Thursday, June 18, 2009

Making a shot - Kulasai shot

You don't take a photograph, you make it. - Ansel Adams

What does this mean??? You never click any pic and just cook up something in photoshop??

Wrong!

What he means is that a photograph is not about just snapping whatever you see but its about applying your heart and mind into producing a frame which contains exactly what you want to share...
Thats why i get iritated when people call my pictures as snaps!! Its not just something i happen to click as i pass by. Every picture i publish has been produced after a lot of time and effort to create the mood and composition that i wanted to share.

A few days back i was browsing through my archives and found some interesting shots! Earlier in my pursuit in photography i used to shoot in JPG so i never bothered to delete so many pics either in camera or after downloading into the computer.So i was able to see the series of shots that i had taken before settling down to the picture i wanted to share.Nowadays i delete them in the comp or in the cam or right inside my mind itself...So nobody gets to see it!! :)

Iam sharing one of those with you so that  you can get a glimpse of the thinking process of a photographer and incorporate more of "making a shot" in your pictures...

Lets take the case of roadside kid shot from the village Kulasai.
Kulasai alias Kulasekarapatnam is a small village in thirunelveli,famous for the Dushera celebrations that happen there every year.I had gone there last year and had come back with loads and loads of pictures and experience.
This picture was taken during that trip.


The purest form of human




Now...this is not the very first picture i took of this kid......

The day we landed in kulasai,we took out our cameras and were walking towards the beach trying to sink into the mood and breath in the life and culture the village had to offer.Thats when one of the guys from a roadside gypsy family came running to me and requested for a photo to be taken!!
It is a dream come true scenario for a street photographer...
He was so overjoyed when i obliged that he promptly went back and brought his nephew along for a picture to be taken...

Shot 1



The minute i laid my eyes on the kid i knew he was special and i can have a really good shot if only i could apply myself. I showed the guy the photo i had just taken and he was super excited..He went running back and brought along some more folks from his family.

Shot 2



The kid was that Dhadiwala's son.
The folks were overjoyed!! now that i have got their good will and attention,i requested them whether i can take a solo pic of the kid.They were more than happy to say yes.So i zoomed in to the tiny one


Shot 3


Cute!! But not quite what i wanted!! this guy had a more confused and bewildered look than what i was looking for!! I tried to smile and make a conversation with him!! I was sure he didnt know tamil,he was too young to understand any language anyway....

Shot 4


This is better..but he looks more curious and inquisitive than what i want....let me try and make him even more comfortable!! I moved closer.
"hi there little fellow!! you are looking awesome!! just one pose ok....just smile..ya ya thats it........"

CLICK!!


The purest form of human


I LOVED the shot the minute i saw the pic in the LCD. I thanked them and walked on....
After i came back from my trip i posted this with the following writeup....


"A roadside gypsy kid.
People came running to us asking us to take their photograph,during my recent trip to kulasai*. And i took a whole lot of them before i got tired of it :) 

And this kid was really so cute... I could see hope in his eyes!! That reflected the hope of a better india that i cherish in my heart 
I have always felt that kids are the purest form of humans....
And here is the example..... 

In a few years he will have a religion, caste, social status,language,country,gender realisations etc etc etc 
But for now he is just human.........Human at his purest form. "

Will try to post few more series of shots like this!
I hope you find it interesting and useful...
:)


PS : Cross posted from my office blog

5 Comments:

anbudan vaalu said...

that's a good piece of information.thanx...i love photography.so,it'll definitely be useful to me....

sri said...

Love this write up esp the below part

//In a few years he will have a religion, caste, social status,language,country,gender realisations etc etc etc
But for now he is just human.........Human at his purest form//

Aham said...

Hi CVR,

I just randomly came across your blog and was impressed by this post of yours about this picture. Several times, I've looked at featured-photos on National geographic or any other spread and wondered what made it so special. I've heard people speak about light & composition and photogenic face and seen people roam around with a huge SLR camera shooting random things and stopping to admire a great photo but never really understood what all of it meant. But reading what you've said actually made sense for the first time, the innocent curious half-smile, half-shy look of the child actually comes out so well in that picture. About how to get it I'm still clueless, but just thought of dropping a line :-)

CVR said...

Thanks people!!
Iam glad that you found the post interesting :)

Anonymous said...

Really the post is wonderful--i am searching for a real or pure human ever---but i got some fulfilness while seeing that pic---even befor reading out ur blog......that really express the success of ur attempt-congrats...more over i came thro this pic while searching for my native place that lies jus few km from kulasi--thanks