The Photographer Within
“Wow!” Lulu, my parrot, said looking at the black and white photograph on the screen of my laptop. “You have improved your photography skills”
“Thanks, Lulu” I opened another folder containing photographs which I had taken. “Coming from you it is means a lot.”
“Ha ha! That is the standard response to any compliment. Everything is templatized.” Lulu carefully looked at the various photographs in the folder. “Yes, you have improved your skills of photography, but there is a good scope for improvement.”
“Always, it is always there. Scope for improvement. Learning is an endless journey.”
“Good that you realized it.”
“I followed a few photographers who had posted black and white photographs on Twitter. Stunning photographs. I can watch some of them for hours.”
“One learns by observation. When did you begin taking photography seriously?”
“I was always interested in photography. I used to read LIFE magazine; it is more accurate to say that I was mesmerized by the photographs it carried. Later I had the same experience with National Geographic.”
“You have not answered my question …”
“Okay, okay. I began taking photography seriously only when ‘Aim and Shoot’ cameras hit the market. I remember taking a photograph with a 103-year-old woman.”
“Oh, really? Show me.”
“She belonged to an indentured worker’s family in Trinidad. I met her, spoke to her, and then clicked the photograph. But the mistake was that I packed my Sony camera – aim and shoot type – in my bag and it was stolen at Gatwick airport. With it went away my exclusive photograph of the 103 yrs old woman. A lesson was learnt the hard way. Now I always carry my camera on my person, I do not pack it.”
“Yes, and you must always carry your camera. Now with mobiles in everyone’s hands, everyone carries a camera. But very few use it well.”
“True. You have to be ready when the moment presents itself to be captured.”
“That reminds me of your street photography. What got you interested in it?”
“I was standing in a small traffic island; I intended to capture the lights of cars whizzing past. Suddenly a lady ran in to my frame. I clicked. Later I realized that it made a good ‘street photograph.’ The next day I saw a young lady standing at traffic lights waiting for them to turn green. I captured the moment.
“Ha ha!”
“You said ‘you have improved your skills of photography, but there is a good scope for improvement.’ Can you be more specific?”
“Most of your shots are still from eye level or chest level. Would you not like to consider different perspectives?”
“Oh yes! You are right.”
“You watch photographs taken by great photographers. Right? What makes their photos good? “
“Feelings. Story. Look at this photograph.
Ida Wyman, a great photographer, captures the feelings, in other photographs she captures the unique moments, particularly after USA won the World War II.”
“Do you see feelings and stories in your photographs?
“Yes sometimes. Occasionally. Not always.”
“Now you know the scope for improvement.”
“Yes. I thought I was doing well, but you brought me down with a thud! I think I should give up photography.”
“No. A good photographer wastes ten thousand photographs before he starts clicking good ones. Keep at it. The great photographer Henri Cartier-Bresson said, ‘Your first 10,000 photographs are your worst.’”
“Hmmm ….”
“Tell me, you have shot some bad photographs. Why? What went wrong?”
“I get excited when I see a great opportunity or a moment. Heart beats go up. It could be a group of people, landscape, a scene which has a story, anything like that excites me. In my excitement I miss a good angle, sometimes composition. I fumble. And sometimes lose the best moment.”
“Great artists remain aloof, detached, while performing. Lata Mangeshkar sang many songs expressing pain and misery, but she rendered it without crying. You must steady your mind and yet capture the emotions. That is not easy to learn, but not too difficult to practice.”
“Got it.”
“Dr. Shriram Lagoo, as an actor, perfected the technique of expressing feelings without getting emotional involvement. He mentioned it in his autobiography ‘Laman.’ Is that a lesson for you?”
“Yes, Lulu.”
“It is all in the mind. Awareness. It is about the photographer and not at all about the camera. This is true of every role you are performing, whether as a manager, doctor, parent or artist. If you are self-aware, half the battle is won. And yes, it is discovering yourself as you work. Do you get me?”
Lulu hopped on to my laptop. I clicked his photograph immediately.
Vivek S Patwardhan
“What you leave behind is not what is engraved in stone monuments, but what is woven into the lives of others.” / Read more Lulu blogs in my book ‘The Lulu Duologues’
Pic courtesy: Lulu – Greg Hill on Unsplash. All other photographs and this blog copyrighted.
Very nice photologue ! The photos displayed are super and tips on how to shoot a photo are worth copying. Thanks for the share and regards sir.
Your Lulu is getting smarter by the years. In fact, now he sounds like a professor of Marketing from one of the innumerable MBA schools that have mushroomed on 5 Acres of plots strewn across the country. He is trying to sound wise without having any experience himself.
He is looking for an acknowledgement of his knowledge, however shallow. Let him feel nice or he might simply screeeeeeech :))
Hello Dr Aquil,
I realise that you have not liked the blog. It will be nice if you tell us what is it that is not okay. It will help me introspect.
Thanks,
Vivek
Seeing the projection of identity in images and words. In the blog and in the comme ta to it.
Fascinating.
Reminds me of Antanio Damasio’s book ‘self comes tom Mind’. He writes ‘… primordial feelings are a special kind of image generated thanks to the obligate body-brain interaction…’
Seeing the projection of identity in images and words. In the blog and in the comments to it.
Fascinating.
Reminds me of Antanio Damasio’s book ‘self comes to Mind’. He writes ‘… primordial feelings are a special kind of image generated thanks to the obligate body-brain interaction…’
Hello Dr Aquil,
I realise that you have not liked the blog. It will be nice if you tell us what is it that is not okay. It will help me introspect.
Thanks,
Vivek
Vivek….That was a tongue-in-cheek response to a beautiful blog !!! I in fact liked the way you have projected how ppl keep expecting more from some ppl. And instead of appreciating what they have achieved, they point to the defect – just like what Lulu was doing to your b/W photos.
What made you think I did not like the blog? On the contrary, I have been reading and enjoying the conversations between Lulu and you and occasionally your Cat too. Has the Labrador also joined? This style of yours is quite effective in conveying a message. So carry on, my friend.
Research has suggested that self-compassion can work to soften the negative effects of self-criticism, resulting in a willingness to practice to improve. It is important for us to show self-compassion to help us manage the stress of performance and promote an optimal headspace.
Most of the times self compassion is misconstrued as leading to complacency.
Too much of self critiquing demoralises.
I takeaway something every time i read your blogs sir. Thank you for sharing so candidly.
“Great artists remain aloof, detached, while performing. Lata Mangeshkar sang many songs expressing pain and misery, but she rendered it without crying. You must steady your mind and yet capture the emotions. That is not easy to learn, but not too difficult to practice.”
Dear Vivek
Another article/blog full of learnings 🙏
This time, your brilliant experiences with Photography are the medium
The narration of the episodes make excellent reading 😀
Lullu is always in action mode 👌
As always, nothing casual about this casual chat 🙂 Instead, it is deep and thought-provoking!
“Expressing feelings without getting emotional involvement” – how does one begin to develop this? Looking forward to future blogs on this.