Portraits

The value of portrait photography was not know those days, back in 1986, in my little home-town of Calicut. Thankfully, I had a few very photogenic friends who used to pose for me. I tried all the tricks, all the theory in the photography books, in practice with my first SLR camera. You never know how the photo has come till it got developed at the local studio. And believe me, it was really expensive those days. Somehow, I manged to save some money for my ‘expensive’ hobby.

The learning was tough. You get 36 exposures in one roll of film. I used to trick the camera by carefully loading only a very minimum part into the lead sprocket (the one you crank or the camera cranks by itself after every shoot) and get 37 or sometimes 38 exposures from one roll! And one had only very few options – 100 ASA or 400 ASA. Made many mistakes those days. So many mistakes = good learning!

My excitement went overboard when I got an appreciation for my entry into the then “KODAK Moments” photo contest. I got a lot of tips and advice from the film fraternity at Madras (now Chennai). I shot many shoots for behind the scenes and for setting continuity for various directors. Had a chance to rub shoulders with some of the greatest cinematographers of those days.

One of the early days’ model whom I shot a portfolio is a well known cine artist of today. After I lost both my cameras, when my car was stolen, there was a lull in my passion for photography. There were other priorities in life.

My IT career took me to different parts of the world. My perspective of what is beauty and what is art had matured by then. I was able to enjoy the lights and shadows, the panoramic views, breath-taking waterfalls, mud paths, buildings, personalities, ……the list goes on and on…

“Everything has beauty, but not everyone sees it.” – Confucius

My intention is to transform the art and beauty from a uni-dimensional plane photograph to a three dimensional portrait. By adding the highlights and shadows, the portrait gives the illusion of depth and brings out the curves and contours at their best.

my experiments and learning will never end. The other day, I was rampaging through my entire collection of photos to find the one best photo which I could share; but, alas.. I am clueless..