The dreams - what motivates us! (Jaisalmer - Part I)

Sab kuch milega - Jaisalmer

Dreams are always the first step to reality. Most great personalities have been great dreamers first. They dreamed and imagined what the world will be like if their dreams come true. Their dreams were what motivated them and contribute to human societies.

I am not a great and my dreams are pretty much limited to understanding myself. As you all know travel is that part of dream and what can be better than realizing a ‘travel dream’.

Long before I got a job and could travel with my will, a failed attempt gave birth to this dream. My father’s transfer to city of Jaisalmer got cancelled and with that the dream of seeing in person the famed ‘sonar kella’. As it happens with most of dreams, this one took more than a decade to be realized.

Jaisalmer Fort

Once the travel bug bites, you get addicted. You want to travel all the time. But that does not happen in reality. Even for a die-hard travel buff who wants to visit every place on earth, there are places which they definitely want to visit.

For me Jaisalmer is one such definitely place.

Early morning in month of March, and Jaisalmer gives you a glimpse of what is coming, the summers and more broadly what will feel to be like in a very warm globe. Having heard earlier of fort stays, I too booked a room online with not much idea of what to expect.

It turned out to be more than I could have bargained for that price. A room right inside fort, behind the alley of Rani Mahal, next to big cannon.

The heat was to be respected and time for this feeling to sink in. I decided to park myself in one of the balconies with some grapes and the see the city as the kings of those times might have done. You look at the city and see the multitude of people who might have been dependent on the king. The decision kings make affecting so many people. Then slowly you realize, Oh! That’s something like me. Now if you think it through, in your adult life, you will have at least 10 people who somehow are affected by the things you do. Those 10 people each will know 10 more people who are affected by them and so on. You kind of get the picture.

To put into perspective, in earlier times, the kingdoms were built or killed by what dreams their kings saw. In today’s time too, believe me or not, we are directing most resources towards what our governments dream. And if you listen to news, you probably know the effect of good vs. bad governance.

So where does that leaves us at individual level? Do we stop dreaming?

No! Go back to the previous example of affecting 10 people and they each affecting 10 more people. So even at individual level, you have the power to dream and be a change agent for many.

I am not here to preach what kind of dreams you see or what kind of changes you want to bring. My only request is that you affect and motivate many people even if you don’t realize it. So all your acts matter. Make good use of them. And if you are already a dreamer, help others dream too.

You will create a reality that is more than what you dreamt of.

Light - Camera - Practice. Chasing Light.

In my last post I talked about – photography is all about chasing light. That does not mean, we need to run after street lights, tails lamps etc. Chasing light for us photographers means understanding light.

Hold on! You said you will make us a better photographer and now you are turning us into physicists.
Not exactly, we don’t need to understand photon and stuff. We just to understand the basic and how it effects a photograph.

So let’s go back to school and recap how we see things.
Light from a source, reflected by an object is captured by our eye.

 Now we add in a camera in front of the eye and the scene is recorded on device sensor.

So let’s first understand the major factors to consider and then we will see through some examples to put theory into practical perspective.

Source – Natural vs. Artificial light- For us natural light source is sun during the day and moon at night. Artificial light is anything from candles to bulbs to external flashes.
Understanding the source is important as it will help you determine the overall mood and other aspects of a photograph. And there is no good or bad light source. If you ask a landscape photographer, he will tell you natural light is the best. If you ask the same question to a studio portrait photographer, he will swear by artificial light.

Direction of light- The second thing to consider is the direction of light. It simply means at what angle the light is being reflected towards the camera.

Color Temperature – What! Colors don’t have temperature. I agree. But just to remember there are warm colors and cool colors. Just imagine a color and if it makes you feel cold it is the cold color and vice versa. Imagine color blue and immediately your mind perceives sky, water bodies and make your feel cold and relaxed. Whereas shades of red/orange will make you feel warm because your mind associate those colors with warm things like fire or sun.

Enough of text, now let’s get to examples and dissect them to understand lighting in each situation.
(Disclaimer – I shoot exclusively with available light, if you are looking for advice on external flashes and lighting systems, I am not the correct guy to follow)

Natural Light

Here you can see that the light is natural (from sun), being blocked by something which is allowing partial light to fall through, coming from top left direction.

Artificial Light

 Here the light source is in front (candle), with light being reflected by the metallic surface.

Light Direction One

Here the light source is again in the front.

Here the light source is on top with beamed light falling on the subject.

Here the light source is coming from top right, as you can make out from the direction of shadows. The intensity of light is also hard and close to subject, which you can make out as the bell on right got more light than the left one.

Leaving three four images for you guys to dissect in comment section. Give it a try will be a good exercise.

What is Photography Blog Post - Click Here
Learn to see like camera Blog Post - Click Here

Boats

Ruins

Durga Puja

Golden Temple

Learn to see like camera

As a beginner first mistake I learned was not to see like camera. Yes it is at first difficult to digest, but slowly as you observe, you will realize that your eye and camera sees differently. Even different lenses, bodies, focal lengths etc. behave differently. So as a photographer it is very important to learn to see like a camera. Is it tough to do? I will say NO, but it is not easy as well. I will share few things that helped me to see like a camera, hope this helps you too. If you have more tips to share, feel free.

1.       READ, READ, READ – The first thing you need to do is read you camera manual, cover to cover. Carry with you wherever you go, it’s just a small booklet. Read and reread, understand the working of your camera. Once done, start reading any material you can get your hands on regarding photography.

2.       PRACTICE, PRACTICE, PRACTICE – What you read from the manual, practice it with your camera. There is no reason to stop just because you can’t get to a new location. Start at home, photograph anything and everything. Join communities like Project 365 and force yourself to use your camera daily. Pick up any aspect like ‘Aperture’ and practice it in real life to see how it behaves differently. What does the settings mean, how they change based on other settings. In nutshell, practice so much that all settings are your habit and you don’t need to think about them when making images. They will come naturally to you.

3.       ANALYZE, ANALYZE, ANALYZE – Scrutinize your own work. Read histogram, check the settings and compare them with results. See how same scene behaves in different settings. Once you master settings, you will know exactly to what to dial in to get a desired output. Less time post production, more time shooting :)

My camera does not have live view. If I wouldn't have learned to see like camera, this would not have been possible without getting my cloths dirty. I just kept the camera close to ground, dialed in the settings, put in a focal length and Voila!

4.       OBSERVE, OBSERVE, OBSERVE – When not with camera, take mental images. Choose a subject or a scene and think what would be the best way to capture that. And if you get chance again, then make an image and compare the settings whether what you thought will actually give you the perceived result. This will also help you develop your vision. Your eyes get trained to see the world like a camera.

5.       BE HUMBLE AND RESPECT YOUR CAMERA – Treat your camera like a companion and not like some fancy gadget. It will give you wonderful results. See it as a friend who teaches you to look at the world with new perspective and vision.

What is photography Blog Post - Click Here 
Chasing Light Blog Post - Click Here