Dashboard : "On The Way To Munsiyari"

"Dashboard"

On The Way to Munsiyari

Friends,

This time I am before you with a photograph, “On the Way to Munsiyari”. I was on a trip to Munsiyari (Uttarakhand, India) during the winters of 2011. This is a scenic place of North India. We can enjoy the amazing sight of magnificent Panchchuli Peaks from here. This was an evening when I passed through a small village. I watched a lady with a small girl at one side of the road. They were with a few containers, most likely for bringing water. A heavy vehicle, a moment ago, had passed speedily from the place. As a result, the dust rose in atmosphere. The sun light passing through the dust and falling on a particular portion of the land created magic. Furthermore, the greenery around the place and the house in background added charm to the scene. I used a Nikon D-90 camera with 18-105 mm lens to capture this moment. The aperture was 5.6 and the shutter speed was 1/200 sec. ISO was set at 200.

--Dr. Pankaj Sharma

My View : Camera Verses Vision

“My View”

Camera Verses Vision

Friends,

Creativity is the inborn quality of human beings. Man has given birth to various visual arts due to his innovative taste. To express the inner thoughts in artistic way, there is always a need of some tools or medium. A painter gives shape to his thoughts through different colours, brush and canvas. A sculptor carves a piece of stone through some instruments. Likewise a photo-artist needs a camera and other equipments to make a picture. A few art lovers (particularly beginners) think that a tool (camera) is the assurance of getting excellent pictures. They are right to an extent. Here we will have to consider two aspects, the technical and the aesthetical. No doubt, a high end camera is essential for a technically perfect image. So far the aesthetical aspect is concerned; this is the vision of an artist which results into an artistically perfect photograph. At this point the example of a writer is worth mentioning. A good pen is off course a requirement to record the thoughts of a writer; however this is the vision of that author which results into a good composition. The same is with the art of photography. We can never ignore the importance of a good camera in order to get finest images but vision is always higher than any equipment. Swedish painter and photographer, O. G. Rejlander has rightly said, “It is the mind of the artist, and not the nature of his materials, which makes his production a work of art.”

--Dr. Pankaj Sharma