Here are four images of what I call Gypsies from India. Not really sure if that is the right term…but they are wandering folks, and kind of dress up brightly and sing and dance on the streets. Hope you like them. They are not works of art, but presented here to show a documentary style display of such folk.  I was attracted to their smiles and their spirit.

I feel that this lady had such an open presence to her. She was bright and cheerful without it being in your face or made up. There is something about her quiet smile that I really enjoy.

I was wondering if we would run into snake charmers during our visit.  I had heard that these folks and people with performance monkeys were either banned or discouraged now-a-days in India.  However, as we were leaving the Mehrangarh Fort, we ran into this group of individuals and their snake.  Keith and I were so happy and spontaneously started shooting with glee.

As we were doing this, the guys behind us, who were selling trinkets and paintings and postcards, came up to us and started watching us.  A couple of them asked me how much my camera costs…I was a tiny bit uncomfortable….why? Because I thought of two things: 1) it is so expensive, and they have so little…I was embarassed. and 2) I had a thought that knowing how expensive it was would make us prime targets for pick-pocketing and theft.

By the way, not once did we lose anything throughout the trip or did we feel unsafe. Anyway, we took our shots, paid them their “fees” and left very happy!

Rajasthan is so very colorful. There are women and girls in the most colorful of clothing. The markets and bazaars are a visual cornucopia of colors.  The streets are full of people and their wares – bangles, food, saris, spices, and much more.  Life happens in a 1000 dimensional way in Rajasthan.  One of the fun things to note is the number of colorful turbans men wear.  Here are some examples of such Turban-Wallahs.

A few months ago, after a people photography workshop (Location People by Bryan Allan), a thought came to me so powerfully that I imagined a time warp zone where I was speeding at warp speed towards my destination…then it opened up in slow motion to a bright fully realized moement of this intention. I had goose bumps and I kept thinking of nothing else but that in my free time.  What was this powerful desire I had? I wanted to go to India, see beautiful places and people…and come back with enough information that would allow me to start my own Photo-tourism business to India.

This thought made me happy because it would combine many elements that bring joy to me…travel, meeting people, visiting India and seeing all the beautiful sight and scenes it provides, and most importantly capturing these moments though my camera.  In addition, I wanted to share this feeling with many others and help take them to this exotic country and help them go through a similar sense of wonder and excitement about a far off country.

Well, my experience on my recent trip with my photographer friend Keith and his wife Sharon was an amazing start of this journey. It was all that I dreamed it would be. The logistics, the cities and the sights were great. We had a ton of fun and came back full of excitement about getting my next trip planned…where I would like to take a small group (4-5 people) back to the same cities and show them all of the photographic sights I had seen.

Intentions do become reality! I feel really grateful. I could not wait to come back and share this with you all. Thank you for your time in looking at my first few images.