why the craze?

i don't really know. there was no single defining moment in my life after which i fell in love with photography like nothing else, but i have always always loved holding a camera in my hands. the very first camera we had was a minolta point-and-shoot with auto-focus and no zoom. we used this for many many years, even after my sis had dropped it on a trek so that the battery door was held in place with a band-aid. not that it worked continuously without problems, but these things are so easily fixable in india. oh, and my parents did have a very old slr. unfortunately it had been dropped once, after which it had stopped working. it would have been an antique piece if we hadn't given it away :(

then when my mom visited the u.s. in '94, she bought us two cameras. one was the 'family' camera - still a minolta but with a 38-105mm zoom lens. the other was a nikon (38-70mm zoom lens) that got handed down to me. i have no idea how it didn't go to my sister first. or perhaps it did and i stole it from her :) again, i don't know what happened to that one. i do remember one film of pictures that had the richest/sharpest colors i had ever seen in photos taken by me. (those were taken at anuva's house, when there was still a bunk bed, back in the day).

the next camera we purchased was an aps camera that we bought in germany, when we first got there. it was a strange system, and i'm glad it didn't last. the only good thing about it was that the camera would indicate how many exposures remained, rather than how many had been used. and it was small. i used it to take some pictures in my first year at bonn, before we upgraded to a regular film camera which i used for our euro-trip. i think mom and dad still have that camera, but i don't know if it's operational.

and then i came to school in the u.s. where i had no camera of my own. so in my first trip home, after enough complaining (gosh, what a brat!) i was bought a camera. i still have this one - an olympus point-and-shoot. but i was off taking pictures for a while. the few i remember taking were of sarika in my triple at hoyt. and then the memorable point reyes camping trip....

at the time of graduation, i got myself a film slr - n75 with a 50mm lens. at that time, i didn't know what aperture meant, what a filter was, what dof was... nothing. i never even used manual focus. but the pictures were still amazing. i used this camera as my primary camera for over 2 years, before i succumbed to the digital world.

i did a lot of research before i bought my s1 is. in fact, i don't think i'd ever put in so much time and effort into a purchase prior to this. it was a phenomenal camera, i have to say. it took some brilliant pictures.... i especially love the pictures i took of the golden gate when i first discovered the vantage point on the other side of the bridge. jayanth, who has since disappeared from my life, gave me some tips i haven't forgotten since. i learnt the concept of white balance on that day (though i am yet to fully learn how to take advantage of the feature).

the camera served me well for 2 years. until i felt i had saved up enough to afford a digital slr (already documented on this blog). and that brings me to today. i now have a lens for (almost) every occasion, and i love each one. nothing is as exciting as holding the camera in my hands and looking around for beauty to capture. and there is always beauty to capture. and in fact, the most exciting challenge is for the eyes to unravel the beauty that may not always be apparent, and then capture it with the camera's eye. gosh, there is nothing more fulfilling than to take a picture that has turned out well. the process of training the mind's eye is only too exciting, and aligning it with the camera's eye a source of deep satisfaction.

i have been asked often whether i prefer to take pictures of people or places. at some point i would care to pick one over the other. i no longer do. i think photography is all about training oneself to discover and explore beauty in anything and everything. i feel most secure with a camera in my hands wherever i am... if only i could somehow be invisible and not have the camera's presence cause people discomfort. my friends are used to my paparazzi ways now, but i am sure they are not always desirable and often distracting. it's a shame. the only solution then is to focus more on non-living subjects. like flowers, yesterday.

popular notions are sometimes hard to ignore. they seem to walk in and out of my life though, with time. like the above imposed preference between people and places, there's also the debate over post-processing. to photoshop or not to photoshop? after serious consideration, i concluded that photoshopping was an art in itself, with nothing to do with photography in itself. what you can produce with the camera is an art in its own right, how you then enhance the photograph to express what you want it to express is another. i have nothing against photoshoppers, i'd like to learn to take better captures first.

more than a hobby, an interest, a passion - my camera is also now my best friend. i carry it with me on social occasions that i'd rather not attend. when there is little to look forward to in an evening, i bring along my slr. if people won't make me excessively conscious about the camera in my hands, i'm perfectly at ease in a crowd as long as my camera's in my hands. there's so much to explore, i could not possibly be bored.

oh why can i not become a photographer for a living?!