In search of Portrait

When people were willing but stun; Sun bright but was a relief.

I started 8:00 AM from Bur Dubai Abra station, Dubai, with the walk of an hour planned. It was bright and a pleasant morning (28 degree Celsius). I intended to make head-shots and wanted to make them up-close, and no monotone this time. I had Canon 5D Mark II with EF 24-105mm F4 L IS USM on it; mounted Canon Video-Cam HF21 on the hot shoe, left Flash in the bag :(.

Photographing a common person up-close makes them stressed, stiff and stun; their smile painful and eyes wide open. Emotionally dumb and awestruck. A picture where only thing is a person's head, then that head must be shot well. I find it useful for untrained models to make them squint and look kinda up-to something. Bright Sun was blessing then. I didn't have to ask anyone to pose, Sun made if for me through out the walk. When it did not I struggle to make a good shot.

This walk was fun when most were ready with a nudge of camera, few posed without asking seeing Canon in my hands, a couple said weak no but with very little persuasion smiled for camera. I missed flash and a fellow photographer though...

All images were shot in AV mode, f/4 - f5.6, exposure compensation of 0 or +-1/3. ISO 100-200.

Pathan or Khan Sab as commonly addressed, favorite model of every photographer.

Mohammad Ali, this Abra driver makes a good model, always smiling and squinted. What would you do with the pictures you take?

Initially he resisted but agreed for a shot (burst :) )

Aaah, and the stiff one... stood like a soldier and left me wondering!

Ever ready for camera!

And again stiff one... depth and experience on the face made the pic for me...

Wide open and awe-struck

Happy to see you - very much ready and posed without asking

Jubilant one, was scaling the fish; when see the camera on his face shouted aaaaaawwwwwwww....

Could not convince him for face, shot his head from other angle

Surprised by the size of his hands

I have included few from the walk. Walk video:  http://youtu.be/1rbWThw_HMw

Enjoy... and happy shooting!

Photowalk Dubai, Why?

Photowalk Dubai... WHY? 

It has been more than a decade since I bought my first point and shoot digicam; full charged battery would last for 40-50 images, 1.6 mega pixels camera was point… wait… wait… wait… and then shoot. I pointed, waited, shot my first 10,000 worst pictures (still shooting bad though) for more than five years.

Switched to DSLR - remarkable Canon 20D, it was entirely different shooting machine. Fast, responsive, faster auto focus, high ISO, greater dynamic range, bright images, so forth and so on. I produced set of far worst 10,000 images next two years; images from point and shoot felt better in comparison to Canon 20D. Left me wondering and frustrated.

However, passion kept driving me insane, madness lead me to spend every fils saved replacing 20D; Canon 5DMkII was my new love, poured more money to buy lenses, lights and accessories. I updated my workflow as well; started shooting RAW and processing in Photoshop. In the course I tried and failed to learn from literature; watching training videos were not cool for my nature as well.

Early last year, March 2012, I joined EPyC, Emirates Photography Club on the meetup.com website. Attended 25+ meets, five photowalks and 20+ talks; however, felt something was missing.

I felt being morphed into the camera on Auto mode, continuously analyzing light, thinking what ISO would be best, f number, aperture setting, flash output would be, sometimes pressing my finger on imaginative shutter button; hence, frustrated, don’t know where to point and what to bring in and out of frame!

Later in 2012 I joined Photowalk Dubai (PWD) a new group on Facebook, formed by: Subodh Shetty and Anjum (OldFashioned AJ), Marian Pengyan Han joined recently. Creative, inspirational, dedicated, cool, awesome, appreciative are few layers of their composition. Without a doubt they are people to fall in love with immediately. 

Anjum (Old Fashioned AJ)

Since joining PWD, my images started to look lot less worst; to fellow members at least. Their feedback and thumb-up has molded confidence into my attire. My camera stopped humming and started singing heavy metal, PWD provoked and drove my passion to its limits. Last two months my cameras produced 15K exposures; hundreds of gigabytes are consumed on storage media. I am sweating, bleeding, sleeping, dreaming and living photography; my heart thumps and sounds like camera shutter.

It took me years to understand that camera is merely a tool; a disposable camera or a fancy DSLR wouldn’t make a snapshot or ‘the photograph’ neither does a technically perfect exposure. I know now, what’s the difference between ‘the photograph’ and snapshot. Composition and Emotion! Composition you learn with the time and emotion inside the photograph is purely luck. I consider myself lucky enough, finding emotions outside every image I share. PWD members are not miser at all when it comes to providing warm wishes, appreciation and loving response.

A smile of success (Subodh with Nikon D800)

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