Photography and Me... (Part 1)

"Photography (derived from the Greek phot- for "light" and -graphos for "drawing") is the art, science, and practice of creating durable images by recording light or other electronic radiation, either chemically by means of a light-sensitive material such as photographic film, or electronically by means of an image sensor."

This is what I got when I did a search for  photography. Reading it took me back to the '3 Idiots' dialogue where Aamir Khan define books and I felt 'wow this is how you define photography'. Photography always fascinated me. Even when I had the camera of Yashica(don't remember the model)  with the film and not great clarity if the object was more than 20-30 feet away and also no zoom. Even so I loved to take photos but had to control myself from taking random shots because the roll would get over and get wasted and I would get an earful from mom. This camera accompanied on various trips and helped us capture moments forever. We used it during weddings, gettogethers, vacation trips to Goa Darjeeling, Gangtok, Mahabaleshwar etc. I always wanted to take snaps with it but was not allowed to in the beginning, but then after a lot of pestering and being grumpy and using other ways to get it I got the chance to take pictures.

Since it was a point and shoot camera and no way of knowing whether the focus is proper or not, some photos that I took had been shaken and hence waste. But later I got the hang of it and loved every moment with it. Weird part is I always had a smile when I was behind the camera and not in front. During our trip to the North East I was the cameraman and took pictures during the various outings. This was probably the last time this camera was being used. No..wait..the last time this camera was used was when my brother had been to the North East. During the last few days of the camera I started taking decent pics and gave it a nice goodbye and put it somewhere in the cupboard where it probably still rests in peace even today. I had got a Kodak camera of my own as birthday gift but never used it as I was attached to this one...Yashica.

I got my 1st hands on a digital camera during a friend's wedding where I was experimenting a lot with the camera of another friend Sudhu. He had a Canon S3IS if I am correct. I loved the fact that I could take as many photos and choose the best one and not worry about the roll and with that not worry about mom breathing down my neck for wasting precious film. Another thing I loved about that camera was that it had a screen which could be swiveled to any angle and so enabling me to take decent photos which had a tight angle. My  mind was set and all I had to do now is to buy that digital camera. But I had no money so i went to my brother and told him, "Bhai, lets buy a new camera the one that Sudhu has." He said," Mom and dad se baat karna padega". And so we started the journey to convince mom and dad to get a new camera. Somehow we managed to convince them and set out to buy that camera.

I called up Sudhu and asked him regarding the camera and what all I should look for if I did not get that camera. He guided us and then we started to research cameras online. We could not find Canon S3IS as manufacturing of that camera had stopped. But found an upgrade to that Canon S5IS. I liked it and my brother liked it and we together made mom and dad like it. The camera was costing somewhere around Rs. 24,000/- Budget ke bahut bahar. Luckily we found a website online where the camera was available around Rs. 16,000/- which was still way off our budget but we were convincing our parents by saying stuff like, "It is a brilliant camera for a very very good price and lets not let go this opportunity'" and " We won't have to worry about the film roll since it is digital"and " When will we buy another camera? Not in the near future and if we buy this now we won't have to buy a new one for years to come." etc etc.. and we pounced on that offer. And hence we placed an order for CanonS5IS.

Have some more to write but if I do this blog will become long and unreadable. Will come back with Part 2 in some time.

For the time being,
Over and out.


PS: The conversations that transpired may not have happened in the same way or in the ease with which i wrote it.