I must have gone Galaxy crazy these days because I’m mostly using and sharing Galaxy photographs. Here’s another one of a sunset at my office. Me and my friends were taking a little walk on our break and I looked behind me and found this gem. I’m also enjoying the editing options in this app called Editor for android phones.
Be back soon.
Shot with Samsung Galaxy S. On my way to office.
Buddha at the office.
A famous street food vendor at Chandni Chowk, Old Delhi.
It’s been a while since I shared Galaxy photos. I had been wanting to post more frequently but most of the posts in my drafts are personal vents. I will try and draft them in a way that also sends out some kind of a message in photography but right now they all sound like personal vents.
Meanwhile I’m leaving you with these photographs I created this past week. Hope you like them.
Take care.
Shot with Canon 1100d
Take this shot above for example. It’s a simple shot of a ladder against a wall. But if it has created a curiosity in you to see what’s beyond that wall, the angle, the sky and sun rays, the colors then I think I’ve succeeded. The minimalist approach to the shot and the colors of the sky and the wall compliment each other. There’s a certain ‘look’ that makes you curious when you look at it. Even if you don’t like it that’s alright. Not all art has to evoke a positive response. But as artists we’ll keep creating them not to get more likes on facebook but just for the love of it. If you like them we’ll love to take a bow. If not we’ll still take a bow and move on to seek something new.
Take care.
Shot with Canon 1100d.
Finally the internet connection is back and I can breathe again. Internet has become such an important part of life. Like a phone. Take it away for a day and starts to feel like something important is missing. Also past weekend I braved the procrastination and took my camera out for hunting.
This shot was taken on the small terrace of my home. What I thought earlier was a terrible paint job by the painter turned out to be a perfect opportunity for me. This scene was lying there for several days. I’m glad it finally caught the attention and turned out exactly the way my mind had envisioned.
I’m lagging behind on the Working Women of India project. I had a great example who could be such an inspiration to lots of girls out there. But unfortunately she declined to be part of this series. She’s way too camera shy. But I’ll continue to look and hopefully will keep bringing new portraits and little stories.
My internet connection is down and I needed to vent out some feelings. So I’m writing this on my mobile.
Letting go of the things and people you love deeply can be a painful thing to do sometimes. Ever felt the pain seeing your ex with someone else? Life as they said rightly can be a tough nut sometimes. Letting my first dog Moti go is one of them. Moti one day strayed towards the main busy road and got hit by a vehicle. Still he crawled back home and died at our doorsteps. Watching him die was a painful experience and I can’t forget he wanted to be home breathing his last. That desire made him crawl back home even with injury. Sometimes letting go of our loved one is a difficult thing to do. May be something better is in store for them. May be Moti too is in a better home than he was with us who take better care of him. You’ll probably won’t enjoy them watching with someone else. But you still let go hoping they are happy.
Photographically you may be attracted to a certain idea and even after several attempts when you don’t get what you want, you should just let go and try something new. Move on, for there may be something better waiting. I by no mean intend to make the comparisons. Don’t do that. But you can’t stop. When something isn’t meant to be. It just isn’nt. Let go.
Window. Shot with Canon 1100D
For those of you who visit my blog for photography tips I’m sorry to disappoint you but you will not find any mind blowing top ten kind of tips here. This is my journey that I’m grateful you’re part of and will be sharing whatever new I learn photographically with you all. If you’ve stayed with me for a while hopefully by way of photographs you’ve noticed we have clocked a couple of miles together. Along the way there may be some posts that’ll sound like personal vents or simple rants. But hopefully I’ll write them in a way you’ll find them an interesting read. That’s the goal atleast.
My recent failure has got me thinking about failures in life, in general and photography. To fail is to gain experience. I’ve heard sermons on these lines since childhood and later started ‘gaining’ the practical experiences as well. Amazingly my brain just keeps reminding me of the failures. I’m sure I managed few accomplishments of my own but somehow my brain doesn’t seem to care about them. Isn’t it better to have tried and failed than to have never tried at all? Some failures will leave your soul bleeding until time decides to heal them. You can’t plan against such failures. They’ll just happen and leave you hurt. But some failures teach you valuable lessons and at the end of such experiences you are thankful that you failed so you could learn. These failures help you plan better for future.
I haven’t learnt how and when the kind of failure that leaves your soul bleeding is healed. I’ll share when I know. But I certainly have learnt the failures in photography that can lead to better images. My goal is not to create an exceptional image first. For me it has to be a combination of technically and visually strong photograph. For example, something really nice catches your eyes and you take a stab at it with your camera but if you don’t know how to use your camera so that it captures as close as possible to what your mind visualized the scene then there’s a possibility you’ll fail. But then, you see your output on the screen and realize why it didn’t match the vision you had. When you know what didn’t go right in the image technically despite having the vision. That’s learning from failure. At the same time take courage from things that went right. As you apply these learning in your future images your brain will automatically start doing the calculations as soon as it sees an image in your head. And with each attempt you’ll notice the odds of failures have come down.
Take care.
My friend Manish Kumar in one of the churchs in Lansdowne, India. Shot with Canon 1100d
I’m under house arrest due to some renovation work at home. But really that’s just an excuse for not creating any new photographs. I had to dig my library to share something new.
I’m auto posting this for Saturday 30th to try that feature on the blog. I’m hoping I’d have a busier and fun weekend on 30th than this one. I can be easily fascinated by small things and you should see me smile when this post is automatically published.
I distributed the photo prints today and as expected the response was more smiles and curiosity towards my photographs. They all were happy about the output and had more questions about what I do with them and why I do what I do. Too many questions make me nervous. I’m not doing anything bad but still when someone asks too many questions and it starts to sound more like trying to know my intentions than to learn about it I get nervous. May be because this is something new and with practice I’ll learn dealing with these questions. I don’t know how I’ll have any stranger sign a model release for me.
Speaking of releases. Getty Images via Flickr contacted me and was interested in 16 of my photographs. That meant a lot to me. A giant like Getty is interested in my photos? Nice! But I’m not expecting much as selling your photographs to stock agencies mean you must have a model release if you shoot a person or property. Plus it doesn’t mean your photographs will actually start earning if they get selected. They may or may not earn. And I’m yet to learn the art of having someone sign a document without making them suspicious. I’ve always been a reserved person and that’s why it’s difficult for me to deal with strangers. People in India are generally pretty cool about being photographed. In fact they love it. But ask them to sign something and they’ll get suspicious. Unless you’re someone with great communication skills. Nevertheless, it was an encouraging sign that I’m probably on the right path and must be doing something right.
One of my friends Gaurav Yadav shared a nice line on facebook last week. I don’t know who the original author is but it went something like this. When I look back at life I’d rather want to say I can’t believe I did that instead of I wish I did that.
Ever wonder how we sometimes know what needs to be done and yet we don’t do it. We continue to ponder over the same thing over and over only thinking what we should be doing but never doing anything. Usually when I’m faced with questions like these my god sent friend Sunny has always been able to show me how to seek that answer. He doesn’t give me the answers but kind of grabs my collar pulls me up and drops me where I should be to find the answer. And I don’t know anyone who has and can have the same patience level with me as Sunny does. Thank you Sunny if you’re reading this.
Photographically the answer always seems the famous Nike line – ‘Just do it’. There’s a point when you need to stop thinking and just shoot damn it. Time is ticking away and we’re only growing older. This is one of the reasons why I used to get so frustrated some times when sitting at home wishing I was travelling. To subside that feeling I got my new phone so I don’t continue to think I missed a ‘killer’ shot. When really most of the times they’re nothing shots. Just because I wasn’t taking a shot at those missed opportunities it felt as if I missed something. But now, at least by shooting that question down I know I actually captured it instead of thinking I wish I did that. Carrying a little pocket friendly camera or camera phone is a great tip. You never know what’s round the corner waiting for us.
If you’re also waiting for some magical moment to pick up your camera and shoot that award winning NatGeo photograph then it’s never going to happen. Just pick your behinds up and shoot and then may be you’ll have a better chance than thinking about it. It’s a much better feeling to have done something than wishing to have done something.
Take care.
PS: Continuing on the thoughts of carrying a camera and their perks. All photos that you see under Samsung Galaxy category on my blog are the perks of carrying the camera to shoot when the opportunity is there. It’s a much better feeling to know you have captured an image rather than wishing you did. And it may not always be what you expected when you sit on your desktop reviewing them but the thoughts that you missed opportunities won’t block you from moving ahead. Man I think I’ve just written my longest blog. Thanks for your patience!
