#subhamoyBlogs: Photography

Showing posts with label Photography. Show all posts

Memory

Technical Details: Canon EOS Rebel XT, 50 mm, f/1.8, 1/4000 sec, ISO-200
Place: Delhi Haat
Exchange value: INR 400/= (approx. $8)
Emotional Connect: Priceless

Almost about 10 years back, one amongst my many good friends was particularly expert at photography. He had attended the University Photography Club and was considered to be one of the super photographers of our time. He was fluent in the manual SLR cameras, in finding out the right aperture & f stop, selecting the right film with right grain and hold on – he had his own lab setup at his home, where he could expose photographs. That was enough to get a halo behind any person just out of college. So I gathered courage and one day, asked him a simple question – Could you please teach me this photography thing? He never said No, but never said Yes either. So my photography expedition got delayed by few months.

Vivitar with Tamron 70-300

Due to career movement, I decided to move to Hyderabad in late 2004. Before leaving, I went to one of the local studios in Kolkata and asked the owner – See, I am moving out of this city to a nicer place, and I want to use my spare time to capture some photos. Which camera should I buy? This guy was a bit friendlier than the previous friend. In fact, this guy proved to be my best friend if I consider my interest in Photography. He suggested me to buy a fully manual SLR instead of a point-and-shoot which was my primary requirement. He even helped me to get it one (Vivitar) at a discounted price and told me – take as much photographs as you want, as that’s the best way to learn photography. (http://itssubhamoy.blogspot.in/2007/02/my-first-love.html)

Mosquitoes were also captured

But I was not having any funda of photography till that time and hence was a bit (rather quite) confused. Where should I start? I got lucky second time. One of my friends was coming back from USA, and asked me if I needed anything for me. I told that I wanted to learn photography and any help would be welcome. I got a book called National Geographic Field Photography Guide. This is the best training material I have received so far in Photography. And then my learning started. I experimented, and that’s understatement. I experimented like anything. (http://itssubhamoy.blogspot.in/2006/09/vanquished.html)

Hyderabad was a great test bed

I had got few good friends in the new city, who were equally enthusiastic, like going to watch pelicans at a remote location at 330AM in the morning etc. Soon I realized the best way to learn photography (as the studio owner had told me) was through clicking more photographs. I browsed online tutorials, almost anything that was available 9 years back on the web (and they were plenty) and that was the best way to pick up the tricks of photography. During my stay at Hyderabad, I met one cinematographer from Telugu film industry, as part of my organization’s photography club. He was one of those many non-bong guys I have met, who were in awe of Satyajit Ray’s camerawork in his various films. Once he confided in me that he doesn’t understand a single word in Bengali, but has watched multiple Ray films just to learn photography.

Kit lens of Canon Rebel XT

I moved back to Kolkata in 2006 and soon got an opportunity to go to USA for a short business trip. Being in USA, I thought I should make some investments in photography in getting some gears. It was an interesting time. In India, the studios were developing the films, and also scanning them to get you a digital copy in a CD. The transition from film to digital photography was happening slowly in India. When I decided to move from film based SLR to Digital SLR in 2006, there were not many choices at entry level DSLR. So I chose Canon Rebel XT (350D), which was sort of revolutionary in bringing the price of DLSR to the reach of more people.

This was a major leap in my photography experiments. I could click as much as I can, take a look at the photographs, read some online tutorial and improve on it again. I acquired few lens over the year, and kept learning (which is continuing through every picture and every post that I see today). In between, I tried to move to the compact digital cameras, but was not very happy with the pictures and controls, as by that time I had acquired a few long and not-so-long lenses. Almost two years back, I met a very talented friend, who was the Creative Director of an advertising agency. I learnt from him how to convert a photograph to an art. I am nowhere near achieving that myself, but I found the possibilities in mixing art, photography and graphics.

Few months back, I have bought Nexus 4 phone, the flagship phone from Google Android. It has got a decent camera (8MP), has few mind-boggling features (like 360 degree or Panorama) and is quite fast. However I was not still very happy as it was not giving me that edge, that depth of field which I could easily get in a 50mm fixed lens. And then Google updated its Photos application last week. I casually turned the Auto Backup ON in my mobile.

Whoao – that’s the time, when I started thinking of switching side again. It took few headaches out of me:

1. I don’t need to download pictures and then upload to an album to share as the Auto backup keeps uploading the pictures into Google storage. They are not shared to anyone though till I decide to do so.

2. Google automatically enhances the pictures – and I can decide the degree of auto enhancements album wise

3. In addition, Google creates few additional images, called autoawesome – like,

a. If it sees a series of more than 5 images having consecutive actions, it creates an animation, automatically.

b. If it finds some object moving within the frame, it creates a single image having the movements captured

c. It creates an HDR

d. Hold – it can erase some unnecessary elements if there are a few shots. For example, you might be trying to capture a monument, and people keep coming in between your camera and the monument. Google would automatically delete those noises and create a clean shot of the monument.

4. Obviously I had already downloaded few image editing apps (Snapseed and Pixlr are my best friends so far) which allows me to edit/create collage in my mobile itself and then share to the friends on the social media.

Thought of adding this autoawesome image (Animation) which was created by Google stitching 15 shots during Diwali, automatically. Awesome, isn't it?

I think I should thank few people for the photographs that I keep sharing with you almost every day.

1. The friend, who didn’t teach me photography – I learnt to click photos because of his refusal to teach me.

2. The studio owner who got me my first SLR. He could have suggested me to buy a point-and-shoot camera, and I would not have experimented ever.

3. The friend who got me the NGC Field Guide book from USA

4. The creative director, who had shown me the possibilities of mixing art, photography and graphics

5. Google: It is tempting me to move from my 7 year old companion to the more handy Mobile Camera. I am yet to get convinced. But possibly its not going to be long when I move from DSLR to a mobile camera completely.

Looking back, it seems that learning photography is much easier now compared to what was 10 years back. If you are on any Social Media platform (Google+ specifically), follow the relevant groups/communities and you could learn photography in your own time quite fast. What is your story? Share your way of learning photography every day.

---

Thank you for checking this article. I contribute regularly on Technology & Management related stuff. Apart from this blog, you can follow me at
Twitter: https://twitter.com/csubhamoy
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/csubhamoy
Linkedin: https://www.linkedin.com/in/csubhamoy

About me: I have been working in the areas of IT strategy & usage of Digital technology to deliver business growth. My areas of interest include Enterprise Mobility, Cloud Solution Architecture, Enterprise Architecture, Social Media and Big Data. I am an alumni of Indian Statistical Institute (MTech Computer Science) and also attended Harvard Business School Executive Education on Innovation and Driving Growth.

How did I learn to click?

Vivitar with Tamron 70-300

Mosquitoes were also captured

Hyderabad was a great test bed

Kit lens of Canon Rebel XT

Whoao – that’s the time, when I started thinking of switching side again. It took few headaches out of me:

2. Google automatically enhances the pictures – and I can decide the degree of auto enhancements album wise

3. In addition, Google creates few additional images, called autoawesome – like,

a. If it sees a series of more than 5 images having consecutive actions, it creates an animation, automatically.

b. If it finds some object moving within the frame, it creates a single image having the movements captured

c. It creates an HDR

Thought of adding this autoawesome image (Animation) which was created by Google stitching 15 shots during Diwali, automatically. Awesome, isn't it?

I think I should thank few people for the photographs that I keep sharing with you almost every day.

1. The friend, who didn’t teach me photography – I learnt to click photos because of his refusal to teach me.

2. The studio owner who got me my first SLR. He could have suggested me to buy a point-and-shoot camera, and I would not have experimented ever.

3. The friend who got me the NGC Field Guide book from USA

4. The creative director, who had shown me the possibilities of mixing art, photography and graphics

---

Thank you for checking this article. I contribute regularly on Technology & Management related stuff. Apart from this blog, you can follow me at

Twitter: https://twitter.com/csubhamoy

Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/csubhamoy

Linkedin: https://www.linkedin.com/in/csubhamoy

About me: I have been working in the areas of IT strategy & usage of Digital technology to deliver business growth. My areas of interest include Enterprise Mobility, Cloud Solution Architecture, Enterprise Architecture, Social Media and Big Data. I am an alumni of Indian Statistical Institute (MTech Computer Science) and also attended Harvard Business School Executive Education on Innovation and Driving Growth.

The Friday Break

A new photo-blog has been started to celebrate the Fridays and the weekends.
Feel free to get soaked into the photographs and the stories.

http://fridaybreak.blogspot.in/

#Friday #TGIF

Roadside Art

There are immense artwork available on the roadsides of India. Keep your eyes open and get surprised at the variety of the artwork.

Kit kat - a tastier Android?

Google has declared that its next Android release is going to be named as "Kit kat", with a space. It was a unheard-of tie-up with Nestle. It was claimed that there was no money exchange between the two companies in this story. It goes like this - the developers at Google prefer Kitkat while working deep into the algorithms and hence it came naturally to them while deciding the name of the K series.

What are the observations out of this event?
1. Android has become mainstream and is bigger a brand than the old world ones like Nestle
2. Nestle is seeing business opportunities in getting their brand tagged with a cool brand
3. Key Lime Pie was supposed to be the K series name earlier. But Key Lime Pie is not so popular outside USA, and I have never tasted it. +Sundar Pichai rightly understood my taste and renamed it to something which I like very much.
And last but not the least,
4. Android is going to be a lot more tastier and crunchier in the next release.

What else comes to your mind about this unique name of next Android release?

Summer is getting over - Durga Puja close by

The Corn Factory

Was Suman the ultimate marketer of Tea?

Long before the CCDs & Baristas dotted the cityscape, Suman made a superhit song in the early 90s (Tomake Chai - 1992), where he celebrated love and the city of Kolkata. It had a line in it, where he had expressed his romance around a cup of Tea. Someday, some marketer may pick that line up ("Ak cup cha-e ami tomake chai" -- loosely translated, "I desire you over a cup of tea") to start a Tea chain - similar to the CCD slogan of "a lot can happen over a cup of ...". The song has some leftist leaning in it, ignore that if you would like, and focus on the Tea part for the time being :-)

The lyrics here is in Bengali script - it is beyond my capacity to translate that - you can listen to the song in the YouTube link.

প্রথমত:, আমি তোমাকে চাই
দ্বিতীয়ত:, আমি তোমাকে চাই
তৃতীয়ত:, আমি তোমাকে চাই
শেষ পর্যন্ত তোমাকে চাই।।
নিঝুম অন্ধকারে তোমাকে চাই
রাতভোর হলে আমি তোমাকে চাই
সকালের কৈশোরে তোমাকে চাই
সন্ধের অবকাশে তোমাকে চাই।।
বৈশাখী ঝড়ে আমি তোমাকে চাই
আষাঢ়ের মেঘে আমি তোমাকে চাই
শ্রাবণে শ্রাবণে আমি তোমাকে চাই
অকালবোধনে আমি তোমাকে চাই।।
কবেকার কলকাতা শহরের পথে
পুরোনো নতুন মুখ ঘরে ইমারতে
অগুন্তি মানুষের ক্লান্ত মিছিলে
অচেনা ছুটির ছোঁয়া তুমি এনে দিলে
নাগরিক ক্লান্তিতে তোমাকে চাই
এক ফোঁটা শান্তিতে তোমাকে চাই
বহুদূর হেঁটে এসে তোমাকে চাই
এ জীবন ভালোবেসে তোমাকে চাই।।
চৌরাস্তার মোড়ে পার্কে দোকানে
শহরে গঞ্জে গ্রামে এখানে ওখানে
স্টেশন টার্মিনাস ঘাটে বন্দরে
অচেনা ড্রয়িংরুমে চেনা অন্দরে
বালিশ তোশক কাঁথা পুরোনো চাদরে
ঠান্ডা শীতের রাতে লেপের আদরে
কড়িকাঠে চৌকাঠে মাদুরে পাপোশে
হাসি রাগ অভিমানে ঝগড়া আপোসে
তোমাকে চাই, তোমাকে চাই, তোমাকে চাই, তোমাকে চাই
এক কাপ চায়ে আমি তোমাকে চাই
ডাইনে ও বাঁয়ে আমি তোমাকে চাই
দেখা না দেখায় আমি তোমাকে চাই
না-বলা কথায় আমি তোমাকে চাই।।
শীর্ষেন্দুর কোন নতুন নভেলে
হঠাত্ পড়তে বসা আবোলতাবোলে
অবোধ্য কবিতায় ঠুংরি খেয়ালে
স্লোগানে স্লোগানে ঢাকা দেয়ালে দেয়ালে।।
সলিল চৌধুরীর ফেলে আসা গানে
চৌরাশিয়ার বাঁশি মুখরিত প্রাণে
ভুলে যাওয়া হিমাংশু দত্তর সুরে
কোন্ কবেকার অনুরোধের আসরে
তোমাকে চাই, তোমাকে চাই, তোমাকে চাই, তোমাকে চাই
অনুরোধে মিনতিতে তোমাকে চাই
বেদনার আর্তিতে তোমাকে চাই
দাবীদাওয়া চাহিদায় তোমাকে চাই
লজ্জাদ্বিধায় আমি তোমাকে চাই
অধিকার বুঝে নেওয়া প্রখর দাবীতে
সারারাত জেগে আঁকা লড়াকু ছবিতে
ছিপছিপে কবিতার ছন্দে ভাষায়
গদ্যের যুক্তিতে বাঁচার আশায়
শ্রেণীহীন সমাজের চির বাসনায়
দিনবদলের খিদে ভরা চেতনায়
দ্বিধাদ্বন্দের দিন ঘোচার স্বপ্নে
সাম্যবাদের গান ঘুমে জাগরণে
বিক্ষোভে বিপ্লবে তোমাকে চাই
ভীষণ অসম্ভবে তোমাকে চাই
শান্তি অশান্তিতে তোমাকে চাই
এই বিভ্রান্তিতে তোমাকে চাই।।

Ode to a Ganwala: Suman Chatterjee/Kabir Suman: Click here to read an older post on Suman and his life.

Riot of Colors

Sorry, no text. Enjoy the roses and the colors..

Durga Puja, Kolkata & Raghu Rai

Raghu Rai is one of my favorite photographers of all time. All of his pictures tell a thousand stories. I happened to participate in a Raghu Rai workshop few years back, where he talked about how he approached photography and to say the least, it was an amazing experience listening him. He is an engineer by qualification, but took up photography as his passion and continued his journey to become one of the most talked about photographers of India. He told stories behind couple of his famous photographs, including those of Indira & obviously about the Bhopal pictures.

The photograph in this post was taken in 1999 at Kumartuli by Raghu Rai, where the Durga idols are created every year. These days, the young and enthusiast photographers make a beeline during this period with their newly acquired DSLRs, at times irritating the artisans. Sharing this picture, as a tribute to both the artisans at Kumartuli and to Raghu Rai.

Previous post on Durga Puja, 2013: Click here.

Waiting for the Signal to turn Green

On a rain-soaked morning at Rajarhat, Kolkata.

A lot of investments had moved in the Real estate sector in WB in the last few years. However most of the apartments are moving at a very slow pace. Even the ones which are finished are sparsely occupied. The vacant and unfinished residential complexes give an eerie feeling while driving down the expressway.

The Bong Festival is close by

That lovely part of the year is coming soon. The festival kick-starts from Ratha Yatra which was on 10th July this year. On that day, the artisans start creating the Durga idol. The Puja is still a few months away, but the planning for the multi-crore mega-show has already began. What is your plan this year?

Next post on Durga Puja, 2013: Click here.