Where there is sugar, there are bound to be ants. Small time instant photographers are like ants; only that they follow not sugar or jaggery but large crowds.
The milling crowds at the Pushkarams bathing ghats in city have attracted a few small time ‘instant photographers’ who are here to make some extra buck.
Equipped with a printer that is compact and portable, these photographers move around the ghats pictures of the pilgrims taking a holy dip in the river.
Though most pilgrims are digitally connected and carry their mobile phones, but the fact that they cannot use them in water while taking a dip comes in handy for them to fill the gap.
Their shooting device is a combination of user-convenience and performance which enables printing of the photograph at a high speed — all of two minutes to be precise.
Take Adigillu Suribabu for example
Adigillu Suribabu, a native of Mulapet in Kothapalli mandal of East Godavari district, is one such photographer who is making the best of the floating crowd at the ghats. People in throngs come and go making his smile deeper. “Most of my customers are families who want to be seen collectively while taking a dip in the holy water,” says he informing that on the first day, he managed to frame some 110 photographs.
Charging Rs. 30 for a photograph ferreted out of his portable printing machine every five minutes, his eyes then move in other direction in search of new customers.
Saturday, the second day of the river jamboree, did not bring much cheer to him. “The burgeoning crowd does not make any sense to me unless people opt for a photograph and pay me for it,” says a saddened Suribabu.