Homestay with Fruit Orchard
This evening, as I wrapped up my work, the sky was blanketed with clouds, and a light fog had settled in. I had completed all my farming and gardening tasks for the day. The rain had come and gone in bursts throughout, leaving the atmosphere heavy and overcast. With the day’s chores behind me, the evening was perfect for photography.
(Distant trees through a gap in floating clouds)
Continue reading An Evening With Clouds
What does photography do for me? It makes me happy. If it is supposed to always do so, why do I feel discontented with photography at times? This was a thought that has been at the back of my mind for many years. Recently, I thought of analyzing this. Why does photography not make me happy always?
(Nanda Kot peak in the late evening)
It has been a few days since I last clicked some photographs. I have been busy with marketing activities and some finance-related matters. However, my camera is now calling me. It’s raining outside with occasional wet snow, but I do hope that the weather should improve soon.
While planning to write a better title, I thought and thought, but then I just wrote down the three words that came to my mind. Why waste time on a title when I have so much more to say? This article is just about these three words and how I got around to creating some panoramas.
(Himalayan peaks after snow-fall – captured just a few days earlier)
After spending a few years with just the essentials, I’ve decided it’s time to move everything to my new place. Although it’s a small house, it boasts a stunning view of the hills. While packing, I discovered a drawer full of 35mm slides and transparencies, accompanied by a small portable slide viewer. This discovery was quite nostalgic and prompted me to take a moment to reminisce. Surrounded by these priceless memories, I let packing tape and cartons sit for a few extra minutes.
Follow the Leader was a game I often played as a child. The goal was simple: follow the chosen leader. If I didn’t, I’d be out of the game. Quite frequently, I was left standing while the other kids went on playing. Now that I have grown up, I still fail to follow the leader.
Continue reading Moving in a herd?
A picture is worth a thousand words – so the famous saying goes. How I see it is that pictures have a language of their own. They express feelings. Feelings of joy, love, despair, sadness, pain, happiness, belonging… This language is the language of photography. It is a visual language!
The oldest camera mode is the Manual Mode. It is still found on all the present day cameras on the mode dial. An obsession for some, headache for some more and an unknown dark alley for most, manual mode is an interesting little mode in present day cameras.
Sometime back I was discussing with a group about spirituality. The discussions went towards how things around us have developed, how people strive to find inner peace and how spirituality is slowly and slowly getting away from the general public, all of whom are involved in a rat-race trying to prove themselves, keep up with the joneses and accumulate all kind of materialistic possessions.
What about photography? Something that starts with more materialistic possessions! Top of the line cameras that people in general stretch their budgets to buy, ultrasharp lenses and camera accessories that can do everything (apart from making coffee). Can photography be a way to spirituality?
Managing with the least resources is what minimalism is all about. This can be a fantastic way to regain vision and clarity of thought. Photographers in general, tend to look down on this and other similar lines of thoughts as weird but the truth is entirely opposite. Minimalism helps in creating some of the best images. It also makes the whole process from initial visualization till the final photograph, more enjoyable. Minimalism is about the freedom and not about restrictions.
I thought of compiling a list of things that people say or do related to photography that really gets me going mad. I maintain my calm but my insides all start burning. So here is a small list of these annoying little things that people do or ask –
Recently I came across some really old photographers who were cribbing about the surge of digital cameras, mobile phone cameras and so on. In their opinion this had really brought down the overall quality of photographs created. They were not ‘real’ photographers in their opinion. I agree to some extent. There are lots and lots of people with easy access to good cameras, but this is not a bad thing. Large amount of sales translates to good profit for the camera companies and in turn this leads to reduction in prices of otherwise expensive pieces of equipment. More sales also lead to investments in research and development and therefore progress in technology. The bad thing is that when these buyers of photography equipment do not want to learn to use their new acquisitions and churn out hoards of average looking snapshots. Snapshots, which could have been better with just a little bit of awareness. Another sad thing is when these camera users or mobile phone users try to capture images of people without any kind of permission or create disturbance or even nuisance while doing so.
