrow alleys allows us to get lost through this heritage town.
We also spend a day driving out in the countryside, visiting villages, fields and brick factories.
You can expect the same itinerary for our 2019 tour.
