About Me
My interest in Photography was ignited by a Photography Book published by Kodak long time ago. I had picked up this book from my Uncle (who had a Gevabox 9x6 point and shoot camera). The concepts of Photography immediately attracted me. Later on when I got my first job, I picked an Agfa Isoly II which was an advanced point and shoot 4x4 camera with a glass lens, aperture control and 3 speeds. I did some travel photography with this camera and my first color prints.
Later I picked up a range-finder Voightlander camera from a second hand dealer in Chennai. Unfortunately the camera had some issue with lens threading and was not taking recognizable pictures. After this misadventure, I bought a Yashica Lynx 1.4 camera that is still with me. This was my first professional camera. This produced excellent sharp pictures for me. I shot B&W, Color and Color Slides using this camera with excellent results. For a long time this was my only camera and travelled with me around India. It weighs a ton and would put some of the large lenses of the day to shame when it comes to body weight.
My first SLR was Pentax. At that time Pentax produced faster cameras than Canons and Nikons. It came with a Pentax 35-70 Zoom Lens and later I added a 80-200 Pentax zoom lens. The Pentax SLR worked for 12 years and produced some of my most memorable pictures shot overseas. It focused fast and produced sharp pictures under difficult lighting conditions. Unfortunately, one day the mirror locked up and would not come down.
In 2006, I bought my first digital SLR, Pentax *istDL. In the same year, I had the fortune of getting acquainted with Satish Hanumantha Rao and Goutham and learned the joys of nature photography. Satish does Photography for living and is an encyclopedia of Photography, especially birds. His ability to combine birds, light and nature into elegant combinations is something I am yet to emulate. Goutham is a master of macros and I learnt to prostrate in front of the macro subjects to get some good views. Since then there is no looking back. I have been going out with Satish, Goutham, Amar, Sisir, Venu and Balan regularly to discover nature and capture frames that I have hung on these walls.
Right now, I am going through the growth cycle in which I am producing technically correct pictures. I am sure I will progress to the next stage as I start appreciating the subtleties in colors and compositions and produce better pictures. In this journey of mine, there have been many people who influenced me and guided me through my learning. Here are some names to whom I owe my skills:
- Satish Hanumantha Rao, Easy to approach professional photographer with many accomplishments
- Goutham Ramesh, Master in macros and a very good personal friend
- Amar Bhaskar, Friend and partner in everything I do
- Anand Sharan, Introduced me to possibilities in Photography
- Manoj C Sindagi, Made me understand colors and post-processing better
- Vinod Balan, brought in younger perspectives to Photography
I hope you like this beginning.
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