Welcome to The Wedding Travelers!

I was looking through the archives for some shots for our new blog (coming soon!) and saw some photos I wanted to post here. I was thinking of going back through the whole trip and posting shots from each place. Who would be interested in that? Leave a comment if you want that!

For now here are those awesome photos:

 A traveler on the streets of Jaisalmer.

And another local from the streets. 

 From the Qutab Minar in Delhi.

 The Lotus Temple in Delhi.

 Hanging jootis in Calcutta

 Buddha sculpture from the temple at Krabhi, Thailand.

An awesome rhino from Kaziranga. 

Our boatman from Varanasi. 

Hope you enjoyed that little hodge-podge, but I'll keep things a bit more organized as I keep posting!

Also, I have gotten a couple emails regarding the Hindu Wedding article, and how it's not finished. Oops! I'll definitely try to get that finished up soon for you all!

Cheers,

Lauren :) 

Category: Adventures

Tags: architecture, bahai, buddha, calcutta, carving, delhi, fort, india, indian one horned rhino, jaisalmer, kaziranga, krabi, landscape, lotus temple, photography, qutb minar, safari, temple, thailand, travel, varanasi

We got this email a little while ago, and I really wanted to share it here. Since returning home we've gotten wrapped up in our wedding business, and haven't been able to work on the Wedding Travelers very much. But Tara sent us this email that really reminded us of the power and importance of what we're doing. Since we're still so new to photography we often don't realise how much of an impact our work can have on people, and it was really wonderful of Tara to write and tell us how she felt about our photos. 

Anyway, thank you so much to Tara for her email. We will be working a lot more on this website to try and share all that we have learned.

Here's the email (posted with Tara's permission, of course :)

"Hi Lauren and Rob,

 

OK, I had a fellow photographer tell me about your site yesterday. I am of Indian origin though have grown up in the US. I'm just getting started in the wedding photography world and was telling this photographer that I want a logo that kind of shows my background with a little Indian twist, but something less cliche. Anyway she mentioned you guys and your cute little elephant logo, so I just looked up your site. 

 

Breathtaking. Inspiring. Amazing. I find that a lot of photogs that shoot Indian/Hindu/South Asian weddings in general, are good at capturing color, but sometimes not so great at capturing the little nuances of the ceremony and the traditions. I understand this because its hard to understand the significance of every little moment if you don't know the culture well and have seen the many traditions a few times. I am floored by your ability to capture this moments and the way you have absorbed yourself into especially Indian culture.

 

I would be honored to meet you at some point in life and I am just _SO_ inspired by your work because I would love to do the same kind of thing but probably am too scared! If you ever had a photog workshop or tips or anything or even needed someone to carry your bags, I would be there in a second, because I would be so so so so so happy to just chat with you about your experiences, I'm so curious as to what you have learned simply by traveling (not even getting to the photography!).

 

Anyway, Seriously I have so much respect for you, and thank you. Thank you for describing and detailing my culture's traditions so well and capturing the heart of it. I'm sitting here so welled up with emotion from looking at your pictures and so happy to see photography that has so well illustrated so many traditions beloved to me. Someday when I get married, you have shot right to the top of my list of possible photographers.

 

Regards,

Tara"

And I wanted to share a few photos that show some more of the beauty of India.

Three beautiful children that loved to smile at our camera from the seat behind us on a bus ride to Jaisalmer.

Details from a Jain temple just outside of Jaisalmer.

A incredible alleyway in Jodhpur.

And an early evening shot of the main clocktower in Jodhpur.

That's all for now. Picking out and editing those photos has made me deeply, deeply miss India right now.  

Lauren  

Category: Check this out!

Tags: architecture, carving, children, india, jainism, jaisalmer, jodhpur, photography, portrait, street life, sunset, temple, travel

After all our time in Delhi doing major photo shoots we were pretty photo’ed out. It’s been nearly 3 months of traveling and shooting, and we’re definitely starting to get pretty tired. So when we got to Amritsar I don’t think we took out our cameras for a couple days! It was nice to spend some time just wandering and shopping (we bought some pretty cool stuff, but we’re going to keep it a surprise until we get home and show our family! They aren’t going to believe how crazy we are, lol!)

Anyway, it’s definitely not like there isn’t anything to shoot in Amritsar, and once we mustered up the energy to do some shooting, we saw a pretty amazing thing. But let’s look at the photos, shall we?

First, since we keep talking about train travel but haven’t shown you anything, I’ll show you a quick snap from our train trip between Delhi and Amritsar. It was the first time we were able to book a 1AC seat. The classes on trains start with 1AC being the most luxurious, then 2AC, 3AC, and then 2nd class, which is completely unreserved, free-for-all seating. We’ve traveled in 3AC (not so fun, and pretty cramped), 2AC (better, with more space) and 1AC (totally awesome!). We never got up the courage to do the whole 2nd Class business, especially with all our expensive gear. Maybe one day, but not on this trip! Anyway, this is 1AC, and a 9 hour ride in one of these cars cost around $60 Canadian for both of us. Not too shabby at all!



In the midst of our shopping we took time to go to the “classiest restaurant in Amritsar”, as dubbed by The Lonely Planet. It was definitely a really nice place, with great food. Since we’re talking money in this post so far I’ll give you an idea of what a fancy meal out costs here. We ordered two mocktails, a large bottle of mineral water, two appetizers, two main courses, a pot of amazing Darjeeling tea, and a sizzling brownie (shown in the picture below, a brownie on a really hot plate with sauce drizzled over it so that it bubbled and steamed, yum!). The total cost was around 800 Rupees, which is $20 Canadian. Still can’t get over the conversions for things here!



And then we packed up the cameras and it was time to see the main sight of Amritsar: the famous Golden Temple.



This is the most holy gurdwara (Sikh temple) in the world, and attracts pilgrims from all over. Our hotel is very very close to the temple, and so we always see constant streams of people walking down the street towards it. Upon entering the complex, you take off your shoes, cover your head, and wash your feet. Then you step inside to see the amazing golden structure in the middle of a huge pond of water.



The water even has a bunch of huge fish in it!



It’s really an amazing sight, and I thought it was one of the most incredible things I’ve seen this trip.



We went around sunset and were rewarded with some really cool sights.



One of the really great things about Sikhism is that it is welcoming of people of all classes. They have a huge free kitchen that cooks dhal (lentils), rice and chapattis (bread) for about 40,000 people each day.





The dome of the temple is made up of around 750Kg of pure gold.


It was a very serene and peaceful setting.




It was really a must-see stop in India.



The temple is connected to the outer building by a huge walkway that is continuously packed with people waiting to go inside the temple to pray and offer prasad (a sweet food that is blessed in the temple). No photos were allowed once we got on to the walkway, but here’s a shot showing you the front of the temple.



And then for something with a completely different feel to it: the closing ceremony of the India-Pakistan border. We took a taxi out to the border at Attari/Wagah, which is about an hour from Amritsar. It’s really a huge deal out there! The guards were all elaborately dressed, and extremely tall (some were probably close to 7 ft tall!) and towered over Rob who stands in at 6 ft.



It has become something of a competition between the Indians and the Pakistanis to celebrate the most for their country at the closing. On the Indian side there was dancing breaking out (you know you’re in Punjab when….)


A neat shot of one of the guards


The huge crowd was waiting with much anticipation for the ceremony to start


And then it was time! It was the most hilarious sight, really. The guards would stamp their feet, kick their legs insanely high, and then speed walk like-you-wouldn’t-believe towards the border.



They performed with such severity, and yet looked pretty funny at the same time, it was great.



The crowd was totally into it. The announcer would yell “HINDUSTAN!” (which means India) and everyone would respond with “ZINDABAN!” and throw their fists up in the air. It means "Long Live India!" or "India Rules!", and they were certainly having fun saying it! (love vibes to both Geeta and Manju for helping me out with the translation!)


I couldn’t believe how high they could kick. It was tough to get a good shot, since they did it so fast, but here’s a snap.


And then they lowered the flags.


All good fun! We drove back to Amritsar, and then grabbed our mini-tripod and headed back to the Golden Temple for a couple of night shots. I finish up the post with those.





And that’s Amritsar! Tomorrow we leave for Jalandher, to attend a weeklong Punjabi Sikh wedding. It’s going to be great fun, and we’re really excited. Hopefully we’ll be able to find both an internet connection and some free time while we’re there to keep you posted. If not, you’ll hear from us next when we return to Delhi on the 28th for a few last days in India before we fly to Singapore, and then home at last. I can’t believe I’m already starting to detail the end of this trip, especially when we just got so many new followers thanks to the Taj session, but don’t cry everyone. We’re hoping to keep posting a new shot every week, from our thousands and thousands of photos that we took and never blogged, so the fun will continue, even when we return home. And I have a few articles to write, so much more to come. Until then, we still have two weeks left in traveling, and thousands more photos to take, so it’s not over until it’s over!

Lauren ☺

Category: Adventures

Tags: amritsar, architecture, border closing, golden temple, india, photography, travel, wagah/attari border

Yes, there is more of these two gorgeous kids! I can just sense you all hopping up and down with excitement!

So for our famous Taj session Megha and Chakshu wore their outfits from their reception. And for an Indian wedding there are two very important sets of clothing. It was only fair that we do a session with both outfits! So Megha and Chakshu went through another grueling round of beautifying themselves and we all hopping into the car and drove into New Delhi. We went to the gorgeous Lodi Gardensto take some shots in their amazing clothes. Here’s what we got.

Megha is super easy to make laugh, which bodes well for us since we can easily get great fun shots like this.



Throwing in a little mystery ☺



The setting was just amazing, although we still weren’t without big hordes of on-lookers. In India it is not considered rude, as it is in Canada, to simply stand and stare. So it was tough to handle, but once again these two did a flat out fantastic job.



I seriously think Chakshu could have a future as a model. He just poses and smiles so easily.




And Megha does a bang-up job as well. One day we’ll have to take modeling lesssons from them!



And together they are just fab.

It was like our dream photo location. Great light, and great architecture, we could have spent all day there!





Now here is a neat one. Rob was trying out a technique he liked, and I think the result is just awesome!



Megha’s chura looked great against her bright pink lengha (a lengha is a ornate skirt, that is worn with a top, and a very elaborate scarf. The whole outfit is unbelievably heavy. Honestly you would not believe it. Serious.



And then we got a little dramatic.

A great close-up of Chakshu holding on to his stole.

So there you have it, the second portrait session, and one that we enjoyed just as much as the Taj session! As fun as Taj was, it was really fast paced and stressful, so it was nice to take it a bit easier with these two, and find some relatively secluded places. And Megha and Chakshu haven’t even seen these photos yet, so we really hope they enjoyed them!

Category: Weddings

Tags: architecture, carving, delhi, india, lodi gardens, photography, portrait, travel, weddings

So, here we go. I hope you are all excited for this. Because you aren’t going to believe it.

To put it very simply, we just did a portrait session at the Taj Mahal.

Yes.


Seriously.


Wow, hey? I still can’t even believe it, and the whole entire thing is just a blur. I think half of it is because it’s just such a huge deal, that we can’t believe we did it. And the other half is because we were under a lot of stress and pressure right from the get-go. It wasn’t easy to do at all, and I’m so happy that we managed to get some great shots even under some tough conditions.

You see, we had this little plan in mind for a while. We all packed our bags, and left Delhi early in the morning for a road trip to Agra, the city that is home to the Taj Mahal. We arrived around 1PM, I believe. We checked into our hotel, took a quick trip to see the magnificent structure, grabbed a quick bite, and then it was time to get ready. Megha and Chakshu changed into their gorgeous reception outfits from their wedding. (They got married here in Delhi in December, and we were unfortunately a month too late with our trip to attend). We made our way to the Taj around 5:00PM, hoping to get some great sunset light to work with.

First off, there was no sunset. Well, not one we could see. Agra was covered in a hazy foggy sky, so there was no real colour coming through. Oh well, we had nice light anyway, but it was darker than we would have liked.

So we all walk down an alley to actually get into the Taj. Megha and Chakshu dressed to the nines, walking down a smelly, busy alley. Funny stuff!

Then we get to the gate. 20 Rupees entry for Indians, 750 for foreigners ($0.50 and just about $20 Canadian). Hilarious hey? But that wasn’t the tough part. Apparently they now have rules that forbid you to bring in any bags.

Think about that for a moment. We’re there to do a photo session, and we can’t bring in our camera bags. Major stress out time!

Chakshu managed to convince a guy to let us bring in his tiny backpack, so Rob and I, in a wild flurry, start to decide what we want to bring in. We had brought everything, since this was going to be a portrait session to remember, and now we had to cut out most of what we brought. We stuffed in a few lenses, and some flash cards, and had to leave everything else behind. And this whole process took up a ton of our precious time where we still had some light to work with! Eek!

Then we all finally get through the gates, and walk in to see the Taj. It’s honestly breathtaking, and we started to get to work.

Namaste!


Chakshu is a photo buff himself, and he couldn’t resist whipping out his own camera to take some shots! He looks so incredibly cool in this shot, doesn’t he??



Megha’s incredible chura. She will be wearing these from the time she got married (December, 2007) until she has her reception back in Edmonton in June, 2008! Dedication!



Just putting on some of her jewelry



Love, love, love, love, love the feeling of this one.



We stepped off to the side to this great red colonnade to take some more secluded shots.



These two really know how to laugh with each other and are always having fun together. We absolutely loved it.



Plus they know how to work the camera like pros. I’m finding it hard to believe they AREN’T models. Seriously, this had nothing to do with us, and everything to do with them.

This shot feels like there was no one else around for miles. I love it.

How about we take a stroll towards the Taj? Ok!

A reflection in one of the pools.



I can’t get enough of this one.


Like a movie.



We took very very few shots of the Taj itself, lol! But here’s one we liked.


I still can’t believe this whole thing really happened.

Romance personified.



And in the middle of all those romantic, intense and serious shots it was always goofing around and having fun. Our favorite type of couple.

Self portrait! We look absolutely grungy beside them, it’s ridiculous!



And can you believe this? At this point we pretty much were the very last people in the place, and it was pitch black. Rob had to set the camera on top of Chakshu’s backpack, since we weren’t allowed our tripods. But all the difficulty was worth it. This is Rob’s favorite shot of the day.

Shabaam!



And then a few detail shots when we got back to the hotel.



Megha’s mangalsutra, the necklace she gets when she is married. It is one of the five things that signify a woman's married status, so it's very important!

And her fantastic shoes.


And that’s all we have done up so far. There are so many to go through that we just can’t do them justice on this laptop, and we’re itching to get home and work on them on our real computers. But now I’m going to get sort of sappy, so hold on to your seats.

Now, just imagine how many people are visiting the Taj each day. And then place a couple who look like models in the middle of it all, dressed up like they are at their wedding while everyone else is wearing t-shirts and shorts, and then have two people with huge cameras taking shots. Trust me, we attracted a LOT of attention. And even more than that, they attracted a sort of paparazzi, as tourists and locals alike were trying to snap a picture of them or just standing there staring. Some people were even jumping down from these huge platforms to sneak up behind Rob to get a shot. I think many of the tourists must have thought they were famous or something. But it was certainly really, extremely tough conditions for anyone to stay relaxed and happy, with all those people staring at you. Megha and Chakshu did a flat out amazing job, and it’s the honest truth that they completely share the credit for this shoot. The amount of work, preparation, dedication and commitment they put into this is astounding, and we honestly can never thank them enough for doing this with us.

I don’t know how we manage to meet such amazing people, who give so much to us (we’ve actually been staying with them in Chakshu’s house for the past 6 days, and they have been the most hospitable hosts imaginable). And then to put so much effort into doing the Taj shoot with us, it’s not just anyone who would do that, and we consider ourselves so very very lucky. So an enormous thank you to both Megha, Chakshu, and Chakshu’s family who have been so kind to us over this past week. And to Megha and Chakshu, without whom these photos would not exist. As far as we all could tell, this is possibly the first time this has been done on this scale. Photo sessions like this don’t really happen for couples in India, and with the amount of work it took to get to the Taj, it certainly wasn’t just a walk in the park. So we’re very glad to have been a part of this. Now we can’t wait to get home and get some of these printed for our house!

Ok, enough sappiness. We’re off to do another shoot with them in Delhi! Wish us luck!

Lauren

Category: Weddings

Tags: agra, architecture, india, mangalsutra, photography, portrait, reflection, taj mahal, travel, weddings

Holy smokes guys, we're so sorry about this huge delay! When we headed off to Delhi we thought that we would have no problem finding internet, but as it turns out nothing in India turns out as expected :) We were staying in Gurgaon, which is a suburb, and thus not at all geared towards travelers with laptops. So we went for a loooooong time without any connection to the outside world. i guess people started to even get worried about us! So once again, huge apologies for the wait. But once you see what we've been up to, I think you're all going to forgive us right away!!!! Anyway, we're going to start off here with a few pictures left over from Jaisalmer, and from a day around Delhi. Then on Monday, March 17th tune in for some INSANE photos that you aren't even going to believe. Trust me, we're so excited to share these with you guys!!!

Let's get to the photos now!

Camo-puppies from Jaisalmer! These little guys were just totally zonked out, snoozing in the middle of the hot day. They didn’t even budge when I took their photo, they were too busy sleeping!



Our friend Philippe found a fantastic spot to watch the sunset at the train station in Jaisalmer. You can see a couple of trains there, and on the horizon is the fort!



And a close up of the silhouette of the fort.



We took a nighttime stroll up into the fort to take some shots. This is a really neat one Rob took, complete with a couple of ghosts!



And one of some textiles still hanging out for sale



It was so crazy, there were tons of these little piglets running around our hotel



A neat scene near our hotel



And a shot of the fort. They call Jaisalmer the Golden City because everything is made out of this fantastic gold sandstone. The fort itself is as well, and was built way back in 1156. Unfortunately, because of tourism and increased population there are actually huge problems with the water destroying the fort. It's very sad, because I don't think this place is going to last too much longer. I'm really glad we got to see it at least once.

A very strange sign…..


And a neat old door, complete with a Ganesh above it.


“What’s that you’re using there? Is that a 50mm?”



As we were leaving Jaisalmer we stumbled across the famous Palace on Wheels! It was stopped at the station for a while, and it looked amazing! Too bad it’s incredibly expensive, otherwise I’m sure we would have hopped on right away



And then we got to Delhi! Yay! We checked out Qutb Minar, a huge tower built back in 1193.



Some of the incredible carvings on the tower.



Who are these attractive people? Not just some randoms we saw, no no. These are our flients (friends/clients), Megha and Chakshu! And you’re going to be seeing much much more of them very soon…..



Wild parrots! Amazing! I can’t get over the wildlife here in India. You see monkeys all the time, and now some incredible parrots.



Some great columns



Then we went to see the Lotus Temple. It is a Bahai temple, and is open to people of all faiths. The design is very similar to the Opera House in Sydney, except this is a closed lotus, and that one is open!



It is such a beautiful structure



This day was really a tour of some of the great sights of Delhi! This is the India Gate, which is different from the Gateway of India in Bombay…


Cool!



Some jewelry on sale around the Gate



And then it was lunchtime. One fantastic thing about hanging out with locals in India is that they know the great places to eat, and what to order. We made our way to a South Indian restaurant, and Chakshu and Megha took care of ordering. There was this crazy pizza type thing.



And a dosa! Dosa, dosa, dosa, dosa! I love that word! And I love the dish. I think I polished off half of one all by myself. It was so fantastic. It was like a huge crispy pancake with curry potatoes and onions inside. Then you would dip it in this sambar sauce and yum. I hope I can find some in Edmonton…


And these are idlis. They were like rice patties that you would let soak in the sauce. Fantastic.



So there’s a bit of Delhi. Now I’ll let you all wonder what we have up our sleeves and then check back in on Monday to see it! I know you’re going to love it ☺


 

Category: Adventures

Tags: architecture, bahai, carving, cow, delhi, dogs, food, fort, ganesh, india, india gate, jaisalmer, lotus temple, photography, qutb minar, street life, sunset, travel

After seeing the fort for so long from our hotel, we were more than ready to get out there and see it up close. A quick tuk tuk ride and there we were, standing at the foot of the massive structure. First we were met by this wonderful camel! We named him Cameron.



Then we walked into the fort. Along the way we came across a sign pointing out some holes in the walls that were created by canon balls. I thought it was so great that this pigeon was just hanging out in one of the canon ball holes. I’m dedicating this picture to my sister and her boyfriend, both of whom work as “pigeon whisperers” back home in Edmonton.


I love this shot of a woman walking along, with her sari blowing in the wind.



And Rob, doing what he does


These guys took their gates seriously



This was probably the first time we saw such beautiful flowers in India



And some really fantastic trees



The architecture in and around the fort was unbelievable. You remember that I said Jodhpur was one of the most visually interesting places we have ever been? This is definitely one of the main reasons!



We found a pretty sweet spot to get some shots of the Old City


And this is what I was doing up there! I absolutely love the blue houses.



Here’s a quick video to give you a sense of where we were standing



And us with the blue houses in the background!



Inside of the fort were some jaw dropping rooms. Those maharajas really had a sense of style! Although I believe this room was decorated using golf leaf, glue and cow urine….


This fort was built around 1800, I believe, and is just a photographer’s playground



And here’s the photographer!







This was an old palanquin. We think that some of our brides should get ones like this for their doli ceremonies! This thing was easily much taller than both Rob and myself.



One of the guards having a cup of chai



Two guys showing off a length of fabric that is used to tie a turban. Can you believe the length of that?



And one final shot of Cameron. As we left the fort he was having a little snack, and was so cute to watch as he just munched away.



And that’s Jodhpur. Highly, highly recommended. Approved by The Wedding Travelers. Whatever you want to say, it’s cool. Next we're off to Jaisalmer, which we hope will be just as visually stunning.

Category: Adventures

Tags: architecture, camel, carving, chai, flowers, india, jodhpur, photography, portrait, wildlife