Misty morning in Bangalore, circa 1975

As far as I can remember, this photograph was taken some time in the spring of 1975. Bangalore those days was a small, uncrowded city and the Bangalore weather was fabulous throughout the year, more so during winter and spring.

My house was located very close to the North-West part of the Ulsoor Lake and faced a military war memorial. That morning there was a light mist and the early morning sunlight filtering thru the leaves of a nearby peepal tree was creating beautiful halo-like effects. I had actually planned to catch a bullock cart or maybe a couple of cows with my camera but it didn’t quite happen that way.

My camera (Sunflex, a twin lens Japanese model, my father’s, passed down to me) was loaded with a 100 ASA black-and-white film (I used only 100 ASA film for all my photography for a very long time). In my opinion, 100 ASA film is a very user friendly film because of its slowness. It allows a bit of leeway in the aperture and shutter speed settings, in regular kind of weather.

So there I was, camera at the ready, waiting for my subjects to appear. But there was nary a sign of bullock cart nor cow. The sun was going higher and higher and the mist was beginning to dissipate. Just then I saw this milkman slowly cycling up. He gave me enough time to frame him against the embankment of the lake and the result is what you see.

The print that is scanned and reproduced here was made on a monochrome paper with a sepia tint.