Since we arrived, Bennett has been on a quest for diffusion to color and soften the light. They’ve experimented with all kinds of materials, including khatas from the wedding.
After work at the Archive, we stopped at a stationery shop to explore some options.
They didn’t have any diffusion, but there was some colored gel-like material that seemed promising. Most of the lights here are fluorescents with a painful greenish-blue cast, so orange and red really warm things up.
Since he finds carrying a notebook so useful (I’ve borrowed it a few times already), Bennett bought each of the staff one for camera lessons. Each time they take a photo, he asks them to write down the f-stop, shutter speed, and ISO/gain. These days, cameras actually store all that information via EXIF metadata, which is really helpful, but moving a pen on paper seems to help people remember things better.
Ultimately, Bennett decided to order proper equipment—color chart, reflectors, diffusion, even a Leatherman—from a reputable movie facility in Mumbai, which led to many amusing telephone, bank, and shipping company antics (few companies ship directly to McLeod Ganj).
Speaking of light, here are two photos of a solitary incandescent light bulb hanging at Kirti Monastery. There’s something reassuring about the exact sameness of this tiny space of real estate in Northern India—a fixed point for the rest of the rapidly changing world to revolve around. One great thing about having Bennett here is a sentences like this: “You know that one light bulb at the monastery on the way to Temple Road?” And he actually knows what I’m talking about.
