RE: Permits for tripods - Taj Mahal

[Stephen Puckett <spuckett@xxxxxxxxxxxx>]

I was there 10 years ago in December to do the usual tourist thing.
No permit was needed at that time, that I remember.  Certainly not 
an expensive one.  I used a tripod to take pictures with a 
normally-sized 35mm Nikon of various members of our group - a very 
typical tourist thing to do.  As I recall, I saw a few others among 
the tourists using a tripod.  The only bother was the hordes of 
tourists getting in the shots.

I went the next morning before dawn.  It was very quiet with only a 
very few of us tourists (or anybody).  I had some pleasant chats 
and some tea with some groundskeepers and got a few shots of them 
feeding the parrot flocks.  No trouble at all but I didn't look 
like a Professional Photographer.  I speculate that I would not
have had a problem with a somewhat larger camera.  Some people do 
not want to be photographed and will wave you off or just get out
of the way.  Some, though, go out of their way just to pose for you
for fun.

If you can, take a polaroid along.  This is a real novelty and I've 
seen it open many doors for the price of 1 picture.  Be prepared, 
though, to be mobbed by models hoping for a prized polaroid!

The dawn is very beautiful reflected off the Taj, the surrounding 
buildings, and the river it is next to.  As I recall, sundown was 
also pretty but had many more people and more haze (smoke?).  Also 
in Agra is the Red Fort (as I recall) and a major highway with 
hordes of people along with camels, elephants, etc.

I did not carry a panoramic camera (I did not want to load myself 
down) but took some sequentials with a wide-angle lens and then
later stitched them together.  My favorite was a highway scene 
showing all the different animals at once along with scads of 
pedestrians.  I like to give prints as souvenir gifts to other 
members of my group - the panos make an especially nice gift.
I wish that I had taken more panos - and some stereos also.  I
keep forgetting that film is cheap!

I went down by train from the New Delhi area.  The train was OK 
but the pre-dawn train station seemed like a scene out straight out 
of Kipling!