SHOOTING PORTRAITS

Shot indoors. Window light used as sidelight. A silver reflector was held by the subject
in his hand. 1/80 sec; 5.6 aperture; 300 mm FL; ISO-200; 70-300 lens.

I enjoy taking 'people pictures', more so when they are not looking into the camera. There is something magical about candid photos. I try and bring the element of 'candidness' in my so-called studio-portrait shots. Of course you have to have the subject looking into the camera at least in a few frames. 

There are few things I do before shooting portraits.

1. Know something about the person. Their likes and dislikes. What music they listen to; are they an extrovert or an introvert....the kind of work they do etc. This will help you to understand how much of the envelope you can push; the kind of expressions you can get from the subject and that which will suit the subject.... For example the gentleman in this picture is a huge fan of metal music; he has an image of a rough and tough kinda guy. Soft lighting, mellow expressions etc are not for him :) He agrees too :)

2. You also need to have a clear understanding of the purpose of the end product. This is important for you. This will help you decide the clothes, accessories, background and other paraphernalia that goes into setting the mood of the pic.

1/80 sec, f5, 190mm FL, 200 ISO, 70-300 lens. Shot indoors. Window light as
 side  light with  a reflector on the other.

3. The night before the shoot I usually draw a broad outline of where I am going to shoot, the lighting, poses etc.
 4. Planning the lighting is important. Natural, strobes or is it going to be just reflectors. In this shoot all I used was a single reflector and that too not in all the frames. Some pics were shot outdoors. The sun was covered by fluffy clouds -naturally diffusing the light.
5. Keep the person engaged while shooting. I am not the overtly chatty kind. But I do have a conversation with the subject. If I feel the person is not showing any nerves and would rather prefer silence then I cut down on my conversation and let the person be. You won't believe, how many people would like to be left alone and not have the photographer indulge in a constant stream of jibber-jabber.

6. I try and explain to the person, wherever possible, what I am doing. Make them a part of the process. Again, play it  by the ear. If the person is not interested in knowing, you don't have to tell.

Finally, I like to have a few laughs and lots of fun when I am shooting. 

Shot outdoors. Cloudy skies. But the light was a beautiful diffused light.
 1/15 sec,; f5; 149mm FL, ISO100, 70-300 mm lens. No flash. 

Women boxers in Bangalore

Women boxers from the city. Read it here:http://www.su-journaljottings.blogspot.in/2012/08/gals-who-pack-punch.htm

Vibha (21), Pavitra (23), Vidya (16) and Raechel (15).
Four of the nine women boxers from Karnataka. Raechel won a bronze medal at the recently concluded sub-junior championships. Karnataka won 2 bronze medals, the only medals that Karnataka has ever won in women's boxing.

21-year-old Vibha. The first time she got punched on the bridge of her nose she went ballistic and hit her sparring partner hard -the moves had nothing to do with boxing :)

Raj Kumar coaches the 9 women boxers that Bangalore has. The youngest joined last month -she's nine-and-a-half years old.

Vibha says that 95% of the boys are supportive and encouraging. The remaining 5%? She doesn't care.

23-year-old Pavitra wants to be an IAS officer. Every morning when she goes for boxing training at 5 am her mother asks her: "Why do you want to do this? You should be getting married instead."

Pavitra stood 3rd in a Kannada reality show based on the lines of Fear Factor

15-year-old Raechel won the bronze medal at the sub-junior national women's boxing championship. The first medal that Karnataka has won in women's boxing -ever!

16-year-old Vidya wants just one thing in life: To win an Olympic medal like Mary Kom. But her mother is worried that her daughter's beautiful face might be marred and that might affect her future.

Pavitra is also an athlete

Power tools -well, what can I say :)

When in doubt....

Sometimes when you are in doubt the best thing to do is to stay still :

Wheels of colour

Colorful life, for some; colorless for others

Illusion or....

Reflections --are they mirror images of illusions?

Man's view

Contemporary representation of the 'Bird's eye view'.

Two days ago I went to a quaint little chocolate factory; this photo was shot there. Surrounded by tempta-licious goodies I realized how much I missed baking and making chocolates. Over the years, I had let myself be gobbled up by the business of day-to-day living and forgotten all the things that I did, which gave me immense satisfaction. That's when I decided to spend Sundays doing none of the things that I usually did during the rest of the week.

Dive in....

It took me more than 20 years to get over my fear of water. I have been learning to swim the past two weeks. It's been difficult, but I have begun to enjoy the water and swim a wee-bit too :) It's a nice feeling to realize that you have actually begun to enjoy what you once feared dearly....

 

Bath time

Hannah getting ready for a bath. Is she a Hannah? I don't know....but she definitely looks and feels like a Hannah to me :)

Low Rhyderz

They are the first hip hop band from Bangalore. A delightful bunch of young men with great manners and even greater passion for music. And yeah, their sounds rock!

Emotions in monochrome

Mirror, mirror on the wall --who is the oldest of 'em all?

Invisible men!

These men are responsible for maintaining the grounds at the Bangalore Turf Club. You remove them from the scene, the race course will go crazy like a wild horse. But, in reality nobody really notices them or pays much attention to. They are the invisible milieu

Girls just wanna have fun

This was taken in Bangalore. The little girls were having fun playing in the land-fill area. No fancy toys for them, just each other for company resulting in lots of laughter and joy.

Cheers!

Meenakshi and Arvind Raju. The bro-sis duo behind The Biere Club, Bangalore's first microbrewery. They also find a place in the list of Young Acheivers, Society Annual 2012

A lifetime

Woman: A colourful tome of secrets

This picture is of a girl who was my house help. A pretty woman, full of beans. A free spirit at heart, but bound by her environment -poverty, lack of education, religious and societal norms. But her eyes speak volumes of unrealized dreams bubbling within.

Dreamin' Monkey

Dreaming of blue skies, green trees and swinging branches; of playmates and play dates...
He was the one I encountered first when I entered the Wildlife Rescue and Rehabilitation Centre in Bangalore. He was in a cage, enjoying the sun and contemplating on monkey-life.
He was rescued by the shelter and is being rehabilitated. In a week or two he'd be released into the forest to join his family.
Maybe he was dreaming of that day.

Here's to natural light :)

For a long time I resisted using artificial lights while shooting. I enjoyed the challenges of shooting in available light. Then I discovered that shooting with strobes can be equally challenging and fun -it's akin to painting with light. But, every now and then I go back to my roots -i.e shooting in available light.

Today, I did an interesting food shoot at Zaffran on St.Marks Road, Bangalore; foods that are made with ingredients considered aphrodisiacs. It's for the Sunday edition of Bangalore Mirror. Will post the pics and recipes here: www.su-kitchen.blogspot.com

This was shot in between shots at the food shoot. There was beautiful, soft, natural light filtering through large windows -delightful!

Compose, focus and click -shooting in natural light is that easy :)