I shall talk about props in a bit. In this picture, two devotees of Hindu Goddess Kali are spending a quiet moment on a joint. They spent an hour, intermittently smoking & sharing niceties & talking of various philosophical aspects of life!

The device they use is called a “Chhileem” in the local language & very similar to a local cigar. Rudimentary in construction, this tiny device could deliver a serious shock to anyone not used to the raw smoke of tobacco.

They were a little hesitant for me to take their pictures. Their concern came from being ill-advertised to the younger generation. Although smoking from these “Chhileems” and similar cigars are restricted to finding the special type of tobacco, they are widely spread amongst the devotees’ population along the Ganges.

While doing a few studio shots in Connecticut, the model, an old gentleman had given me a great deal of information on props for studio shots using Cigars

He had mentioned some famous Smoke Shops that feature some of the finest Cohiba cigars, Macanudo cigars and all other major cigar brands. These are some of the finest & available online at http://www.famous-smoke.com/. So anytime I have a studio photo shoot with a cigar smoking model, I know where to order some!

The image above is shot on a Nikon D200 with on camera speedlight set on -2 ev & using a wide angle lens.

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We have finally launched journalimage.com, a website & blog specifically for street candid pictures and documentaries. After having your trust & readership for almost two years, your constant feedback, suggestions for more concentrated street photography and encouragement have convinced us to move ahead with journalimage.com.

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If you have not started already, I would be very eager to hear from you on your experience with street photography. And as for the tool to share, WordPress is the best. I have spent sufficient time pondering over various blogs and tools, but I have not found one that could hold a candle against WordPress.  It is as easy to set up as it is a pleasure to publish.

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I shall keep posting on this blog too, but do update your bookmark with journalimage.com.

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Although busking is not so popular in New York City, you still find a few of them occasionally. Vincent has been playing the pan for over 25 years and about a decade in New York City. Originally from Trinidad, he doesn’t waste a wink talking to you while keeping the beat! On my request, he played the Jamaican Farewell. I had first heard it on the pan in San Francisco by another street musician.

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I shall post more on Vincent in my later blogs. This picture was taken on a hand held Nikon D200 with fill flash & is part of an extended documentary on Street Musicians. Read more here.

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I have used a watermark on the above image. I apologize for the inconvenience but I am using it since the time I found out that Musicnation.com and a few others have violated copyrights & copied my images while being very insensitive to the musicians all in the name of driving more traffic to their websites.

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NOTE: We have moved to Journalimage.com from Feb 2008. Please visit us on the new site & update your bookmarks.

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The weekend prior to Presidents Day, while New York city, like the rest of the country was busy rushing from store to store buying as many items on sale as possible, a few young people were out on the chilly streets in Broadway trying to make a difference to the almost 50 thousand homeless, one person at a time.

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All they asked for was a dollar. But the busy shoppers were even more keen to escape the fright of being asked for a donation. Albeit, changes could be brought by a few and rejoiced by all.

To add to the whole act of a desperate crook, they even went ahead and wrote obnoxious statement on Craig. No wonder they had no reference to what they were writing. Here is a link to Craig’s image on the post on Music Nation – http://mnmedia.musicnation.com/Blog/2008/080124/oldmanclarinet.jpg

Here is the  original post on my blog, made on15th August 2007.

http://nonphotographer.wordpress.com/2007/08/15/san-francisco-street-artists-clarinet-by-craig/

I could think of the people behind this website of Musicnation.com to be no less than cheap and have no respect for either the music or the musician. Here is the post I am referring to – http://musicnation.musicnation.com/blog/2008/02/street-musicians-part-ii & the last image on that post is that of Craig.

They don’t realize that we could easily make a watermark on these images. However, we do not do that so that the readers get to see the image at its best!

After 2 cross country drives, it does not amaze me to hear from my readers on their interest to do similar long hauls. Many of you have followed my narrative on the cross country drive from California to New York and have asked for my tips and suggestions. I have updated the Travel section of photoduniya.com with as much detail as possible. I shall quickly mention a few of the main points here too:

• Check and re check your vehicle. Check for tire gauge, tire pressure, lubricants, alignments and the electrical circuits.
• If you are carrying heavy load in your car, distribute the weight more towards the center of the vehicle. We carried about 600 pounds with us, but we balanced the weight systematically so that driving in the snow, or steep gradients or turns was never a problem either on the wheels or on the driver.
• If you are planning to drive in winter, be prepared for bad road conditions. The image below is from a normal day in Jackson Hole on the Teton Pass, where there is almost always snow and ice on a 10 degree steep narrow road.

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NOTE: We have moved to Journalimage.com from Feb 2008. Please visit us on the new site & update your bookmarks.

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Hermitage, PA to Danbury, CT @ photoduniya.com

It was cloudy for the most part of the day, with mild drizzle and the wind blowing the snow off from the road sides. We could see the sun peek for a short five minutes in the afternoon as we were driving past the Hudson Valley in New York. The last leg of the drive, about 140 miles on I-84 East through Pennsylvania and New York was quite rough with the road showing pot holes and icy bridges in several places. Added to that is the office traffic that we hit towards the evening.

Pennsylvania & New York landscape @ photoduniya.com

It has been a tremendous journey for the past ten days. This being our second cross country drive, it was a lot easier and we were able to plan, prepare and roll quite comfortably. The images on this journey are taken mostly while driving on hand held Nikon D200. More on the trip will come up later on the Travel section of photoduniya.com.

We spent Day 8 in downtown Chicago. Our hotel is right on Michigan Avenue and a block from the major attractions. The day was mostly cloudy and windy with temperatures in the low thirties falling to twenties in the evening. We spent time in the Shedd Aquarium indoors for the most part of the day. The skyline appears perfect from the Grant Park, although there is also a river tour from the Navy Pier which could give you the same view.

Shedd Aquarium in Chicago, IL @ photoduniya.com

The highlight of the evening was the skaters at Millennium Park, or the McCormick Tribune Ice Rink where scores of skaters gathered. We followed them for about an hour before heading off to the shopping malls and see the remaining downtown before it got too cold or windy.

Millennium Park in Chicago, IL @ photoduniya.com

All the images are taken on hand held Nikon D200 on Lexar pro media card. More on the trip will come up later on the Travel section of photoduniya.com.

On our 7th day we reached Chicago, IL after driving for about 2700 miles. Its 10:30 PM CST and about 15 degrees Fahrenheit outside with wind chills close to 2 degrees now, as I just returned from an hour and a half night photography in the downtown Chicago.

The drive had been through Iowa and Illinois with the landscape very uneventful except for the strong cross winds that blew from 20 to 25 mph for most of the drive across Iowa. The better part of the drive was the glorious sunny sky and no snow during the entire day. The image below is taken on I-88 East while driving.

Street photography in Chicago, IL downtown photoduniya.com

We have taken a hotel right in the heart of the city, about one block from the Millennium Park. As soon as we touched the city I sprung out with my camera for any of the night time images. The city was lit with decorative lights from Christmas and the New Year celebrations. But it was so cold and windy that few people were outside at 10 in the night.

Street photography in Chicago, IL downtown photoduniya.com

The images were taken on hand held Nikon D200 without any flash at about 800 ASA on Lexar pro media. I shall update more images from the trip on photoduniya.com.