I had a chance to travel with my good friends Pavel (who I traveled to india also on my first trip) and with Dominik (a photographer and videographer who actually never traveled out of Europe).
The goal of this trip was to make some more street photographs for my new project, which I will talk about in one of my next blog posts and also we aimed to make a documentary film about Varanasi with our good friend Raju (indian guide) who lives in Varanasi.
First two days I planned for acclimatization and rest after a long travel when we arrived to Kolkata. Hotel we stood in was great also the restaurant in this hotel had some local kitchen and it was delicious. (When you are in Kolkata make sure you check this hotel Treebo Globe International)
I love to walk the streets early in the morning when I am in a new town. Its the way I learn its habits. I took my tools for my street photography (In this case I had my XT1 Fujifilm camera and 23mm prime lens)
After two days spent in Kolkata we took the cab early in the morning and traveled to the airport, took another indigo flight and we moved to Varanasi.
Our schedule this time was tight. Our aim was to make a documentary film on Varanasi. Through out the eyes of people living in Varanasi. Raju Verma our guide was planned to be our main character, since we know him from our first trip to India in 2012 when we became friends and we were in touch ever since.
We had 12 days in total.
Assighat was under the water during the monsoon time, two month before we arrived. There were still signs of a flood not a long time ago. We stood at the hotel on Assighat, not a fancy one but close enough to every important places we wanted to reach. 8 days we were waking up around 5 to be ready for the sunrise by the Ganga river.
During the morning we shot as much shots as we could then had breakfast, then shoot until the 12 then had lunch and rest if we could (lot of times we just did not) and then shoot until the dark. Last thing of the day we planed the next day and went to bed.
When the time permited I made a couple of shots for my street photography also during the days spent in Varanasi. Finaly I had a luck and met an older sneak charmer I liked to photograph.
As we talked and discussed the documentary we came up with idea to shoot a short film with Raju and his friends. So on the last day we did it. We shot a short film as well as a documentary. More information will follow as we finalise all the material we shot. Will keep you posted.