May 11

On water

In dealing with older negatives, I feel like I am dwelling too much on the past. I have never been much for reflection and looking back but at some points you cannot move forward without dealing with it. All that by way of apology for harping on about old photos. So, I found these images from the Hyderabad regatta that I finagled my way into with more imagination than equipment and some memories were rekindled.

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The laser regatta is an important event for Hyderabad water sports, and is scheduled for the middle of the monsoon when the waters of the lake are quite high.

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These photos were taken from a dinghy that my friend Sirish arranged through his father who was a member of the Sailing Club, which organizes the event. They illustrate a day of me and my friend getting absolutely burned to a crisp in the middle of the large, stinky lake which is at the heart of the city.

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AS you can see the images are marked 400TX which is Tri-X 400, probably my first time shooting this classic film. Usually I was restricted to cheaper, locally sourced NOVA films (which will feature in future musings about the past). Completely unsuitably I was also using a manual focus camera – the Nikon FE2 and a 28-105 Sigma lens on it. There was no way I was going to get magazine quality images. The other issue of course was that having never even watched sailing contests on TV, I had no idea what was actually happening. And as we were shooting unofficially, we were not invited to the press briefing that would at least set us up for the right situations.

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There were a few wipeouts, some boats going super fast and the dinghy often filling up with water that kept away any sense of boredom. However I have never managed to make my way back into the competition. If i do, I will share the photos from that endeavour as well. Maybe I won’t wait 15 years to do it either.

May 2

Condem

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Back in the year 2012 or 2013, I had plenty of energy to practice my craft. Being an enthusiast, I embarked on a photowalk in Chilkalguda, Secunderabad (with @akhil.tandulwadikar)where the humble residences of low level railway staff were marked as condemned and scheduled for demolition before the arrival of the Hyderabad Metro Rail. It was also the first time I was shooting Medium format film on my newly acquired Mamiya C220 TLR.

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I am almost certain this was Shanghai Gp3 100 ISO film but my memory isn’t telling me anything. The negative was processed by a lab in Secunderabad called State Photo. A combination of me not knowing what i was doing and the lab handling the film with apathy resulted in less than optimal negatives. These rolls were handed back to me in paper sleeves and these sleeves were in a bag with other negatives of the same era – about which i will reminisce in short order, I am sure. Walking through the secluded roads in the comfortable shade of the area was an interesting experience. Most of the residents had already left, either to other quarters or to nearby residential apartments but some held on. Indeed, some still do. Those who left traces which you could still see for a while but are now unimaginable

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Post Script : Consider this an update to this old post from 2013

Apr 27

Bird is the word

I do not consider myself a bird photographer, but when you are hanging out with photographers who have assembled specifically to observe and take photos of birds, the title does come with the territory. I do not even have a lens that would be suitable for picturing such beautiful and active creatures so I had to borrow a borrowed lens.

a single stork searching for food in the marshland in front of a landscape of high rise buildings and power pylons
two storks in the bottom left and top right corner separated by a good distance, with the shadow of some trees in between them
a silhouette of a heron on a scattering of stones in a lake

Having got these shore level shots, my friend Raj decided to talk to a local fisherman to take us out into the marshy parts where there were going to be pink flamingoes. Raj is an excellent photographer who is dedicated to the craft of bird photography but he is also extremely adept at convincing you that what he wants is what you want. SO we went in.

A flock of flamingoes flying in a cloudy sky. there are also the tops of high rise apartment blocks visible in the background
photograph of a flock of flamingoes in a marsh land with some out of focus herons in the foreground and high rise residential apartments in the back
photograph of a flock of flamingoes, of which 3 are landing and their pink colouration can be seen

Now Raj was well prepared – in fact suited up – for this adventure, but I was not. I stayed in the boat and spoke with Kalesha, our fisherman and boatman, listening to the story of how his wife worked in the houses of colonies nearby as househelp and made sure the family always had enough, and ensured his children got the education he missed out on.

portrait of a man in front of a marsh land. the man is wearing a camouflage cap , a grey shirt with a blue undershirt and a traditional cotton lungi.

It has been weird to blog after some unspecified time that i refuse to calculate. However, as the platforms I am able to use for photography wither away, I find myself coming back here. I hope those I have followed for a while are doing as well as they can, and hope to find new people to make friends with – again.

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Nov 18

Interstellaaaaaa!!! or, the physics of wonton burrito meals

So, I watched Interstellar.

It was a pretty big let-down. Don’t let all the dorks posting on the internets about accurate physics in visual effects* distract you from the fact that if it wasn’t for the herculean efforts of Jessica Chastain and a couple of cool robots(think bender from futurama but a lot more helpful), this movie would have literally nothing to recommend it compared to all that hype. Given that it’s a Nolan film, the hero’s wife is dead yet again. It was an interesting meta move to cast Matthew Mcconaughey though, as his infamous line from ‘dazed and confused’ is inverted by the plot of this movie.

AS there is no aspect of the movie that is not explained in the movie, there is no reason for me to go into the details. Let me assure you that he plot twists are actually gentle, well banked, large radius turns with signboards at a frequency that would make the most safety minded highway official proud. So if you’re not making out with your partner or distracted by the jerkoffs who won’t switch off their phones in the movies, you don’t have much to ponder aside from whether the price of admission was/will be worth it. See it on IMAX if you can because the space visuals are definitely impressive, and Jessica Chastain seems like she acts even better when her face is 30 feet tall. I WILL WORSHIP YOU, SCIENCE GODDESS JESSICA!

Some good, writer-y reviews are here, here, and here too.

 

* hey, at least it wasn’t about ethics in gaming journalism.

Jul 17

Protect Me

 

It’s been a tough few weeks if not a tough year, mentally speaking, with the return of serious depressive episodes. And in the past 4 years I’ve almost completely forgot that I had a blog in which I could vent and share links and do everything instead of creepy, power hungry facebook. I have since discovered Whatsapp (ping me for the number if you’re on it) but then even they were absorbed by the blue part of the borg.

May 20

That Sinking Feeling

A portion of the indian electorate has voted for the extreme right-wing party BJP, and it’s a big enough portion to make a very disturbingly authoritarian person the prime minister. The election ‘season’ reminded me of nothing more than the decisive re-election of George W. Bush in the USA, the campaign for which was largely responsible for pushing me into discussing politics online in the first place.

In as much as the new boss is the same as the old boss, the new guy has a taste for violence(and his very own version of dick cheney), which is always disturbing since without the overwhelming military might of the USA, such violence will be directed at some group within our borders rather than outside of them. Or worse, we will be given another milatari spectacle featuring our looming neighbour to the east/north or more likely our disintegrating neighbour to the west.

I am yet to find the indian equivalent of 3bulls! (c) ™ (r) however, so this time it has been a net loss for me even on a personal level.

These thoughts brought to you by WordPress.com, which reminds me that it’s been 8 years since i abandoned ‘fuzzy words’ to a digital doom and embarked upon this new journey.