Is It Really Hard To See Someone Learning?

Written by Anurag Bhateja on October 12, 2009 – 7:45 am -

I know this is quite controversial thing to comment on nature of anyone out there so I am not going to take the names of people whom I want to do critic on ;). I am following the theory of play safe here :D. What happened is, I was coming back from Panchkula to Chandigarh with Naveen and we chatted on some issues which we were watching from last many months.

First let me tell you something about Naveen. Naveen Choudhary, a very intelligent human being who can get logic out of anything. I, sometimes feel that I am lucky to have friends like him around who can not only say good about you on your face but can also critic you when it is needed.

Okay, lets get back to point. We were discussing on the nature of people which change a lot with time. The talk started with Gurdaas Maan Night which is going to take place in Chandigarh soon went to Shekhar Suman and some other actors of the industry. Till then the outcome came to be something very depressive that old gems like Gurdaas Maan are very down to earth and simple but the new generation of actors is arrogant and bit irritating.

Somehow the talk was turned to photographers (Well this is common between me and Naveen so its obvious). We discussed over the unwanted attitude of photographers of in, around the city and from different parts of the country. As all say, there are black sheep in every field but I think photography is a field, where there are more of them. I remember once I was told that in old times if you go to a photographer and want to learn, then you have to be his/her “mundu” or you can say slave for the time till s/he lets you touch his/her camera. Time has changed now after the revolution of digital photography but the attitude of these photographers remains the same. They do not want you to learn but will make you stand there watching them like dummies for long and long and long.They will neither allow you to spend time on your equipment, nor encourage you to go for contests.

Naveen told me about two very famous photographers of India and explained the difference between their nature. He told that one of his colleagues got a chance to spend time and do assignments with both the photographers and found that both are equally good in photography but the difference between their nature is tremendous. The first photographer was arrogant. Why I am saying that? Actually what happened was, one day they went to shoot the assignment where the junior photographer saw a very good composition and immediately got his camera out to click but that “Amazing photographer” stopped him in a way that the composition is not good at all. After few moments he was clicking the same composition found by the junior.

On the other hand, the junior photographer got a chance to meet one other photographer and do assignment with him. On the way, they found one baby donkey in a amazing composition and the senior photographer started clicking it. Keeping the last incident in mind, the junior didn’t get the camera out and when the senior photographer turned, he scolded him and said “Ab khinch le! Bhagne ki wait kar raha hai kya? dubara nai milega yeh saari zindagi fir baith ke royega” which means “Click it now or you are waiting him to run? This composition will not be there in future and whole life you will cry for not clicking it”.

Now see the difference between the first and the second one. This is what I am talking about. No doubt due to digital revolution, the photographers are not paid as they were for their work but I do not understand why don’t they think of the phrase “Every photograph is sell-able no matter it goes for $1 or $100″.

I feel it is better to spend some money and go to a good institute to learn. At least they tell you how to use the equipment and let you try it out. I spend a lot of time juggling here and there to learn. Checked Internet. Got information from friends, but when I did the self assignment and joined CFC, the real me came out which can be seen in my photostream on flickr.

I know I am not that good enough to say that I am a professionally sound photographer but I know I am on the right path of becoming at least a good enough photographer. It will take time and too much of learning but I feel its easy to learn yourself then to go somewhere and learn. Sometimes the person in front of you showoff a lot but from inside s/he is nothing but a piece of junk who can not help you in going ahead. Even in our group there are people who said a lot about their stuff and work but they just vanished with time as the real colors come in front of other members. After coming for 1-2 meetings they are now nowhere! Friends like Vijay Singh Bainsla, Ravi, Sandeep, Kshitiz, Nachiketa are good in their clicks and the best part is they share the information with free mind. How can anyone in the group forget that Vijay, despite of being so busy, spent time with us teaching the very basic of photography like the combination of shutter speed and aperture. Ravi who not only shared his hidden collections with us but also shared the information on how to shoot in lack of equipment. Sandeep who has good hand on portraits never say I can teach but make you teach out of nowhere and Kshitiz whose compositions are always encouraging one and Nachiketa who is a master of bird and animal spotting.

On the other hand Members like Varun, Mohd. Safdar, Naveen, Ashwani, Anurag, Cheena, Deenu, Gautam, Nipun are always there to help and learn in every situation. No matter its about photography or not they will come forward and show that they are in your life. I admire the commitment of all of them towards photography and love the way the behave when we are together. Though none of us claim that we are professional photographers and can click better than others but we all have our own forte. If anyone find anything while clicking in group, we do not feel like not telling to others. Sometimes, we say it so loudly that the subject runs away :P excitement!! hehe.

Life is good with these friends and learning is better with them. We all look on Internet, play with camera, share information on tutorials, share links, kick each other for parties and play with photographs but we all know how important is “give respect and take respect”. No matter Anurag Malhotra is elder to me, he will come and ask me to teach. No matter Cheena is younger to me, if I find the composition good I will ask him how he clicked.

Is this attitude missing in those “so called” professional photographers or God gives only one thing to them i.e. either skill to click or being down to earth? Why can’t they remember that only a tree with fruits will bend. When I search for the answer I find “Who the hell am I to think?” Leave them alone with their small hallucination of being “the best” and enjoy clicking with your friends and mentors. Learning and teaching is part of this field and only s/he can flourish who can respect the feelings of other person. If you kick someone in front of others, s/he will kick back for sure one day or the other.

Go ahead, click but please be down to earth. Happy clicking.




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Posted in My Life My Thoughts | 7 Comments »

Photoshop – Difference in Canvas Size and Image Size

Written by Anurag Bhateja on September 25, 2009 – 3:04 pm -

While using photoshop, you often use image size tool which can be found under menu “Image” >> “Image Size” or by pressing ctrl+alt+i on keyboard. Image size basically has handful of options which will make you decide for what purpose you are going to use the particular image for. The following screenshot is of the option.

image-size

If you check it carefully, you will find the following options. I am describing in short, what they do and what they can be used for.
1. Pixel Dimension: The options can be calculated in Pixels and Percent.
a. Width: This will decide the width of the image.
b. Height: This will decide the height of the image.
2. Document Size: The options can be calculated in percent, inches, cm, mm, points and picas. e.g. If you need an image which can get fit into A4 size of paper then you need to check document size.
a. Width: This is the width of the document.
b. Height: This is the height of the document.
c. Resolution: This is calculated in pixel/inch or pixel/cm that means option 1 / option 2. For web, 72 dpi (dots per inch) are used, for print normally the value goes equal to/above 180 dpi.
3. If you see a square bracket with a symbol of chain on the right side of height and width, that means the option of constrain proportion is on.

These three options are used by almost every photographer, web designer or any techie who needs to work on his/her images.

Another option i.e. of canvas size, can be found in “Image” >>”Canvas Size” or by pressing ctrl+alt+c on keyboard. Canvas size is basically used for increasing or decreasing the height/width of the open file, without interrupting the size of the image in it. e.g. is I need to add a border around my photograph, I will just change the main layer which is locked and named as background to a layer by double clicking on it. Then I will click on new layer button or by pressing ctrl+shift+n on keyboard. No by keeping the new layer below the layer 0, I will increase height nd width in canvas size option by desired number say 100 px. Now I will fill it with the color or color gradient which I want in background. If you check my photostream in flickr, you will find border around my newly uploaded photos. The border is created with the help of canvas size option.

Now have a look on the following screenshot.

canvas-size

The following options are used as follows:
1. Width: This is the width of the canvas. If you increase this, you will find blank space on both the vertical sides.
2. Height: This is the height of the canvas. If you increase this, you will find blank space on both the horizontal sides.
3. Anchors: These are click-able arrows, which can decide which side is going to be affected. If you press the upper button, the image on the canvas will go up and the bottom of the canvas will get increased by the number you have entered say 100 px. The same will take effect with other anchor buttons. If the middle button is active both horizontal/vertical sides will get affected.

Hope this will help you in differentiating the options. Soon I will post a small tutorial on adding different kind of borders around the image using canvas size option. :)

Take care :)




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Posted in Tutorials | 6 Comments »

The Thirty Buggy Day – Day 1

Written by Anurag Bhateja on September 25, 2009 – 12:48 pm -

day1 What can I say, delighted, happy, proud of walking so much ;) hehe. Anyway, let me describe the whole experience. i woke up at 7:00 AM as I was aware of the fact that going early to click bugs will result in ZERO output as there will not be enough light. I reached at Fragrance Garden sector 36 Chandigarh at around 8:15 AM and got my camera out set it according to the light conditions. I remember days when I mess myself a lot to get the proper setting for manual mode but as per now, practice has give me 10% confidence on my light calculations. Rest 90% will come as I go further with more and more self assignments after these 30 days.

When I entered the garden, I saw SO many people there which made me a little conscious but as I moved further looking for my subject, I almost forgot about the presence of “humans” there hehe. The first group of bugs which I came across were super sensitive. I am saying this because if I even move a single step they all fly together and then suddenly hide in the bushes so perfectly that I was not able to see them. After banging my head finding these little champs, I gave up and moved forward.

As I kept on moving on the side trail of the park, I came across one garden lizard, few ants, some common bugs and lot of people looking curiously on my work. As I am not going to be on the same place tomorrow, I didn’t even bother to look at them ;).

When I reached to the end of the park, I was empty handed with very little shots. A bit disappointed at tired like anything, I decided to come back. While on back trail, I found the delight which included dragonflies, butterflies, jewel beetle, wasp ( missed the shot). Happy and delighted, I came back home after completing the first day of my assignment. The day was a lesson for me as I thought these bugs are becoming a bit friendly to me but they flew very quickly.

Hoping for the best for the second day, I am closing the post :)

In photograph:
A: Jewel Beetle (Ref No: TTBD1A)
B: Spider (Ref No: TTBD1B)
C: Garden Lizard (The bug eater) (Ref No: TTBD1C)
D: Butterfly (Ref No: TTBD1D)
E: Dragon Fly (Ref No: TTBD1E)
F: Unknown :( (Ref No: TTBD1F)




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Posted in Photography Assignments | 6 Comments »

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