Color Photography

When I talk about color photography these pictures always comes in my mind first. One of them has been shot with my Canon 350D with a 17-40mm f/4L lens and another one was shot with a small tiny Nikon 3700; a 3.2 MP point and shoot camera.
I must admit here that, 17-40mm f/4 L lens is an excellent piece of glass, which not only reproduces super sharpness but also an excellent color. I strongly feel that the color in the first photograph came so well because of this lens.
The second photograph was a little tricky one. With a small tiny point and shoot camera nothing much you can do while shooting. I wanted to give it a feel of something different. I have set the camera shooting mode in "dusk" , which means it changes the white balance in the camera settings. It was early in the morning, probably at 5:30 AM, not much sunlight though, Chennai Express was about to go off the platform. It was a last minute check up with the reservation list pasted on the train compartment by a fellow passenger, while some others were boarding the train. Due to a slow shutter , it gave me a ghostly image. Enjoy.

some warm light here

If you get this kind of light early in the morning , will you be able to keep quite and not to take your camera out ? Umm , I think it was difficult for me not to shoot.

I was going back to my home town after a long time; a year or so. Feeling excited about it and watching outside country-scape through the window of the sleeper coach train compartment, I was about to miss this wonderful sight. First ray of sun was just falling on her face, through the window. December is really cold for the people of North Bengal and when you travel through the train, it even gets colder.While coping with the cold winder morning, this warm sun light comes as a true enjoyment to us. And so did they.

This photograph is not retouched much. The color is original here; it was just a great light. ISO 200, f/4.5 , 1/40 sec and 19mm.

Play time

I wanted to do a new experiment with my workflow, I wanted to take some image to play with; I started searching in my archive and found this one. An old photo, but from my favourite place; Russel Market. I thought I would take a photograph that describes a play for playing with workflow. Sounds weired, huh ? Then call me a dumbo.
Jokes apart.Let me tell you the workflow here I did with this photograph.

1.Open the image in Photoshop CS2.
2.Click on image > adjustment > Match color.
3.Check box on "Neutralize.
4. Drag the luminance bar to 120 and color intensity to 75. Save it.
5. Click on filter > sharpen > unsharpen mask.
6. On the unsharp mask pop up window, select amount as 100,radius 3.0 and threshold 0.
7. Click on edit > fade unsharp mask > opacity 100, blending mode Darken.
8. Repeat the step number 6 and 7 but this time while fading put the opacity 85 and mode as lighten.
9. Resize the image accordingly; I resize it to 600 pixel.
10. Save it.

Now you can play with it too. Try your own way. I personally like the "cool feel" of this image. Do you ?

Nomads Life | Making Dinner

Yesterday evening, I started late from my office; just to make sure that I would get the dawn light while shooting for my recent project.Everyday I look at the location and think, next day I should carry my camera and go for shooting , but I was not able to make it for some other reason.Then I approached Aditya, my friend, colleague and photographer, so that we both can go together. After he got his first DSLR, he started a new blog with a strong determination to shoot at least a photo everyday. I was quite sure that, if I could get hooked with him, I would be successful.

I wanted to shoot something very urban; like urban landscape or urban life. Nearby the location I found a group of people staying in tents just like a colony. Dogs, roosters, cats, utensils, tempo traveler, coca-cola crates and everything were there. They were celebrating Shiv Raatri yesterday. I went there and approached them. Not everybody were easy in front of the camera, rather some of them were afraid of being published in newspaper. I assured them. They have told me that they were from Maharastra, but seeing their dresses and activities and language they were spaking, I suspected that they came from Rajasthan; I tried to find the registration number of the tempo traveler; but Aditya told me it was hidden. I saw them opening a shop of conventional medicine made of roots, branches and so many other contemporary things within their tent. They further told me that they came to Tirupati to have a Darshan of Balaji, but I suspect that was a story just to hide their whereabouts.



They are nomads, they stay in any places for months and months and when they feel to move out, they just disappear.

Being there in India, Sandip thinks, photography
is not a phenomenon to capture a moment, it is the
soul of a frame which you need to show to the viewer
through your lens. Working for a Computer Firm
in Bangalore, India; Sandip feels that he is lucky to
get the opportunityto observe and learn about
the rich culture and religiousbelief in India, especially
in the Southern part. Sandip always
tries to find out the human element in his frame,
he strongly believes that a picture with out a
human element in it is something like a body
without its soul.

Born in West Bengal ( India )... Doing freelance
Photography and working on assignments.

Sandip can be reached at sandip.deep@gmail.com
or call him at +91.990 024 5331.

photo courtesy © Lavannya Goradia

Fishermen | Pondicherry

If you are at Pondicherry, you may be disappointed by seeing the beach over there,; as all the beaches are covered with stones. you wont find any sand beach there. But it is lovely to see and walk on those black rocks and take photograph. Last year when I went there , my intention was different. I wanted to make a documentary on the life of fishermen community. After I came back from Chidambaram to Pondicherry back, i asked one of the auto driver to take me to a place where I could find fishermen village as well as sand beach. He did not disappoint me. I reached to a unnamed place approximately 10 km north of Pondicherry.
It was afternoon then. The light was just beautiful, but not on the sea side, ( You all know that Pondicherry is on the east coast of India ), I got a very nice light falling on those fishermen bringing fish back and their children playing by the sea. I waited there for some time ;watched the activities keenly; talked with some of them and then started shooting.

It is still an unfinished project for me. More photographs from other places on the life of fishermen community will come soon.

I found her playing with sea , in the late afternoon... her name is Sandhya.. which means evening , eventually..

World Water Day 2007

This official poster can be downloaded from here. More Campaign materials are available on the official website.On one of my old blog post, I wrote about this event earlier; now it is officially published.This gives me a happiness of being a part of this mass awareness. Both these images used in this poster and brochures were shoot by me earlier.

Durga Puja | Biggest festival of the Bengali

"Durga, in Sanskrit means "She who is incomprehensible or difficult to reach." Goddess Durga is a form of Sakti worshiped for her gracious as well as terrifying aspect. Mother of the Universe, she represents the infinite power of the universe and is a symbol of a female dynamism. "

It starts from the first day of the waxing phase of moon in autumn called Mahalaya. The activites start before dusk with chants of various hymns of 'Mahishasura Mardini' . A very busy day for the Bengalis. Thousands of people gather at River Ganga early in the morning to offer Tarpan in memory of their forefather. Mahalaya is an auspicious day observed seven days before the actual Durga puja begins.The inauguration of the Goddess idol starts on Mahashasthi, sixth day from Mahalaya... and the festival starts too ...

Chichen Kebab

Chicken Kebab is something I always love to eat. Last week with Aditya, I went to Madiwala for a night shoot. I am recently doing a series on "urban cityscape- a stroll at night". This shoot was just a part of it. This young boy from Oodlabari ( A place in North Bengal )came to Bangaloare three years ago to search his fortune. He ended up by starting this fast food shop. I had a nice time with him taking about his native place, his family and his aim in future etc.

It was difficult to shoot in low light. However, I pointed my 17-40mm f/4 L lens on this guy's hand. Autofocused, but exposed for 1/4 sec. It was shoot on wide open; on 17mm. ISO 400.

Coconut Seller

Early in morning, those people come from different places , load a lot of coconuts on their bicycle and then go away.

I had not seen this activity in Hosur road until Aditya told me one day in office. After finishing of night shift, while coming back from office, Aditya took me to this place.
This photograph was taken with Nikon D40. Technical exif is f/3.5, 1/1600 sec and 21 mm.