Departure January 25 – February 4, 2014
This is a photo tour workshop to South India with international travel photographer and photography workshop instructor William Yu. Kerala –a region of India that conjures up images of Aladdin and His Magic Lamp. On this photo essay journey of Kerala cultural heritage and arts you visit scenic fishing villages and performing arts training schools. Learn about Kerala Ayurvedic medicine traditions. Photograph architecture & explore the tea estates. Discover how Balaramapuram cloth is made. Kerala Photo Safari gives you an insider’s look at magical South India.
Endorsed by Bryan F. Peterson:
“I have worked with William Yu on many occasions and let me state emphatically that he is one of the best workshop instructors ever and one heck of a talented photographer too! You will enjoy your time with William and learn far more than perhaps you ever imagined in the workshops he offers!” –Bryan F Peterson, Co-FounderThe Picture Perfect School of Photography
Kerala Photo Safari Tour
Here’s a list of exclusive activities not offered in other tours:
***The expert photography instruction of international photographer William Yu.***
– In addition to William Yu, you have a photography tour director throughout the tour
– A private photo shoot to see and photograph students learning Kalaripayuttu is a Dravidian martial art from Kerala in origin A specially granted request
– South India dance performance for photographing A specially granted request
– Visit to Kalamandalam, the school for performing arts in Kerala to photograph students being trained in Kathakali, Koodiyattam, Mohiniyaattam, Thullal and PanchavaadyamA specially granted request
– Learn about Ayurvedic medicine at Vaidyaratnam Oushadhasala, an Ayurvedic college A specially granted request
– Dinner at House of Nimmy Paul, a traditional Kerala feast
– Photograph South India tea estates and tea making at Kolukkumalai A specially granted request
– Sunset cruise on the Vembanad Lake with a day sail on a kettuvalam down the Kerala backwaters A specially granted request
– A 3 hour train ride for more photo variations of people and landscapes
– Visit Padmanabhapuram Palace, to photograph Kerala architecture
– See how the famous Balaramapuram cloth is made, traditional cloth of Kerala A specially granted request
Day 1 – Kochi
Your Kerala photography holiday starts when you fly in to Kochi. Namaste! Our tour representative will welcome you at the airport the traditional Indian way with hands clapped together and drive you to your hotel. On arrival at your hotel you enjoy a tender coconut as your welcome drink. Your hotel is perfectly located for the photo shooting we’ve got in store for you during your stay in Kochi.
After an introductory meeting and a one-to-one chat with your Tour Director about your photography, we’ll head right out the atmosphere of Fort Kochi. We’ll take our first shots in Kerala right here, at a 5 minutes walking distance from our hotel, and are very close to the famous Chinese fishing nets of Kochi, brought to the port by the Chinese explorer Zheng He 900 years ago. They’re fascinating old bits of fishing technology — bamboo, teak, stones, ropes and nets — and are fabulous for photographic props. It’ll be sunset time for perfect pictures. The darker it gets, the more attractive the nets become… a perfect illustration of the landscape photographer’s fascination with shooting after the sun has gone. Soon, the fishermen will mount lamps on their nets to attract the fish, posing a fresh opportunity for our photographs. Evening we enjoy a welcome dinner at the Hotel.
Overnight: Malabar House in Fort Kochi (1 Night)
Day 2 – Kochi/Thrissur – (Drive 190 Km/4 to 5 Hours)
Kalaripayuttu is a Dravidian martial art from Kerala in origin. Like most martial arts, it’s a rigorous system of movements, postures and techniques and is inextricably associated with religious practice and a master-pupil teaching model. Its top practitioners are formidably fast, supple, strong and graceful — and they are wonderful objects of photographic worship to boot.
So this morning, when the light is pink and soft, we find ourselves at another photo-shoot specially planned for us. We get access to a private photo shoot opportunity to see and photograph students learning from a Kalari Master. While Kalari is blisteringly fast, the training sessions are usually slow-paced, full of photogenic ritual, giving us great shooting opportunities. There’s so much here for every kind of shooter: introspective slice-of-life close ups, mid-air freezes, fiery action sequences, soft scenes of worship and blessing…a pure shooting heaven!
We return to the hotel for breakfast and later get up close with the dance forms of South India. These classical dance styles offer everything a photographer could ask for: rich colors, dramatic makeup, vivid and elaborate costumes. We’ve planned an exclusive custom performance and venue where we’ll be able to get the very best vantage points and access to the artists. This is a wonderful opportunity to understand how light and movement and narrative can work together to create great photos.
We check out from the hotel & in the afternoon there is a lot to see: the Jewish quarter and the synagogue, the magnificent Santa Cruz Basilica, and of course street shooting around the lanes and alleys of Fort Kochi itself.
Late in the afternoon we head out to Thrissur, a small town but very important from the Cultural and Ayurvedic Industry point of view.
Overnight: River Retreat Hotel in Thrissur (1 Night)
NOTE: JEWISH SYNAGOGUE AND QUARTERS ARE CLOSED ON FRIDAY’S AND SATURDAY’S
Day3 – Thrissur/Kochi (Drive – 120 Kms)
The day is important from the photographic point of view as after breakfast we drive to Kerala Kalamandalam to spend a day with the masters. We have to reach Kalamandalam at 9 A.M. Kerala.
Kalamandalam, a deemed University, is the premiere public institution in India imparting training in and conducting performances of the classical performing arts of Kerala: Kathakali, Koodiyattam, Mohiniyaattam, Thullal and Panchavaadyam. It was founded in 1930 by renowned poet Padmabhooshan Vallathol Narayana Menon. Here we get to know in detail the various forms of South Indian dances. Lunch is also served here. After visiting Kalamandalam, we drive back to Kochi. Thissur is also center for production of various Ayurvedic Medicines and on our way back we visit the facilities at Vaidyaratnam Oushadhasala.
We have arranged tonight’s dinner at the House of Nimmy Paul. Nimmy Paul is a famous culinary expert serving authentic Kerala dishes. We eat dinner served on Banana Leaves in the Kerala Traditional way.
Overnight: Malabar House in Fort Kochi (1 Night)
Day 4 – Kochi/Munnar – (Drive 130 Kms / 4-5 Hrs)
After a leisurely breakfast, we head for the hills. It’s a four-hour drive to Munnar, and you’ll love it: winding roads run through dense forest and scenic hills, and get first glimpses of the ribbed emerald-green carpet of tea-planted slopes.
Munnar’s a hill region and we’re there as it moves from the winter season into summer. Munnar is an important high-point on our Kerala photography tour. It’s picture book pretty, it’s authentic Kerala. We’ll be making frequent stop along the way to grab great photo opportunities. We will arrive into Munnar for a late lunch. The afternoon is free to settle into our comfortable boutique hotel.
Early evening, we’ll grab our cameras and head to the Pothamedu view point to photograph the whole transition from day to dusk… stunning tea-estate scenery at our feet.
Overnight: Windermere Hotel in Munnar (2 Nights)
Day 5 – Munnar
This morning is a high point of our Western Ghats exploration. It’s the loftiest tea-growing plantation in the world, perched 2,400 meters up with its green slopes overlooking some truly remarkable Kerala scenery.
The photographic treasure-hunt today is about tea-garden landscapes, sometimes with the clouds high above, sometimes with clouds so low that we literally drive through them. We’ll capture the bright colors of the estate workers’ clothes and machinery against the verdant green, and at the tea factory itself we’ll walk into an engineering time-warp where old, battered machines process the tea leaves into top-quality tea.
At Kolukkumalai, you’re right at the historic heart of Kerala tea. Here on this estate in the 1930s, the British constructed a small processing facility to turn the freshly picked tea leaves into the classic cuppa — and that same factory is here today, with the very same Gainsborough-built machines whirring and clanking as they do the withering, rolling, sieving, fermenting, drying, extracting and grading stages of making tea. Anywhere else, these machines would be museum-pieces — but here they seem to be perfectly suited to the time-honored traditions of tea-making. We return to our Hotel in the evening.
Day 6 – Munnar/Kumarakom (Drive 150 Kms / Approx 4-5 Hrs)
Today we head back to the lowlands and Kerala’s glorious Arabian Sea coastline. Back in the lowlands, our coach takes us straight to Kumarakom and we’ll check into our hotel. Kumarakom truly is a paradise and without even leaving your hotel, the temptations and opportunities to shoot are many. The day is free to laze, swim, socialize and explore. In the evening take the sunset cruise on the Vembanad Lake where we get plenty of opportunity to shoot some nice photographs.
Overnight: Coconut Lagoon Hotel in Kumarakom (1 Night)
Day 7 – Kumarakom/Alappuzha (By Boat)
After an early Breakfast we check out and head for the embarkation point, settle into our small fleet of air conditioned Houseboats traditionally called kettuvalams, and set sail for the Kerala backwaters, where there’ll be time to get our first photogenic glimpse of the land of the backwaters, the British Viceroy to India Lord Curzon christened ‘the Venice of the East’. From a photographer’s perspective, kettuvallam life is a big win too.
You’re literally in and part of the scenery, and these boats are vast compared with the shikaras which you will be riding today later in the evening, you’re higher up, so you’ll get a completely different shooting perspective compared with the shikara’s inches-above-the-water skateboard eye view. With bigger boats we can cruise through the big canals, which are the equivalent of backwater highways. Along the way, we’ll see colorful temples and churches, houses, paddy fields and a lot more of life in the backwaters. Lunch is served on the Boat and later we disembark at Alleppey and check in to your hotel.
The backwaters have an awful lot to do with Kerala’s paradise status. In the late afternoon We’ll hop aboard our little shikaras — little wooden water-taxis, canopied for shade — and dawdle lazily for a couple of hours through the maze of lakes, lagoons, canals and bayous that make up famous backwaters of Kerala. Here we’ll see and photograph thriving Keralite communities and villages, and we’ll witness backwater life right up close. The shikara shoot gives us an intimate and honest perspective of life in the Kerala backwaters… it’s an experience you won’t forget.
Overnight: Lemontree Hotel, Alappuzha (1 Night)
Day 8 – Alleppey/Varkala (By Train)
Trivandrum Express : Departure from Alleppy at 07:00 Hrs/ Arrive Varkala at 09:09 Hrs. Drive Varkala / Kovalam (75 Kms / Approx 1.5 -2 Hrs)
Early morning we leave Alleppey for Varkala by train in the morning, riding the route to Thiruvananthapuram. Our train journey takes us way down to the southern end of Kerala. A pleasant three-hour train ride gives us interesting glimpses of the aspects of Kerala we’ve not yet experienced on our journey. Indian rail journeys are fascinating shoot opportunities in their own right — both what’s on board and what’s not!
We’ll see beautiful waterways, villages, billboards and roads flashing by as we head southwards. We leave our train at the tourist town of Varkala — so famously laid-back that it’s unquestionably horizontal. Varkala’s worth a look because it is beautiful and different to anything we’ve seen on the Keralan seaboard: these are the only beach cliffs in the whole of Kerala. After exploring and shooting Varkala’s beach and cliff top life, we’ll drive onto Kovalam, where on arrival, we’ll check in to our wonderful hotel overlooking the sea and head off to the iconic lighthouse on Lighthouse Beach, timing it so we have sunset doing the lighting for us and making everything picture book perfect. We’ll grab other great opportunities: huge displays of freshly-caught fish, local people enjoying the beach and picturesque fishing boats dragged up on the sand.
Overnight: The Travancore Heritage Hotel, Kovalam (3 nights)
Day 9 – Kovalam
We wake up in our rather special hotel: the world’s first Ayurveda resort. Set in 15 acres of greenery and set on a low hill overlooking the sea, this has got to be one of the most naturally rejuvenating stays we’ve ever come across. The main reason we’re here is because it’s a great base for exploration, just the little distance away from the hustle and the hustling of Kovalam Beach yet in a gorgeous position just a few dozen meters from the warm Arabian Sea. After breakfast, we’re off to shoot at the fish market at Vizhinjam Beach nearby. Here we’re in for a visual treat! Fishermen hauling in catches in colorful boats and unloading piles of just-caught fish onto the dock, and the selling of the fish right on the spot.
We’ll get in close to the action, capturing shots of flopping fish, smiling faces, colorful clothes, friendly banter, serious fish-trading and money changing hands.
After lunch we head off towards the very southern-most tip of India. Our destination is the 16th-century Padmanabhapuram Palace to see and photograph the building that epitomizes traditional Kerala architecture. The palace has some interesting woodwork, small ponds, a small theater built with intricately carved pillars in stone and several other attractions. This is a great place to learn about the dynamic range of your camera sensor and work with its limitations to create great architectural photographs.
We’ll make a small detour after the palace visit to see one of the many small tea-shops of Kerala and get an opportunity to shoot smoke-stained walls, old stoves, and the patina of serving thousands of customers over many years: rich authentic textures, colors and faces that will give us stunning images to take home.
The evening is free to enjoy as you wish, watch the sunset over the Arabian Sea, or chill in a bar and breathe in the spirit Kerala.
Day 10 – Kovalam
As we’ve travelled and explored and photographed Kerala over the last couple of weeks, you may have noticed that particularly well-dressed Keralite men and women — perhaps glimpsed at a wedding ceremony or formal occasion — often wear a certain specific style of mainly-white clothing with a metallic stripe. Chances are what you saw was the famous Balaramapuram handloom mundu or saree — and today we’re off to see and shoot the fascinating process in which this material is made.
We are visiting today Balaramapuram, a township where some 50000 weavers live. This will be a fascinating personal insight and a brilliant subject for today’s photo-essay project. The simple wooden looms, hand-powered and churning out fine fabrics in simple earth-floored rooms lit, perhaps, by a shaft of light from a high window or a naked bulb; the transition of the cotton from a filmy curtain of a few fine gossamer strands to a dense rich fabric; the embedding of the gold or silver threads; the ladies operating the looms with a remarkable mix of skill, mental concentration and cheeriness; and the entire back-story of Balaramapuram with its recent switch back to Ayurvedic dyes and the future of its product and producers — authentic cultural insights and great opportunities for wonderful photographs. This being our last night in Kerala we enjoy a farewell dinner.
Day 11 – Depart Kovalam
It’s time for personal farewells to tour-group friends and a wistful wave goodbye to Kerala as we are transferred to Thiruvananthapuram International Airport for our connecting flights home.
CALL NOW to BOOK 415-331-3791
Cost $3795, per person, land only
Single supplement $950
(Small group tour with 5 persons minimum to guarantee departure – 12 persons maximum)
For Frequently Asked Questions:
Cost includes:
– Accommodation on Twin- sharing basis for 10 Nights in the mentioned hotels with all meals
– Transport in air- conditioned vehicle for all sightseeing tours, arrival and departure transfers as per the itinerary. *** Train Fare from Alleppey to Varkala.
– Assistance on arrival / departure
– Services of local English speaking tour guide/manager throughout the tour.
– All currently applicable taxes, including service tax @ 3.09%
– All entrances to the monuments of visit
– Shikara (Canoe Ride) in Alleppey
– Day Cruise from Kumarakom/Alleppey with lunch on board
– Welcome dinner in Cochin
– Dinner with Nimmy and Paul
– Farewell dinner in Kovalam
Cost does not include:
– International, visa fees, airport tax or any kind of trip insurance coverage.
– Items of personal nature like drinks, laundry, telephone calls, tips, etc.
– Liability for change in itinerary due to reasons beyond our control like change in schedule / cancellation of flights / trains / political disturbances, natural phenomenon etc.
– Any other item not specifically mentioned above as included
– Gratuity
