Anuradha Sarup | Photography

Prayer flags atop Kardung La, Ladakh – India

Finally after many years of procrastination, my photographs have a home all their own. My own dedicated photography website anuradhasarup.com

The website features galleries of work across genres. Travel, people, animals, nature…

It also showcases some of the photography assignments I have done.

Making the website was a difficult task. Selecting and shortlisting photographs from thousands across the last eight years and finally limiting myself to about 200 that made it to the published website. Each photograph recalled the place, the people, and the mood it was taken with. As such each shot a part of me.

More galleries are yet to be added. So do visit now and stop by again often in the weeks, months and years ahead.

Will look forward to meeting you there @anuradhasarup.com

 

On a temple tour

Shri Parmeshwaraji Maharaj Shri Eklingji at Kailahpuri

It was an article in the Wall Street Journal “Where to Find the Wells of Wisdom“ that brought back memories of a week-long temple tour to the spiritual centers near Udaipur.

The article is on Shriji Arvind Singh Mewar and lists five places where he finds spiritual peace, well-being and knowledge. Having worked for Shriji for many years, it is remarkable how he keeps his stamina and cool through hectic days, that leave most of us (me definitely) wilted.  It is written by Mr Perry Garfinkel,  a well-known journalist and author of the 2006 bestseller “Buddha or Bust: In Search of Truth, Meaning, Happiness and the Man Who Found Them All”

Well back to my story now .

Shree Dwarkadhish at Rajsamand Lake

I was on a photography tour for a new edition of the 101 Moments CD on Udaipur which was to feature a spiritual tour of the Mewar region. The well-known Shri Eklingji, Shreenathji and the Adinatha temple at Ranakpur featured prominently. However no less important were Dwarkadhishji, Charbhuja and Kesariyaji.

Eklingji with its complex architecture and importance in Mewar history is yet a place of great calm over-riding the fervour of the hundreds who visit everyday.

Shreenathji and the Ranakpur temples both great pilgrimage spots. Both beautiful in their own way though for me with a minus of their full-scale commercialisation.

A lazy afternoon at Charbhuja

It was the smaller, lesser known temples of Dwarkadhishji, Charbhuja and Kesariyaji, which I found had the most impact. The simple local flavour. The strong link with their local village communities. Living, organic and charged.

Morning visits to Kesariyaji

If you are visiting Udaipur, a visit to the temples will definitely be an experience you will long remember.

Photography tip:

1. Most temples allow photography of the complex. Photography of the deity is not permitted.
2. Mornings and evenings are when crowds gather. Having people in the photographs is my personal preference for the colour and life they add to the frame.
3. Wide angles and zooms are both required. The complexity of the spaces is best captured by wide and the details (some often many meters above) demand a good zoom.

OF SUMMERS

Watering the garden in the morning. Watching chameleons come down to drink. Some from pools in the ground. Some the little drops on leaves…
One stretched out to enjoy a light refreshing shower while the other two ran the moment the spray came close.

Irena Sendler

Sharing a post by Diane Sori on Facebook

Look at this lady – Let us never forget!
The world hasn’t just become wicked…it’s always been wicked.
The prize doesn’t always go to the most deserving.

Irena Sendler died 12 May 2008 (aged 98) in Warsaw, Poland.
During WWII, Irena, got permission to work in the Warsaw ghetto, as a
plumbing/sewer specialist.

She had a ‘ulterior motive’.
She KNEW what the Nazi’s plans were for the Jews (being German).

Irena smuggled infants out in the bottom of the tool box she carried and she
carried in the back of her truck a burlap sack, (for larger kids).

She also had a dog in the back that she trained to bark when the Nazi
soldiers let her in and out of the ghetto.

The soldiers of course wanted nothing to do with the dog and the barking
covered the kids/infants noises.

During her time of doing this, she managed to smuggle out and save 2500
kids/infants. She was caught, and the Nazi’s broke both her legs, arms and beat her
severely.

Irena kept a record of the names of all the kids she smuggled out and kept
them in a glass jar, buried under a tree in her back yard.

After the war, she tried to locate any parents that may have survived it and
reunited the family. Most had been gassed. Those kids she helped got placed into foster family homes or adopted.

Last year Irena was up for the Nobel Peace Prize.

She was not selected.

President Obama won one year before becoming President for his work as a
community organizer for ACORN and Al Gore won also — for a slide show on Global Warming.

In MEMORIAL – 63 YEARS LATER

I’m doing my small part by forwarding this message. I hope you’ll consider doing the same…

It is now more than 60 years after the Second World War in Europe ended.

This e-mail is being sent as a memorial chain, in memory of the six million Jews, 20 million Russians, 10 million Christians and 1,900 Catholic priests who were murdered, massacred, raped, burned, starved and humiliated!

Now, more than ever, with Iran, and others, claiming the HOLOCAUST to be ‘a
myth’.

It’s imperative to make sure the world never forgets, because there are
others who would like to do it again.

This post is intended to reach 40 million people worldwide! Join us and be a link in the memorial chain and help us distribute it around the world.

Please send this e-mail to people you know and ask them to continue the
memorial chain. Please don’t just delete it.

It will only take you a minute to pass this along…
By: Morgun Powder and Diane Sori

Do also read : http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Irena_Sendler

Melting sundrops

Melting sundrops , a photo by Anuradha Sarup on Flickr.

One of my favourite photographs from 2011. It came from an assignment I was working on in September-October last year.

Fateh Prakash Palace, the gorgeous building across lake, has recently been converted into a very grand convention center.  As a regular graphic designer with the HRH Group of Hotels I was wearing my ManSar hat and had dug up several photographs dating back to as far as the early 20th century.

The design developed nicely. Tracing the history of the building and the momentous events it’s been the venue for. It was in Fateh Prakash that the Instrument of Accession was signed between different Rajput States including Mewar (Udaipur) and Pandit Jawahar Lal Nehru, the first prime minister of Independent India, on behalf of the Union of India.

Queen Elisabeth II of England, Jacqueline Kennedy have been graciously hosted at Minto Hall as Fateh Prakash Palace was then known. International dignitaries and celebrities are as impressed today as they were in the years past.

As the layout got completed, some gaps showed up in our visual narrative. While we had excellent photographs from the earlier years, the present day images fell short in comparison.

That’s when armed with my trusty Canon EOS 400D, I put my photographer hat on. (A nice shady floppy hat if you please).
This was FUN!!

The Satkar Banquet Hall, a photo by Anuradha Sarup on Flickr.

Three days of shooting followed. Resulting in the photograph on top and the one above which is also featured in the magazine SUR.LA.TERRE, Mumbai winter edition.

The Cover

Contents page

Focus

The Satkar Banquet Hall.

The brochure cover

Also featured in the magazine is the brochure cover, which we’d printed in lustrous silver and gold. Wish you could see it in its full glory but for that you’ll need attend a conference at the Fateh Prakash Palace.

Finding treasure in the archives

The old mask

The last few days have been busy going through some 3000 photographs from my two trips to Ladakh. Choosing and selecting the best for an international magazine photo article.

Will this photograph, the result of a chance peep-in into a monastery store-room make it to the final eight, I don’t know.

Late winter is early spring

late winter is early spring , a photo by Anuradha Sarup on Flickr.

Two reasons why I love Delhi.
The flowering trees that line its roads and the monuments that pop up are regular intervals.
Delhi’s past is still very much a daily affair for its residents as they drive to work, the market or just step out to buy some milk.

Late winter, once the days get warmer, the trees start their flower shows. The first show is put forth by these grand Silk Cotton trees in masses of glorious red.

The Amaltas (see them here)  and the Gulmohar follow among other later in the year.

Silk Cotton trees are native to southern and eastern Asia. In India they are also widely known as Simal
Read more here

Nights out in star light

Star trails in Lachtal, Austria

On cold clear nights we set up our cameras. Pointing them straight up at the majestic milky way and countless constellations.

My first attempt at shooting stars.

For me personally an earth defining foreground essential in each frame I shot.

The simple task of fixing Tripods was made challenging by the piles of snow. Often a foot or more deep at the best vantage locations. And our tripods unerringly discovered all the ground unevenness well hidden by the snow.

As we thought all was steady, the camera slowly tilted way from the carefully chosen frame…

In the center of the circle is the North Star. The ‘fixed navigational point’ in the night sky. While the other stars move around it in dizzying circles. An endless dance every night.

Exposure time ranged from 18 minutes to 30 minutes. Taking another 15-20 minutes for each shot to get saved on the memory card. I averaged a shot per hour. Also because fully charged batteries died after a couple of exposures. Sometime midway through saving a shot. Laying waste to a half hour of precious work.

The blue band of the Milky way above the light trails of car lights…

Cold or not. Camera tilts or not. It was well worth it. Lessons were learnt and I’m eagerly waiting the next night out with the stars

Photography tips:

1. Open aperture to the max your lens allows.
2. Have all your batteries fully charged at start.  Stop shooting well before batteries are full discharged.
3. Remote shutter trigger is a MUST!
4. Patiently wait for the camera to finish saving the image data. Turning off the cameras inbuilt image processing features will reduce saving time but increase noise making the final image unusable.
5. In cold weather have a warm, covered place to wait out time between shots.
6. Some schnapps and munchies help

Finding horizons

(see image better on Flickr)

Some twenty years ago when I shifted to big-city Delhi from small-town Jaipur one of the things which disoriented me most was not being able to see the horizon. Even if at times I had an access to a roof or a high-rise balcony, houses and roads stretched on and on forever.

Where were the open spaces? Where was the horizon? What should I stare at when I needed to think?

Slowly walls took the place of horizons. If it had a pretty picture on it, even more so. The definition of space became confined to floor areas.

Horizons are now like old friends. Met rarely.  On vacations or weekend drive outs. Each time they are seen they are missed.

Photograph details: Tonemapped HDR of 3 handheld exposures. Colour adjustment in Photoshop.

Moody blue Riegersburg

Moody blue Riegersburg

On a clear winter day, the castle at Riegersburg dominates the landscape for miles. Many roads lead to it, each one as delightfully winding and picturesque as the others.
We should know. We explored several as we tried to find our way back to the highway

The Eastern Styria region is known for its soft beautiful hills and delicious pumpkin seed oil. The oil is a specialty of the region. It is used in salads as dressing, in main courses as a garnish and even in desserts.

The castle itself was closed for the winters. So we walked around in the forest paths at its base. Enjoying being outdoors on such a beautiful day.

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Some interesting links :
Riegersburg Castle  The official website
Pumpkin seed oil 
Styria