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Category:Uncategorized

March 13, 2022

Dear 2021: Director’s Notes

Dear 2021: Director’s Notes March 13, 2022 Everything we see or hear or experience in any way at all is specific to us. We...

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the.final.shot

/long exposures As Sontag has aptly written- “I

/long exposures

As Sontag has aptly written- “If all that a person does or thinks is of consequence, it becomes arbitrary to treat some moments in life as important and most as trivial.”, and I feel photographers live by this quote. For us, to photograph is to confer importance. Be it an ordinary evening on the beach, for a photographer, it is an opportunity to create something magical.

Here is a short account of me creating something similar. Since I bought my first camera, I have been fascinated by the idea of capturing mesmerizing long exposures. When I ventured into this field, I learnt that you need ND filters for dimming the light reaching the sensor of your camera. As it always happens with people with limited resources, over time I learned the technique that could enable you to do so without the filters but luck and skill have to work in tandem for you to get the result.

After years of trying, I was able to create something that comes close to a long exposure that I so badly wanted to make 8 years back. Hopefully, someday soon I have the resources to afford a filter system and create something even more magical. Until then, we’ll keep on experimenting and learning with what we have.
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evenings in goa (9/18)
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shot on Nikon D5200
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#longexpo_addiction #longexposure #longexposureoftheday #longexposure_shots #longexposures #longexpoelite #longexposure_india #longexpohunter #longexposure_addiction #violetsunset #purplesunsets #goa #goadiaries #morjimbeach🌴 #vagatorbeach #nofilterneeded #nondfilter

/another world I am sure you would have imagery i

/another world

I am sure you would have imagery in your heads of what a post-apocalyptic/dystopian/new world would like. Dystopia is usually associated with a futuristic, imagined universe in which oppressive societal control and the illusion of a perfect society are maintained through corporate, bureaucratic, technological, moral, or totalitarian control. Dystopias, through an exaggerated worst-case scenario, make a criticism of a current trend, societal norm, or political system.

And then there are artists and filmmakers whose visual interpretation of a dystopian society brings mind-hurtling beauty of landscapes, which first freezes the mind and then slowly releases it to hitherto un-experienced horizons of beauty.

And then there is our present-day Earth which produces landscapes that make us feel that the time traveler moved a chair and we got transported into the future (or the past, who’s to say? but let’s stick to the ubiquitous interpretation of dystopia and assume it’s the future. I’ve got to stop drifting away in the sub-text like this :D). Where was I! Yes, you know how it’s like when you witness fierce shafts of color streaking through the thin atmosphere beneath the clouds, and you experience a surge of dopamine.

A similar case happened to me when I was photographing the waning sun the other evening. The atmosphere in front of me changed so dramatically that my hormones couldn’t cope with it and my emotions were suspended in a constant aura of awe. There was no subject available for framing and I was so fixated marveling at the beauty of what lay in front of me that I chose the murky-orange glowing arc as my focal point and made this photograph.

Oh, because it’s me, there’s obviously a noir version. Swipe to see the full landscape.

P.S.- Another frame that has musical inspiration for the title. This one’s based on the song Another World by a band called Gojira.
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evenings in goa (8/18)
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shot on @nikonindiaofficial D5200
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#dystopianlandscape #dystopia #dystopian #dystopianart #anotherworld #gojira #landscapesofinstagram #morjimbeach🌴 #morjimgoa #morjimgoa #morjimbeach #goadiaries #goatourism #awesome_earth

/purple skies The slurpy slapping of the sea was

/purple skies

The slurpy slapping of the sea was muted, a metronomic murmur. The waves were merely snoozing, sluggish and slumbering in their liquid robes. They dribbled up to the beach of the sheltered cove, then shuddered and drizzled their sea spray onto its surface, whisking the stones before releasing. A current of cold electricity passed through the air. The wind whipped up. The sea simmered.

Sloshing, swollen to its confined depths, its cavernous bowels stirred, a growling from the fathoms. Suddenly, the sea hissed, washed, polished, and lashed the boat on the horizon before sloshing back far deeper than the eyes could see.

An amethyst-purple tint invaded the late summer skies. The waning sun looked picturesque. And the slow movement of waves looked like an oil painting. That’s when the idea of a long exposure struck me. The light was neither too bright nor too dark to find a perfect exposure and the ND filters weren’t working their charm.

So, I decided to make multiple exposures - 1 fast and 4 slow. Brought them back home and composited them together the wonderland that my eyes witnessed in the moment on that beach.

And yet again, another frame has reminded me of a song while writing. This time it’s Purple by a band called Hollow Coves. Here’s a beautiful couple from the song to wrap this prose up:

“I wish that I could stay here all my life
Just you and I sitting under purple skies”
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evenings in goa (7/18)
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shot on @nikonindiaofficial D5200
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#purple #purplehollowcoves #hollowcoves #purplecoastline #purplesunsets #purpleskies #goa #goadiaries #morjimbeach🌴 #morjimgoa #susnetshimmer #boatsofinstagram #longexposurephotography #longexpo_addiction #longexpoelite #ig_shotz_le #longexposureoftheday #global4nature #longexposure_india

/somethings just click Has this ever happened to

/somethings just click

Has this ever happened to you that you listen to a song for the first time and it just hits you right in the feels, and then you listen to it on repeat until either you or your phone’s juice is drained? Or you hear an idea and the voice inside of you says, “Wow! This is legendary.”? Or you watch the trailer of a movie/TV show and you are instantly hooked? Or you take the first bite of a food item and bam! it’s your favorite cuisine now? Or you meet someone for the first time and without speaking, you know you both vibe? Well, the same happens when you are making a photograph.

Just like it is when you are going to meet someone new, your lips go up and down as you are combing your hair as your mouth and brain prepare themselves for the forthcoming conversations. You pause subconsciously and yet so thoughtfully to let a little grammar assemble in your head. And when you meet that person, you just click. And all those gesticulations and faces you made while getting ready for the big moment go in your repertoire of forming human connections for some other day.

The same happens when you are scouting a place to shoot photographs. You recall all the thumb rules, you look for all the right angles, schedule your visit so that the sun is not too harsh or the moon not too light, but when you reach the destination and look through the viewfinder, the landscape presents itself in such a way that in that moment, you don’t care about what you planned beforehand. The idyllic scenery forms an instant connection with the artist inside of you and just like that, you just click the shutter of your camera and the moment is preserved in pixels, forever.

The frame that you see here, is my moment of ‘somethings just click’.

P.S.- There are obvious implications around your subconscious still working and helping you with framing, etc. but that is applicable to all other day-to-day scenarios as well. Us mere mortals are just a function of our brains. Okay, jamming the brakes on this train of thought before it gets dark.
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evenings in goa (6/18)

/layers I know I have written by photographic see

/layers

I know I have written by photographic seeing a bit too many times. But that’s how much I believe in it. It is an aptitude for discovering beauty in what everybody sees but neglects as too ordinary. So at the risk of sounding like a broken record, I’d say that it means more than just seeing the world as it is, including its already acclaimed marvels; it means to create interest, by new visual decisions.

This sometimes means departing from the tested route of searching for striking images and making a common affair uncommon and striking. Well, obviously it costs in terms of patience and discomfort as this active, acquisitive, evaluating, gratuitous modality of vision is not that easy to practice. One can use the existing techniques in one’s repertoire to entrap the world and show it in a new light just like I have done here by employing the classic photography technique of having a foreground, subject and background in the frame. The technique is usual but the frame looks a little unusual.

Everyday life apotheosized and revealing the kind of beauty that only the camera reveals were my main targets for this series. It is nothing but water, rocks, and a boat but it is also flow, stability, and freedom - a corner of material reality that the eye can’t normally isolate - a parallel of psychology that the mind maybe can relate to.

I don’t know if this makes any sense but yeah, this is what came to my mind when I made this frame.
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evenings in goa (5/18)
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shot on @nikonindiaofficial D5200
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#layers #sunsetsofgoa #sunsetatthebeach #parasailing #parasailingadventure #goatourism #vagatorbeach #vagatorgoa #photographicseeing #susansontag #rockonthebeach #rocksofinstagram #rarerocks #landschaftsfotografie #landscapesofgoa #landscapesofinstagram #waterscapes #seaonsunset
@goatourism @natgeoindia @natgeotravellerindia @cntravellerindia @tripotocommunity @discoverindia.magazine

/mountains at my feet But above all it is the fan $/mountains at my feet But above all it is the fantastic colouring of the beaches that as an image overpowers the minutiae. Above the tide-line the grey rocks are splashed gorse yellow with close-growing lichen, and with others of blue-green and salmon pink. And then there are rocks like these - corrugated slopes of lava, bristling lava cliffs, spouts of metallic clinkers, or tan-brown mini-mountains. If we shrink ourselves to their size, they show us sight to behold. We could see a fracture of golden yellow sand, a gash of burnished walnut-brown rocks and wide slash of sea - a watery wonderland and the beach drenched in a lightning-gold, dawn haze. The horizon itself a thin seam where the canopy of sky and the plane of sea hemmed each other into a line of silver. As if they had been welded into an extended splinter of perfection. That’s what the photographic seeing unlocks. And as has been the unofficial trend with this series, the title of this image is also related to a song. It’s ‘Mountain at my gates’ by a band called ‘Foals’. This is has happened unplanned these frames have somehow reminded me of a song or two. Let’s see how the series progresses. Since we are on the topic of music, here are a few lines from this song that I really like: “Oh, gimme some time Show me the foothold from which I can climb Yeah, when I feel low You show me a signpost for where I should go” __ evenings in goa (4/18) __ shot on @nikonindiaofficial D5200 __ . . . . . . . . . . . . . . #goa #morjimgoa #morjimbeach #morjim #morjimbeach🌴 #sunsetsofgoa #sunsetatthebeach #rocksofinstagram #rockonthebeach #landschaftsfotografie #longexpo_addiction #ig_shotz_le #fantastic_earth #susnetshimmer #summersunselection$

/crash I struggle a lot while writing captions fo

/crash

I struggle a lot while writing captions for some frames. It feels like I will rob people of the potential interpretations that the art offers. But then I feel it’s only natural for an artist like me who loves to scribble, to write their interpretation as well. It’s the artistic expression of the undecorated writer in me and not the photographer in me who made this photo.

This set contains a few of those frames. It offers myriad of themes and subtexts to the viewers - one could feel that it represents struggle, or perseverance, or toiling, or growth, or annihilation, or that it’s just a dumb scene of water crashing on the walnut-brown jagged rocks on the beach.

Here’s my humble interpretation:

Far out to sea, waves of pulsing light saturated the sea with gold. Ebbing ever so gently, it looked at peace in its gold and tangerine gown. And then came the sudden surge of currents accelerating the waves and pushing them farther out towards the land than they ever had been. Overwhelmed, the waves hit the sun roasted rocks and break into a million desaturated droplets. Hanging mid-air these droplets are too struck with hysteria that even the brightness of our only natural source of light cannot provide them any saturation. They are unicorn-white and as lifeless as the unicorns themselves. And yet after they fall down, they piece themselves together to form a wave that is ever so luminous and oh so glorious. Now replace that wave with us humans, the current with life and the saturation with self-belief. We fall, We break and yet We persevere. Who’s to say that the lifeform that evolved from fishes, didn’t learn this from water. I won’t over-elaborate and leave this notion here for you to ponder.

Ending the scribble with lines from a song by You Me at Six:

“Crash, fall down.
I'll wrap my arms around you now.
Just crash, it's our time now,
To make this work, second time around.”
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evenings in goa (3/18)
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shot on @nikonindiaofficial D5200
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#morjimbeach #morjim #morjimgoa #goa #travellingthroughtheworld #fantastic_earth #awesome_earthpix #ourplanetdaily #fastexposure #magicpict #dreaming_landscape #youmeatsix #crash #wavescrashing

/all I see is red There is a moment in every dusk

/all I see is red

There is a moment in every dusk when light floats, there is the possibility of magic. Creation holds its breath. I am sure you must have witnessed the oh so mesmerizing nature’s color palette whenever you traveled to a coast. I experienced something similar on this trip to Goa - a coastline of monumental grandeur.

A thick sheet of clouds masked the low-hanging sun, lighting up the evening sky with a soft red glow. The long warm light of the evening sun caught the sapphire-blue waves nicely. This phenomenon resulted in the classic teal and orange look presented by nature. Every object the dispersed light hit was lit up with fiery orange - as if it was on fire. Wherever your eyes go, all you could see was red. And that prompted me to make these frames.

This natural contrast has such a soothing effect not only on the eyes but also on the soul. Even though red is sometimes associated with danger-bearing emotions, this red delivers polar opposite feelings. It’s like the sun is trying to get across a message to us, that it does not matter if life breaks your spark down just like these clouds have hindered my brightness. You must collect those bits off the floor. Like wood shavings. And make them into fuel. Into fire. And burn. Bright enough to see. Just like I am - for we know it’ll be as beautiful as this landscape in front of your eyes.
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evenings in goa (2/18)
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Shot on @nikonindiaofficial D5200
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#travellingthroughtheworld #fantastic_earth #awesome_earthpix #ourplanetdaily #nationaldestinations #beyondthelands_ #planet_earth_shots #dreaming_landscape #welcometonature #igpodium #ig_shotz_le #thebest_capture #magicpict #goa #goadiaries #vagatorbeach #indianbeach #bbcearth #folkscenery #sunsetsofgoa #sunset

Happy Earth Day 2022! SWIPE!! 🌍 Try following t

Happy Earth Day 2022! SWIPE!! 🌍
Try following the shape of the trees to the mountains to the waterfall to the mountains. I thought if we're gonna go seamless why not go all the way. 🤭
I was traveling for the past few days, hence, the inactivity. Will resume the series from tomorrow. 🙌
Until then enjoy this natural color palette.
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#earthday #earthday2022 #seamless #seamlessphoto #collage #naturecollage #thefinalshot #1x #shotwithnikon #india #himachalpradesh #uttarakhand #kheerganga #beautyofnature

/waves crashing on distant shores of time Since t

/waves crashing on distant shores of time

Since the day I saw the black mirror episode ‘San Junipero’ I wanted to make a composition worthy enough to be titled the same as the main background score of that episode. There’s something about these words that when strung up together makes the phrase anti-parochial. It is a metaphorical ante. When I close my eyes and listen to the soundtrack, I always create a flummoxed yet clean visual of a night-time beach on a distant planet where the sun doesn’t shine and yet the gases in the outer atmosphere radiate neon lights that streak the sky with a dimly lit retro palette.

If I were to draw a parallel from my mental imagery to the physical Anthropocene, it would loosely translate to the visual of the sea looking dozy as it rests and radiates in the afternoon glow. Towers of radiant light soak it with their beauty. The waves crash on the muddy rocks to create white dreamy clouds on land. And the anchor to the scene is a subject that cradles in the scenery.

When I set up my tripod on the butter-gold Vagator beach and looked through my viewfinder, the soundtrack started buzzing in my head. As stems of light drizzled the sleepy sea, the afterglow of the wave crashes produced surreal imagery. I saw limitless water, a boundless sky, and a frame to convert the music in my head into a visual melody. Although one frame cannot completely encapsulate the myriad of possible emotions the phrase can make us feel, hence, I captured a few other frames (3rd and 4th in the carousel) that speak of the underlying themes of vastness and solitude, when you feel a non-existent wind brushing through your face - it is hauntingly beautiful.

/evenings in goa (1/18)

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Shot on @nikonindiaofficial D5200
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#travellingthroughtheworld #fantastic_earth #awesome_earthpix #ourplanetdaily #nationaldestinations #beyondthelands_ #planet_earth_shots #longexposurephotography #longexpo_addiction #longexposure_shots #dreaming_landscape #othallofframe #goatourism #longexposureoftheday #igpodium #longexposure #longexpo #longexposures #ig_shotz_le #amazing_longexpo #longexpoelite #thebest_capture #magicpict #vagator #goa #goadiaries #vagator

Did someone say crazy? Well, does a plan made on a

Did someone say crazy? Well, does a plan made on a tissue and chasing a bus that is running away with all your luggage while you are rolling in the back of a tempo traveler sound crazy to you? If yes, then you are reading the correct post.
When the travel restrictions lifted completely, the longing traveler inside of me and my childhood friends wouldn’t hear a thing until we packed our bags and went to the mountains. We were sipping coffee while gazing at a purple sunset when I picked up a tissue and started drafting the plan. And before we knew it, we were standing at the foot of an angel-white mountain. All we had for a plan were the mountains we have to climb and rest, well, we were going to play by the ear. Our first crazy surprise came when we are at the base of Kheerganga. A group of descending trekkers told us about the black ice situation (ice melts due to the summer heat) at the top and that our trekking shoes won’t hold. This meant that we now had to trek down 4kms, get the shoes and trek back up to start our actual trek. This detour hurt our schedule but we got the shoes and a guide. It was getting dark so our guide recommended us a shortcut that made our lungs experience a brutal thirst for air - it was a 70-degree inclined climb. We were able to summit and descend safely.
As we started our journey to our next trekking spot, we had another crazy surprise waiting for us. When we stopped for lunch, the local bus started the journey without us and took with it our luggage consisting of but not limited to a DSLR, a GoPro, a tripod, 2 lenses, a laptop, and a guitar. Our survival instinct kicked in and we asked the local 'daala walas' to help us chase the bus while we continuously tried contacting the destination bus stop. What followed was a high-speed chase between a local bus and a local traveler with us rolling in the trunk and hanging to anything we could find for our dear lives. After a 30-minute thrilling chase, we were able to catch up with the bus. Quick and sensible decisions made in high-pressure situations made this trip adventurous and memorable for us.

#mycrazysummerstory #cleartripbigtravelsale
#tripotocommunity #cleartrip #triptoremember

They say that change is the only constant. Everyon

They say that change is the only constant. Everyone in their mid-20s and early-30s have come to a point where they or their close friends are starting a new phase of their lives. And this change not only stirs a lot of emotions inside us but also poses some thought-provoking questions, like,
will we still see each other regularly?
what happens to the decade-old gang?
was this our prime?
are we a moment or a lifetime?

An internal monologue turned to video, this short film is an attempt to channel those emotions and translate those feelings into something we all can relate to. It's my own way of giving those thoughts a voice and I hope this form of expression strikes a chord with you.

A quintessential bittersweet cocktail of pleasure

A quintessential bittersweet cocktail of pleasure and pain, 2021, was familiar, but in an unfamiliar guise. A year whose topography of the distantly approaching metaphorical bed of roses and thorns resolved with greater and greater clarity only when we walked in the room. What started as a possible phase of experiencing lighter shades after being in grey for a long time, turned out to be characterized by enveloping darkness drizzled with moments of delight. We were astonished by all of the sensations fighting for room in our heads.

We experienced a brutal thirst for air as our minds swayed slowly back down to the ground like a falling leaf. It’s true that we experienced terrible things but what’s most gratifying is that we didn’t drop ourselves into a still-life painting of memory because life had broken our heart. We rose in the face of adversity. And Dear 2021, is a celebration of that - a celebration of people who won, a celebration of people who lost and found new reasons to live despite the odds.

Do let me know if this spoke to you. And if it did, please share it with your friends and family 😊

P.S.- I have tagged the people who have contributed to this project. Go give them a cheer if you like 🙂

/it’s here Sometimes, the stuff we all hate end

/it’s here

Sometimes, the stuff we all hate ends up being the only way to do things. As for me. I hate to take a pause when I am working on something that I truly like and believe in. And life has marvelous ways of telling you, you can’t have it all going your way. 5 months back my laptop fried and I was technologically crippled. My immediate idea was to buy a new one from the market but having worked for so long on my passion, I knew I wouldn’t do a trade-off this time. So, I did my research and the specs that I wanted, well, guess what, the laptops with those specs weren’t available here. And then I waited.

I felt like a racehorse in a world without racetracks or a champion college footballer suddenly confronted by Wall Street and a business suit, his days of glory shrunk to a little gold cup on his mantel with a date engraved on it like the date on a tombstone. I kept checking the websites every day - multiple times a day, just to get one piece delivered here. I scoured the roads of the local market to find a model that fits my criteria but to no avail.

And then it finally happened. A laptop that was a little over budget from my already high budget became available and I pounced on the opportunity. Now, after a 5-month-long wait, life has furnished me with a serious purpose. Ladies and Gentlemen, I. hereby welcome @msi Creator Z16 to The Final Shot. It is an absolute powerhouse and I can’t wait to start creating again.

To everyone who supported me throughout this phase, a big thank you. Off to working on Dear 2021!

#MSI Creator Z16 Specs:

👉 Intel i9 11th Gen 8-core 4.6 GHz
👉 NVIDIA GeForce RTX3060 6GB
👉 16 GB DDR4
👉 1 TB SSD NVMe PCIe Gen4
👉 16” QHD+ 100% DCI-P3 120Hz IPS
👉 16:10 Golden Ratio Display

/the final shot (of this series, obviously) What

/the final shot (of this series, obviously)

What better way to wind up a series than to reflect on the journey I took to create it and the journey it took me to. So here is an assortment of thoughts that I had while working on this series (apart from the ones already shared in the captions of the respective images). Here goes...

As I am writing this, I am bathing in nostalgia, and photographs actively promote nostalgia. Photography is an elegiac art, a twilight art. Most subjects photographed are, just by virtue of being photographed, touched with pathos. An ugly or grotesque subject may be moving because it has been dignified by the attention of the photographer.

A beautiful subject can be the object of rueful feelings, because it has aged or decayed or no longer exists. All photographs are memento mori. To take a photograph is to participate in subject’s mortality, vulnerability, mutability. Precisely by slicing out this moment and freezing it, all photographs testify to time’s relentless melt.

To photograph is to confer importance. There is probably no subject that cannot be beautified; moreover, there is no way to suppress the tendency inherent in all photographs to accord value to their subjects. But the meaning of value itself can be altered. And I sincerely hope I have done justice by correctly attributing value to these beautiful momuments.

Since the laptop situation hasn’t improved, I have decided to use the already available resources to start working on Dear 2021. I have an idea to include some of you as well in the film. More on that soon. So, I’ll be gone for a while, away from posting, brainstorming on the film. I’ll keep on posting regular updates on the story. And yeah, there’s one reel that I was able to create from this session. Will post that day after tomorrow. Take care and wish me luck for the project.

/lucknow through my lens (15/15)

/the clock tower Now that I have penned my love f

/the clock tower

Now that I have penned my love for noir (see previous post), let’s talk about the monument.

Clock towers in medieval India were a very common sight and were built in the middle of the busiest city markets to help people keep a track of time. Thus various Indian ancient provinces including Jodhpur, Dehradoon, Meerut, Delhi, Mumbai and many others, have a clock tower or a ghanta ghar depicting the city's typical architecture and style. However, the one that chimes in the city of Lucknow is far more special than any clock tower in India.

Lucknow's Ghanta Ghar is about 67 meters in height, which roughly translates to about 219 feet. This soaring tower in Lucknow's Husainabad has been identified as the tallest among all the clock towers in various Indian cities. Ghanta Ghar's clock arms have been designed using the metal which was usually used in the making of guns and was sourced from Ludgate Hill, London. The clock dial is designed in the shape of 12 petals of a full gold flower with bells around and a pendulum which is about 14 ft long!

In 2010, the city administration wanted to replace the mechanical clock with a digital one due to its faulty working. However, two city samaritan convinced the district administrator to let them work on the repairs. After 17 months of pro bono repairs, Captain Paritosh Chauhan and Akhilesh Agarwal were able to restore the chimes of the clock that echoed in the city after a long silence of 27 years!

I wanted to capture flow in the frame so I waited for some time and caught a bird in its flight. This is a composite of 4 burst shots. Which version do you like?

/lucknow through my lens (14/15)

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#lucknowtourism #lucknowcity #uttarpradeshtourism #clocktower #ghantaghar #indianmonuments #heritageofindia #architecturephotography #raghavrairalhan #streetphotographyindia #spi

/why I love noir 🖤 Let’s visit the spot wher

/why I love noir 🖤

Let’s visit the spot where I took the mental screenshot while rushing to capture the frame in the last post. This was the only monument left for me to photograph - the clock tower. More on that in the next post. In this post, I want to talk about what makes the use of 2 colours and their infinite shades so important to me. The next few posts will feature black and white exposures primarily with their colour versions as the secondary items.

Since the advent of fast colour films, seeing photographs in colour has become ubiquitous. They bring life to the negatives; they bring the pop; they are, in some sense, very expressive. And in a lot of cases, people prefer colour because it has become the norm of seeing and expressing. This challenges the artist inside of me. If you strip away the millions of colours and leave me with just two, wouldn’t I be able to make something that isn’t striking enough to evoke visual interest or tell a story or hold anyone’s attention?

I have this seemingly insatiable appetite for B&W photography (which I am still learning, BTW). It expresses more than the pleasure of discovering and exploring a relatively neglected art form; it derives much of its fervor from the desire to reaffirm the dismissal of shades of grey which was one of the messages of the pop taste of the 1960s. Paying more and more attention to photographing in the basic two colours is a great relief to sensibilities tired of, or eager to avoid, the mental exertions demanded by modern saturated, vibrant photography.

To me, B&W photos are not less sentimental or crudely lifelike but they feel to be more tactful, more decorous than colour. I am not taking away from the merit of colour photography but attempting to draw focus towards the agency of noir. Photography, of any type, is a vehicle of expression, and trying to tell stories using binary colours reconciles my avant-garde ambitions with the rewards of quenching my thirst for expression.

I hope this short essay made sense and I didn’t just puke my chaotic thoughts. More on the monument in the next post ☺️

/lucknow through my lens (13/15)
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Shot on @nikonindiaofficial D5200 with 18-55mm kit lens

/it’s what you see The sun, emerged from its gr

/it’s what you see

The sun, emerged from its grey shrouds of clouds, shone with a summer brilliance on a winter evening. Pausing in my work to overlook that pristine expanse, I felt the same profound thrill it gives me to see trees and grassland waist-high under flood water - as if the usual order of the world had shifted slightly, and entered a new phase.

And I began marching towards the end of the lane. I spotted the clock tower on my right but the light was falling oh so perfectly on the exit door that I took a mental screenshot of the clock tower and arrived in front of the gateway.

As I stood in front of the natural complementary colour palette the sky was sporting, admiring the beauty of the wrecked gate - the one that doesn’t attracts the most eyeballs - a thought came to my mind: “We only know what we perceive. Everything we experience is ultimately just our perception of it. It’s not what you look at that matters, it’s what you see.”

The second frame is flipside of the doorway. The third frame is for my love of noir. And the fourth frame is a close-up shot of the central arch.

/lucknow through my lens (12/15)
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Shot on @nikonindiaofficial D5200
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#lucknowtourism #lucknowcity #nawabokasheher #uttarpradesh #uttarpradeshtourism #upnahidekhatohindianahidekha #streetphotographyindia #_coi #spi #yourshotphotographer #tripotocommunity #raghavrairalhan #mughalarchitecture #architecturephotography #heritageofindia

/mysterious alcoves There were moments while post

/mysterious alcoves

There were moments while posting photos from this series in which I wanted to post one of these frames but I always thought they deserve an exclusive post. Whenever we visit architectural marvels, our focus usually is on the grand centre of attraction. When we take steps to get closer to the main act of the landscape, we pass through a lot of windows/doors/enclosures/alcoves.

During this photo walk, I stopped at every such enclosure and observed them quietly. I felt a sense of mystique radiating from them. There are so many minute details that make them up and once you start noticing them, you begin to appreciate the beauty of it.

So this post is a collection of all the doors/alcoves I encountered in both the Imambara compounds.

/lucknow through my lens (11/15)
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#alcove #alcoves #enclosures #doorsofinstagram #windowsofinstagram #alcovesofinstagram #mughalarchitecture #heritageofindia #republicday #73rdrepublicday #lucknowtourism #lucknowcity #incredibleindia #uttarpradesh #uttarpradeshtourism #upnahidekhatohindianahidekha #storiesofindia

/ribbons of flame That’s the thing about winter

/ribbons of flame

That’s the thing about winters - one moment it’ll choke the land and sport a melancholic sky and the other it’ll flood the sky with ribbons of flame. Though the callous winter is stifling the
world with its icy breath, during my photo walk, it painted the sky with pastel streaks. The entire day the sun had lost its battles with the grey skies. Its power was muted by nature’s iron-clad laws. Nothing it could do could banish the wonderland of banal grey beneath it.

But as dusk approached, it grew in power. It smashed the flint-grey sky into wonderful striations of yellow, pink and orange. It was enough. The ornamental beauty of the land returned. The copper covering of the dome in front of me was glittering like angel-fire. As my walk was ending, I marvelled at the might of nature. Its awe inspiring majesty made my soul rejoice.

I pointed my camera vertically upwards to maximize the capture area. The negative space was finally adding to the scene rather than taking away from it, as it had been doing for the entirety of the photo-walk. The feeble rays of the sun baptised me in heat as I pressed the shutter to make this frame.

The second frame is obviously because of my love for noir. The full vertical frame is up on my story 😇

/lucknow through my lens (10/15)
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shot on @nikonindiaofficial D5200 with 18-55 mm kit lens
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#winterwonderland #fireinthesky #pastelcolors #naturephotography #naturalcolors #landscapephotography #architecturephotography #architecturelovers #myindianphoto #streetphotographyindia #raghavrairalhan #photowalk #uttarpradesh #lucknowcity #lucknowtourism #uttarpradeshtourism #tripotocommunity #winterskies #natureatitsbest

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