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Mona Lisa

அவள் அப்படி ஒன்றும் அழகில்லை !


According to the long standing hypothesis first formulated in the 16th century, the women smiling the famous smile-present in many of Leonardo’s pictures – is Lisa Gherardini, wife of the Florentine notable Francesco di Bartolomeo di Zanoli del Giacondo. Speculation as to her identity continues to this day, however, some commentators even believing the pictures to be an androgynous self-portrait. Whoever Leonardo’s model was, he defined here a feminine ideal that would exercise an enduring influence over Italian painting. The picture apparently took him five years to paint and according top Giorgio Vasari’s biography, written a generation later, he never considered it finished, and this was perhaps why the painter took too it with him to France, where he died in 1519. (Louvre Guide)

Golden Gate Bridge

I am on a short hiatus from photography. I am on a official work. Few things that keep haunting me the fear of photographing in a new place. After a lot of persuasion, I could harness enough guts and leave the comfort of the hotel room and venture out into city. I made it to San Francisco. Visited the Golden Gate Bridge and roamed around the city.

A little, hiccup is that, I forgot to get the universal adapter and I am having trouble charging the battery. I need to buy one soon and I miss my prime lens, some how, I am not falling in love with the kit lens, the wide angle is great, but I feel some thing is a miss.

R U K U M A N I

S I G N

N I N E L I V E S

One of the un written rule of the photographic composition is not have the subject at the center of the frame. Again it need not be followed always !

O L D

Old age is no place for sissies - Bette Davis

J U S T B O K E H

As they say, you have to first unlearn to learn. Most of the bokeh photos have an anchor point for the focus, I blindly believed that anchor point is a must to get those de-focused bokeh rings.

Suddenly you realise that you are missing the fundamental truth about the bokeh, that is you need to have de-focused light source, that is all to it. Then taking the beautiful bokeh pictures reduces to the following simple steps.

• Set the biggest aperture
• Put the lens in manual focus mode
• De-focus on the light source, depends on the asthetics.
• Take pictures

Intersting light sources make interesting bokeh pictures, the above one is that of backlights of the vechicles stuck at traffic.

"I have to be as much a diplomat as a photographer." -- Alfred Eisenstaedt

Last Sunday, while travelling back to Bangalore from Chennai, after attending a family function, I was in for a shocking experience.

On the way back we took break for the coffee at Ambur. The coffee shop was located on the border of the highway. Here I took few photographs of the stall, coffee glasses and the Tea-Master. Everything was ok and fine, the Tea-Master and few others nearby were happy to pose for me. Later, I shared their pictures with them. Their smiling faces made the day.

After that, I was drawn to one person and I was photographing him. (The final photo is show above). Just as I released the shutter release button, one person approached me and stared asking questions, on why I was photographing him, to which I humbly said that, I did not shoot him and explained that I was keener on photographing people. He was content with the reply and went back. Later a friend of his came and started harassing.

He said I have no right to photograph in the public. To which I said, I have and I also said there is no law which prohibits photography in public places (Is there a law?). The guy stated advising me that I can only photograph the flowers, butterflies and trees present in public place, and I have no business photographing people. As my tempers ran out, others pulled me out of the melee. Just to avoid further confrontation, I left the place.

Later I tried to find concrete laws/rules pertaining to photography in public places in India, but could not narrow down. Google yielded laws pertaining to UK and US.

I have decided that, the next time, I should retain my calmness and just walk away from the confrontation.

H A R A S S E D

"I have to be as much a diplomat as a photographer." -- Alfred Eisenstaedt

Last Sunday, while travelling back to Bangalore from Chennai, after attending a family function, I was in for a shocking experience.

On the way back we took break for the coffee at Ambur. The coffee shop was located on the border of the highway. Here I took few photographs of the stall, coffee glasses and the Tea-Master. Everything was ok and fine, the Tea-Master and few others nearby were happy to pose for me. Later, I shared their pictures with them. Their smiling faces made the day.

After that, I was drawn to one person and I was photographing him. (The final photo is show above). Just as I released the shutter release button, one person approached me and stared asking questions, on why I was photographing him, to which I humbly said that, I did not shoot him and explained that I was keener on photographing people. He was content with the reply and went back. Later a friend of his came and started harassing.

He said I have no right to photograph in the public. To which I said, I have and I also said there is no law which prohibits photography in public places (Is there a law?). The guy stated advising me that I can only photograph the flowers, butterflies and trees present in public place, and I have no business photographing people. As my tempers ran out, others pulled me out of the melee. Just to avoid further confrontation, I left the place.

Later I tried to find concrete laws/rules pertaining to photography in public places in India, but could not narrow down. Google yielded laws pertaining to UK and US.

I have decided that, the next time, I should retain my calmness and just walk away from the confrontation.

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