Neelkantha Mahadev

Lone Tree

Since childhood I have been intrigued by mythology. To me they were fairy tales going beyond human imagination and giving teachings of rightful way to live your life. And blessed I am with Hindu mythology, look at so many gods As BBC narrator once said “Why settle on one when you can have thousands”. But if you ask me to settle on one, I will choose Shiva. To me he is more human that god. He has a family to take care of along with completing his duties towards his acetic followers. But what I like most about him is his love for mountains. It seems he loved watching the world from above and observe it as an onlooker, as a third party. His judgement would not be clouded by worldly attachments. 

Look at all the places dedicated to Shiva and you are bound to head to Himalayas. One such place close to Delhi is Neelkanth Mahadev Temple in Rishikesh. 21kms by car or 14 kms by road from Ram Jhula is an excellent place nestled among lower Himalayan foothills. 

Though you may prefer car or jeep, I will advise once on foot even if it is downhill journey. You will be passing through Rajaji National Park, with some jaw dropping views of Rishikesh city. The route is full of wildlife, with different insects, birds and specially langoors keeping you entertained all the way. The place remains generally empty with the exception during Shiva Ratri and month of Saavan when devotees from all over India pour into these mountains. This will be good time to catch up with some really interesting people and hear stories from inside India which never breaks into prime time.

I have climbed this route many times and never have been disappointed. I have discovered something new, be it in a form of hidden waterfall, spider and bird show or a realization within which changed the way I look at life.

Morning View While climbing

Climbing Style One

Climbing style two

Climbing style three

Night Scene of City with Ganges

Climbing this route makes me realize that we do not need to destroy this beautiful environment to call ourselves developed. None of us have understanding of any animal or plant language, then how can we say our encompassed listening to their side too.

The views I was talking about while climbing are getting frames of more and more buildings. Each next time I climb, I see more and more buildings. Each next time I climb, I see more forest being cleared up for man-made structures. There are people I have met, who are veterans of this route. They have seen more destruction than me and are very skeptical of new generation’s effort to save our natural history.

You all must be aware of the legend why Shiva got the name Neelkantha. He drank poison and gave us a toxic free environment.

How can we contribute to that legend. We can also get rid of toxicity from our lives. We can stop being part of blind consumerism. We can stop the wastage of time and resource of things that will not matter to things we love to do. Each one of us has the potential to make this world a beautiful place through our talents. It’s just the question of realizing and utilizing it. 

As Amish said in his famous Shiva trilogy – ‘Har Har Mahadev’, can be very true if we can act towards it. 

Everyone is Mahadev!

White eyed oriental

Micro waterfall

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

What is photography - More than clicking a button!

Eat-Sleep-Drink

In today’s world most of us have access to decent cameras and we know clicking/pushing a button will capture a photograph. But most of us do not know what photography is. It happened with me too.

I started learning the techniques but never knew what photography as vocation meant. Had I known it since beginning, maybe I would had better idea what to expect and what to achieve.

Let’s pick up this definition of photography from Wikipedia and try to make sense of it.

“Photography is the science, art and practice of creating durable images by recording light or other electromagnetic radiations, either electronically or by means of a light sensitive material such as photographic film”

In short photography is CHASING LIGHT. Okay! I know this does not simplify anything.

Chasing Light

So let’s get our hands dirty and break down the above definition.

• ·         Science – the technicalities of the field like rules of composition, ISO, Aperture etc.

• ·         Art – how to use the above science and mix your feelings and vision

• ·         Practice – Repetition of above two for lifetime

• ·         Durable images – Physically and Psychology

• ·         Recording light – The real deal. The final Product.

Okay! Now this makes it more complex I suppose. So let’s see how we can get inducted into photography.

Like any art form, photography will take some time to master too. Two key skills for any photographer is patience and perseverance.

I tackled this complexity in steps.
The first thing is to learn the science of photography. Understanding what different terms like Aperture, Shutter speed, ISO etc. means. What are the different techniques of composition and post processing will have to be learned. In short you should be aware of technical capabilities of photography and what capabilities your tool (camera) has.

Then comes the part where you learn how each of these effect a photograph. Changing what causes what. This way instead of just capturing what is presented, you will be able to create images with your own vision and feeling from any given scenario. Once you have you identified what your vision is, your photographs will start becoming piece of art.

It is needless to say how much theoretical education you have, till it is applied in field it does not become knowledge. So practice as much you can. In short you should be sleeping-drinking-eating photography.

Practice everyday

Once an image has been captured, it can be saved/printed for sharing with others. There are many methods of output and archival. However your real aim should be creating images which are even worth archiving. We will get to this in our later stages.

All of these learning and efforts is with an aim of capturing light. Photography is all about chasing light or the absence of it. The whole world we see are varying shades of light. As a photographer your main job will be to see and present light where it makes sense to common public. 

You have the power to give or change perspective of others through your vision.

I know this article might have made you thought – It is too much of effort. But if you give photography one month, I can guarantee at least some improvement, which will make you curious to learn more and step up to next level.

Over course of next few months we will go in details - the science and the art aspect of photography.

Chasing Light Blog Post - Click Here
Learn how to see like a camera Blog Post - Click Here
 
 

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