-Profile- Capturing Decisive Moments of Life : Raj Sarkar

-Profile-

Capturing Decisive Moments of Life

Raj Sarkar

Working as finance personnel in Airports Authority of India at Kolkata, Raj Sarkar is a photographer by passion. He enjoys travelling & loves documenting street life. His photographs have won several awards and have got place in several publications like National Geographic, Asian Photography Magazine, Smart Photography Magazine, Saveus Magazine (Wild life), Street Photography Magazine, Chalo lets go, Photo Burst, Photo Flock, World Street Photography, Wild bird trust, 121clicks.com, Nikon India, Pinterest etc. He has been short listed under top two hundred in Garuda world photo contest in two different categories as well.

Photography for Raj Sarkar is to capture decisive moments of life. The most important thing for Raj as a photographer is to respect his subjects and the ambience. According to him we are not going to get good photo every time we shoot. But we should try exploring things which are new and unique. Raj thinks that his camera is his constant companion wherever he goes. He believes, if we are in a habit of taking photograph everyday then it will become a reflex action and our mind will instruct when to click and what to click. He thinks that one has to be the true critic of his own photos. He prefers to review his own photographs repeatedly on a regular basis to develop photographic sense. Reading various photography magazines has become his habit in order to get updated with the new technology invented every day in the photographic field.

His favorite photographers are Raghu Rai, Henry Cartier Bresson, Sebastiao Salgado and Ansel Adams.

--Dr. Pankaj Sharma

 

Dashboard : "Emotional Bond"

-Dashboard-

“Emotional Bond”

This time I am before you with a photograph, titled “Emotional Bond”. I was on a trip to Munsiyari (Uttarakhand) a few years back. One pleasant morning, while travelling on the outskirts of this town, I saw this girl with her goats. She was carrying them for grazing-land. I came out of our car and started clicking her pictures. She asked me to wait for a while and took a small goat in her lap with innocence. This act of her appeared very spontaneous and heart touching and depicted true emotional bond between two living beings. I can never forget the way she took her goad in her lap, and of course for a photograph. Her love for the goat seemed teaching us the value of emotional attachment, not only for our fellow beings, but for innocent animals as well.

--Dr. Pankaj Sharma

-Youth Gallery- In Pursuit of Nature and Wildlife Photography: Arjun Haarith

-Youth Gallery-

In Pursuit of Nature and Wildlife Photography

Arjun Haarith

Born in the garden city of Bangalore on December 16th, 1989, Arjun Haarith has deep inclination towards nature since his childhood days.

He used to accompany his uncle Mr. H Satish (who is a famous wildlife photographer) during the initial days of his career. Mr. Satish used to take him for bird watching and nature trips, which helped him to become a Nature and Wildlife lover. Due to his uncle’s companionship, he understood many things about wildlife and Nature conservation. Whenever he used to see the beautiful wildlife images of his uncle, he dreamt of being a wildlife photographer. Mr. Satish’s passion and dedication for nature and wildlife inspired Arjun to become a Nature/Wildlife photographer.

Back in 2007, he started to take this hobby seriously which then became his favorite passion. Arjun has traveled to many places in India till date. Now travelling the places has become his serious hobby. His father, who is a person with varied interests and hobbies, always inspires him in his endeavors.

Nature and Wildlife are Arjun’s main interest in photography, but he likes to photograph people and street as well.

Of late, he is trying his hand in Astronomical photography, Night sky and Time lapse. The results in this field are equally good.

He has done his engineering in the Information science discipline, at SJBIT, Bangalore and is currently working as a Software Engineer in Adobe.

Arjun is a recipient of various acclaimed photographic awards and many of his photographs have been exhibited in different salons across the India. Some of his pictures have been published in WWF calendar, Better photography magazine, BNHS greeting cards and many other travel guides and books.

 --Dr. Pankaj Sharma

Dashboard : Galloping Rhino

-Dashboard-

Galloping Rhino

This time I am before you with a photograph titled, “Galloping Rhino”. I was on a trip to Dudhwa National Park of U.P (India) during the May of 2015. This park is situated in the Terai area spread near the Indo-Nepal border in the Lakhimpur Kheri District (U.P). This place has buffer of reserved forest areas on the northern and southern sides. Major attractions of Dudhwa National Park are the tigers, swamp deer, rhinoceros , sambar deer, barking deer, spotted deer, jackal, wild Boar etc. I had an elephant safari in the grassland of this park on one pleasant morning. There I spotted few Rhinos who were busy in grazing. I suddenly noticed a young Rhino who seemed over alert of our presence. As our elephant proceeded towards him, it started running from the spot where it was grazing. Rhino’s movement was quite thrilling. We stopped going ahead and began to click the interesting gallop.  A few frames were clicked at continuous shooting mode of camera. This is one of them. The speed of shutter was kept at high end in order to capture the fast move of Rhino. I used a Nikon D 90 Camera to take this picture. The lens was Nikon, 70-300 mm.

--Dr. Pankaj Sharma

-Obituary- Mohan Gidwani, An Outstanding Photographer Passes Away

-Obituary-

A Brilliant Photo-Artist, 
Mohan Gidwani, Passes Away

Mohan Gidwani, a nature photographer with unmatchable aesthetic sense, passed away recently in Delhi.  His demise is a big loss to the world of photography-art.

Born in 1959 in a family of century old confectioners of Delhi (India), “Chaina Ram Sindhi Confectioners”, Mohan Gidwani graduated from Delhi University and engaged in his family business.

In most of the cases a person has inclination towards arts since his/her childhood days. The same was with Mohan Gidwani. He possessed creative bend of mind since his childhood days. He used to observe the art works of the great masters in the magazines and during the art exhibitions thoroughly. The images clicked by them touched his soul and motivated him to step into the realm of art. Gradually photography became his obsession.  Mohan Gidwani was a nature lover and he preferred to capture the nature at its best. He took photography as a journey of the soul which accompanies an artist throughout his life. After so many years of his involvement in creative field, he found photography not as an art only but an integral part of his life. He used to say that this art-form was the uttermost medium of expression for him.

Mohan Gidwani  loved simplicity in the images, and thus he tried to keep his creations away from complexity. His nature shots take us into a fantastic world at first sight.

He had won more than 400 Awards and Certificates of Merit, and over 1400 acceptances in International and National photographic Salons.

The India International Photographic Council had honoured him with prestigious Associateship Honour and Diamond Grading. A good number of his photographs got published in reputed magazines and catalogues. 

He was a kind hearted person with helpful nature. He will always be remembered for his excellent photographs and gracious nature.

--Dr. Pankaj Sharma

"From the Archive" Dashboard : My Pride, My Flag

From the Archive.....

-Dashboard-

"My Pride, My Flag"

The National Flag has a very respectful position for the citizens of any country. They value it more than anything else. This time I am before you with a photograph, “My Pride, My Flag”. I clicked this image on the occasion of India’s 64^th Republic Day, 26^th January-2013. I was in my office premises and was waiting for the moment when Indian National Flag was to be hoisted. Suddenly I noticed one of my colleagues with Tri Colour flag in his hands. The way he was holding the flag, fascinated me deeply. There seemed a true sentiment of patriotism in his posture.  Furthermore his Khadi-Jacket added to the feel of   Indian Nationalism. I requested him to allow me for taking some photographs and he happily agreed. I clicked a few frames. As I aimed at a different picture, I concentrated on his hands and flag only while editing the image. In fact his fingers seemed speaking enough in comparison of his facial expressions. My fellow photo-artists also liked this composition and their positive feedback motivated me to share this image with you.

I used a Canon Powershot, A-580 compact camera to click this image.

--Dr. Pankaj Sharma

-Youth Gallery- Penchant for Graphical Forms Rhea Ghosh

-Youth Gallery-

Penchant for Graphical Forms 

Rhea Ghosh

Rhea Ghosh (Lucknow, India) is a student at the Lucknow College of Arts and Crafts. She has completed her graduation with B.F.A (in Applied Arts) and is currently pursuing her masters in Visualization. During her school days she never thought of getting her hands on the camera unless she was handed one during a photography class in her 2nd year of graduation; and since then she has been adamant on not giving up the fascinating work of photography. She has fallen in love with it and is practicing it now for the past 4 years. She has an ability to realize and capture compositions to show the world what the naked eye can sometimes miss to see. From doing fashion photography to capturing the beautiful world that nature has given to man, she has done it all till now. Photography for her is more than a medium for factual communication of ideas. It is a creative art, and she loves to collect art and immediacy of it! She likes the craft, the idea of saying "I'm a photographer." Despite having no family support for Photography it has still become her passion, she always carries a camera in her bag whenever she travels. She takes pictures wherever she goes, and some of them end up being really crazy ones! Her main interest is in capturing the graphical form seen in natural and man-made elements.

--Dr. Pankaj Sharma