Photography learning II

My best photograph will be the one that I am going to take tomorrow - Ansel Adams.

This is what one of the pioneer of photography quoted when asked about his best photo.

So photography, like life, teaches you new things everyday and like life here too you will have to keep improving and rectifying your mistakes.

As I have shared some time back, after I visited Agra and Humayun's tomb, the things I need to improve upon, today too I share few things that I have learned or noticed in the last couple of months in which I have been extensively involved with photography.


Being Hasty - First of all on this list is what I often do when I see some nice people or things and want to click them as quickly as possible. .. so as  a result I get a lot hasty and pictures comes out blurry or out of focus

The above pic was taken while I was on my first photowalk to Rastrapati Bhawan and honestly after clicking those buildings for some time, I was kind of getting bored . Just then my eyes fell on these two sisters who were looking so cute dressed in same dress and at that very moment I thought to click them. I was so excited seeing that I thought that this pic was going to be the best of the walk.  But when I came back and checked this at home , I could see that the girls have come so out of focus. Had I steadied myself a bit or calmed myself  first I would have really captured them better.

Ask people if you can take their photos - Although in street photography the sense of being voyeuristic helps you portray people candidly, without them being conscious about getting clicked but I do feel that by doing so you at times miss out on other angles that would have reflected things in a better way.

As in the above pic, the pic is nice just because the girl was not only looking at me but was smiling. And this all happened because we had spent some time playing around with each other standing at bus stop.

Taking straight photos, although I have corrected the symmetrical flaw that I had with my earlier photos that I took of monuments but now I see quite a lot of issues with the horizontal axis of the photos. As you can see in the below pic , the monument seems to be falling to the right. 

At present its more due to that fact that my hand is not yet accustomed to handing the big bulky camera and I tend to slant towards one direction or other but it has been so apparent in my photos that I seriously need to keep it in mind every time before pressing the shutter down.

Less post processing - as I am currently spending a lot of time on touching them up in software. 


The left pic below is what the camera produced and right is after some post processing was applied to it.

Could I have managed this without PS ? Yes and No. 


Speaking of this picture only, yes may be I could have done better with the camera itself but in general, I will have to quote Ansel Adams again :


“Dodging and burning are steps to take care of mistakes God made in establishing tonal relationships.”. 


So its not always possible to capture the correct color and tones with your camera as it too is a machine and you too are human so quite prone to errors.


Earlier I was strictly against using any software to enhance the photo as I used to feel its against the principle of capturing that moment correctly but now I have understood that although its still quite an important thing to be right at the first time  and many times just by knowing your machine well you can get similar results out of the camera too but at the end what matters is how the photo is presented to the viewers. If post processing helps you to convey your photo in a better way then there is no harm in it. In fact I have learned that most of the photographers shoot RAW, and since we cannot view RAW directly we have to always apply post process to them. But the final idea is to spent less time on computer and more on the field :)

Taking less snaps or be ruthless in deleting them... someone very rightly said that more snaps you take more things you learn but they take up so much space that at times its quite difficult to manage and since there are so many pictures that sometimes you get bored in correcting them that it takes a while before you transverse to the good ones and by that time you lose interest. So with advent of digital cameras, people do have the liberty to click as many pics as they want and honestly even famed photographers don't get a perfect shot all the time in first go. But at the end you should be able to discard them quickly too.

Thats all for this time.... Will share more as a learn more :)

I love dogs....

Well this story dates back to a long time back when I was learning guitar. So my guitar tutor had a dog who was quite dear to him. So one day when I went to class my tutor's father told me that today there won't be any class as he is quite upset as his dog has died. His father told me that the whole night he was awake sitting with the dog talking n embracing him. I was touched as well as I thought wow a man n dog's relation is indeed a beautiful one and although I couldn't experience it when I was a kid but now since I do feel quite alone and as they say a dog is man's best friend so I definitely should get one. So I went home and told my mom about my wish. She very cutely discarded the idea stating that Either it will be her or the dog who will live in the house. I din't push much as I realised that since she will be the one who will be mostly home and have to take care of the dog so there is no point in going ahead if she is not at all willing.

I love the way a dog and man care for each other . The way they communicate with each other without having to utter a single word. The way they hug, walk along etc.


When I was a kid I never longed for a dog because of their average living time which is around 10-12 years. I knew that I will get very much attached to my dog and the very idea of departing from them makes me feel sad, so it will be really difficult for me to get in term with his death.Thats why I never liked the idea of living with something which leaves you so early.


Nevertheless looks tough for me to have one now but I hope if I ever have kids and they want to have one I will try to be supportive :)


Apart from a dog I don't think I would like to have any other animal as pet. 


PS: Sorry I could not find the photo of the puppy I clicked once and as I mentioned earlier that will try to add a self clicked pic with every post of mine so I will update it later :)

I don't want to go to school ...

Every morning when I wait for my friend in front of my apartment , I can see a bunch of children waiting with their mothers for their school buses. So among those kids there are a couple of brothers one of whom has just started going to school. So everyday he comes down crying and wailing. Although he doesn't speak much but I can sense him saying I don't want to go to school. So this reminds me of my school days. When I too just started going to school, my mother used to take me there and I too used to cry saying I don't want to go. Later I don't remember crying :-D but I guess barring some days I always used to wish aaj chutti ho jae bhagwan? (Please make it a holiday god). I loved my school friends and spending time with them but like most I think I too used to dread getting up so early in the morning for the school.

For one more day....

Image taken from coverbrowser.com

Another best seller from Mitch Albom after Five people you meet in Heaven and Tuesdays with Morrie. 

For one more day is a story of an ex baseball player who tries to commit suicide after he fails completely in his life.He was a phenomenal player in college but despite being drafted in the major league he couldn't last more than a year and despite all his father's pushing he never makes it back. He has lost his job, his wife has left him long time back, he spends most of his time drinking and doesn't have anyone who cares for him. And when even his only daughter whom he loved so much doesn't want him around and don't even call him for her wedding,he decides to end his life. So when he goes to his native place to kill himself there he find his Mom who has already died and this book captures that one day he spends with his mother and when he goes through all the things that has happened in his life. How he always loved his father the most and how his father left them one day and he blamed his mother for that. In that one day he came to know about the real reasons , the hardships his mother has taken for him.

Since this book talks a lot about a mother it itself becomes quite a touching story.

So here are the statements that I liked a lot from this book and as always my comment on the same.

Mothers support certain illusions about their children and one of my illusions was that I liked who I was, because she did.

Ha ha ha . So true. I always feel that a guy is very lucky at times as he always has two ladies who will always adore him and love him. One his mother and the other his sister. For these two ladies he is always the best. 

What is it about childhood that never lets you go, even when you're so wrecked its hard to believe you ever were a child?

Absolutely sometimes I feel I am the child who used to be so naughty and fun loving when he was a kid and sometimes I can't even imagine that I was that child. 

I can say I adored my mother in the way that boys adore their mothers while taking them for granted.

Hmmm , we guys always know that there is one person who will do everything possible for us like no need to care about whether our clothes are clean and pressed, what we will eat etc, whether we will get up on time for school or college or office etc and sometimes we do take her for granted. 

Her only flaw was that she didn't make me work for it.

A mother never makes a child long for her love or affection, she will never say do this then only you will get this. She will always give you that without making you toil for that. 

Kids chase the love that eludes them . 

And we guys always run for the love of our Dad. I still remember when I was recovering from food poisoning for which I was hospitalized and I went to a doctor for a checkup along with my Mother and my Dad was not in town and I know only how my mother managed everything. So the doctor asked me whom do you love more, Dad or Mom and I said without thinking Dad.

A mountaineer on being asked which is more difficult , Ascending or Descending ? Answered without a doubt descending because ascending you were so focussed on reaching the top you avoided mistakes.

So true.

Loved It..II

Today as part of Environment Week in my organization there was a painting as well as photography competition . The painiting competition was for the kids of the employees and for that all the painitings done by employee's children were displayed in the Atrium area. The were grouped in three groups 0-3 years , 5-7 and 7-10.

All the paintings were awesome and embarrased me thinking that even a 14 month baby drew a painting which I could only dream of drawing. I was drawn by one of my collegue towards a painting which I had somehow missed. Like others it was also depicting the environment concerns, talking about global warming, pollution and other environmental hazards but at the middle of it in bold this quote was written

"DON'T LET YOUR GEOGRAPHY BECOME A HISTORY"

I was really touched by the quote and thought how thoughtful.
Simply loved all the paintings. Infact some paintings were so beautiful that even professionals would had tough time drawing something like that. Kudos to those kids.

Loved it......

Today when I got down from the bus at my stop , in front of our bus there was a tempo from which a family got down, actually they were four villagers who I think must have been living at the nearby village.They were two older persons and two kids. Kids were about 4-5 years old and the couple seemed to be in early 60's. It seemed that they have taken lift in the tempo.

So after getting down ,as they started to move away, the smaller of the kid ran back to the front of the tempo where the driver was sitting and uttered a very polite "Thank You" (yep in English)

Then as he was walking back to his family,I was facing him and his family was beside me so I couldn't see their face, but it seemed they had a quizical look, so the kid also gave a proud look to his brother and his parents or grand parents as if telling them "What, I just thanked as he gave us a lift" and although I couldn't see their faces but I am damn sure they must be proud of him for showing gratitude and that too in English...... I simply loved that moment and just wished I had a camera to capture that moment....Proud to see the future of our country :)....We so called grown ups need to learn these basics of humanity from these kids for sure.

PS: Not sure how successful I have been in recreating the scene but just feel that no words can describe that moment completely.