Flying Dragons and Damsels

Human beings can do anything to keep myths alive, if needed, even in some other form. I've never seen a real dragon or a damsel but we all might have seen Dragonflies and Damselflies. I've observed that these beautiful creatures have a typically contrasting feature of movement. They can fly at around 60 miles per hour. But when they sit, they are still as a stone. Its not too hard to capture them on camera if spotted.




I found this gray damselfly a few days ago while she was sitting on a dried hibiscus leaf.



This damselfly is the only creature appearing in my blog twice so far. Viewers can find another picture of her in a previous post.



I have no idea whether dragons are interested in guava. However, this macho dragonfly seemed to be interested. I spotted him sitting on the guava tree in front of my office window for a couple of days but could not click it. Well, I succeeded on the third day.



I don't know if this one is a bit of ferocious dragonfly, but it seemed kind of a warrior to me. Especially, the tail was majestic. I met this guy at Garchumuk, in Howrah district of West Bengal.

Monu-Mental: My early days of Photography

Suddenly found some old photographs that I took in my early days. All these were taken with my Vivitar film camera. For the time being, I'm publishing these few snaps of some archeological sites of India. This is just to remind myself that Film can do the same magic as digital.




The above photograph was taken at Tughlaq's tomb situated opposite to Tughlaqabad Fort in Delhi.



Nobody goes to see Qutab Minar half an hour before it's closing time. well, Idid, just to get this photograph. I've been fond of silhouettes since the beginning. But here, the blue and yellow did the magic. Well, I did not include the actual monument in this photo, since, it was too big to be moved into the frame.



Why not take something unique? I've never seen any other picture of Qutab similar to this one. Actually, Qutab is so tall that I always faced problems clicking it. Finally, I decided to take a part of it. Everybody seems to recognise it though.



Humayun's Tomb in Delhi can really be a photographer's delight. Especially, the light and shadow parts. Well, Film did all this magic

Waterscape Throughout the Day

I don't have the knack of painting. To be more precise, I can't draw even a pencil. My parents, however, tried to discover this talent in me and put me in a painting class when I was in the second standard in school. After a few weeks of straight lines and never ending circles, I was asked to draw a river and a home beside it. The next few weeks were all about river, lotus in a pond, frog, fish, sunrise over the ocean and so on. Believe me or not, I was tired of water more than the school. Luckily the painting school shut down, as did my kindergarten school and even the hospital where I was born. Please don't panic; No other institution got shut down with my footsteps in it. But this water thing never let me go. My father wanted me to learn swimming and I was damn scared of it. Although I learned it lately, I'm still scared of water. But amazingly, the beauty of water (of course from the land or a boat), always attracted me.



The above photograph was taken near the Farakka D in West Bengal in April 2010. I was on a trip with Sudipto to the Santhal Pargana in Jharkhand on the occasion of birthday celebration of Sido Murmu, the historical icon of Santhal revolution. We stayed at his relative's house in Farakka before we started the actual journey. At dawn we woke up and walked a bit to reach the river bank. It was still dark but the fishermen were too busy, some even returning with their catch. A clear sky let us watch the sunrise with its divine freshness. It was the first time that I took a silhouette in the morning and that to with bloody red water as the background.



This one is a recent picture of the Nainitaal lake a couple of hours after the sunrise. Aquatic blue has always been a desire to capture for me. But this one is different. The water was green actually. I was amazed to see the reflection of the clear blue sky in the dark green water. Around 15 minutes later, there was nothing blue. I had to wait till the next morning to get some more snaps like it.



As we grow up, certain questions arise in our minds. I would have never understood how the fairy tale authors even think of the magic pools where the princess would take a dip to turn golden. It was a lazy afternoon when I took my camera and sat on the bank of Hooghly river at Baghbazar, in Kolkata. The Sun set completely almost 10 minutes after this photograph was taken. This is one of the examples, how a low exposure can make magic.



Clouds have always been the subject of photography. Howard Hughes discovered during the making of 'Hell's Angels' that the cloud as a background shows the fighter planes as hanging still. Why yes, Clouds make beautiful wallpapers but they become even gorgeous with supporting factors such as water as is in this picture. This picture was taken on a summer evening near Outram Ghat in Kolkata. The sun had just disappeared in the horizon but the light was still available. May I call it Dusk?



This sweetheart of a picture is again of the Nainitaal lake last December around 20 minutes after the Sun set. Imagine the same picture with a plane ground in place of the lake water. Had it been so wonderful? and it was highly romantic a view. I really was missing someone while looking at the view. Alas I don't know and I never knew, who I was thinking about.

The little Dragon-fly

It was an off day last week. I woke up late. The sunlight was too bright and I felt that it would be idiotic to go out clicking the city in this light. But my fingers were tickling to get a few snaps. I took my camera and stepped into the garden. I was clicking the Tulasi(Ocimum tenuiflorum) when suddenly this little Dragonfly entered the frame and stayed at the same point until it was satisfied that I have taken a few snaps of it.

Road to Ranikhet

This snap was taken en route to Ranikhet from Nainitaal. I was sitting at the front seat of the car capturing every beautiful view. Actually I missed thousands of them between shutters.

Hi! This is N……

A world of experiences within a single mind sometimes gets too stuffy, as a world of studies was to me. Literary works have always fascinated me; however, I kept a distance figuring the low empty space (read grey matter) in my brain. But how could I not abide to the freedom and right to expression. As a college student in Kolkata, poetry used to fascinate me and in course, I tried my hand on it to express myself. Well, flying on an airplane and flying one are not the same. While looking for greener pastures, I realized that I have been studying newspaper photographs since long time. Also, remembered that after my grandma’s death we had been searching for a snap of her. Finally a snap taken by me as a child was accepted by all. The same happened after the death of my grandpa a few years later. However, before that time I had already started taking classes on photography at Photographic Association of Dumdum, Kolkata. My dad bought me a Vivitar camera with a normal lens. I still use that camera. Later on I have also taken up digital photography.

I must mention here the name of my teacher of photography, my Guru Mr Ashoke Roy, a Geo-chemist working with Geological Survey of India at Kolkata. Apart from that, he is a writer, traveler and an avid photographer. He loves to trek the Himalayas. His books namely- Shalagram shilar sandhane (In search of the Shaligrams, ABP, 2000), Bhagaban Bishnu o shalagram shila (God Vishnu and the Shaligram, SPB, 2003) and Bibartoner dharay shib o shiblingo (Evolution of Shiva and Shivalinga, ABP, 2008), show his adherence to travel and study of Myth as well as Science.

When I set foot near the world of photography, the digital age had already been flourishing in India. In few months, Nikon stopped manufacturing all film based cameras except FM2 and FM10. Ashoke kaku (Mr Ashoke Roy) suggested me to study the science with films at first. The obvious question in mind was, “why film and not digital, when the previous one is going out of practice due to the complexity and expensiveness?” Since I had not started earning my own pie then, I convinced myself with the cause to be price of the camera. Later I realized that photography is not about a camera only. An equally important part is the dark room. While taking a snap, we see one image through the viewfinder but often it is not the one we visualize in mind as the desired image. Also, it is necessary to know how much we can use the dark room and how much we can minimize the use of it.

Honestly, I realized this much later and practiced it even later when I started working for www.thescape.in, a news portal. It was my first job as a professional photographer. I have been taking pictures of lot of things at favorable light conditions and favorable perspective conditions as well so far. One of my very first assignments included photographing Amitabh Bachchan from a distance of around 20 meters in the evening when he visited Jyoti Basu in a private hospital in 2010. Well, I succeeded but the photo was not clear. I corrected the exposure, and the very next snap was clear enough. Alas, it was of a policeman standing a bit further. That day, I learnt that I should take several snaps to test the exposure before the subject arrives. Also, I started evaluating the limits of dark room application from that day. Things got smoother after that day. While working for www.thescape.in, I received my first real life experience in press photography. My colleagues taught me several aspects of the digital dark room.

For me, photography has forever been a passion. But for the first 4 years, I never thought of composition. Exposure was my only concern. Thanks to my Vivitar and the drained out exposure meter cell, I have learnt the aspect of exposure. Those who saw my snaps used to say that they were really good until I started concentrating on composition. After a while, these same people started criticizing and suggesting about my photographs. This is when I realized that I’ve started learning photography and so far it was just encouragement for a person who didn’t even know the basics of this language of expression. Hence, I present to you ‘Kamara Syndrome’, my expression of everything that I can see and that I want to see. I welcome everybody to teach me by criticizing my photographs and sharing your views to help me develop myself. Please help me present to you more desired as well as unexpected photographs.

I do hereby dedicate this blog to those who supported and advised me in the run of being called a shutterbug. Apart from my Father Abhas Basu and Mother Nita Basu, the wildest critiques of my photographs, and my elder brother Bhaswat basu, the first name that comes to my mind is of Prof. Abir Chattopadhyay, HoD, Dept. of Journalism and Mass Communication, SA Jaipuria College Kolkata and Editor in Chief, www.thescape.in. I have been his student for almost last 10 years and would like to remain the same forever. A friend and brother, Sudipto Mukhopadhyay, lecturer, Delhi University, has always been my companion and guide in developing my skills as well as myself. I’m also grateful to the octogenarian on a Kolkata street who did not notice that I clicked him. I must thank all my victims of extreme close up with wide angle lens. I promise to introduce many more people to whom I dedicate this blog, alongside my photographs.


*This photo was taken at Naukuchiataal near Nainitaal in Uttarakhand, India in December 2010