Apart from being a banker which I am by profession for the last decade and a half , I now have another entity safely to call by which I am known ( well known would be a misnomer - sic).
And how much do I crave to call it a profession one day, the sheer reality of the fact that I started it too late, way too late ( as late as 2010) will handsomely deny me to make it a profession. And no qualms about it safely - I will never be called a photographer as much as I am a Banker .
Yeah - u heard it right as much as I wrote . I do take photos , I safely will say I click pictures . Now before I delve into deep realms of the same , let me tell you that I have no intention to make it a profession, for as I said its too late for me now in my early 40's to even think about it .
Not that I harbour no less an ambition to become a Raghu Rai ( India's most decorated commercial photographer ) or the Late Raghubir Singh ( India's somewhat diffused answer to Koudelka in a very light way ) but the very fact that I started quite late makes it impossible for me to nurture such an ambition . India much like many Asian countries overburdened with population determines the future of its average mediocre population right at its adolescence. And it did to me as well - before I realised what life can offer me , I was part of the mainstream job market trying to earn a livelihood .
Much like any other profession , Photography requires much tending and nurturing ( and more so because its a science based art ) , and hence people who started it at 23-24 or even earlier much like when I started my current profession are now eastablished photographers in their own right . And because its a professional art form like Doctors, Lawyers and CA's they mature a little late and have no age bar to retire . Two of the greatest photographers of all times - Sebastiao Selgado and Josef Koudelka have worked beyond the normal age of 60 to attain glory and immortality . Koudelka went one step ahead to work on one Project for 20 odd years !!!
If you have read so far , you must be wondering why am I mulling over a thing which was near yet so far ? In my own submission , I could have been a professional photographer ( well known or an average would depend upon my skill sets and factors like how good a camera and lens I would use to a lesser extent ) but couldn't be one because I seriously started clicking in 2014 and started clicking only from 2010.
I have chased an answer to that for quite some time now ( an year to be precise ) and have come to the conclusion that certain things are bound to happen at certain times in your life - not a second after or before . Had some one told me in 2007 that I will be good in clicking photos ( still not calling myself an photographer ) I would have passed this as some one trying to desperately flatter me or some one who has become a real maniac. Hence it was destiny that played such an important role in allowing me to unravel my skills in clicking pictures at 30 plus in mid 2000 when a photographer in a normal sense would be some where 10 years into his career.
My first serious flirtation /temptation at Photography started in 2008 ( was thrusted upon me rather forcefully ) when I visited God's Own Paradise - Mauritius . I had bought an expensive Sony Point & Shoot which I still remember cost me around 21k ( quite a fortune in 2008). 21k was quite an investment for a middle class guy like me at that time - I was told to carry a camera and since I didnt have one I had to buy one .
As much as the natural beauty of Mauritius haunted me and still haunts me it was the scenery ( a perfect mix of Sea and the Mountains ) that captivated me and literally forced me to capture its ravishing beauty . 9 years on , I still laugh at my amateurish attempt at those clicks ( 5 of them produced above) but I guess it was the stepping stone of my future endeavour in serious attempt at Photography.
Till then my thoughts about Photography and Camera was just like another of us - to click places and people and nothing more . I guess the more crystallized thought came about when I moved to Melbourne in 2009-10 , one of the most beautiful and liveable cities in the world . Thc city Melbourne on the southern tip of Australia and the capital of Victoria is one of the most beautiful places in the world ( even keeping in mind Mauritius and South Africa which are the two other ravishing places I have been ) and across its length and breadth one can find as much visual delight as mother nature can offer . From the Warnambool to Great Ocean Road ( Seven Apostles ) my short stay in Australia has been vivid with anecdotes of the lovely place that Melbourne was .
The above 4 pictures taken during my first few weeks in Melbourne gives an ample idea of the beautiful country that Australia is . And it is here for the first time during week ends and after office hours when I had ample time for the first time I realised that I can do something on Photography. Then began a frantic search for a good camera for I was too novice then to realise that Camera was secondary to clicking photos and the basis lay on fundamentals like Shutter Speed, Aperture , ISO and F stop etc . I continued clicking with my SONY point & shoot for few months. Below are some of my earliest samples .
One can visibly see a distinct pattern of clicks as I wandered between different scenic places in outskirts of Melbourne like Puffing Billy, Healesville and Phillipe Island - some of the top places to visit in Melbourne . I was clicking in strong sun and my framing and balancing was not great to say the least. And the limitations of a point and shoot not withstanding the pics were not offering much technical delight . However at that point of time in 2010 I was only too eager to click and capture nature's beauty which was abundant there not paying much detail to minute details like light, aperture etc.
It was during my summer vacations at Warnambool that for the first time I realised that my eagerness to click pictures was taking me beyond my point and shoot . Not to condescend my first ever camera that I owned ( I still cherish that camera which is a prized possession in my house ) my understanding was becoming clearer that I needed something beyond that to experiment different conditions and for that I needed a DSLR - THE ULTIMATE graduation to the big world of Pro Photography. It was this kick I felt within myself that allowed me to scout for a camera which I finally could procure from a close friend in Melbourne - my first tryst with a DSLR - a D90 .
D90 ( Nikon ) I fondly remember was my first so called " hired " DSLR which I neither knew how to use nor knew how to shoot . However not withstanding my severe limitation about DSLR & its usage I did a decent job with D90 in my maiden outing at the iconic GREAT OCEAN ROAD. Built by returned soldiers between 1919 -1932 and dedicated to soldiers killed during WW1, the road is the world's largest war memorial.
The above taken at Great Ocean Road bears ample testimony to the beautiful beautiful place GOR is - was a heaven and will be etched in memory for ever. But as you can see the control on the camera was not great and neither was the balancing and other acts . My first attempt with a DSLR in windy conditions under low light at GOR will always remain a high point in my life - how I clicked with my first ever DSLR without any tutelege.
To be continued ..... (Part I ends).
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