Categories: darter

Varanasi Photography Tour – Ancient Traditions

Varanasi Photography Tour

Dates: December 24 to 29

Photographers throng Varanasi from all over the world to capture the essence of India’s beliefs, traditions and religious life. Darter now takes you on a photography tour of an India that has refused to change with time, at the ghats and galis of Varanasi, where much of what Mark Twain described over a hundred years ago can still be witnessed. Join us in capturing the overwhelming scenes of life on the ghats, where everyday life and a sense of devotion merge together to form a cornucopia of photography opportunities.  See Varanasi Photography Tour for full details and registration information.


Categories: calendar

October 2011 Desktop Calendar Wallpaper

This month’s desktop calendar is an image of picturesque backwaters of Kerala. Download this for your desktop in resolutions 1336×768, 1280×800 or 1024×768

october 2011 desktop calendar wallpaper


Categories: darter

Random musings – posts on this blog, travel plans, photography tours, etc

travelHere is a general update again, I think after a couple of months. We still have three months for the year to end, but I am already beginning to feel that 2012 is here. It is probably because I have my sights set and calendar blocked as far as February 2012. Nearly every week of mine from late October to third week of Feb 2012 already has some activity planned and some travelling scheduled. It is good to be busy, especially when you are busy having a good time.

You might have noticed that the recent posts here are mostly about our photography tours coming up in future. It is largely because I have been terribly busy designing, planning and putting up tours in the last few weeks and have little time to post anything else. Since winter—the only true travel season in India—is about to begin, we at Darter have been working out a variety of wildlife, culture and nature tours across India. On the calendar are tours to the diverse places in Hampi, Goan wildlife, splendours of Rajasthan, birds and mammals of Kutch, the cultural riches of Varanasi and a lot more. You will be seeing a few more tour updates here, before regular posting of travelogues and images begins in a week or so.

I will be leading some of our photography tours, a few that are already announced and a few more on the drawing board. Below are my destinations for this winter.

  1. Hampi (November – 3 days)
  2. Rajasthan (November end – 10 days)
  3. Varanasi (December end)

There are a few more coming up besides these, which I will be posting as we work on them. Besides the above tours, I am also planning a personal trip to Himachal and am leading a private group of photographers on a long two-week trip to Kerala. These are journeys I am looking forward to.

Here is a full listing of our tours in the winter. Do come and join us on any of these. Our tours are photography-centric, but photographers or otherwise, people who have joined our tours have almost always gone back carrying beautiful images, great memories and having made some good friends. And since we go in small groups of 10-12, we get plenty of time to talk to each other, interact well and spend a lot of time discussing photography with the tour lead. I really look forward to meeting a lot of readers of this blog this winter season in our tours.

Happy Travels!