one year of photography...

recently, i completed one year on deviant art (deviantbipin.deviantart.com)... one year is a pretty long time. after completing a course on photography with mr. anand sharan i waited for over two years for the dream camera - nikon f 80 (which is still a dream, only now i want a nikon d 80). i thought i will start photography after acquiring this camera. this was till i met mr. sadanand menon at a seminar. listening to my distant dream he laughed and asked me, "how does it matter if you write a poetry with a pen or a paper". i felt stupid at the profoundness in his statement. reall, no sarcasm here. i decided to go ahead and start clicking. this coincided with my family camera - a simple sony aim and shoot digital . deviant art happened, followed by a lot of random photography. mind you, a lot of random photography.

the first photograph which went up on DB was "riders of the storm"; this was taken using a handy cam - at a tea stall near elephant falls in shillong. the idea fascinated me - three people from three different parts of the world - a kind of convergence (nigel - singapore, cyril - north-east, and i).

i was quite happy with the result, although a lot of people wonder why I like this photograph so much. I sent it to the National Geographic website, put it up on my blog, solicited (and hunted) for responses. This was the first phase in the year on DB. Put up pictures, surf hungrily for good photographs, deconstruct photos, befriend photographers. This phase was a guarded phase. put up pictures, identify people who could comment and more photograph.

The second phase was the "bloating of ego" phase. more photos. more comments. more ways to advertise my blog. i would hand out the blog link to as many people as possible. i did get a lot of publicity. ego booster too. this went on till one fine day one of my classmates said, "your photographs are boring. do something new..." not a penetrating statement in itself. but penetrating enough to begin the ego deflating process. surf more for better photographers. i dont know if it was a season of awesome photography, but it was an humbling experience to see much much much better photographers, amazing photos, and unbelievable urge to learn which these artists had. one of them is gilad benari (do check him out). ego deflated. set in frustration. i just didnt feel like taking any more pictures. but i still carried my camera around. to classrooms, around campus, everywhere. i took a lot of pictures for my personal collection during this phase. but no photos for the blog. a select few photos go up on the blog. the ratio being one in fifty.

i missed deviant art; i missed photography. this is the most current phase. i am at peace with taking photos, with the fact that there is SO MUCH still to learn, so MANY pictures still to take, so MANY photographers around. i realise that its a part of me now. taking pictures. looking for pictures. dreaming about the awesome camera. one year, is a long time. i am attached ... for now...

love,
me