It's a cold day in Connecticut and there is nothing better to do than to sit here, watch the snow fall and sip a hot cup of chai. No, not the kind you get at Starbucks. Ugh! It's way too sweet and it's full of stuff that makes me want to go and brush my teeth right away.

Now as a documentary wedding photographer, I have photographed many North Indian weddings where “masala chai” was a given. So, all props go to the Gujarati, Punjabi and Sindhi communities for rockin' it with their chai. They've got it down pat and I am hooked.

This morning, my friend Syl Arena (read his awesome book – LIDLIPS – on the pursuit of photography ) and I were discussing on Twitter what some of the best recipes for real chai would be. I pointed him to a couple of websites that came up on Google; here is one and here is another. Pretty decent. But I knew we could do better.

My mother-in-law, Saraswathi, is visiting us over the weekend. So I asked her to write down her recipe to make two cups of masala chai.

Ingredients:

2 cups of Water
1 cup of either 1% or 2% milk
2 table spoons of loose or Powdered tea leaves (Darjeeling/Assam/Sri Lankan work)
1/4 table spoon of ginger or ginger powder
1/4 table spoon of black pepper
2 small sticks of cardamom
Sugar (to taste)

Boil 2 cups of water with one cup of milk
Add 2 table spoons of the tea leaves
Add the ginger, the black pepper and cardamom
Boil & Stir for 10 minutes (the tea should turn to a shade of rusty brown)
Pour the tea into a vessel using a strainer

Put the remaining tea leaves in a vessel, add a little water and boil again. Go ahead and strain this as well and add it to the original mix (this makes it nice and strong).

Sweeten your cup up to taste and enjoy!

Try this recipe out and let me know if it works out for you. It's very easy to do. I would love to hear from you in the comments section how your masala chai turned out.

Been a while since I posted some interesting links that I have come across. Let me know if you want me to continue posting these in the comments section. Thanks!

Jack Hollingsworth – A terrific photographer, social media guru and Twitterholic (like me)

DesignAglow – A webmagazine, a blog, a store with drool-worthy tools, actions, marketing materials … I could go on. This is like Mecca for me. And the lady behind it – Lena Hyde

Photofocus – Scott Bourne's blog about all things photography

The Digital Journalist's Handbook – for those still remaining as journalists, I suppose

25 Beautiful Examples of Action Sequence Photography

Tangents – Neil van Niekerk's excellent flash photography website

HDR Tutorial – Everything You Need To Know About HDR Photography

BlogStomp – If you ever wanted to brand or watermark your images before you publish them online

TK Business & Design – If you are a photographer who runs a business, you may want to check this site out for forms, accounting tips etc. It's an amazing resource.

Photojunction – I am checking out this FREE software for all my wedding photography album designing needs. Learn to use Photojunction from these Vimeo videos

PhotoTuts+ – A plethora of photography tutorials

ThemeSnack – Want a slick looking WordPress theme? This might be the place to start. There is also WooThemes and ThemeForest to check out

David H. Wells is a photojournalist with over twenty five years' experiences in photography. Since 1986 he has focused on in-depth photo-essays for publication and exhibition. Between 1986 and 1996 he produced 16 photo-essays for the Philadelphia Inquirer Sunday Magazine. His photo-essays have also been published in Aramco World, the Chicago Tribune, Geo Magazine, Life Magazine, the Los Angeles Times Magazine, National Geographic Publications, Newsweek Magazine, the New York Times Magazine, Time Magazine, U.S. News & World Report and the Washington Post Magazine, among other publications.

Wells has extensive work experience in India, working on assignment for Aramco World and the Ford Foundation, among others, during numerous trips to India since 1995. Wells spent five months in India in 1999-2000 on a Fulbright fellowship. During 2001-2003 he was working in India on an Alicia Patterson Foundation Fellowship photographing the winners and losers in India’s globalization. In 2005-2006 he was on his second Fulbright fellowship, photographing the impact of globalization in rural South Asia.

This David's first guest post here on Tiffinbox. Please make him feel welcome by commenting below. Thank you!

This work explores the fluctuating encounter between the eternal and the newly global in South Asia. Some images show physical manifestations of globalization’s forces for change interacting with local culture. Others use the play of light and shadow to highlight the eternal magic and beauty at the core of daily life in South Asia. The work is assembled to mimic the visual cacophony that is so much a part of life across the region. Some images are presented as singles, and other as diptychs or triptychs, collectively recreating South Asia’s omnipresent visual noise. Interspersed within the pages are blocks of text that allude to the dissonant sounds, ideas, names, faiths, places, cultures, and people that are encountered across the region. The complete photo-essay encourages a better understanding of the powerful, duality of forces that are vying to shape the future of South Asia.

Streets in South Asia offer patient observers an infinite number of dualities including; compassion and greed, hope and fear, wealth and poverty. Over the last eleven years, I have encountered these same dichotomies as both an insider and an outsider. While I am shaped by my Western upbringing, I am also married to an Indian woman. Her experiences and those of her extensive family network have helped me better understand India, and South Asia in general. Three grants (two Fulbright fellowships and an Alicia Patterson fellowship) as well as magazine assignments have expanded my appreciation of South Asia’s many cultures. Also, extensive reading of the popular press and academic publications, both Western and local, have informed my understanding of the area.

When working there, I have observed moments where the timeless in South Asia confronts the newness of globalization. I record these instances, creating images that highlight the changes sweeping across the region. The photographs explore the swirling human milieu that is unique to the local cultures, but is also being reshaped by globalization. The images show the physical manifestations of globalization’s forces for change interacting with local cultures in both urban and rural areas. Interspersed within these dichotomies, I also use the play of light and shadow to highlight the eternal magic and beauty at the core of daily life in South Asia.

The work I am producing explores these dualities, focusing on the continuously fluctuating encounter between the eternal and the newly global in South Asia. When I am exploring the newly global in the region, I emphasize the color that is common to so many global logos. With others, I compose my images in order to extract the color from the images, highlighting the simple play of dark and light.

The work is assembled to mimic the visual cacophony that is so much a part of life across the region. Some images are presented as singles, and other as diptychs or triptychs, collectively recreating South Asia’s omnipresent visual noise

Globalization is clearly trickling into the lives, villages, and the psyches of people across South Asia. Though the forces of globalization are external and frequently visual, the internal process of change is largely unseen. Far too many discussions of globalization focus on efforts to somehow “stop” the historically inevitable force that has been shaping and reshaping humanity for centuries. Rather than being fixated on opposing globalization, this photo-essay encourages a better understanding of the powerful duality of forces that are vying to shape the future of South Asia.

I have been asked to present my documentary wedding photography at Global Adjustments in Chennai, India.

If you are in Chennai on February 5 and would like to attend, please RSVP the organizers. Let Bindu Menon know you heard about the lecture-demonstration through Tiffinbox!

Meanwhile if you have any questions for me, please feel free to ask in the comments section below!

As a documentary wedding photographer, each November as the wedding season in the US winds down, my thoughts swing to the next season and whether I will meet my target of 25 weddings per year.

One of the best books ever written about being booked solid is by Michael Port, called Book Yourself Solid. I recall reading it cover to cover, taking notes along the way and paying attention to the steps Michael outlines to have a thriving business. In addition to being an author, Michael is a speaker and educator.

So, when Michael speaks or emails me something, I sit up and take notice. A recent note from him introduced me to his new Booked Solid University. It's his “entire lead generating, client producing, business building, book writing, product creation, book yourself solid (and beyond) systems and programs” as a business coaching program online.

I signed up as an affiliate because I feel his message, his methodology and his means are all sync with how I would like to learn about creating, sustaining and elevating my photography business in Connecticut. And I bet you will enjoy his course as well.

Please come back here and let me know what you think about the course in the comments section. Your feedback is always valuable not only to me but to others who may be reading this blog regularly as well. Thank you!