Photography journeys across India

Photography trips need different logistics from ordinary tours. Sunrise on the Ganga at Varanasi means being in a boat by quarter past five, shooting into mist while the ghats wake, then walking the lanes behind the burning ghats once the light goes hard. Jodhpur is best from the Mehrangarh ramparts an hour before sunset, when the indigo of the old city separates cleanly from the sandstone. In Kutch, the white Rann near Dhordo is a horizonless plane at its strongest around full moon between December and February, and the tent city puts you minutes from it. Spiti in September gives you Key Monastery stacked on its hill under hard blue sky above four thousand metres, and skies clean enough for the Milky Way. Hampi wants sunrise from Matanga Hill, boulders and temple towers emerging out of the dark. Pushkar's camel fair each Kartik brings dust, traders and thousands of animals into one frame. Kolkata's Kumartuli offers portraits in workshop light, and the cliffs around Sohra supply scale and cloud. We travel with fewer stops and longer stays, arrange permission for temple courtyards in advance, and use drivers who understand why you want to leave at four in the morning.