Sadananda around 60 years old photographer welcomed me to his makeshift photo studio openhearted and offered me a place to sit and a glass full of water to drink. Yellamma fair is one of the biggest fair and it is so big that it is hard to find a place to sit ! After walked for more than 20 Kms I was happy to accept his offer and share few things on photography.
” Saar, ella change agaithi ( Sir , everthing changed !) ” he tells with a disappointment in his eyes . He says he and his brothers were first in the whole Savadatti town to have a studio . They bought ranges of cameras right from box camera to medium format cameras to recent film cameras . he remembers how he used to travel on bicycles between villages holding his heavy cameras . Villagers sometime used to give rice and wheat instead of money !
Now he has to shoot with the easy digital cameras with a simple background or just shoot the face and then mix with some templates. People can chose variety of templates such as standing with their favorite heroes, or sitting on expensive bikes, holding tigers , posing like action hero and many more .
Sadananda says this is what sells today. ” Two copies for 50 rupees without mixing but 100 rs for mixing . Nobody interested in their regular photos. Everyone has a cell phone now which has a camera . But this type of mixing is special to them”
” No more talent require. One should know how to operate computer. I just shoot here and my kids do the rest! ” pointing towards the photoshop work their kids are expert at.
While sitting I saw many people coming and staring these boards for quite a long time before they chose one. Some even asked some other customization such as a different actor , different colour dress, different superbike! But they were rejected and told only these options are available. People bargained but he did not care . You give the money and then take it.
” These villagers are very smart! they sometime just go away if I don’t take money in advance. I have two photos shot in last year’s fair where the customer paid the money but did not take the prints. They can come anytime today and start demanding! ”
I decided to get one for me. I chose a famous Kannada star scene where Hero is a cop ! Here is the result. I was smiling when he started clicking. He stopped and asked me to show a serious face which suits with the scene. Here is 
