Reading the light of Rajasthan
- Golden hours
- Two after sunrise, two before sunset
- Go indoors
- From about ten in the morning
- Clearest skies
- October and November
- Mist and haze
- December and January
- Milky light
- From April, with the dust
- Monsoon
- July to September: big skies, full lakes
The hour
One of India's brightest skies: in the cool season the sun rises fast and climbs high.
- By ten in the morning: the light is flat and harsh, with deep black shadows under every arch.
- Then go indoors: to museums, havelis and painted rooms, or rest.
- The great outdoor frames: made in the first two hours after sunrise and the last two before sunset, when the low sun skims across sandstone and turns it warm.
Each city's colour
Jaipur: the terracotta pink is softest in the early morning and glows deepest just before sunset.
- Jaisalmer: the yellow sandstone turns almost orange in the last half hour of the day, which is why people call it the golden city.
- Jodhpur: the blue houses look best in clean morning light from the ramparts of Mehrangarh, before the haze builds.
- Udaipur: the white palaces need warm evening light to stop them looking chalky, and the lakes are glassy and still at dawn.
The season
October and November: just after the monsoon has washed the air, the clearest skies of the year.
December and January: cold mornings, mist over the lakes and sometimes haze in the cities, lovely for soft, layered landscapes.
- February: bright and clean again.
- From April: the dust rises and the light turns milky.
- July to September: dramatic skies, green hills and reflections in full lakes and stepwells, with the risk of a washed-out grey day. See weather and climate.
After dark
A short blue hour: in the desert it passes quickly after sunset, and then the stars arrive.
- The Milky Way: far from the towns, around Jaisalmer and the dunes, it is clear on moonless winter nights.
- Bring a small tripod: for the hotel terrace, and ask us about stargazing in the Thar.
Photographing people with respect
Ask first: the herders, the women in bright odhnis and the old men in the bazaar are people going about their day.
A universal question: a smile, a gesture at your camera and a raised eyebrow. Most people say yes, often with delight, and many ask to see the picture afterwards.
No is final: especially from women in conservative villages and families at prayer.
- Never: photograph someone who has turned away, covered their face or waved you off.
- Time, not stealth: sit with a potter for twenty minutes, buy from the bangle seller or share chai with the camel herder, and the photograph happens naturally.
- Our guides open doors: they are often from the communities you visit and make the introductions.
- One greeting: learn khamma ghani and the mood changes at once. Our page on Rajasthani phrases has more.
- Paid portraits: men in large turbans wait at forts and car parks and will ask for money after a picture, so agree before you shoot.
- Captive animals: we do not photograph performances with snake charmers or dancing monkeys, and ask our guests not to either.
- Children: never give money or sweets for photographs, however charming they are. It keeps them out of school and teaches them to beg.
- Take special care: with women, sadhus, mourners, funerals and anyone bathing.
- Sacred places: cremation grounds and the bathing ghats at Pushkar; photographing people at their most private is deeply offensive.
- Read more: our guides to local etiquette and women travellers.
Temples, monuments and the rules
Rules vary and change: many temples forbid photography inside the sanctum, and some anywhere within the walls.
When in doubt: look for the sign, ask the priest or attendant, or keep the camera in its bag. See our guide to temple etiquette.
Tripods and big bags: restricted at many protected sites.
- Shrinathji, Nathdwara
- No cameras or phones inside
- Dilwara, Mount Abu
- No photography inside
- Ajmer Sharif
- Not welcome near the tomb
- Ranakpur
- Halls often yes, main image no
- Taj Mahal
- Gardens and platform, not the tomb chamber
- Drones
- Tightly regulated; we advise against
- Flash: often banned in museums and painted rooms, because it damages pigment.
- Professional shoots: commercial work, pre-wedding sessions or anything with lighting and crew needs written permission in advance, so tell us early and we will apply.
- Drone permits: India requires registration and permits, with large no-fly areas around airports, military areas, borders and many protected monuments.
- Rajasthan has all of these: including the border districts around Jaisalmer and Barmer.
- Jawai: a court ruling bans drones near the leopards altogether.
- On arrival: rules change often and customs may question a drone, so we do not recommend bringing one. If you must, speak to us months ahead.
- Never photograph: military installations, army convoys, airports or police checkposts.
Where to stand, and at what hour
- Hawa Mahal
- Sunrise
- Mehrangarh ramparts
- Opening time
- Jaisalmer Fort
- Sunset from Vyas Chhatri
- Ambrai Ghat, Udaipur
- Late afternoon
- Chand Baori
- Early light
- Mehtab Bagh, Agra
- Sunset
Jaipur: Hawa Mahal at sunrise
Facing east: the first sun falls full on the Palace of Winds' 953 windows while the street below is still empty.
The straight-on frame: from a rooftop café across Siredeori Bazaar.
- Later: walk to Badi Chaupar for the bazaar waking up.
- Sunset: climb to Nahargarh Fort for the whole pink grid.
- Stepwell geometry: Panna Meena ka Kund near Amer is best in soft morning light, before the sun reaches the bottom.
Jaipur: the painted gates and Patrika Gate
Pritam Niwas Chowk: inside the City Palace, the four painted gates are a favourite.
- Go early: the peacock gate is busiest by mid-morning.
- Patrika Gate: the modern painted gateway on Jawahar Circle is a riot of colour and pattern.
- Weekday mornings: you can frame its arches without a queue of selfie-takers.
Jodhpur: the blue city from the ramparts
At opening: be at Mehrangarh and look down as the morning sun lights the blue houses.
- Into the lanes: walk Navchokiya and Brahmpuri with a local guide for doorways, steps and painted walls.
- Toorji ka Jhalra: the restored stepwell is best in the late afternoon.
- Jaswant Thada: the white marble glows in the last light with the fort behind it.
Jaisalmer: the golden fort at sunset
The classic view: from the Vyas Chhatri cenotaphs at sunset, when the walls turn deep gold.
- Dawn: Gadisar Lake is calm, with its pavilions and the arched gate of Tilon ki Pol reflected in the water.
- Silhouettes: the carved cenotaphs of Bada Bagh at sunset.
- Dunes: Sam or Khuri give rippled sand in the low, raking light of the first and last hours.
Udaipur: palaces on the water
Ambrai Ghat: in the late afternoon, as the sun lights the City Palace facade across Lake Pichola.
- At dawn: Gangaur Ghat and Bagore ki Haveli.
- Sunset from above: the Monsoon Palace on its hilltop gives a wide view over the lakes and hills.
- From the water: a boat at golden hour frames the Lake Palace.
Bundi, Pushkar and the stepwells
Bundi: climb towards Taragarh in the early morning for the palace tumbling down the hill and the blue town below.
Raniji ki Baori: step into Raniji ki Baori for its carved gateways in soft side light.
- Pushkar ghats at dawn: pilgrims bathing in the mist are unforgettable, but photograph the scene from a respectful distance, never the bathers up close.
- Savitri temple: the climb at sunrise gives the whole town and lake below.
- Chand Baori, Abhaneri: needs early light to show its thirteen storeys of steps.
Agra: the Taj from two sides
- At opening time: the marble shifts from grey to pink to white and the gardens are quietest. Our piece on the Taj Mahal at sunrise explains the timing.
- For sunset: cross the Yamuna to Mehtab Bagh, where the Taj sits above the river with no crowds in your frame.
Bazaars, lanes and street life
The first hour after sunrise: shopkeepers sprinkle water on their doorsteps, milk boils in wide iron pans, flower sellers string marigolds and the light comes low down the lanes.
By ten: traffic thickens, the shutters are up, and the crowd makes clean frames hard.
Walk with a guide: to the bangle makers of Maniharon ka Rasta in Jaipur before anyone else arrives.
- Jodhpur and Jaisalmer: the spice stalls around the Clock Tower, and the carved doorways inside Jaisalmer Fort.
- Patience: find a good background, a painted wall or a doorway in raking light, and wait for life to walk through it.
- Small courtesies: buy something before you photograph a stall, and smile at the shopkeeper.
- It is a business: bazaar shopkeepers are used to cameras, so do not block the counter or crowd customers.
- Restraint with colour: a single woman in a saffron odhni against a blue wall says more than a frame crammed with every colour of the market.
- Look for repetition: rows of turbans in a shop, stacks of brass pots, lines of kites on Makar Sankranti, a queue of camels on the road to Pushkar.
Painted rooms, mirrors and dark interiors
Treasures indoors: the mirrored rooms of Amber and Junagarh, the painted Chitrashala at Bundi, the frescoed havelis of Shekhawati, the stained glass of Mehrangarh's palaces.
Dim and flash-free: flash is usually banned because it fades old pigments and annoys everyone else.
Settings: use a fast lens if you have one and raise your ISO.
- Steady yourself: brace against a wall or pillar rather than carrying a tripod you probably cannot use.
- Mirror work: reflects everything, including you, so stand off-centre and shoot at an angle.
- Painted rooms: look for details: a single figure on a ceiling, gold leaf on a doorframe, a peacock in a niche.
- Perfect timing: the harsh midday hours are the time for interiors.
- Shekhawati: in the painted havelis of Shekhawati, outside walls are best in soft morning or evening light; courtyards and inner rooms work any time.
- Private homes: many havelis and heritage hotels are lived in, so ask before photographing rooms that are not public.
Tigers, leopards and birds
A telephoto is essential: 100 to 400 millimetres covers most situations in Ranthambore and Jawai; birders at Bharatpur often want longer.
Open, bumpy, dusty jeeps: a bean bag on the side of the vehicle is more useful than a tripod, which you cannot use in a jeep anyway.
Between sightings: keep a cloth over your camera.
- Lens
- 100 to 400 mm for most
- Support
- A bean bag, not a tripod
- Settings
- Burst mode, fast shutter
- Dust
- A cloth over the camera
- Birding season
- Winter
- Light: best early and late, exactly when safaris run. Winter mornings start cold, and first light through the dhok trees can be beautiful.
- Be ready: a tiger crossing a track gives you seconds, not minutes. Watch the background as much as the animal.
- Our ethics: we never bait animals, never chase, never crowd a sighting and never use spotlights.
- Jawai rules: drones and night safaris are forbidden, and we follow that strictly.
- Let it go: if a tiger or leopard moves away, so do we. See how we arrange wildlife safaris.
- Winter birding: Keoladeo at Bharatpur is one of the great bird sanctuaries of Asia.
- Cranes and flamingos: demoiselle cranes come to Khichan near Phalodi, and flamingos gather on the salt lakes of Sambhar.
Festivals and fairs
Holi powder: at Holi it gets everywhere, including inside lenses and cameras.
Protect your kit: use a waterproof cover or a cheap camera you do not mind ruining, and seal your phone in a bag.
- Makar Sankranti
- January, kites over Jaipur
- Holi
- Colour everywhere
- Gangaur and Teej
- Women's processions
- Pushkar camel fair
- Month of Kartik
- Consent: colour thrown at strangers is fun only if everyone agrees, so we plan Holi in a safe, private setting where you can photograph freely.
- Kite day: on Makar Sankranti, rooftops of the walled city in Jaipur fill with families flying kites; a haveli roof gives you the whole sky full of paper.
- Gangaur and Teej: women in their finest dress follow the goddess through the streets, so bring a short telephoto to shoot without pushing in.
- Pushkar's problem: the Pushkar camel fair is so famous that crowds of lenses make some herders refuse to be photographed at all.
- How to do Pushkar: go at sunrise, when dawn light over thousands of camels on the dunes is magical, and ask every time.
What to pack, and how to protect it
Lenses: a wide or standard zoom covers forts, cities and interiors; a short telephoto handles portraits, festivals and details. Bring a long lens only for safari or birding.
Changing lenses: as little as possible in the desert or on safari, and never in the wind. Turn your back to the breeze, and do it inside the car if you can.
- Lenses
- Wide or standard zoom, short telephoto
- Cleaning
- Blower, microfibre cloth, wipes
- Power
- Spare batteries, cards, adaptor
- Sockets
- Mostly round-pin
- Backup
- Every evening
- Cleaning kit: a blower brush, a microfibre cloth and lens wipes. Clean the outside of the lens often, and leave the sensor alone until you are somewhere still and clean.
- Spare batteries and cards: hotels have power, but camps and long drives may not, and cold mornings drain batteries faster.
- Plugs: pack a universal adaptor. India uses mostly round-pin sockets, and power can surge, so a small surge-protected strip is useful.
- Tripod: a small travel tripod suits night skies and blue hour at your hotel, but leave it in the car at monuments, where it may be refused.
- Back up every evening: a laptop, a portable drive or cloud storage over hotel wifi means one stolen bag never takes your whole trip.
- Phones: they take wonderful pictures here, and draw less attention than a large camera in the bazaar.
How we plan a journey around the light
Days built backwards from golden hour: an early start at the right fort, a long middle of the day indoors or resting, and the right place for sunset.
Hotels with views: we choose them for the view as well as comfort, so a palace terrace or lakeside room becomes part of your portfolio.
- Inside knowledge: we know which rooftops face which monuments and which cafés will let you set up quietly.
- Guides who know people: not professional photographers, but they know where to stand, introduce you to the bangle maker, potter and herder, and translate so a portrait becomes a conversation.
- For serious photographers: a specialist photography guide for part of the journey, permissions for professional shoots, and plans around festivals and fairs.
- Our photography journey: the photography journey follows the best light in Jaipur, Jodhpur, Jaisalmer and Udaipur.
- More ideas: our journal piece on Rajasthan for photographers.
- The view from above: a hot air balloon over the hills around Jaipur at dawn shows forts and villages from the sky.
What our cousin tells his clients
Be in position before the light arrives: not when it does. Golden hour here is short.
Shoot, then look: put the camera down and just look. The best picture is often the one you see on your second walk.
- Ask first, always: and show people their photograph. It is the quickest way to make a friend.
- Look up: jharokhas, brackets and painted ceilings are where the craftsmen hid their best work.
- Photograph hands as well as faces: a printer's block, a potter's wheel, henna on a bride's palm.
- Two things never to do: pay for portraits of children, or photograph anyone bathing at the ghats.
- Leave one sunset unphotographed: sit on a rooftop with chai and watch the city turn pink.