Sub-m-Urged

Ideas are often submerged among other ideas and come forth only when urged. I must have thought something while taking these but somehow it never came forward for so long. Well, the idea of another blog post was submerged just like these boats were.

Mood-o-chrome

I often realize that I've kept aside several photographs which are actually good but I don't think they are. Anyways, my favorite pass-time, browsing my photo collection sometimes gives me new ideas. Today. I caught up with some photographs of my nephew Saptashwa Basu. An adorable devil he is.

The Don

The Romantic

The Poet

The Celebrity

The Mystique

The Divine

AND AT LAST

The Stripper

Pan-Stallion

This is an amazing thing that I've been doing photography for around 7 years and this is the first time that I've done Panning. For those who have no idea about what Panning means in still photography - It is a shot taken by moving the camera at slow shutter speed with respect to a moving object. The background naturally gets shaken.

Although it is not a perfect shot considering composition and exposure but I'm loving it. Have to try some more.

Call 'em Colored

All of a sudden, after long time, I got some enthusiasm to publish my photographs again. This (not 'these') photograph was taken last December at Bhimtaal near Nainitaal.

The second photo is a desaturated version of the first one. A prank came to my mind. There used to be a lot of racist people in this world few decades ago who'd call others 'Black'. There number has decreased a lot over time but those who still exist, have devised a better name 'Colored'. In any case, Black or colored, a photograph needs at least one of them to be a photograph.

Now please tell me which one of these looks better. I need to learn a lot....

Priorities Defined

Is is not necessary to have a story behind every photograph. Nor is it necessary to have a story in every photograph. But we always have the liberty to start a story from one.

I don't have any idea who owns this bicycle. May be the meat seller does. May be some other person. But why shouldn't I consider the cycle to be of that meat seller? May be the bicycle is facing towards his home. Like every other man he has two main priorities which are highly connected to each other - Home and job. Like every other person he has to balance his priorities for his very existence.

Light-errr

Drawing with the help of Light is called Photography. and I love Photography. But doing the same thing every day and every time sometimes gets on my nerves. So I thought of capturing light with the help of darkness. No big talks today. Just a few photographs. well, just for your information, I used two cell phone flash lights to create the formations.


Puzzled Power


Smile-O-Smiley


Brightness of Love

To colour or not to colour....

Got hold of my camera after around 3 months except for capturing friends and family. Anirban Mukherjee, my school buddy has the claim to credit this time. He was too eager to test his skills and new camera at Kumortuli, Kolkata. A new thing happened this time. Well, this is not new, it used to happen when I didn't have a digital camera. Took just a few photographs as if I had limited gates in my film roll.

Upon seeing the photographs, I realized that I've mostly captured photographs with a co existence of monochrome and colours. Honestly, this idea of grouping never came to me before I started creating this blog post.

The building blocks of clay Idol. Hay is used to make the basic structure of all those clay idols we see. This beautiful colour is eventually covered with black mud and then again colour is used to make those beautiful idols we see. Isn't it kind of resurrection?

Does chilli taste hot in the ears too? Mahishasur doesn't seem very happy with a chilli pierced through his ears to make a hole for ornamentation.

Peace in war zone. Actually something else came to my mind on seeing this scene. Can the cats distinguish between human beings and fierce human figures? Leave apart the human figures. How could he sleep so peacefully in front of such a big cat?

Red & White. No really, I don't have any intention to promote any brand here. actually, it seemed to me as if the provider of success and the well renowned savior are sitting in front of a court house. Redemption guaranteed.

Colours of muse. What else could I say?

Dancing Illumination

Buying a digital camera was a hasty decision that I never regretted. I've been using my Vivitar film SLR camera regularly till the end of 2008. On processing the films after a trip from Mussoorie, India, I got too upset with the bluish tone and horizontal lines in the images. Within almost no time bought my first digital camera, a Canon Powershot SX10 IS. Initial indoor snaps were good with flash. But I wanted to see it's performance outdoors. What could be better than visiting the picturesque Surajkund handicrafts fair in Faridabad?

The very first of my experiment with dancing lights was the above one. The image of course didn't depict any meaning to my eyes but I loved it.

Abrupt and unplanned movements of the camera produced many such images. I was so excited that I braved the dirt filled air for long time and kept adjusting various exposures. This was the day when I realized that small apertures can do magic. At 100 ISO and minimum possible aperture, the low shutter speed and movement of camera did the magic.

To me, this one is the best among those first pictures of the kind. This one was made by a planned movement of the camera. I wanted the human figures to be recognizable but not prominent. Also, for the first time, it was not a two dimensional movement of the camera. I moved it on a 2-D plane but alongside, walked backwards. However, some magic can never be computed mathematically.

Monsoon Mileage

I've been away from the viewfinder for quite a bit of time. But a few days ago I was talking to someone about why I stayed back in Kolkata instead of returning back to Delhi to my old job. Believe it or not, the real cause was snapshots of Kolkata in a Bengali movie named 'Madly Bangali'. I remember myself shouting loudly at the exit staircase of Nandan movie hall right after seeing the movie: "I'm not going back to Delhi".

As promised in the intro of this 'Kamara syndrome', I'm introducing another of my friends, Sanghamitra. She called me up last Saturday after midnight and literally ordered me to plan a small outing the next day. Well, we made no plans and that's what made the trip good. This image is the first one I took that day. A I bet, anyone can say which city is this although the characteristics of the city are out of focus. With the Yellows, Blues and Yellow-Maroon combinations, it is a real easy guess. Indeed, Monsoon was the mileage behind this photograph.

The Wild Urbane

The early days of almost everything are tough. Reaching out for the camera inside the backpack, changing the lens, setting the exposure and shooting with a limited number of photographic film...and all this, on a Sunday afternoon beside Jama Masjid in Delhi among a pushing crowd of thousands of people and vehicles. Memorable days of enjoyable struggle.


The story and location is already told


Patterns fascinated me. Although i still have no idea if this signifies anything at all. Near Majidia hospital, Tughlaqabad Extension, new Delhi.


This one seemed funny. Looks like someone has been hung and the crow is making sure the someone dies. The location is same as above.


I could have named this 'Parallel Vision'. Anyways, this DTH antennae used to block the Sunset from my terrace at Lajpat Nagar in Delhi. I decided to exploit it.


My beloved 'Model'. He tried his best to block the beauty but I turned him into a block of beauty.

A Golden Morning

Not the very first time in this blog, I'm telling about the weird stuffs I do. Guess what, I did not sleep last night. This is months or may be years after the last time I did it. But this time there was no cause. But purpose is a tricky thing. If I don't have a purpose, what's the use? To freshen up, I looked out of the window and rushed to the terrace. Well of course with camera.



It is nothing new to see pigeons during the sunrise. But this time the models for my 'light-painting' included Crows too. The crow family in the backdrop of 'soon to be red' sky is may be one of my best photographs in recent times. And also, I was satisfied enough to have a peaceful sleep.

The 'Leaf-Lock'

Reading too fast may provide undesired pronunciations. Whoa! I didn't mean unwanted results. they can be good too. Sometimes that happen in Photography too. A faster shutter speed may convert a normally flat view into a serene feel or may be a lust for gold.

We reached Kaushani just before the sunset. But the disheartening clouds just ruined the expectations of viewing the setting Sun. But a man who has been on both sides of the table in the corporate world, thinks of 'Priority' even in his sleep. Priority to me on this trip was Photography. Why of course the statements made by my teachers made a sunshine and the dull sky turned golden.

The creator made a beautiful earth. But as my father says, he needed something new that could appreciate what he has made. Hence, he created life, the most controversial creation being Human Beings. Who doesn't feel happy to see a newborn; be it human or some other form of life?

Things were going well until the creator realized that his greatest creation, the human beings have started to claim the newborns as their own creation. Who could be calm enough to let go such disregard and unfaithfulness? He gifted us 'Disease'. But since he is the ultimate creator, he has all the right to make the diseased look beautiful.

However, since the creator is an artist at heart, he couldn't just ruin his own creation. Perhaps, he followed Gandhigiri and started making things even more beautiful. Whatever the humans do, they can't help appreciating beauty.

Getting locked in leaf actually felt good. Read it faster or slower, 'Leaf- lock' is a good thing.

She sells Sea shells on the Sea shore

Sorry, I got no mermaids or fisherman's daughter on this post. Neither am I putting in too many beautiful photographs. But these are some interesting(to me) photographs I took last weekend in Mandarmoni, West Bengal. This beach is new enough to tourists. Hence, finding sea shells is a rather natural thing unlike other popular beaches.



I was walking on the beach when suddenly this 'dead yet dazzling' washed up near my feet. The shells were not detached yet as is normally found. Who could say, this one might have carried a tiny pearl inside it.



Met another dead one, the above one. It seemed to have been alive not much before I met it. I don't know their scientific names but I can bet they are 'piece of art'.



But this guy was too alive to let me picture it and it was moving fast on wet sand. And it vanished as soon as it touched water. What amazed me is, the little divine looking guy was acting as a parasite on this clumsy beast.



I think this above one was also some kind of parasitic act. The leaf like thing must be part of some creature as I found many like it being washed ashore. Well, the shell must have had a good surfing experience riding on it.



The thing shown above looked interesting. I found another same thing but that didn't have any such shells on it. The surface was smooth. At first, I thought it might be some kind of egg but later realized that it was nothing but a lump of clay which took this shape due to continuous rolling on the flatbed surface of the beach.



For the first time in my life I saw a starfish out of the TV or zoology lab. Don't ask me if it was alive or dead. I did not feel the urge to poke a dead or may be nearly dead person on my first meeting. And of course it was the most beautiful thing I saw in Mandarmoni.

I know that you are really pissed off seeing clumsy things which I think are beautiful. And I should not deprive you of nice pictures. I hope you'd like the next two photographs. Well, although not a 'she child', but a 'he child' was selling those sea shells on the sea shore.







I thought of bringing a few to my home so that I could take a few more pictures. But somehow, we missed the opportunity. Next time, I promise to be more careful in picturing them.

Road to Ornamentation

Earlier this decade, Page 3 articles and several literary write ups concentrated on the so called 'Junk Jewellery'. I remember those faint paragraphs where party revelers used to flaunt their unconventional ornaments and boast that they bought it from an African tribe. Actually, this was the entry of those 'big stone' and 'alloy' jewellery in the pavements of India. The pavement in front of Grand Hotel Kolkata was among the first outlet. Gradually, now we find them everywhere. Well, the prices get doubled when the outlet is a stall in some shopping mall, the factory remaining the same. While on different casual walks on the roads of Kolkata I got a few glimpse of those, thanks to my lady friends.



People chose hair clips of different colors. Igot a glimpse of how colourful they might look when placed together on the pavement of Lindsay Street, Koilkata.



The previous and next photographs are of jewellery shops beside the Hogg Market, Kolkata.



The handicrafts fair 2011 was indeed a photographers delight. Those Ganesha lockets were to me, the latest of 'Brand Ganesha' improvisations.





Can you imagine Indian ladies without bangles? I guess no. You should see their facial expressions when they look at those. The expression shifts from 'Yuk', through 'Poor Bangle' and 'Cool One' till 'I just love it'. You see the aggression on her face and listen to the sweetest words, 'Can I have it?'



Well this lady did have those bangles.