The Sense of Calmness

During one of my recent photo shoots in Hyderabad, I come across a situation where there was a conflict between, what I perceived and what I shot. Let me tell you the whole thing in detail.

It was in the evening of pale orangish yellow light, I was in the famous Mecca Masjid, had a sight of the group of Muslim woman, almost all of them wearing black Burkhas(veiled costume).., and the space is surrounded by a ” VERY BIG HUGE” granite wall of the mosque at one side, and a small bright green door to the wall, they settled on the greyish blue black floor forming a circle and talking each other….in fact the whole scene was very beautiful against the greyish surroundings and looks very calm. Undoubtedly I like the feel of imparting calmness to my images…. As usual I could not resist capturing such a beautiful visual experience…..

I shot them once, twice, thrice….and tried many times….but was not getting what exactly I felt through my visual senses…..in these recent days I have not encountered such a situation of not getting an image of what I felt through my senses…..it was really a challenging  job to transform exactly, the visual experience in to an image….indeed I enjoy this process always…..Ok, now what I wanted in my image is the sense of calmness in the wide open space, and within that, the group of women, and of course at the same time I do not want to sacrifice the green colored door and the pale orange light falling on the wall…..I want all these to be fitted in to a harmonious composition, while avoiding the other disturbing pictorial elements…I felt it was like a puzzle to be solved.

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After about a dozen of sequential exposures, trying different possible compositions in vertical horizontal, moved myself back and forth(because I use fixed focal lense), eventually I have landed where I desired to be(to please my visual senses).

This is what I got finally…. really I like the air in this image………

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Upon the little analysis of the object that is being shoot here, I understand that, handling the empty pictorial space, while achieving the harmony and balance in an image is challenging….and I enjoyed a lot shooting the “sense of calmness”………

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2010
02/01
By
Srinivas Bobbili
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Colorful Kite Festival

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Few days before the festival of Makar Sankranthi I had a photo shoot visiting to one of the popular kite selling markets around Charminar in Hyderbad. Kite flying is an inevitable part of the Sankranthi festival in many regions of India. Here in Hyderabad, it is mainly the younger generation take part in making and selling of the kites. They setup some temporary shops along the road side during the festive season.

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During this season, the market is crowded and attractive with the colorful kites and string bundles displayed in the stalls. Every seller, tries to attract kite buyers by keeping the most stunning and beautiful collection of their kites in the display all  along the street.

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Many of the kite sellers were  disappointed by their sale this year. Rainy weather in Hyderabad during the festive days, and the political disturbances in entire Andhra Pradesh has eventually hampered the sale of Kites.

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2010
01/25
By
Srinivas Bobbili
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Child Exploitation In India

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For an Indian, it is not very strange to see children in India working or begging, I see them everywhere, working in hotels, industries, auto garages, construction sites…..not limited to one but there are everywhere…

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Probably this is the only country in the world where a child start up the career at the age of 2-3 yrs begging in streets, and a child of  4-5 yrs old selling hankies in the crowded markets.

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The reasons are many for this problem. Poverty, illiteracy, population, politicians, etc., But however may be the reasons, it is eventually the result of the failed political and democratic systems in India, where, we Indians have only the corrupt politicians, and we are obliged to elect one of them. And the results are vulnerable like this for example.

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2010
01/16
By
Srinivas Bobbili
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Experiencing Beauty In Nature

Undoubtedly, Nature  is a beautiful work of art. After all, what the we as visual artists doing? Nothing, but perceiving its beauty and representing it.

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I remember the days when I sat before a tree and trying to draw it on the paper, as I see it. The process of making a representation using a marker(pencil or pen) on a paper, usually the artist observe more about, how the formation of  its trunk, branches, leaves etc.  And then the artist, being very much aware of the pictorial space(a rectangular paper),  he will try to position the tree within that two dimensional pictorial space, in order to get the feel of what exactly he has seen before his eyes. In simple terms, he tries to convey what he perceive visually.

Personally, during my initial days of learning the art of  drawing, I failed many times reproducing what I have seen. I said I was failed, why because when I see my finished drawing, I am not experiencing the same kind of visual pleasures when I see the nature. Questions arise, is it because my drafting ability is poor? No, drawing need not to be a leaf to leaf sketch, even with a few rough sketchy lines, masters like rembrandt have created beautiful landscape drawings like the one below.

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Then where the things going wrong? After many days of practice and pictorial analysis, one of the reasons I realized that, most of us forget the subjective importance of the surroundings of what we see, and its relationship with the subject, and as well the pictorial space that we are going to represent in.

Let us dig a little deep in to it.

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If we observe, the  three images above, the last image from the top, appears to be complete and better looking,  isn’t it?  Yes, the reason might be that there is a careful consideration of the subject(line of trees), surroundings(horizon, foreground) and its relation with the pictorial space(format of the image). All these factors makes the image third image looks good. (and there could be many more possible compositions of this subject that might look beautiful than the third one-Beauty is Comparitive).

The harmonious integration of all the pictorial elements makes an image in to an aesthetic work of art.

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2010
01/13
By
Srinivas Bobbili
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Woman Wearing The Ear Ring

I always fascinated with the play of Light. Enjoying the beauty of light has become  an integral part my visual experience. I believe that the higher degree of visual sensitivities always gives the way to the creative process. The more the observation the more sensible we become, the more sensible we become the more we feel to express it. In simple terms, man could well expresses only when s/he felt it right. Observation is necessary to really feel about  what we see.

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The play of light in the above image is very interesting. I see the same light coming through the door everyday in my home. It is tremendously beautiful. Many times I felt capturing its beauty as it is.

The other day, wearing dark lavender colored dress, my wife standing near to that window, and I felt this would be the right moment to capture it. Thanks to my wife helped me depicting the beauty of the light passing through the door.

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In this image, the three dimensionality of the space been depicted nicely.  The linear elements of the door penetrating in to picture, the dark line made by the blue curtain emphasizing the vertical space, and the plant at the corner and the soft shadow on the wall re-emphasizing the three dimensionality of the space, creating air within the pictorial space of the image.

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2010
01/10
By
Srinivas Bobbili
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