Capturing the Soul of Subject : Mukesh Srivastava

-Profile-

Capturing the Soul of Subject

Mukesh Srivastava

An Indian Photographer, Mukesh Srivastava has made a successful foray into the digital arena. With the dawn of digital photography, Mukesh embarked a new journey (a little less than a decade back) and this journey has seen him winning acclaim and accolade all through the globe.

His quintessential expression is the capture of beautiful characteristics of light. He takes light as “soul" of the subject.

Mukesh values the inner eye of an artist honestly. He states, “This is the inner eye of an artist that creates stunning images.  This is inborn in each individual but a few have extraordinary one. Those with unusual inner eye prove them as fine creators.”

Hailing from the colourful city, Ajmer of Rajasthan, he has a keen eye on the land and people of the state. His love for the city of sand dunes, camels and caravan has reaped in many honours and achievements.

Mukesh is a qualified Engineer with M. Tech. in Electronics Engineering from Indian Institute of Sciences. An Ex-Director (E), Govt. of India is currently Tech. Advisor to Monet Ispat and Energy Ltd. He resides with his family in the “Coal City” of Dhanbad, Jharkhand. He gives maximum credit to his wife Ritu Srivastava for his growth in the field of Photography. He says "She is my luck".

His works have been awarded by Kodak, National Geography and Save Water-Australia. He has been awarded with 14 medals in FIAP recognised International Salons with over 250 acceptances.

He has authored the book "Digital Photography- An Ultimate Field Guide for Photographers". This is first book on Digital Photography by an Indian Author.
He believes that his journey of creativity has just begun and that photography is like wine… it matures with age.

--Dr. Pankaj Sharma

-Learning- "Photographing Silhouettes"

-Learning-
Photographing Silhouettes

A silhouette is an image with a darker subject against the light or bright background. Silhouettes have been very popular among the art lovers since long. If clicked properly, Silhouettes attract the viewers very intensively. A silhouette can portray a whole story. With a few points in mind we can photograph such images exclusivity.

1. Strong Subject: Our subject should be powerful. If we aim at a weak subject, our image will not leave impact on viewers’ mind. We should try to choose the subject with interesting shapes and curves. When our subjects are human beings, we have to aim at shooting their profiles in order to capture their feelings and expressions.

2. Story Telling Value: The image should convey some story. A flat image with no message will not be appreciated. 

3. Concentration on Limited Subjects: We have to avoid so many subjects in our image. A mix of various subjects often destroys the image. On the other hand aiming at limited subjects strengthens the photograph. 

4. Proper Light and Situation: The best situation to photograph a silhouette is that of early morning or late evening when the sun/bright sky is behind the subject. Furthermore, shooting the silhouette against the sky with miraculous formations of cloud results into amazing images. While shooting indoor we can place the subject against a door, a window or an arch which is allowing the bright light coming inside from the back. Here a window or an arch works as a good frame.

5. Exposure: Correct exposure plays very important role. We should give exposure according to the brighter background and not according to the subject. This will darken the subject dramatically turning the picture into fantastic piece of art.

6. Focusing: Since a silhouette is the presentation of a subject in unique way, we have to focus the main subject prominently. Not only this, the background also plays important role. In order to get well focused background we have to set the aperture at small size. i.e., at f 22, f 16, f 11 etc.

7. Aesthetic Presentation: A flat silhouette photograph has no meaning. We should always aim at the image that has the potency to attract one at first sight. Here our aesthetic sense works a lot. Some have this sense as a gift of God, while some others develop it with their constant efforts in the field of art and by seeing masterpieces of other artists. An aesthetically perfect image is that which gives a feel of pleasure and peace at first sight.

(Images Courtesy: Mr. Rajeev Kashyap, Mr. Abhijit Dharmadhikari, Mr. Bherulal M Kanoja, Mr. Atul Choubey and Mr. Devendra Sharma)

--Dr. Pankaj Sharma

 

-Youth Gallery- Photographing With Passion : Saurabh Chaphekar

-Youth Gallery-

Photographing With Passion

Saurabh Chaphekar 

Born on 26 September 1988, Mr. Saurabh Chaphekar is a talented lens man. He resides in Thane (Maharashtra, India). Saurabh fell in love with photography when he observed the creative photographs of his city’s photo-artists in different exhibitions. He decided to try his hand in art-photography. He soon started attending the workshops of renowned photo artists. This was not enough for him. He assisted a few senior photographers of his city in order to polish his skills. The output was quite satisfactory. He gradually got mastery over the essential basics.

Presently he is sincerely involved in his obsession. When asked about his mentors, he says, “I can never forget the valuable guidance and help of Mr. Satvinder Bhamra and Mr. Angelo D’Silva. They have motivated me in such a manner that I find myself able of doing a little in my field. Furthermore I am thankful to the members of Foto Circle Society, Thane for their continuous support.”

Saurabh has a number of awards and recognition to his credit. He loves to shoot places, people and events.  He aims at preparing the images that depict the subjects in their true feel.  Apart from photography he is fond of reading good books and visiting different places.

--Dr. Pankaj Sharma

 

--Profile-- A Fine Photo-Artist: Upendra Upadhyay

--Profile--

A Fine Photo-Artist 
Upendra Upadhyay

Born in November, 1968 in Bastar (India), Upendra Upadhyay possesses his own style of expression. His photographs are unique in their content material, composition and overall presentation. They, at first sight, resemble the creations of a fine painter. This quality of Mr. Upendra sets him apart from his contemporary ones. He loves capturing whatever his soul says. He believes that an artist’s efforts become significant when his creations converse with the viewers. “If my photographs are capable of making a knock at viewers’ heart for a moment, it is the ultimate satisfaction for me”, states Mr. Upendra. Presently he resides in Indore.

Many of his photographs have been awarded in the contests at national and international levels. The Federation Internationale de l’ Art Photographique, France has honoured him with prestigious AFIAP (Artiste Federation Internationale de l’ Art Photographique) and The Federation of Indian Photography Kolkata, India has honoured him with its Fellowship (FFIP).

He has to his credit more than 10 exhibitions at different places of India.

Mr. Upendra believes that art is a continuous process that goes on throughout the life. He never wants to look back and feels satisfied in proceeding ahead with his companion, i.e., camera.

--Dr. Pankaj Sharma

-Dashboard- "Pretty Friends"

-Dashboard-

"Pretty Friends"

This time I’m before you with a photograph, “Pretty Friends”. I was on a trip to Lohaghat, (Uttarakhand) with my few close friends during the end of 2012. We had stayed in KMVN Guest House. On one fine morning, while my friends were getting ready for an outing, I started strolling in the campus of resort. Suddenly I noticed two small girls in the lawn of Guest House. They were chatting by sitting on a wall. Their posture, colorful dresses and tailed woolen caps, all together fascinated me and provided an opportunity for a candid image. I thought of an unusual picture and preferred photographing them from backside. I chose a longer focal length with a slight big opening of aperture in order to get blurred background. A few images were clicked. Here is one of them.  

This image is special for me because this seems narrating a story without having a look on the facial expressions of small girls.

I used a Nikon, D 90 Camera with a Tamron, 70-300 mm lens. The aperture was set at 5.6 and the shutter speed was 1/250 Sec. ISO was fixed at 200.

My View: Sometimes, selection of unusual view point results into memorable images. We normally click portraits either from front or from a side. We should try to choose some different viewpoints. We will surely get a few good images.

--Dr. Pankaj Sharma

-Profile- Enthusiast for Pictorial Photography : Venkateswarlu Kola

-Profile-

Enthusiast for Pictorial Photography

Venkateswarlu Kola

Mr. Venkateswarlu Kola (Kodad, Andhra Pradesh-India) was born on 7th march, 1965. While he was studying, he started photography as a profession. He was lucky enough as he got the valuable guidance of famous photo artist, Mr. Achari at the early stage of his career (1982). Under his able guidance he started with black and white medium. He used to handle the whole process of this form of art himself. Within a short phase of time he got mastery over the basics of photography art, and now his friends started calling him 'Bommala Venkanna'. In fact this name was given to him as a token of love and regard. This honour means a lot to Mr. Venkateswarlu because this comprises precious love and regard of his well wishers. Afterward he developed his interest into 'pictorial photography'. This inclination was the result of several photography workshops at different places of India that he had attended. Soon he started submitting his art works in reputed photography contests. The results were quite positive. He got several awards and laurels. He is among a few of India who have got the Associateship of India International Photography Council (AIIPC) and the Associateship of Federation of Indian Photography (AFIP). The key part of his creative works is his command over light and composition. The magical use of light in combination with perfect composition in his images attracts the art lovers at first sight and that too very deeply. This quality makes him different from others.

--Dr. Pankaj Sharma

-Dashboard- White Crab Spider (Thomisus Spectabilis)

-Dashboard-

White Crab Spider (Thomisus Spectabilis)

The White Crab Spider, also known as flower spider, is a wonderful creation of nature. This Spider has almost semi transparent head and legs. Body is white with small black spots on the outside corners of body. Some crab spiders can be yellow in colour. It is very quick and when approached, it runs away immediately. The fat legs and typical form of body give it the appearance of a crab. This spider lives among the plants and on flowers. Its food is small insects and butterflies. White spider captures its prey with strong front legs. The size of female spider is normally around 10 mm and that of male is around 6 mm. The male spider is often reddish brown in colour. The bite of this spider creates pain and swelling in human beings.

I noticed the pair of this spider in the garden of my office. This pair was dwelling on a pretty flower. The bight cloudy weather provided ideal light for a click. I had a Canon Powershot A 580 camera with me at that time. Due to the small size of these spiders it was wise to set the camera at Macro Mode. I clicked 3-4 shots and this is one of them.

The ISO of camera was set at 80 and the exposure was approximately f-5.6 - 1/30 sec.

(Personal experience: The macro mode of compact and prosumer digital cameras is generally of great help while clicking tiny objects.)

--Dr. Pankaj Sharma