Lost Hope!
Woke up at 6am today , without any alarm, to catch the sunday morning Madiwala market action. It was hell I tell you. The place is a mess with stuff rotting nn the roads, people gathering around you and almost every shopkeeper wants a pic of his shop to be taken.
Spent an hour without a single decent shot and I was getting back to my car which was parked 200m away from the main market. Just close to my car were a bunch of people sitting on the side with empty carts. Apparently the stock that they were suppose to get this morning never turned up. Without the sunday stock , no sales and hence no income for the next couple of days.
And right there was this women.. sitting on the side walk with an empty cart. Her story is written all over her face. She knows the stock will not turn up and it was too late even if it did. No income today and for the next couple of days. But she was just sitting there.. with Hope!
Very good one
Lovely portrait!!!
Try more of such and you will become a foto journalist 🙂
I am very very impressed and so is Tarique.
How do u go about taking a picture like this in such a situation?
Do u stand at different places and wait for the right shot on your screen?
Do you ask for permission for taking the shot?
Or do u catch them unawares?
How many minutes did u take from location of subject uptil finishing the shot?
Interesting questions
To be honest I really dont know.
Most of my photography is taken when I switch on the camera and start clicking at things around me. I know this is not a very good way of doing things, but my time constraings force me to do this. Real photographers wait for even hours/days just to get the right shot. and yes they have something in their mind and they go out there to get it. Most of what I take is things I see around me ( expect for today where I went there just to take pics )
I do not ask permission. One of the things I noticed today was, when people realise I am taking pics, they start smiling, adjusting their hair etc. Which kinda takes away everything. Most of the time I take pics where people are not aware that I am doing it. IN the pic above the lady knew i was taking her pic, but she still had that same long face and did not budge.
In terms of spending time.. I adjust few things and take a shot. usually takes less then 10 sec. Good photographer spend hours just to get the right lighting, color/white balance etc. I dont have any equipment yet and once I do have it, I am looking forward to that.
I still need to explore my camera too. The above shot looks pretty dull in color. I still am not able to get the white balance right on most of the pics.
Re: Very good one
When I first saw the pic, I thought it was from a news site or something similar. Captures the effect really well.
Re: Interesting questions
did the lady deserve a couple of hundred nux? alleviate her long face, also for being a model, its almost impossible to capture things as you see it, especially people, they start getting self aware, and not be themselves, i once went to vidyarthi bhavan, thought this place deserved some attention, all the waiters just spoilt the show by posing right in front of the restaurant,
brilliant pic….
i used to stay neae the madiwala market…
actually used to take that rad to cut into hosur road when it was one way
now i feel homesick 🙁
Re: Interesting questions
>Real photographers wait for even hours/days
Wrong real photographers take LOTS of pictures 🙂
>I still am not able to get the white balance right on most of the pics.
The key is to play with “levels” rather than “brightness and contrast” also try taking in camera B/W
Neat!
Her story is written all over her face
Great deal of observation and unlimited generalization. Thats what I can do reading your post!
Your pic reveals – The woman doesn’t fancy “fence sitting” in her real life. Brilliant to say the least!
And there I was wondering how Jim Morrison appeared on my friends page!
Nice pic, btw 😉
hey very nice pic…i see some kind of suspicion in eyes…does anybody see it too??
Re: Interesting questions
heh. I know I would have made her day by paying her money, but that would be a mess. I mean everyone around there would come and pounce on me. I’ve had this bad experience many times on MG road. You feel bad and give few bucks to one of the beggers there and thats it.. every begger on MG road falls on you and does not even let you move. Ofcourse in this case she is different and could have really used some bux
yep.
Thats coz she was wondering why the heck I was taking her pic. 🙂
Re: Interesting questions
> Wrong real photographers take LOTS of pictures 🙂
very true, one out of tens of pics will be their best. In fact, while taking the photo they wouldn’t even know which would be their best.
If you are interested in nature photography, try out some early morning photography, just when the sun has come out and there is mist around. Especially near a lake. Check out.
http://community.webshots.com/photo/97362339/98949114mZnIJd
http://community.webshots.com/photo/97362339/98949204VyCjai
Haha I seriously see only suspicion..She must be saying
“Oh god now people want to photograph my suffering”
or
“Who is this cartoon prancing about this market”
:-))…
hehe I personally think its the second reason 😉
Re: Interesting questions
I do not ask permission.
Actually, isn’t it illegal to click people’s pics without their permission? IIRC, there’s some law about it. Journalists should know.
Then again, people hire detectives to photograph their spouses’ personal time 🙂
Re: Interesting questions
I disagree.
I do not think permission needs to be taken before. If the person does not want his pic to be taken, then I will respect that. I mean if I take a pic on MG road with some 100x people, do I have to take each of their permissions ?
Re: Interesting questions
I think there’ll be some laws about this. For the 100x people, I think they’re in a “public place”, dressed in the kind of attire, and implicitly making themselves available for being viewed (and picturised) by people. But, for example, if you enter a public urinal and take pics of people urinating, with their faces showing, it’ll be bad. I’m sure the laws related to this, like all laws, will be complicated. You’re probably right.
Re: Interesting questions
Nat geo says the hit ratio of their most successful photgraphers is about 1%…so u can imagine….these photo journalists click lots of photographs at every possible angle….and even the best of them agree that they dont know which of their photgraphs will come out the best…
Fabulous!
This one shot must make it worth all the waiting and jostling. Great job! If you have the tiff, get it uploaded to shutterfly.com and get a good sized print of it and frame it.
Thaths
ya want the untrimmed version of the jim morrison pic ?
it is one of my all time favourites. and it has this eerie feel to it.
Re: Interesting questions
One of the things I noticed today was, when people realise I am taking pics, they start smiling, adjusting their hair etc. Which kinda takes away everything.
One technique to avoid this people either turning into stones or acting a role for the camera is to spend some time with the subject. Take 20 or so shots over some 5 minutes. Let the subject relax into their natural rythm and then… snap! You have a candid picture.
Thaths
Re: Interesting questions
isn’t it illegal to click people’s pics without their permission?
If you are going to be using the photo for personal, non-commercial use, then it is legal. If you are a professional photgrapher working in a developed country you are supposed to get the subject to sign a ‘model release form’. Magazines and stock photo places won’t accept submissions without the model release form being signed.
In reality, the standards are variable. If the subject is a subzi-wali in Bangalore who will probably never read a National Geographic in her life is less of a risk than a celebrity in New York.
Thaths
Thanks, can you please mail it across ?
Btw, I was refering to Kalyan’s pic when I said “nice” 😉
Re: Fabulous!
Unfortunately I havent started shotting in the raw mode yet. I need a high Speed CF card with loads of space for that. With the current card, It takes 50 seconds to store the image on the card and at max I can take 10 pics before I run out of space ( I have 128mb + 32mb cards and each tiff is about 14mb and nikon raw mode pic is about 16mb).
thanks for the compliment.. lets see how things do.. I have something planned in few weeks..
Re: Interesting questions
Does the ‘model release form’ apply everywhere ?
I mean if I see kamal hassan walk past me @ brista and if I take a pic of him, and lets say I send it to TOI and they decide to print it in the local paper the next day, does that become illigal ?
Do any of these laws apply in India ?
Re: Interesting questions
I wonder. Journalists should know.
yes yes sir. i got that much.
will mail
Re: Fabulous!
incidentally,
about taking people’s pictures, a court in texas awarded a stripped 5 million, as somebody taped her performance in the club and posted it on the web.
Re: Interesting questions
hey these subjects are not your banks, padma laxmi or some brazilian bikini model, they are probably getting their picutre snapped for the first or the second time, hey try this, mix some 100 proof alcohol, something like moonshine in tender coconut water and give it to them, as a token for modeling, guess then you’ll find your subject all sober, you might even be able to capture one of those GODS or wife beters in action. let me know we could make this a project on some weekend,
Re: Interesting questions
only if you caught KH in a compromising position, heard about celebrities uncensored or the paris hilton video?
or….
who’s this guy who’s so much in love with me
…wonder whether he’l give me his phone number…
g,d&r
u have a gift …
I should say u have a gift man., this one is just brilliant, out of the TIME mag stuff!! the eye contact & the details are outstanding …
why dont u collect such snaps & make a theme out of it ?
Im sure u must be having more realisitic pics.
keep the creative work flowing…
Re: Interesting questions
I mean if I see kamal hassan walk past me @ brista and if I take a pic of him, and lets say I send it to TOI and they decide to print it in the local paper the next day, does that become illigal?
As I mentioned, it is a slippery slope. Most journalists take such photos of celebrities. Obviously the celebrities don’t sign a model release form (at least, I haven’t seen one sign it) for such ‘appearances in public’ photos.
Model Release Form samples can be found here and here
Do any of these laws apply in India ?
Do any laws apply in India?
Thaths
Re: Interesting questions
lets not get to the paris hilton video’s. It was self made and it was purely a publicity stunt
noticed the guy that sells the put-on plastic moustache+goggles are trinity circle…?
SHE ATLEAST HAS A CART,THOUGH EMPTY.AND THE BIGGEST STRENGTH “HOPE”,WHICH MOST OF US WITH CARS LACK.
Re: Interesting questions
Click away, Kalyan! Sombeody posted a convincing reply on this issue over here. (The third comment)
hope?
I see despair and suspicion, rather than hope. Good photo! Now stop playing with your camera 😉
Re: hope?
if she didnt have hope,she wouldnt be sitting there!
I feel good
The shine is so bright, I am totally blind!