25 September 2009

A click too many

Before I begin this post, I want to pay obeisance to the living goddess of photography. Her name is Moi the Great, a source of unparalleled & perpetual inspiration to me for leading a ‘click’ life behind the constricted world of a photographic lens.

Photography is new to me. In fact, my first purchase was as recent as a few months back! Off course I sought the goddess’ blessings, touched her feet and smeared turmeric on my forehead before stepping out to make the purchase. I bought the most base model available in the market (and pssst.. one of the cheapest). Point and shoot, khallas! For the technically unchallenged hoi polloi (does that rhyme with moi?), it would imply 3x optical zoom, 6 Megapixel. That’s it. I can assure you my cute ass barbeques from the inside when I see pot bellied thickly mustachioed men wield huge SLR cameras up to 12 Megapixel.

However, that is exactly the point! You don’t need a baby worth 30K to shoot those blinding pictures with which you can run up to the goddess’ altar and show your grinning teeth. What you need (apart from the goddess’ blessings) are these four things –

1. A software to digitally retouch your images. I use Picasa. You are free to pluck your favorite flower from the jungle.
2. Go places. And don’t forget the camera! I, for one, haven’t reached that elevated state of the goddess to be able to sit in my morose house and shoot pics pointlessly.
3. Shoot pics pointlessly!. Left, right and centre. The single measure of this parameter is the degree of indignance of your co-travelers. If they are comfortable with your indulgence in the lens – mate, you have a problem. If they are annoyed – yeah yeah yeah. If they are seething red and two way communication breakdown has occurred – BINGO you are on your way to getting those Nat Geo award winning shots!
4. Lastly, a thinking mind. A static, dull, uncreative or disturbed mind will inhibit conjuring ideas and angles and vistas which can prove to be a great shot. In the end, the photograph is just the manifestation of what you thought! So keep thinking.

Just a case in point, on my long weekend I clicked approximately 200 times, which is indeed on the lower side. Out of those 200 pics, about 160 made it to my laptop. Around 80 were digitally retouched in Picasa and form part of my private collection, rest were shift deleted. Then, 35 were selected for public dissemination and finally ONLY 7 made it to this blog (which is obviously my pinnacle platform for self aggrandizement). So let your view of these 7 not occlude the 194 odd gentry.

It’s the classic one in a million sperm analogy.

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3 comments

Blogger Unknown kuchh to bolti...

With Goddess' blessings, you have done amazing job with your camera ;-)

2:18 AM  
Blogger Radha kuchh to bolti...

they're beautiful shots -- i like the last one the most. Love the green!!
PS: If you're ever short of photo ideas, you shd have a kid. There's so much to click then !! My laptop is full of images since kabeer :)

5:21 PM  
Blogger Chica, Cienna, and Cali kuchh to bolti...

whoa!!! :)

keep clicking...even to the annoyance of fellow-travelers....what do they know???? :DDDD

your pics are awesome, 666.......i miss them when you don't send them for long....i swear!!!!

And i agree with you on all four points.......I think i tried harder when I did not own a fancy-schmancy SLR....... funny, eh!

2:26 AM  

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