Why I don't like to be in a photograph......

Photography is not just a hobby but it is more of an art. You can teach someone how to take pictures but you can not teach someone how to take good pictures. I know it sounds cliché but sadly its true.

I think I have some sense to capture beauty or beautiful things, and I admit I am no way an exceptional photographer, but I am a very good photographer in my own rights. So, over the past 3-4 years since I developed this hobby, I found out that I can actually take good photographs. The way I approach to take a picture sounds quite simple.

Usually I have some kind of idea in my mind that I want to express thorough the photograph. Once I know what kind of shot I want to take, I check out the object of focus, then I check out the surrounding and then I frame my shot. This is straight forward if the object of interest is a not an animal or human being, as the motion is reduced or at least can be controlled to some extent. But, taking pictures of people in the outdoor setting or even indoors poses a great challenge, and at that time willingly or unwillingly I have to resort to either paparazzi technique or be film director.

I know paparazzi doesn't really sound right but when the people know you and you know them it is the best way to capture the natural expressions, and any photographer would admit that it is not purely luck to get a good picture but also involves a lot of skill. You have to follow the movements of the person and try to capture best possible moments if not all, and doing this involves a great deal of skill and patience. This is technique is something you simply can't teach a person, you develop it yourself.

The director method, sounds simpler than the paparazzi as you are in complete control of the shot except for the background. You can ask the person or people to act in a certain way. The task is fairly easy if you are the camera man as well as the director. Doing both, gives you total control over the shot you take, and I would say I had fair amount of success doing this thing. What I found it most difficult was to get a good shot of myself when I give my camera to someone show that person a sample shot, and ask him/her to take a similar shot. Earlier, I used to think that it would be a simple job to perform. But no, it wasn't I tried several different times and to my no avail whenever I instructed on how to take a particular shot, I would never get it the way it was supposed to be. To give you a simple example of what I am talking about, check these two pictures 1 and 2. Even if you ignore the motion blur in the second picture you would get my point, and this is one of the reason why I don't want to be in a photograph….if I am using my camera.

Seattle / Portland Trip

Recently concluded a trip to 2 fascinating cities on the Pacific Nortwest....yes of course they are Seattle and Portland.... I tried some snowboarding and then also went up the Space needle in Seattle... while in Portland I had a unique opportunity to visit the NIKE campus. The pics from the trip can be seen here.

Fall Colors @ Sylvania National Forest

Instead of describing my trip during fall to the upper michigan peninsula, I would simply give you guys the link to the pics I took during camping at the Sylvania Wilderness in the Ottawa National Forest, in U.P Michigan. You can find the pics here. Hope you like it.

India Trip Part 2

Finally I reached home a full 12 hrs late… so all the time I saved by taking the direct flight to Delhi was nullified. I was just happy that I reached home without any problems with luggage or anything else. It was the Ganpati season and so the whole Pune city was in celebratory mood after all it's in this city the festival was started some 110 yrs ago.

The stay in India was hectic. We had our Ganpati Visarjan the very day I reached, after performing the Puja I crashed into bed after all a time difference of 12 hrs isn't easy to handle. Luckily the jet lag lasted only for a day as the very next day I started going out and trying to stay away form home during the afternoon hrs. I re-scheduled my Mumbai-Delhi ticket because of the experience I had earlier.

While @ home I relished on the home cooked food my mom made for me… was wonderful as usual and no one can beat the taste. A couple of days in Pune and then I set out for the my long trip. I visited my home town and my ancestral home at Nagpur which is @ dead center in India. It was such a wonderful feeling, I met my uncles and aunts and grand uncles and grand aunts… I met my two cousins who are getting married in the end of Jan. Can't really believe that my lil sis are getting married… wow time just flies… doesn't it? Later I went to Bhopal/Indore/Baroda and met rest of my family had such wonderful time. All this doesn't really sound exciting but when you are around with your family it is the sense of fulfillment and satisfaction and not the excitement you are looking for….

Life Updated / India Trip: Part 1

A lot has happened since my Sky dive on the 4th of July weekend.... so many things to write about... but can't find the right words to write about and so I will try my best to documents few events that stand out. One of the most important thing I did this year is going to India after a gap of some 3yrs in late Aug/Sept. It was a fulfilling but fast-forward kind of trip.

I flew on my B'day and hence I will briefly desribe my B'day party. It was the eve of my birthday and by all means perfect occasion for a party and so I did one. I wasn't planning on drinking a whole lot may be a drink or two. But, then enters this wonderful friend of mine... we call him Nish... and he had some other plans.... Usually, every party I go I am sober part of the reason is that I drive and hence don't drink..... DWI in Minnesota can be quite expensive deal. As I said.. Nish's plan was to get me drunk come whatever may.... I was lucky as I had a DD with me for the night. I started with first drink @ around 730 and as the time went by I had already guzzled some 6 drinks and was feeling tipsy.... Luckily my bags were already packed and hence I didn't have to worry about it. As I said... by 1230AM or so when I was starting to feel tipsy I headed back home... put my alarm for 430 as I had to catch a flight for 7AM.

Rochester In't Airport as they call it isn't really a big airport, infact it is a tiny airport. Nevertheless I couldn't afford missing this flight as there was only a few hrs layover in Chicago before I boarded on AA International flight to Delhi, so driving to Chicago was ruled out, which normally takes roughly 6 hrs. Anyways I made it for the 7AM and can't describe how horrible I was feeling. Imagine a guy who has been drinking for 6 hrs, a night before he is suppose to take a 15 hr flight.

Well, turned out to be quite OK as opposed to what I was expecting, I didn't feel dizzy or anything.. @ Chicago my friend picked me up, I went to his place had shower and some heavy brunch and then we headed back to airport. Everything had been going per plan right upto the point when we landed in Delhi. the 15 hr flight didn't really feel all that bad, and believe me if they start one to Mumbai I would defi take it.

We landed in Delhi at 815 PM and we had a connecting flight to Mumbai from the domestic terminal at 11PM. After customs and border security check I collected my luggage and it was only 845PM and by all means we should have made our connection. But that's where everything went haywire... we decided to take Inter terminal shuttle instead of taking a taxi and probably that was the biggest mistake we did. We missed the first shuttle and hence had to wait for another one, which came in at 930 PM. I guessed it would take only 5 min to reach the domestic terminal, but that wasn't meant to be. For some reason it was delayed and instead of leaving that thing immediately we waited there just sitting in it for some 20 odd minutes. It was such a frustrating feeling... but I didn't freak out.... I was disgusted with the apparent indifference shown by the driver of the Inter-terminal shuttle. To make things worse no sooner than we reached the terminal, connecting flights gates were closed. It was already the last flight to Mumbai and the only options were, either rent a room in a hotel nearby or to stay in the terminal.

We chose the later one. Like us there were at least 40 other passegeners from various Int'l flights who had to go through this ordeal. So us together we camped outside the gates the whole night... after some 8 hrs of ordeal we made it to the first flight to Mumbai scheduled for 7AM. Luckily things didn't go all that bad except for one thing... and that is Anand my friend from Chicago who was travelling with me had to leave his Laptop bag behind ( of course he carried his laptop with him literally on his laps :) )

Back in the blogosphere

Don't know what happened to me but I haven't been blogging at all lately. But things are about to change... I am gonna start writing blogs regularly if not frequently.... so my hello to you all ....

keep blogging....