Whether you want to be surrounded by people or capture a place where nearly no one goes or just visit places of pure magic or drama to enhance your capturing skills, I've listed down 8 best places in India. Take your pick. Every location on this list guarantees you incredible pictures.
1. New Delhi – From the streets of Chandni Chowk and Nizamudin Dargah to night life at Hauz Khas Village:
Starting from the colorful streets of Lajpat Nagar market, to the forts of the city, in Delhi a photographer is challenged to manually operate their camera to suit their surroundings. The most difficult areas are in overly crowded market spaces and deserted forts and tombs. Chandni Chowk being the most haphazard place along with the Nizamudin Dargah is the most scenic and intriguing places to photograph in Delhi, along with the never ending nightlife.
Credits - Shalu Khandelwal
2. Rajasthan - clicking ancient architecture and vivid colors of Jaisalmer and Pushkar:
To capture the dull and deserted is an art of its own; however Rajasthan which is home to India’s great Thar Desert seems far from deserted. The exploding colors of Jaisalmer and Pushkar are extremely enticing for a travel photographer. One must frame the rich history of Rajasthan extremely creatively! The challenge here is to beat the heat and avoiding the grains of sand from entering the photo lenses in summers and during winters to keep your hands still while the piercing cold winds try to blow you off. Now we all know where Indian dust storms come from don’t we?!
Credits: A Vahanavati
3. Nagaland - Tales of Tribes and unexplored villages:
Exploring North East has never been an easy task for anybody and for a photographer challenges are only welcomed! To capture the indigenous Naga Tribes and framing breathtaking images while people flock to the Hornbill festival, we all love Nagaland and so it is agreed upon most travel photographers. Nagaland has unknown stories waiting to be showcased to the world. The question is; are you a brave enough travel photographer?
Picture Credits- Ahinsa Jain
4. West Bengal - around Howrah and Kolkata and strolling tea garden at Darjeeling:
Hanging from the ‘Howrah Bridge’ with your 300mm zoom lens to capture kids bathing on the Ghats at the backdrop of a rigid as well as polluted river seems like the perfect idea to a travel photographer. You must count yourself out from this breed of photographers if you think otherwise! Trying to get the perfect picture with the Victoria Hall in Kolkata while people keep crossing you absolutely unaware of you with your fancy equipment, yes these are the challenges! Darjeeling on the other hand, comes across as a reward for a photographer for picture perfect images.
Picture Credits: Tatai Mitra
5. Kanyakumari - at the brink of land:
The work of a travel photographer is to scale the lengths and breadths of the country. This being said how can we not mention Kanyakumari, the southernmost tip of the country with its rough sea surrounding the statue of Tamil Nadu’s famous poet, Thiruvalluvar. Other than braving the crowds of tourists that flock to this particular destination while vacationing in the nearby area’s around; the challenge here is to find the correct lens as well as rain protection gear, more than that framing the most perfect picture that keeps you a class apart.
Picture Credits: Premnath
6. Rann of Kutch - walking on stardust:
Here we are in the picturesque Gujarat, the land of Dhokla’s and Modi, but what really and truly amazing about Gujarat is that it keeps the western most tip of the country in its backyard; The Rann of Kutch. The experience is like walking on salt, and trying the best to fit in the whole scenery into your camera’s lens.
Picture credits: Rann Utsav
7. Vrindavan - attack of the colors!
Embrace yourself for the most awaited festival of the year! It’s time for Holi in Vrindavan and it is the most colorful festival of all times! The locals play with dry natural colors and the women attack men with ‘Lathis’ to avoid getting colored. The challenge is to avoid your camera getting drenched in ‘Gulaal’ so that it stops functioning, which will be pretty bad! However the pictures that come out after this courageous effort are amazing!
Picture Credits Sreeram Nambiar
8. Ladakh and Kashmir - ‘the land of the Mountain Kingdom’:
Going up straight north, Ladakh and Kashmir are the last spots on this list. Why? Because over here everywhere you look you see a frame waiting to be captured in your lens. The vast landscapes romance the sights of a travel photographer and there is nothing called a ‘bad picture’ taken in this paradise.
Picture Credits- Pritha Puri
This is just a small selection of the many other great places out there so please leave a comment below and tell me where your favorite landscape locations are in India.