Portrait of a smiling lady in McLeod Ganj

Portrait of a smiling woman in McLeod Ganj, Himachal Pradesh wearing a hat
A smiling lady | Mcleod Ganj, Dharamsala, Himachal Pradesh, India

A smiling street vendor lady in McLeod Ganj, Himachal Pradesh, India.

90 Replies to “Portrait of a smiling lady in McLeod Ganj”

  3. Great portrait Joshi-ji.
    The coldest I’ve ever been in my life, was actually in McLeod Ganj. I’d been riding my Enfield Bullet on a 13 hours strecth with McLeod Ganj as my final destination. When I just had a few kilometers left, the sky opened and heavy rain started pouring down. Since I was nearly there, I decided to keep on driving – I figured that it wouldn’t take me long to drive that last part. What i didn’t take into consideration was that with heavy rain like that, the dirt roads quickly turned into small rivers, so it took me forever to drive that last part.
    When I finally reached McLeod Ganj, I was freezing cold and totally soaked. I couldn’t even turn the keys in the motorcycle: my hands were unable to squeeze the keys hard enough, so I had to choke the bike and ask a random stranger to shut the ignition and take the keys out.
    Thanks for bringing out some old memories with this portrait Joshi! :)

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      1. A soup, a hot shower and some dry clothes that i borrowed from a friend did the trick.
        I stayed there until my clothes dried up and then I headed down to the heat in Punjab. It was too cold for me up there. 40+ in Punjab was much better! :)

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  18. Just curious about your process of getting awesome pics of people without them being posey…do you shoot from super far away? If close up–do you say something nice first like, “Lovely hat.” Then, “May I take you picture?”

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    1. I mostly use a 85mm for portraits. So that means I have to get close to them. I watch them for a while before deciding to shoot. I will talk to them and ask them to carry on with their work and ignore me. Sometimes I will get a candid shot like that and sometimes I just ask them for a quick look :)

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      1. Nice of you to ask them. I know what it is like to be on that other side of the camera–the person being watched. My twin sister and I were at a grocery store and this lady (at a checkout counter across from ours) took out her camera and started taking pictures (and a video) of us. She was relentless. I asked her what she was doing–she said, “It’s just for my collection of odd and unusual.” Since then, I no longer ask people why they want a photo– I just turn my head in an odd and unusual way in an attempt to blur their images. Doesn’t stop them though. Oh well. If you get a chance check out my twin sister’s recent photo post. Here’s the short link: http://wp.me/p74tOv-71

        Thanks for answering!

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