Capturing diverse cultures and customs is the main aim of diplomat photographer Roger Chen

"People here often get flustered when they find a stranger pointing a camera at them," said Chen while talking about his experience at the July session of 'Coffee with Leica' at the Leica Store in New Delhi, recently.

Roger Chen, Minister-Counsellor at the High Commission of Canada in Delhi, has been a diplomat working overseas over the past 25 years in such locations as Jakarta, Kuwait, Shanghai, São Paulo, Cairo, Beijing, New York and the past three years in Delhi.

As an avid travel photographer, Chen prefers to capture diverse cultures, traditions and customs he has been privileged to witness.

Twenty-eight of Chen's best clicks in India taken over three years, titled 'Devotion - A journey through India' were also exhibited at the Connaught Place store.

The exhibition focused on human devotion, their everyday lives, their religion and faith, displaying photographs that would have an immediate connect with the viewers.

“I always try to keep myself around the people whom I want to click. I make sure that these people accept my presence and they don’t look at me when I’m clicking them,” said Chen

“It’s hard most of the times, as people don’t like someone clicking them," he said.

Talking about his Indian experience, Chen said, “It’s one of the most fascinating countries in the world. Most probably because of that, photographers flock to India to capture festivals like Holi, Diwali and Dussehra.”

Chen uses the Leica M10 and a 35mm f/1.4 Summilux.

The event was co-hosted by Vineet Vohra.

Vohra in his turn offered special tips to the audience, mostly aspiring photographers,

“Figure to ground rule” is one of the most important rules to follow in photography, said Vohra, but is mostly looked down upon by photographs.

He also explained the difference between editing and processing.

“Editing and processing means two different things. Editing means selection in layman’s terms. Processing means the one you call editing,” he said.

With regard to today's rage for clicking on cell phone cameras, he said, “Those people who click photographs with a mobile phone have their own personal reasons to click the picture. Most of the people want to document the pictures for their personal use. But for me, I am intent on conveying a message. Every picture of mine conveys a message."

(Reporting by Piyush Prakash)