southern india

Trying to run a renovation project and get out to take pictures is proving quite difficult but so the blog is a good reason to make me do it.

Royal Enfield model Desert Storm parked under a tree in Trivandrum, lovely.

Well all I can say is if you want to sell anything put a beach dog on in, I was quite blown away by the amount of people that checked out the beach dogs PR shoot and since speaking to people I have bowed down to the masses and put a new set of images up.

We started our new contract for our new house in India and on the 26/12 building work started, none of the Christian holidays for these guys. I have been pleasantly surprised at the speed of the workers. Today was our 1st hot sunny day, we’ve been here about a week and a bit, our dogs were very please to see us and us took of them to.I am going to try my best to shoot some video as soon as poss but at the moment most of our time is taken up with construction and design issues.

Anyway in the mean time, here’s nice tree to sit under in the afternoon sun.

Was going through some images the other day, sorting out a new b/w portfolio and new images for my website and in doing it just started putting images together in the way I would like them to be seen, which was very strange at 1st as all of my imagery is shot for editorial of private client and I never really get any say in how it is used, it fact in the words of a well respected picture editor “ray once you have shot them and we have paid for them, they are nothing to do with you” they were caring words about don’t get to precious about you images. So in putting these images together it was very pleasing, I hope it is the same for you.

“A civilization is a heritage of beliefs, customs, and knowledge slowly accumulated in the course of centuries…”
- Antoine de Saint-Exupery

Surya Samudra Kovalam, a luxurious private retreat among the Kovalam Beach Hotels is the living expression of Kerala’s ancient and vibrant civilization. Spread over lush green acres of landscaped tropical gardens, this Hotel in Kerala is insulated from the busy tourist seaside, this tranquil paradise sits on top of a cliff overlooking pristine beaches by the Arabian Sea in Kerala – God’s Own Country. www.suryasamudra.com

This is a world 1st rights. Ring ray main 07831 200 901 or email ray@raymain.co.uk

Thinking of our dogs back in India.

“A civilisation is a heritage of beliefs, customs, and knowledge slowly accumulated in the course of centuries…” that’s the opening line on the Surya Samudra website, I was there the other day shooting a little travel thing for a UK mag. I was very taken with the place, the setting and the very helpful staff. http://www.suryasamudra.com

When I live in India I have a constant ping pong game going on in my mind about what I think I should be getting, being told, served, having done, etc etc, the fact is to live successfully and happy you need to lower your exceptions and think about things in a different way, as a man from the western world that’s very good for me when I return to the western buzz. Let me try to explain, firstly you need to start with the mind-set that most local Indians they live very much for today, it is a way to survive in so much compertition, that means they are not interested in what you are going to give them tomorrow, just what you are going to buy/give them today and that normally means you paying skin tax and that means as much as they can extract from you, that’s the deal, all part of living here.

The 2nd is the way we look at yourself, I choose not to shave all week and go to a barber very Friday for a shave, my neighbour shaves very day and says to me when we meet in the street why do you have so much money and care so little about yourself, he could have a point but our values are very different and that’s how most things are here.

What we see as dirty they don’t, what we see as relaxed they sometimes see as disrespectful. Let me end the post with a couple of images from my currant barbers, it’s a couple of weeks ago when I took a fried in who was staying with us. I don’t see a dirty old barbers shop any more, just see Vipen the barber and is old barbers table and chair all out of rose wood, I love the way he has taken an old TV stuck it on the wall and uses it as a cupboard. I love India and all that she has in store for me and I thank her for making me take off my western rose tinted glasses and making me be able to look at the world with more understanding eyes.