In a world where every job, art and service continues to fragment into smaller, niche and more specialised sector, being a generalist has become a rarity! I have chosen to buck this trend, because by heart I am a generalist and I do not see any reason to limit myself! Why should I, if I don’t have to?!
When I have my camera with me everything can be a subject! It has happened many times that I just went out for the sake of adventure, with a camera in hand, without any agenda, trusting universe, and has come back home with some very interesting stories and shots! quite earthly!
The hunger of capturing the moment and altering its elements based on my aesthetic views occasionally, comes from my love for nature and travel, and curiosity (mixed with sympathy) towards people’s face expression in streets.
That is probably why my main interest is landscape and nature photography. When I am out with my camera I enjoy to see and capture the harmony that exists in nature.
I see portrait and model photography as a way to interact with people and create art together, I see it as a way to connect to people outside of formalities of daily life. Naturally I enjoy portrait photography outside in nature with my subject interacting with his/her surrounding. I am looking for something in my portraits that conveys emotions to the viewers.
Another interest that is growing more and more in me is street photography. The candid photo of people without them interacting to camera preserves the natural face expression. I have always wondered and tried to guess what people are thinking by observing their moves and their looks and eye contacts and body language. When there is no nature around, or it is a somber rainy day, why not hitting a shopping center?
Elliot Erwitt put it the best way: “To me, photography is an art of observation. It’s about finding something interesting in an ordinary place… I’ve found it has little to do with the things you see and everything to do with the way you see them.”
In addition to above, I do wedding photography, event and festival photography now and then. I like filmography too and have few private on-going projects, but the bottleneck is time when it comes to video. Specially editing is very (time, processor, knowledge) demanding, but I cannot say no to any challenge!
The equipment:
As a generalist photographer it is not realistic to own all types of photographing equipment; a good portrait lens can cost $2000 easily, and for wild life photography premium lens can easily cost $10000 (That is probably one reason the photographers become more and more specialized in specific fields). And that is just the lens! However I believe that you can still capture extra ordinary photos in not very extreme situations (which makes up maybe 75-85% of situations). Even a good modern mobile camera can take good photos in certain situations. It is just to understand the limits of each tool and adjust your expectations!
Another limit of having lot of equipment is related to security and transportability, both important for traveller photographers. In the picture below, taken in slums of Mumbai our tour guide asked us not to take any photo to cause any problem. Taking out a big camera was not a right decision.
To be continued…
