Kurmaguda Academy for Relief and Education 4

I was given the opportunity to photograph the staff and students here by a friend of mine, Tom Holloway. Tom lives in India and works extensively in humanitarian causes. Thanks also to Ghouse for getting me there.

Tom Holloway, thehindu.com news

“Education breeds confidence, confidence breeds hope, hope breeds peace” Confucius

More photographs from K.A.R.E

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A small boy sits in class at the Kurmaguda Academy for relief and Education, Hyderabad, India, August 2016. K.A.R.E provides care and education for children and young adults who would otherwise go without.

Krishnashtami Boy

In India recently with only my mirrorless Fujifilm x100, I’ve been really enjoying the simplicity of the single f.2 /23mm focal length available with this camera (35mm approx ‘Full Frame’ equivalent)

Ive often heard photographers talk of the joy of actually losing an entire range of focal lengths, in the form of a zoom lens. Apart from the odd occasion where a wider lens or even a telephoto would have been useful, I was almost entirely content to shoot like this.

I’ve used DLSRs that have the edge on this little camera here and there, but really and especially far from home, I can’t see how I’ll ever look back,

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A small boy in the north of the city of Hyderabad seen dressed up for Krishnashtami celebrations, Telengana, India, 2016

 

Me and Asha Bhosle at Mumbai Airport (3 images)

With a good six hours stopover recently at Mumbai, through the middle of the night, I had little else to do but wander around the domestic departures lounge, eat an Aloo Paratha and take a few pictures. I noticed an extremely famous Hindi Cinema playback singer, Asha Bhosle. In a pretty much deserted lounge and missing home already, I thought I’d get a few snaps of this Indian legend!

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At Chhatrapati Shivaji International Airport, Mumbai, classic photographer selfie with my second hand Fujifilm x100

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Asha Bhosle

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Asha Bhosle

Kurmaguda Academy for Relief and Education

I’ve not posted on my WordPress Blog for nearly six months now, life has a funny habit of throwing lots at you at once. During that time, I have sold any cameras and lenses that I owned and lost my interest in my photography. By a stroke of good fortune, I had to make a trip back to the city of Hyderabad this month. Having no camera at all, and very short of money, I bought a used 6/7  year old Fujifilm X100 for £370. Really, what I didn’t know was that this used and older Fujifilm camera and an unplanned trip, would bring me back to the photography that I love. Now that I’m back, Im looking forward to catching up with my friends from around the world.

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A small girl smiles by a window at the Kamaguda Academy for Relief and Education, Hyderabad, India, August, 2016

One Hour in Kurmaguda Academy for Relief and Education

With a very small window of time to get to meet the staff and students at K.A.R.E and extremely low light, I had to move fast to get any pictures at all here. For anyone interested, i was shooting at iso values between 2500 and 4000, with a first generation Fujifilm x100. This was to get shutter speeds of between 1/40th and 1/60th sec with a wide open aperture of f2. Some were even as slow as 1/15th. I’m continually impressed with Fujifilms mirrorless cameras since I stopped using DSLRs. 

The light was a lot lower than it looks here, but I chose subjects as close to windows as possible to make the most of the daylight outside. This wasn’t such a bad thing, as I really like window light which is beautiful and which suits my style of photography.

Ultimately, whatever I got in terms of photographs was less important than being able to meet some remarkable people who gave me their time and patience, told me about themselves, laughed with me and made me feel welcome. Thank you..Untitled

 

 

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Nagapoojitha 3 years later

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I first met Nagapoojitha in February 2013. She had very bad hearing and was able only to sit at the front of class and just try her best. Her picture featured in my India’s Forgotten Children Exhibition in London the following year. Last week I met her again and she is doing very well at the Patashala School. Seen here, she proudly holds a school book that three years ago, she could never have written in or read. 

A small girl with hearing difficulties sits on the floor in class, Hyderabad, 2013