A few months ago, even the thought of photographing Buildings sounded preposterous to me! "Ain't there enough of these around us, that people wish to even capture them inside the camera?" -was my patent rhetoric. However, strange as life always is, I ended up spending a few minutes 30th and 31st Dec on my building's terrace photographing none other than Kumar's Karishma Complex.
Karishma Complex has been there since almost a decade now, yet it was not untill past few months I started writing 'Opp Karishma Complex' instead of 'Opp. Sungam Press' while writing my home address.(now that even the last remains of Sungam Press are being wiped off, I have stopped mentioning it as a landmark) Reason? A few beautiful memories are associated with the farm which existed in front of our Building before Karishma was constructed in its place. I remember watching intently the farming activities which eventually made me fall in love with agriculture and thus, the rural India. I vividly remember how the Lapwing's call used to pierce through the ghostly silence of night, and how I used to avoid walking past the giant termite hill which stood in exact place of present day's Pizza Hut. I remember the mongoose who used to frequently visit our house and then disappear beyond the road,( but not before pausing, turning and , standing on its hind legs, staring at me. Curiosity was mutual!) I remember those painful hours spent in searching for the lost cricket balls on the other side of the road. Certainly, Mr Kumar would have found atleast a few dozens of such balls, including a leather ball which I had bought after spending a lot of savings!
I used to find content in blaming Karishma for the loss of that eco system, until one day, I was made aware by an old man that a beautiful farm used to exist on the very land of my very own Building! Damn it, Mr Chandanpurkar!
Anyways, back to photography, with just a few exposures, I realized how 'still' the buildings are! Indeed, this is one of the best virtue a subject can have! This very property can be even more enhanced by showing motion around them. This would make the photo much more lively and dynamic. However, this means a very slow shutter speed, which in turn means tripod and low light photography. Now there, neither did I own a tripod, nor had I done any night shoot. The 1st photo I took keeping my camera on parapit wall. Though I liked my 1st attempt, I found the light paths created by the vehicular lights a bit distracting. (However, most others actually like them!) Anyways, they are unavoidalbe if you want to shoot in dark. I tried changing the composition and things looked better, but the essence of that one photo could not be replicated by the later photos. Well, there is one way of getting long shutter speeds and yet not get the light paths: shooting just at the start of twilight with a really powerful Neutral Density filter! Thanks to awesome photos created by Patrick Smith, I know that Hoya makes one such filter. Spare $300 anyone? As for the tripod, following Thom Hogan's advice, buying anything below Manffrotto 055XProb seems unreasonalbe, hence, I am thinking of dhaapoing Juhi's tripod. What say?
Setting up a tripod inconspicuously in a busy street, ignoring public inquisitiveness, and justifying to cops might as well be as challenging as hiding camouflaged in a marshland! Time will tell.......
Way to the Wynand Building please, Mr Roark?
Karishma Complex has been there since almost a decade now, yet it was not untill past few months I started writing 'Opp Karishma Complex' instead of 'Opp. Sungam Press' while writing my home address.(now that even the last remains of Sungam Press are being wiped off, I have stopped mentioning it as a landmark) Reason? A few beautiful memories are associated with the farm which existed in front of our Building before Karishma was constructed in its place. I remember watching intently the farming activities which eventually made me fall in love with agriculture and thus, the rural India. I vividly remember how the Lapwing's call used to pierce through the ghostly silence of night, and how I used to avoid walking past the giant termite hill which stood in exact place of present day's Pizza Hut. I remember the mongoose who used to frequently visit our house and then disappear beyond the road,( but not before pausing, turning and , standing on its hind legs, staring at me. Curiosity was mutual!) I remember those painful hours spent in searching for the lost cricket balls on the other side of the road. Certainly, Mr Kumar would have found atleast a few dozens of such balls, including a leather ball which I had bought after spending a lot of savings!
I used to find content in blaming Karishma for the loss of that eco system, until one day, I was made aware by an old man that a beautiful farm used to exist on the very land of my very own Building! Damn it, Mr Chandanpurkar!
Anyways, back to photography, with just a few exposures, I realized how 'still' the buildings are! Indeed, this is one of the best virtue a subject can have! This very property can be even more enhanced by showing motion around them. This would make the photo much more lively and dynamic. However, this means a very slow shutter speed, which in turn means tripod and low light photography. Now there, neither did I own a tripod, nor had I done any night shoot. The 1st photo I took keeping my camera on parapit wall. Though I liked my 1st attempt, I found the light paths created by the vehicular lights a bit distracting. (However, most others actually like them!) Anyways, they are unavoidalbe if you want to shoot in dark. I tried changing the composition and things looked better, but the essence of that one photo could not be replicated by the later photos. Well, there is one way of getting long shutter speeds and yet not get the light paths: shooting just at the start of twilight with a really powerful Neutral Density filter! Thanks to awesome photos created by Patrick Smith, I know that Hoya makes one such filter. Spare $300 anyone? As for the tripod, following Thom Hogan's advice, buying anything below Manffrotto 055XProb seems unreasonalbe, hence, I am thinking of dhaapoing Juhi's tripod. What say?
(Click on the images for larger view)
Setting up a tripod inconspicuously in a busy street, ignoring public inquisitiveness, and justifying to cops might as well be as challenging as hiding camouflaged in a marshland! Time will tell.......
Way to the Wynand Building please, Mr Roark?
