photography

Thirumalai Nayakkar Palace – Easy For You To Say

• Log

As is probably evident from our previous posts, Madurai is a pretty crazy place. Rest, then, from the madding crowd in the calm of one of her grandest buildings, Thirumalai Nayakkar Palace. Deceptively understated from the outside, the open court-yard of the interior is imposing and beautiful. Liz: “If you are in southern India please do not miss this most beautiful palace. I fell in love with it in many ways. Its shape, colour and structure are sublime. Palest peach, vanilla, apricot, and cream combine to impart an ethereal quality”. The palace is close to becoming a UNESCO World Heritage site, which goes some way to illustrate how wonderful this simple building is. At the end of this short post we include a little slide show of a few of the buildings of Madurai.

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Meenakshi Amman Temple Of Madurai

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Last time we left you we’d been wandering the back streets of Madurai and offered plenty of photographic evidence of its energy. In this post Liz gives a more cerebral account of our experience in this fabulous city, taking in the huge Meenakshi temple, which wouldn’t look out of place in Disney World. Her guide teaches Liz about the five sense, and they’re not the sense you or I learned about at school. Strangely every single photograph taken inside the temple ‘disappeared’ from Jamie’s camera, but we have plenty more images of the huge ‘gopurams’, as well as the people of Madurai. Liz’s prose is what travel writing is all about…

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The Magic And Madness Of Madurai

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Having finally made it to Madurai after our fairground ride through the Western Ghats, we were able to relax, put on the walking boots and go for a romp through the back streets of this great city. It is full of strange wonders and fascinating people. This post, with its many photographs, captures just a small part of this: street vendors, manual labourers, layabouts, kids, beggars and strange architecture…

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Pongal, Pilgrims And Palani

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In the previous post we finished somewhere in the middle of the Western Ghats, lost, yet the journey up until that point had been fascinating. Not only were the local people preparing for the fantastically named ‘Pongal’, a celebration not too dissimilar to Harvest back at home, but Tamil Nadu was over-run with pilgrims from all over India. As we drove in one direction, so there were thousands of pilgrims walking barefooted the other way, heading towards the temple in Palani that wouldn’t look too out of place in a James Bond film.

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Getting Lost In The Western Ghats

• Log

Over the next month we will be serialising our road trip of Kerala and Tamil Nadu, the two southern-most states of India. We cover 1,200km, ascend over 2,000m, get lost in the mountains, rub shoulders with gods and relax in tea plantations. The eight or so posts will come out on Mondays and Thursdays, where each new episode continues from the last. They return to what followtheboat was always about: documenting our observations of the people we meet and places we visit through words and pictures. Lots of pictures! We start by taking in the incredible Western Ghats, the huge mountain range that divides India and dictates the monsoons. Just don’t hire the driver we had the misfortune to end up with…

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The Backwaters Of Alleppey In Kerala

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Apparently, according to some ‘Bucket Lists’, the backwaters of Kerala are a must-see before dying. Indeed, the National Geographic Traveller places the backwaters in the ‘top 50 destinations of a lifetime’. Having now ticked this off my own bucket list I can honestly say I agree with the sentiment. This log entry counts as a proper log entry, what with it being a two-day trip on a boat, so in old school style I’ve put together a words-and-pictures account of this most incredible place, which includes video clips and a link to Google Earth so you can put it all in perspective.

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Jamie Is Awarded LRPS Distinction

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I am proud to announce that Jamie was awarded his Licentiateship at the Royal Photographic Society on Saturday and can now put the letters LRPS after his name. He is thrilled that all the hard work and studying he has put in over the last six months has paid off.

Encouraged by a win in the Times newspaper for best travel photograph earlier in the summer he hesitantly put his images onto the appraisal gallery of Amateur Photographer. Some of the senior members of the AP forum suggested he work towards membership of the RPS and it was their words of wisdom and constructive criticism that lead Jamie to assess his own work with a more informed eye.

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Royal Photographic Society’s Licentiateship Distinction

• Photography

This weekend I was awarded the Royal Photographic Society’s Licentiateship distinction. It is the first of three distinctions that recognises the creative and technical skill of the photographer.

Ten images are displayed and must work individually as well as together to create a cohesive presentation. I concentrated on portraits of course! The images are designed to be hung in a certain order.

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Frui Awards FTB Portrait Competition

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Those who have been to Turkey may well know this lady… Frui, the creative learning holiday specialist, has awarded followtheboat winner of the August Photography competition. It is held monthly and the theme changes each time. This month’s theme was Portrait and my winning shot features a picture I took in Kekova Roads, Turkey, of an old lady. When I tried to take this shot the lady indicated that she was too old for the camera, saying her face was ‘broken’. I beg to differ; it’s one of the most interesting close-up portraits I’ve taken. Check the link for a peek…

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Dreamy Goan Bus Stop Pic Shortlisted For Telegraph

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We’ve yet to publish our blog on our trip to Goa. We spent a few weeks there and Jamie took a lot of pictures which he is still editing. On one trip we stopped off at a tiny village near Shri Mangesh and took a picture of the busy bus-stop. The Telegraph’s Big Picture editor clearly liked it enough to shortlist it for this week’s competition. It’s a wonderful, dreamy HDR (high dynamic range) photograph that captures the late afternoon ambiance of that part of the world.

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Followtheboat Wins Its First Competition

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I’ve been badgering Jamie for some time now to take his photography to the next level. I mean, some of his shots are breath-taking, aren’t they?

Having reluctantly agreed he generously allowed me to do the legwork. I decided to start by entering his work into some competitions, this would start to get his name and work known.

It seems that my nagging is starting to pay off. Firstly, we are going to be published, but more about that exciting news in a future blog. Secondly, he’s just won the first competition he’s ever entered!

Encouraged by his Auntie Chris, we decided to enter one of his photos into The Times Travel Photo Competition.

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