Imitating Nature

“Taking pictures is savoring life intensely, every hundredth of a second.”

― Marc Riboud

Photographs – or as they are colloquially called ‘pics’ – have become an inseparable part of human life. We all are acquainted with at least one form of photography. Recent times, driven by technology, have given us “selfies” which may be called the most socially enamoring form of photography.

However, photography is not just about randomly capturing life with a click; it’s an art which involves learning exactly what we wish to capture and the way we wish to express it. Thus, sensing the need to learn this we decided to take up an introductory course in photography and practice this creative skill.

Mr. Hemant Dixit a Nagpur based commercial photographer visited our school to introduce us to the real world of photography. I agreed to be our supervisor for this CAS activity although he emphasized how this activity didn’t actually require a supervisor. In his two day visit he informed us about the types and configurations of cameras and how they affected the photos taken. He also shared some professional photography tips with us regarding lighting, exposure, colour and lens focusing. He also asked us to randomly take photographs of entities we liked and discussed the ways of improving our photographic skills.

The lessons I learned from him were really helpful in taking (or making as Ansel Adams would say) better photographs. I practiced this new skill for a few weeks after his seminar and made a separate blog for my photography. The URL for my photography blog called ‘Chayachitran’ (Meaning photography in Hindi) is:  www.chayachitran.blogspot.in

Initially it was challenging because our eyes have super high resolution. The camera however has a limited resolution, so to capture a moment as we see it is really difficult. One needs to work on the technical detailing of the machine to capture a photo close to the image seen by the human eye.

Nevertheless, over time I could capture images the way I wanted them. I know not if they were technically correct but showed what I wanted to show.

I soon realised that I possessed little interest in human photography. I became aware of the photographer in me. I was more comfortable with wild life and landscape photography ergo I decided to increase my inclination towards it.

I have made an album of all the different types of photos I have taken and I will take in future. Photography is something we can use to communicate our thought if we know how to. I will keep updating my blog with new photos and hope I adequately communicate what I see in them. For those who complained I have no people in my photos, here is a thought I share with Ansel Adams:

“To the complaint, 'There are no people in these photographs,' I respond, There are always two people: the photographer and the viewer.”

― Ansel Adams