Discovering small town India in a Mercedes-Benz CLA 200

Photograph/ Prasad Np

On the final day of Frame the Star  Face-Off, Prasad Np aka desi Traveler joins our contestant Raj Lalwani to discover life in small town India amongst the green hills of Chikmagalur.  Read on to find out what they found.

The young turks on day four wanted to do something different, as most of the locations and shots were now getting repetitive. So in the quest for some novelty each of them decided to head different directions in search of locations that were not used by photographers who shot the Mercedes-Benz CLA 200 earlier in the Chikmagalur round.

Raj was looking for very different kind of pictures that would stand out from the standard product / automobile kind of shots. So, he wanted to shoot the car in situations where day to day life of small town India could be seen, explored and discovered through the car. As for Raj, a car is a means to explore a place. He was keen to get some unique pictures that showcase the Mercedes-Benz CLA 200 in a way that also gives the viewer an idea of the place.

So we took a road through a forest, along a river, with the hope that we’d find a way to reach the river bank and catch some action there. But, unfortunately, we could not find any so we continued our search till we reached this small town called Balehole on the banks of the Bhadra river.

There is a small temple on the banks of the river called Chennakeshawara Temple from where a set of stairs lead you down for river rafting. But on this trip we were looking to click pictures of the Mercedes-Benz CLA 200 and Raj found a line of Auto Rickshaws, that led him to some ideas and he got busy clicking.

As he moved around to scout for some locations, a hen decided to explore the Mercedes-Benz CLA 200 parked on what was apparently her road. Welcome to small town India.

But Raj was happy with all the action around him with huge buses and lorries passing on a small bridge, chit chatting with customers in a small eatery, it was so tiny that there were only two benches for customers to sit.  Soon he was happily making his shotsm freezing forever the life in small town Indiam with a shining Mercedes-Benz CLA 200 as the witness.

Some of the pictures that Raj clicked were truly artsy and street photography style, this was over and above the mandatory complete shots of the car. Will these pictures impress the judges? Would they be interested in the artistic quality of these pictures? Well, let us wait for another few days when the three finalists will be announced, who will reach the finals and join in the drive from Chandigarh to Shimla.

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Prasad Np is a passionate photographer who enjoys photographing people, wildlife, and travel. He is the author of the travel and photography blog called desi Traveler.  You can connect with him on twitter @desiTraveler