Lord of the War

These are changed times. There are changed people. They use changed technology. Clothes that we wear, food that we crave for, phones that we dwell in, everything is changed. Even I'm changed. I had to change to sustain in this war torn world. Well, the methods of war are changed but not the intentions. This was is happening not only across political borders but within our cities, within our homes, within our relations. Yes we are at war even with ourselves not knowing that every war is fought by soldiers in the fields while a demonic few keep smiling behind their backs.

Buttery-Flying Angels

It was a misty morning of 2009 winter. I left early in the morning with my camera a Canon Powershot SX 10IS and boarded an EMU train from Sealdah. The destination was Chintamoni Kar Bird Sanctuary, popularly known as 'Kayal er Bagan' near Narendrapur. after a highly complicated journey of around 2 hours I reached the place. Well, en route to the place I came to know that there is a much easier route which would have taken me a bit more than an hour.

Kayaler Bagan is a 17 acre small forest beside a canal near Narendrapur in South 24 Parganas of West bengal in India. Although, the name suggests it is a bird sanctuary, I found lots of other things too. I spotted a couple of mongoose and a big enough monitor lizard. Actually I came face to face with the later and realised how frightened we both were. I've also heard that there are snakes too. But the most beautiful things that I saw and photographed were numerous butterflies, bees, wasps and other insects. For now, I present a few of the Buttery Flying Angels.

Lum-PEN

In a sense, I'm a Lumpen - often displaced people who have been cut off from the socioeconomic class with which they would ordinarily be identified. Photography, indeed is an expensive passion in terms of both time and money. But sometimes, sudden spontaneous thoughts bloom into soothing compositions. Lets get back in time from modern pens to the ancient ones.

Ball point pen

This photograph was taken at a village primary school which I visited with my friend Subhamay Mitra, who is a teacher in that school. The irony of the experience is that I was sitting inside the a terribly small room called the staff room and this student was attending his class just outside at the verandah. But still, this composition seemed to me, the best photographic presentation of Education.

Fountain pen

This one is one of the most common compositions on time and memory. Tried this for the first time. I was amazed with the performance of my new 75-300 mm lens. Such a shallow depth of field. The nib of the pen and the year 2012 on the diary page were barely a couple of inch apart.

Feather tip pen

I've no idea whether this is a good composition or not. I don't even want to induce a story to this one, although I have one in my mind. I just loved the colour.

Pan-Fried

Since the very first photographic outings, I've been seeing people trying to take pan shots with still camera. Often a good snap by those and some at exhibitions would fascinate me. But honestly, I never thought of experimenting with film rolls at that time. Now that I'm using digital cameras, its easier to do such experiments. I did some with moving vehicle lights at night. The daylight panning idea surfaced as I was travelling from Kharagpur to Kolkata with my friend Subhamay Mitra in his newly bought car.

It was a coincidence that the wind was blowing in the same direction of their movement. Seemed to me as if the greens were moving by the wind current created by the rider.


This is a strange sample where some static subjects seem to be moving but other static subjects are still. Also, the actually moving subject, the rider, seems to be frozen in the frame.


In last 3 pictures above, I've moved the camera from inside the moving car. This last image came out as the best resultant of the trip though.

Well, Experimenting was okay, but please do not ask me about what I derived from it. I'm really confused with the weird acts of relative velocity. But I think this could have helped Einstein a lot.

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.

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.