It has been long since I have posted something on my blog. Well, I have been busy, and have become quite a wanderlust if you ask me. I moved to Stockholm (Sweden) this January (one of the perks of working in IT sector), and will be here a few more months. Ever since I have arrived, there’s a new side of me that has surfaced quite recently. I tend to enjoy little things more than before, maybe because I have limited time and so much to do! I once heard a saying that if we think that this day is our last day, then we will enjoy the little things in life more than we normally do. And I believe the same is happening to me. Stockholm is a beautiful city, with all its amazing people, beautiful lakes, far villages at outskirts, the well-connected transport, wonderful places to see and a lot of interesting places which must be visited. So, I have been wondering that how I’ve got this new weird urge to travel around the world (well, some parts of Europe will do for now). I don’t call myself a professional, but I have a passion for photography. And although I may or may not want to show my clicks to anyone, I just love taking amazing shots. There’s a beauty in taking photos with camera and a few key points like the effort, the timing, the angle, the lighting, the distance, the post processing and so on. But the most important component of taking a shot starts a few moments before you look though the viewfinder.
The most common phrase that I hear from people who like my clicks is “Your pics are too good, you must have a good DSLR.” But then what about the ones I click using my phone’s camera? Let me tell you a secret. Before I lift my camera to click a shot, there’s a moment that I pass through – a very short-lived moment that I call ‘The Vision’. It is in this very moment when I know how the photo is going to look like before even lifting the camera up for action. I will divide this moment further into three phases. The first phase is what I call the ‘opportunity phase’ where I search for a good opportunity to capture a shot. I have a DSLR and a pair of high storage memory cards doesn’t mean I go on capturing just anything or everything. So, I search for an opportunity that may be suitable for taking a shot. For example, the birds flying across the lake, the colourful buildings standing together, the beautiful architectural marvel, the reflection of city lights in water, etc. This phase provides you a reason to start with! The next phase is what I call the ‘story phase’. In my case, I don’t click photos unless I find a meaning to attach to it. Maybe because later I would want to write about it, but anyhow that’s how it goes with me. In this phase, I look at the opportunity created, take a moment and start building a meaningful story around it. It’s not like a regular story but just assigning meaning to the subject in the frame. It can also be an emotion or a feeling, like love, relief, peacefulness, timelessness, freedom, regret, etc. The third phase is the ‘evaluation phase’ which must be familiar with most of you. This is the phase where I evaluate the technical parameters of basic photography like exposure parameters (ISO, shutter speed, aperture), alignment parameters (angle, framing, cropping), focus parameters (identification of subject and background, manual or auto), and additional parameters (metering mode, storage format – RAW or JPEG, viewfinder or LCD). All these three phases together take an average 4 seconds and ‘click’, there you go!
You might be thinking that I might be processing too much in so less time, but that’s not true. In the beginning, it takes like 10 – 15 seconds to take a shot. After I have done it like hundreds of times, it becomes a habit. I don’t have to think at all, it becomes a reflex. The only part where I make the real effort is, as I said, before I look though the viewfinder. The journey starts from the mind and ends at the click of a button.
Everything that I do with passion helps me understand myself even better. I have been involved in photography for few years now, but it is just recently that I understood what really happens at the backstage before the final action. And when I become aware of the things that I experience, it just makes the whole experience more beautiful.
My Mind's Journal 