PHOTOfrenz Blog

by Wong Casandra

I had been raring to take more photos with my new Nikon D90 DSLR and so when my friend needed someone, (“I don’t want to go alone”, she said), to accompany her to Little India for a last-minute photo assignment, I jumped at the chance. Little India is one of the coolest local places to go when you are sick of city life and so, I was pretty psyched. Plus, Deepavali celebrations were going on, so I wasn’t worried about getting uninteresting shots. The only shortcoming was that I had only less than 2 hours to spare due to evening classes.

We made our way round the outskirts of Little India, where the vegetable stalls and convenience stores were. Narrow paths accompanied the stalls, and I think we must have been interrupted by at least 10 irate passer-bys!

After a short stroll, we went ahead to the Deepavali bazaar, located at the heart of Little India, and started snapping pictures of colourful and glittery ornaments. Mostly, we were distracted by the hustle and bustle of the place, and stopped a couple of times to watch while girls got their henna painted on.

1. Surrounded by Veggies! This man was diligently stacking them from the back so I didn’t spot him initially… until I spotted a head bobbing up and down.	2. Grocery Shopping One of the many customers at a particular grocery stall; they were practically spoiled for choice because there are at least 7-8 such stalls in the entire stretch!
3. Sweet Dreams are Made of This I really like this photo – minus the hideous and out-of-place van in the background.	4. The Fallen Rose Petals A man was stringing flowers into garlands when this particular rose fell unto a stack of pandan leaves. Intrigued by this little “accident”, I promptly shot it before anyone could replace it back to where it was.
5. Of Pipes and Paper The door to this utility (?) pipe was open, so out of genuine curiosity, I decided to take a peek. I like it when things are out of their elements: like why would pieces of crumpled paper and brochures be there?	6. Little Green Elephant Several of such ornaments were strung up and left hanging like a baby’s hanging mobile.
7. Shiva in Gold The elephant god in all its majestic glory!

As expected, my friend and I stood out because of our heavy camera gear (she was using a pro-sumer Leica camera), and we were stopped by a man in his early twenties – all heavily tattooed, dreadlocked and funky –who asked us about taking double exposed photos with a Holga. Needless to say, being the Holga amateurs that we both are, we couldn’t offer much.

But it is always pretty cool to meet fellow photography enthusiasts, and I regretted not getting hold of his email (for valid photography-related reasons, of course!).

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