Photography holiday in Kerala, India
How this holiday makes a difference
Environment
Both our company and our location guides are keen environmentalists. For example we are privileged to have worked alongside our guide and friend Siby in Munnar for many years; his knowledge of and respect for the local environment is unsurpassed and his local company comprises of nature lovers who hail from Idukki district in Kerala. They belong to traditional families engaged in farming and have spent almost all of their lives in Munnar. That’s why they have an immense knowledge of the indigenous flora and fauna. Their objective is to, “help people understand the nature better and to conserve it so that the future generation can benefit and admire the it’s beauty.” Our photography reflects the special access we have to some less explored locations that local people have shown us. Walking through locations is key to our trips, wherever possible we avoid any sort of transport at all allowing total immersion in the areas we visit.
Community
We consider it a huge privilege to be able to visit the world’s wild places and at all times we endeavour to respect local cultures, the natural beauty and fragile environments. At the beginning of the trip we advise and discuss issues such as appropriate dress, local religious and cultural beliefs, disposal and re-cycling of litter in wild place and local environmental issues. This information is also available on our web site.
Local community
Throughout our holiday we will be working alongside an Indian english speaking guide and local location experts. We travel in small groups often splitting into smaller groups of two or three persons in order to reduce intrusion on local communities while photographing. With a few exceptions when we visit iconic locations, we tend to avoid main tourist areas, concentrating instead on the less visited areas thus economically supporting these local communities. We have known and worked with our location experts for many years and as such we get to visit places often unseen by other visitors to the area and we are often treated to insights of cultural tradition and ways of life that would have passed us by without this connection.
We use local rickshaws to explore the small streets and localities and generally stay in hotels that have proven eco friendly. We are actively supporting Bharathakala Gurukulam run by Chandrahasan Atmacharan, a centre for Indian traditional performing arts and crafts, our support and visits mean a lot to the local community and artists who are endeavoring to preserve and practice centuries old local art forms that are in danger of becoming mere tourist attractions.
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