Hemant Sawant is a very dear friend who owns Ganesh Color Lab at Lalbagh and helping him out in this successful venture is his dynamic wife and two teenage daughters Siyali and Sonali both avid photographers like their dad and mother.
Hemant is a very innovative photographer technician and knows the ABCD of photography processing printing ,, and has attended many workshops on behalf of his lab,,, He has done fine art adventure photography shot the tribes of Andaman but he is low key and does not flaunt his work.. perhaps I am the only one he shares with.
And strange part is we meet only twice a year when I come for Lalbagh Chya Rajas darshan and the Visarjan so I have been seeing his daughters when they were very small ..its the first time I met them shooting the Visarjan with their dad on a huge ladder ,. all three on each step..
Sonali the youngest one is a bird photographer ,..
I am happy their dad taught them photography as seriously as he does it and as passionately too.
When I come to his lab during this festive period he shoots me I shoot him..
He has helped a lot of people make extra money , he gives them the Lalbagh Cha Raja prints that they sell to the crowds on commission basis ,, this year he was selling Ganeshas digital printed caps and Tshirts.
I was shooting with him perched on his ladder I shot Ganesh Gully and Tejuka Ganeshas had I waited another 3 hours I could have shot Lalbagh Cha Raja top shot , I rested at his studio for sometime , my feet I dont wear shoes were totally burnt walking on the tar roads .. and I have a unhealing injury on one of the foot that gets aggravated .I decided to leave Lalbagh I walked till Lower Parel Station jumping hopping skipping as my feet burnt and than by train reached Charni Road .
Here at Paramount Restaurant a Irani joint I had black coffee and the owner gave me jug of cold water with which I washed my feed outside his joint and than caught up with my friend Vinay Parelkar who was waiting for me near the Mafatlal Bath .. we were joined by Ravi Shankar a hobbyist and we shot the Ganesh Visarjan Girgaum Chowpatty ,,
The only pleasing aspect of shooting here there were hordes of people students young old professionals media and foreigners shooting the Last Journey of Bappa Morya .all with their DSLR s and the largest number shooting on mobile ,, Lord Ganesha was surely bringing the photographers out ,,
I am 63 year old I felt like a kid this was the first time I was shooting the Lord in the waters .. My pictures all at Flickr a complete storyboard testify to my peaceful state of mind the seawater had calmed the pain and the burns on my feet ,,walking barefeet in September heat is like walking on scalding hot water ,,,
This was a picture blog .. I have now added words to it ,,
