It was a year back, on Jan 26 – 2014, that I uploaded my first photograph that I had taken in my dear DSLR camera D3100 into facebook. And my mom posted this comment in that post
Ice cube, ice cube have anyone taken a photo of u better than this?
Since then, it became a very serious hobby exposing me to things that I never imagined including
Developing new relationships
My friendship with Anand and Suhas deepened and I realized the importance of observing light and its properties. Got many new friends, started actively following several photographers including Hari Menon and Renuka. I also began spending more time with my mom, during our phone calls explain about photography and that helped improve our relationship
Beauty in mundane things
2014 had its own set of challenges waiting for me and photography helped me realize that beauty can be found is things we overlook on a regular basis and that itself became the theme in my photography and friends started seeing this common ‘thread’ in my photographs
Video recording and our first music single
Quality of my videos also improved thereby helping me take really good quality videos of my guitar playing as well as of Melvin. We got our first music single recorded in my DSLR
Venturing out and capturing experiences
This one is the best. I started travelling more than I used and started looking forward for travelling. This was not an inherent character of mine. I always believed staying indoors and that limited my experiences. When I started going out, it gave me experiences which I could never experience otherwise. For example, taking photos during sunset, more travel with parents, flower show in lalbagh and so on
Capturing moments – changing lives
Photos I have captured of my mom and dad and my friends and my family members had a profound impact on their lives. I mean everyone loves to look great. When you are able to capture someone’s emotions in the best possible way, it totally changes the way they perceive themselves. This was specially evident when I capture photos of people who never had that kind of an opportunity
More learning and appreciating life
I realized the most important fact that, photography is not about having the best camera, and knowing how best to use the controls on the camera. It was medium to express yourself and others in the best possible way. When you take any photograph, you realize that its not just clicking the button, but rather a complex mental calculation of deciding the location, framing and choosing the kind of light. This was indeed challenging for my brain. I never knew so much existed in photography. This really thrilled me, because I now have an amazing medium where I get to experienced a lot and see beauty in way more than one
See things me or others have not seen
Grooves on an almond, craters on the moon, freezing time while a droplet falls on the water. I started seeing things which I thought never existed, be that it micro or macro level. I also realized that several types of butterflies and birds visited our backyard ( I got this idea when anand invited me to his place saying there were several birds visiting his home )
Hope for the future – Overcoming negativity
We all have our ups and downs in life. When all seems lost and when you have no hopes for the future a hobby like this, which gets you lot of applause and gives you opportunity to constantly think out of the box ( or you will end up being almost not unique within the crowd) helps in ways more than one. You always start looking forward for the next day. You always know that, there is always a new experience awaiting you and when negative thoughts flood your mind, you fill your mind instead with tutorials and innovative ways that great photographers use to make their creative work stands out and you find that none of those negative thoughts have any impact on you