Around Kambala

In my earlier blog on Moodabidri Kambala there was lot action and excitement in the Kambala tracks. There was even more excitement outside the Kambala tracks. Thousands of people visit Kambala and each will be staying almost the full day or even the next at the venue. It is a great opportunity for food stalls and street hawkers to sell them their goods to them. Kambala organizing committee always allows them a stall all around the Kambala grounds and people throng these places in large numbers. It is a brisk business for all of them in those two days.

I too was hungry after shooting continuously for 4 hours. Along with few of my photography friends who visited from Bangalore for shooting Kambala I visited these stalls. I had by mistake forgotten to get my wide angle or a normal lens and came to the venue with only Canon EOS 5D Mark III with Canon EF 70-200mm f/2.8L IS II USM. Carrying this huge white lens made me conspicuous among the crowd. I would have preferred the wide angle lens or my 50mm f/1.4. Since I had no other option, I thought of trying this lens for a small session of street photography among those stalls. Being night all the stalls were lit up super bright CFL bulbs. Most of these bulbs were bare and into the frame. Initally I tried avoiding them but was unable to get good frame. Being a night photography ISO was constantly high at around ISO 6400 in most of these shots. I used a very low shutter speed and various aperture depending on depth of field needed.

There must have been more than few thousand people various stalls were in place selling Ice-cream, hot tea and coffee, Charumuri. Several makeshift hotels selling idli, vada. dosa etc. First to attract me was a Egg Omelet stall. This guy was very animated and his stove attracted my attention. Even though I clicked several good shots of his process of omelet making due to space constraint I am giving only two pictures. Probably I will create another blog later featuring all his photos. After clicking several shots and gulping one of his creation down I proceeded to the next stall.

This stall was full of all fried stuffs of various colors. I waited for some customers to visit his stall and some action to takes place. As I was waiting from the corner of my eye I noticed the assistant boy yawning. I was able to catch in the nick of time last pointing of the yawning and his weird facial expression due to it. Even though he was hidden behind this bright CFL light it looked interesting. You can see the Kambala stadium behind him along with all the crowd watching race there.

After few minutes of waiting I got a picture of someone of buying some cakes from the vendor. Instead of static gazing look of the person, I felt it was a better idea to show some action in the photograph which makes it interesting.

Next stall was that of Charumuri, a puffed rice delicacy which is mixed with finely chopped onion, tomato, unripe mango, chilly powder and salt and oil. This man was chopping huge pile of tomatoes into small bits. The contrast of the white puffed rice and red tomatoes were pretty interesting.

Nearby stall was of watermelons. They were sliced in nice hexagonal shapes and arranged on this long table. This stall was doing a pretty brisk business and I had a tough time trying to avoid passerby from entering into my frame. When I was waiting I saw one of the boy caught the glimpse of my camera and huge lens. This was the look I wanted to avoid as that will lead him to be self conscious. So even though it was a colorful place soon after this shot I moved along to the next stall.

Next stall I found a sugarcane crusher along with Charumuri vendor. Father and two daughters were waiting for him to finish crushing the sugarcane. Both the girls wanted to have the spicy Charumuri. This dichotomy of each others interest is clearly visible in their eyes. Even though there was a very powerful lamp (which was the problem in most of the stalls there) over the vegetables I felt the light enhanced the look of the parsley and gave it a nice green glow.

Next vendor was selling roasted corn cob. I liked his innovative fanning technique to aerate the coal which was roasting the corn cobs. When I asked him about this I got to know that he is a farmer in a nearby village who for the first time started cultivating maize in his village. I had never seen a good crop of maize in Moodabidri area and it was news to me.

Make A Difference, Mangalore is organizing “REELCALL 2.0” a Portrait and Street Photography Workshop by me on 24th Feb 2013, Sunday from 8:30 AM to 1 PM at Hotel Motimahal, Mangalore. All proceeds go to “Make A Difference”, a youth volunteer network that educates children at risk. Registration Fee:Rs 600/- Register by sending your contact details to the mail id reelcall2.0@gmail.com or send in a SMS to +91-8971219136