There are several photography skills that every self-respecting adventurer needs.

Thus far we've demonstrated a few of them. You can take a look at some excellent demonstrations in our earlier posts. These skills are:

1. taking shots of ourselves. we've pretty much mastered this skill. it's just more convenient to shoot ourselves instead of having others shoot us.

2. stealth photography, when it's explicitly prohibited. after an afternoon spent dodging watchmen and surveillance cameras at the indian museum in calcutta, we are almost expert spies. would-be employers, please take a look at our portfolio, which is displayed in an earlier post.

3. the commonplace scenery/statue/static object/pose snapshot.

the darjeeling leg of our epic adventure provided us with the opportunity to post some further instruction on more essential vacation photography skills.

4. the photograph as deterrent. beggars come a-begging? cannot shake them off? taking a photograph of them does the trick. beggar will go bother someone more charitable-looking and less trigger happy.

5. shooting from a moving vehicle . there may come a time when the intrepid adventurer finds himself trapped in a moving vehicle, for instance, a jeep taxiing him from the train station to darjeeling.

so much nice scenery along the way and no way to stop, set up a tripod, and shoot something spectacular. so he must brave the elements and stick his hand out the window.
much foresight is needed to mentally chart out the obstacle-strewn road ahead and determine the exact moment that the shot should be taken. even then, his reflexes may fail him. or some unexpected thing may appear. Here are several problems he may encounter that will mar the photograph he has so carefully planned.

a. the kerb that gets in the way.

b. an offending shrub


c. the smothering mist

d. hideous fellow road users
when the heavenly celestial bodies, galaxies, stars, lampposts and road kerbs align and the mist deigns to lift itself, a nice shot of picturesque scenery is the photographer's prize.

bonus shot: posse of cows on winding road.
6. the last skill for now. photography with false targets.
should an adventurer find himself wanting to take a photograph of a potentially dangerous/shy/unwilling subject, he can find a prop very useful for disguising his intentions. by placing the prop at one side of the photograph and pretending to snap it/him while really capturing his true target in the other side of the photograph, one can avoid alerting the true target and encountering potentially problematic consequences.

consider this example. i am the prop. darjeeling schoolgirls are the real target.