2012 Photos from Varanasi

Hey everyone, been back from india for about two months now. already regret coming back. as is the case every time i go to the sub-continent, my favorite time was spent in Varanasi, where i lived for 2 1/2 months doing some brief follow up research for my university. Figured i would share a very small portion of the photos i took while in varanasi. enjoy and give me any feed back!

http://www.flickr.com/photos/8537226...7631153026694/

over the next few weeks i will post more pictures from this trip, and pictures from last years trip to varnasai!

just for fun, here are a few links to a few of the other places i visited this trip!
http://www.flickr.com/photos/8537226...7631153041982/

http://www.flickr.com/photos/8537226...7631153035568/

Some of the photographs are quite stunning.

N.Ren, Thank you for the links to your photos in Flickr. One small question, partly as I use Flickr myself, the photos on that site are dated 2011 although your set names state 2012.
Were your photos taken this year or last?

good question. to be honest it is my fault. i was lazy while traveling and never reset my camera's date so they are dated incorrectly. all of these are between march 12 2012 and mid july 2012. I just started using flickr, but i am going to post my pictures from last year when i traveled to varanasi, around HP, the punjap and rajasthan. just will take a bit to upload them!

thanks for looking! just a college student getting into photography so advice or opinions on best shots of my lot are appreciated so i know what direction to go in, in the future!

Thank you for sharing these, N.Ren. I looked through the pictures in the first link. Very nice work. The black and white picture of three kids and a color picture of father and son walking on a village road, those two are standouts in my opinion.

I will take a look at the other links later.

Thanks N.Ren. There are some highly experienced photographers amongst Indiamike members. You may well have noticed posts and images(some on other sites) from these folk. There are people here who can pass on worthwhile advice if asked. My photos are in the naive tourist category but I still post them to record where I have been, hoping that others will take better photos of the same or similar subjects.

Unfortunately, N.Ren, your first link has some better pictures. The pictures in the second and third links are good too, but the first one has some better ones. Good luck.

thanks for looking!

any other advice is welcome!

Beautiful photos! I am heading to Varanasi in October, I don't think my photos will look as good as yours though

Well, a photographer friend of mine with National Geographic credentials once told me to keep the main object (sun, boat, etc.) a little bit away from the center, usually. Also, how do you get that curved look? I mean like the walls curved inward?

wow very cool! i used a nikor 10.5 fish eye for some of those shots. lets you get the near 180 degree view of a scene. i am right now in the market for a 35mm lens i have a 50 which is great for portraits but not so great for street scenes in india where the narrow lanes are abundant. good point though, center of the shot doesnt look as good. will keep that in mind! thanks for the comments everyone!

Some beautiful and evocative photos in there. Nice work!

I thought fish eyes were to be found on fish, I mean those things which swim. It's a lens too? Learnt something new today.

Thinking about the poster who said that while they liked the second two groups of photos, that the Varanasi set stood out.

I see as how that could be the case when talking about Varanasi, and, the people who love it. There is simply Something there . . . there is the river, of course, and all the things that light does with it . . . the sun setting and rising through the haze . . . and then, there is what you can't/don't see . . . what the place does to the person behind the lens . . . I look to the thousands of images that I have from India, and find - not surprisingly - that it is the ones from Varanasi that seem "better" than ones shot in other places . . . although I do love many of the Taj too . . . another place that does something to and for me that is not tangible, but does reflect in how I shoot . . .

And what a strange coincidence!! I went to a farmer's market today, driving about 350 miles, and met a couple there who recently returned from a trip to India, focusing on Delhi, Agra and Varanasi. I had a long chat with them and they were really taken by that place (in a good way). I asked them what exactly did they like about Varanasi, and the answer was 'the ghats'. No word on what site(s) they used to prepare for their trip