First initiative of Documentary film

This is the first opportunity in recent times that I got is to make a documentary film on a very exclusive International Festival for Classical Guitar.

As I discussed how it was initiated, now I gonna tell you what and how it was done. A 7 days long war to get every nooks and corner covered for our documentary was the biggest challenge. We somehow endured the odd hours of after party, early morning ride for the venue, skipping lunch, eating sandwiches and fries for brunch, taking a power nap behind the stage while artist takes some time off from the sound check. That's not all, the preparation hours spent behind the computers reading articles about the artists and the festivals, preparing script for the festival documentary, studying the previous year footages for understanding the format and vibe of the festival. These were some of the glimpses of what we had done for those 1 month of December '12.

The days were gone zipped past by and we couldn't even do anything what we had planned for, because its a documentary shoot, not a film. Nothing will go by your script. I was not very surprised and pro-active from that perspective, because of my long experience of covering weddings.

Will update soon about the post-production and final release of the movie.

Great Expectation and Greater Opportunities

I think this wasn't something I was prepared for, i.e. becoming a Documentary Partner for an International Classical Guitar festival! Whoa! That is an amazing opportunity for me. Yes, I was offered an assignment of documenting the Calcutta International Classical Guitar Festival and Competition Denis Azabagic, 2012 and then something extraordinary happened while we were discussing the opportunity.

This happened because of my good friend Jayati Saha a Lawyer by profession and a photographer by passion. Her husband is the pioneer of Classical Guitar movement in Kolkata along with veteran guitar players.

Avik Saha, also a lawyer by profession, is an art connoisseur. He is passionate about music and generated a lot of stirring in the Kolkata music scene by forming a Classical Guitar Society and funding a Guitar festival of international standards with international artists first time in entire Asia.

His associations has always been with the people of his passion starting from film to politics and that paid him off well by establishing him at a podium of excellence, motivation and initiation.

I was delighted to meet him as he was a person with immense energy and astoundingly promising ideas which motivated me to take one the biggest step in my career of photography, making a documentary on the 2012 festival. Yes, even I couldn't believe my ears. I immediately accepted his open challenge of documenting the 7 days' of madness into a short documentary. His stance was, "If you could make a photo-documentary, then why not a documentary film?"

We talked for hours exchanging ideas and he was all ears to listen to every detail I presented there. After bagging the assignment I settled for a cup of coffee and immediately started working on the script.

Fingers crossed.

The Cape of Fear: The Death and life of Batman

A catastrophic setback prevailed for almost all superhero movies when I was a kid during late 80’s and 90’s, because every moviemaker hankered after a full-throttle action flick infected with nudity and metaphoric suspense. Futile and pathetic endeavours to make them technically superior and visually appealing to draw viewers while most of them lacked a good script. This deprived all of them of their soul. I was amazed when I first read the reviews of Spiderman by Sam Raimi casting the Man boy Toby Maguire, but never dared to go, because of only one reason; I never wanted to spoil my childhood memoire of Marvel/DC comics, the soul in it to be exact. By that time I had already seen the Batman, an animated series by WB on TV (DD Metro, India, Sunday 10 am show). A little different and darker take on things that Lee built and I used to like it a lot.

After a long and tiring break, I was at the first of its kind superhero movie preview, Batman Begins by Christopher Nolan. I had seen Nolan’s work by that time in few of his offbeat but chart-buster movies. One of them was Insomnia, my favourite. As I went through the experience of Batman Begins till it ended recently on The Dark Knight Rises, I found the movie to be an intense spiritual and dramatic depiction of a character than ever. No innate or acquired super-powers, no genetically deformed criminals, no ‘special-chemical-went-wrong-and-scientist-turned-into-monster’ kind of criminal, no typical love making scenes of the knight and his love-interests and inspector Gordon is not a goof-up, Alfred is a realistic character resembling Batman’s conscience, Bruce is not a scientist and Luscious Fox was provided with the responsibility of being a super-polished science geek. It was as it should be, close to reality. Loved by us, craved by and feared by us because we in one or the other character found our presence, our fears and saw how our own morals can get twisted in the movie. The citizens, Alfred, Luscious, Commissioner Gordon, Rachel, or the drop-dead frightened Gordon’s wife, cowardly police commissioner Foley; they are but us in some way or the other walk of life. None of them tried portraying any super-heroic act, and even the Batman, afraid, rolled back in a shell at times.

The franchise has a complete profile of a man beautifully developed by Stan Lee and Christopher Nolan. The man who was born in riches, orphaned by a mere street thug, had his guilt misplaced that caused damages to his friendship and eventually lost his childhood-love. He chose to become one of them whom he once feared. In a grim, depreciating toil of becoming a fear to the thugs and white-collar criminals, he became a fear to himself. He couldn’t help but choose the path of oblivion and deprivation every time the choices had been laid out to him. Isn’t that what we see around us. The Good vs. Evil and the sacred warriors around us, the daring dozens, they are all were thrown into the abyss of oblivion and anonymity for their good deeds to reform the society; toy soldiers, decorating the history of society.

The superhero is an altered ego of a normal human being, who can defeat the powerful and vengeful that the normal person dares not to look straight in the eye. The ego went really berserk during the second instalment of the Nolan-WB Batman franchise. The mind is boggled and tortured when we see our own evils questioning us about our own advices against the vices. The most psyched part is where all the laws of society are at stake and being questioned from some simple and unique point-of-view. We didn’t have answers till the time Batman arrived with a logical solution, and that was to become like him, avenge the evil, but not the man behind it, correct the society, instead of destroying it. That’s how he is different from the league of shadows. But that was mere a partial remedy and a bubble in the cause of justice.

The kid who was not a man till he learned to live with his fear and master his own mind to control it. The Caped crusader is a master of fear & dread; he is called Batman. The entire concept designed by Stan Lee 40 years back is to show the world that one can master their own fear and tame the evil not only foreign but one that is living inside them as well. It is not an outlandish idea, but an old wine in a new bottle. As Nolan’s series advances with time, it had become more complex looking, but actually a clearer message came out, how a man from the riches cared not a wee bit and drags his life out of everything he has to live in oblivion and fight for justice. Why oblivion, so that the message of anonymity is clearer to the public. Seeking justice is not a fame game. Why the mask, because justice doesn’t have a face, its faceless. Practically it can’t have one for that will endanger the face-bearer’s loved ones. The beginning in 2008 is just a prologue where the man finds his place in the society. His life’s cause was found by vanquishing his own evil of vendetta he was nurturing for the criminals since his parent’s death. For he learned that taking lives is terminal and there’s no coming back. He learnt the ways of a Judge as opposed to an executioner. But the knight’s stance was budged and image almost destroyed when a psychopath plundered the city with his horrifying plans and questions even the Batman’s capabilities and tricks him with some false choices of life and death. The entire plot thickens when it showed what the knight could do. Batman took a fall for what he didn’t do and sacrificed his image for the sake of justice as he believed, people need a name, a face to build their trust on and hold on to at the time of a sinister plague looming large on the city’s horizon. Harvey has a face that Batman can never have. However, this was also not entirely true.

After such a larger than life performances, the concluding part of this saga ends with a lot of criticism around the world; the critiques were vocal about the pace of the movie, action sequences and the prolonged entangled play of suspense. But one must understand the bigger picture; it’s not a standalone movie alone. The ending showed us what the Caped crusader was not capable of and that he is but human; a common man tortured by a dreadful past, reclusive from public appearances, disabled by dried cartilage in one knee, a weakling. The riches taken away from him, strength gone, cape was thrown away, the enemy who is stronger than him took the ‘face’ away from him Batman is now thrown back to his own prison of memories. The kid who lost his parents 30 years back was tested against all the rugs & walls of a dungeon and faced the same old dread that was lurking beneath the ocean of his haunting nightmares. The movie is not all about vengeance and swanky action sequences, its solely about what and who Bruce Wayne is and at the length, he himself along with the viewers found out that its not Mr. Wayne who is Batman, but Batman is sometimes Mr. Bruce Wayne, owner of Wayne enterprises. Down the line after years of fighting injustice and building his own fearful face for the foes, his image on other side of the mirror is effaced, the orphaned kid from Gotham’s riches lost his face; he is Faceless, he is The Justice. Protectors of Gotham seen the caped master of fear growing larger, taking over the enemies and their psyche curved along the fate of the city again, they all rise again to take over their city again. Batman is declared MIA, a statue built in his memory to honour his sacrifice and Bat-cave inherited by Robin (?).

Bruce Wayne is dead.

The reason we wedding photographers charge a "Wack" price

We visual artists don't believe in talking too much , and as far as photography is concerned I don't like to talk at all. But there are circumstances nowadays where some fraudulent tricksters are trying to create a misconception about wedding photojournalism (more popularly known by the name of Candid wedding photography) by cheating on customer with low quality and low-priced service. Also to compensate their paltry holes in quality they are delivering huge outlandish quantity of photos. It has created an impression that the art of photography can be easily acquired and the entire concept of photography is facing a quantitive demand rather than a qualitative one.

Please read on because I as an artist and professional has something to say to all of you out there.

Being a professional means being a self-employed businessman. Who is earning money by employing his knowledge and skills. Being a freelance professional photographer implies the same. It does not mean only clicking the shutter release button of the camera. I am a professional photographer which means I am an artist who had to invested an important part of his life-time learning the art and science of this trade. If I want to count my investment till date then it would outlined as below. 

• Cameras & lenses- Rs. 5 lacs+
• Lighting equipment- Rs. 2 lacs+
• Post-production units, (which includes a place for my work (costliest), computers, test prints, printers, storage devices, other electronic devices) - Rs. 6 lacs+
• The knowledge and Skills I acquired did not come for free. I had toiled over half a decade learning and nurturing them and I am still learning everyday. I spent around Rs. 14 lacs+  for my photography diplomas.

Even after spending that 'Wack' amount of money, I am still spending a huge amount every year (recurring expenses) which is around Rs. 1.5 lacs for

• Up-gradation of my equipment and maintenance of the old ones
• License renewal
• Rental renewal
• Website maintenance
• Advertisement and yellow page listing renewals
• Books/Magazine subscriptions for latest updates
• New facilities in and outside my studio.
• Up-gradation portfolios in form of coffee-table books.
• Car rental services (to reach my destinations and venues on time)

In case you come to me enquiring, I will give you a free services of

• Consultation before a project.

And if you eventually hire me, then

• Free delivery of your prints/CD/DVD/Coffee table books.
• Free services for contract document creation.
• Discounts if you are a referred or returning customer

Unlike any other professional/Serviceman, I DO NOT get :

• Sick leave
• No holidays for me, I even work on Durga puja, Christmas and other national holidays depriving my family of my presence during those celebrations.
• Medical insurance.
• Bonus for festivals.
• Appraisals and or bonus for good work.
• Benefits.

Photography is my passion and my livelihood, and it is also expensive. Yes, it seems like a lot of money for one day, but one day isn't all we spend on your photographs or on our business. Say for event or wedding photography, my charges may seem apparently high. But did you ever think that you will spend thousands or probably lacs of rupees on a wedding dress & jewelry, refreshment arrangements, venues or flowers which you are going to have for only one day, but your photographs will be the only thing you have to remind you of that one day for the rest of your lives. I am passionate about photography and that is why I took up photography as my profession. But this passion won't pay my bills right, for that I need money.

I'm extremely insulted when someone questions my fees, compares them with unparalled services or calls them absurd. I even endured comments like- 'I also take photos with those lights you use and I don't think you should charge so much, because at the end of the day its just click, click, click.' hope my detailed explanation sheds a little light on why we charge so much when take up an assignment for one day to capture your memories that are going to last forever.

A wedding at Northern Bengal

While preparing for our big gala wedding shoot at Siliguri, Northern West Bengal, I was really amazed to find out that how many families are there in Siliguri who can actually afford us. It broke my prejudice about the standard of living in those hills and plains of upper part of Bengal.

We were welcomed and treated well during our stay while had to work really hard to match the pace those guys were going, slow-mow. I never expected the wedding rituals to be so delayed and especially when we all have a time constraint. The venue, decor and organisers, everything and everyone was eager to see our setup. 3 still photographer and 2 motion photographers along with Jimmy-Jib crane and plasma online preview stole the entire show. Even the B&G were looking at the camera on Crane while the Varmala was going on.

The photos are coming as I editing them. Here's a link to our ACF's flickr gallery where you can see a preview. All the photos will probably not be uploaded as always and you will only be able to see the best of the lot.

Follow this link: http://www.flickr.com/photos/acfstudioz/sets/72157629794836368/

Keep on checking the for updates.

Cheers.

Lens Labyrinth: Buying a multipurpose telephoto lens

These days I am struggling to decide on very important investment, buying a lens. After a detailed analysis, I decided to buy a telephoto lens to use it for various purposes. The contenders are

• Nikkor AF-S 85mm f/1.8D
• Tamron SP 90mm f/2.8 Di Macro
• A used Nikkor AF-S 80-200mm f/2.8D (this lens is one touch)

The dilemma is basically to choose a lens which is good quality glass and serves more than 1 purpose. Read reviews about all the lenses and tested two of them. Now I would start from end of the list.

Nikkor 80-200 is a very good glass from Nikon with a special feature that was became popular in late 80's, push&pull or one-touch technology. Nikon adapted it for many lenses and this is one of the most successful ones. I tested this with the lens which I was going to buy. The feel of the lens itself is very good as I always like the ergonomics in designs of Nikon products. However, the only problem is a little slower autofocus than its successor 70-200. However the good thing is IF and the lightweight body. Its needless to say that this lens doesn't have any VR (Vibration reduction, which I think is sometimes helpful on the streets while I shoot in low light). I rejected the lens for following reasons

1. The lens has slow autofocus and it has to be faster if you are shooting wedding or such events where the subject isn't in your control.
2. It has a little problem of sharpness at rear end of the focal length.
3. Last but not the least, the expert's opinion on the one-touch technology. It is only good when new, but after a while the barrel gets jammed up and shifting focal length will be the worst problem.

Then come the duo of Nikkor 85 f/1.8 and Tamron 90 f/2.8 macro. I was almost determined to buy the Nikkor as that has a focal length of perfect portraiture lens (in most reviews the 85mm focal length is specified for portrait photography) and a very wide maximum aperture of f/1.8. One added reason for me was its a 'D' type lens and I have an inhibition that 'D' type lenses are always good. Now the Tamron one is a macro lens for starter and I have been given recommendation for this 90mm SP Di macro by atleast 3 of my nature photographer friends. According to them the lens is worth more than its price and I have been bowled over having been seen the quality of the photos. Sharp images, no ghosting as I also tested the lens, bokeh is good (don't know if Nikkor 85 has better ones, as I din't test that) and the macro option is pretty good. Autofocusing is good, even in low light. At maximum aperture, the lens performs at its best with no delays in autofocus, sharp images, nice bokeh and almost no chromatic aberration when I included the light source and over exposed them. But yes in some cases it produced flares/hotspots of magenta-green for hard light source. After that I can include what I had read in the reviews. Most of the reviewers are real life photographers sighted the the difference in the nature and purpose of these two lenses. As both the lenses are good in their own domain, but most of them said that Tamron in this case has an edge over Nikkor because of 3 reasons (as found in most reviews)

1. Tamron has better bokeh
2. The lens is sharper than Nikkor at widest apertures and produce better colour.
3. Tamron is a macro lens which can be used as a normal telephoto lens as well.

However the two factors for which Nikkor has an edge are the 

• Nikon-Nikkor compatibility
• wider maximum aperture which allows atleast 2 stops of more light and in low light photography 2 stops is a big deal. 
• Also 5mm of difference in focal length is not a deciding factor but at times can be tricky. You can crop, but you can't increase the picture area. But according to me it can be ignored as I mostly shoot with 50mm, hence have a habit of moving forward and back while composing my photo.

So here's the deal, I go for Nikkor and don't look back again as its compatibility is maximum with my Nikon. Also for me one added thing apart from the reviews is 'D' type lens. But if I buy Tamron, then I get better bokeh, sharper photos at widest aperture and almost same speed of autofocus along with an added macro advantage (which is the actual USP of the lens over Nikkor, but not for me).

Hence I decided to go for a third party glass after a long time and test my fate again for this lens. Oh! One more thing is the price. Tamron is Rs. 18,000/- off the street and Nikkor is Rs. 20,500/- with warranty.

P.S. I will post some photos as soon as I get hold of the lens and field test it.

Feedback: An in-depth study by one of my esteemed clientele

One of my clientele was very happy after he appointed me to capture his bother's wedding. Before I delivered him anything he was pleased by what he saw in my website and the way I approached them.

After the delivery was done and he expressed his gratitude, he also promised me to send a feedback to me. It reached me today, so here it is exactly what he wrote to me.

Hi Mr. Arijit,

 

First thing first......my apologies for being late! Got very tied up and hence the delay!

 

I hope u will take the criticisms (if there would be any) in the same spirit in which u r going to take the positives.

 

Coming to the photos, the clarity was awesome and if I put that aspect in my mother's words she said that the photos were so clear that she felt like she was watching it live rather than on the screen.

 

Now, one particular photo of the lot that stood out for me was that of a little girl running down in the middle of the hall. Most of the people liked it in the first instance and so was I. It was very lively and worthy of being framed on the wall. The downside was that that it didnt have any competitors, it was the only photo in this category.

 

There is one thing that is puzzling me a bit is the quantum of photos of food dishes. I mean, like most of other photos, these photos were not able to stop my fingers from clicking on 'next' and we were through those photos in couple of seconds itself (I didnt want to use the word 'quantum', but if I dont write what I felt, it would be unfair to you).

 

While going through all the photos clicked by you and others, there is one thing I observed and learnt is that we humans have tendency to find joy in the photos of humans more. It contain emotions and more than that it contains moments which we witness ourselves but when we see those in the photos, we really feel like being absent in that moment. So to fulfil this human tendency, I guess a marriage album (or for that matter any other album) should contain human reactions/emotions more than anything else. It might help in striking a balance in the album. In other words (in case what i said above limits your creative freedom), when you are clicking photos of something static, you need to be double confident of its quality than of the situations when you are clicking photos of humans. This is very subjective thing, so please correct me if you feel like if i am wrong anywhere in my observation.

 

 

Well, thats it. I have written everything what I felt honestly and dont know whether I was able to put it in right words. And one last thing, the above feedback is written with the intention of helping you in your future ventures/assignments and thats why I went a bit in depth. All in all we were happy from our decision of hiring you for our marriage.

 

Thanks,

Sourav

 

P.S: I didnt make any comparison since you yourself knows where you stand.

After I read this I was overwhelmed by his genuine and sincere effort. Hence I immediately wrote a response to him. Here it goes.

Dear Mr. Modi,

I am overwhelmed by your feedback and I am very happy to see that you took your valuable time to go in-depth for analyzing each and every photo and wrote such a detailed feedback.

I would say two things to you in regards to your feedback. Firstly I am very happy to hear the good things and who won't be. Second but very importantly, the criticism (however, the entire good and bad both are called criticism but not the bad only regarded like that) you did is better. As I feel that listening to the nice words only is bad for any artist's progress. Being judgmental is applying your subjection and that is what creates a difference between two persons. It is very unrealistic and improper to say that whatever you will see on my album will be liked by you. Hence I would appreciate and be honoured if in future also you can take some time off and send me more feedback/criticism about my work.

I can also say that I was honoured by your hospitality and friendliness . I would definitely post some parts of this email on my website.

Artist's Word

I am an artiste because I am vocal but not vocal because I am an artiste. Most of the people who know me, especially my friends, they label me as 'very vocal'. I have learned through the experiences of my life that being vocal and speaking one's mind is not an easy task for many. It takes a lot of courage to speak your mind, espeially when you know that you will in trun be reprimanded. Some have a vague idea that being vocal is one the signs of an artiste. "If you are an artiste, then be vocal first, if not anything else." so speaks the clan of artistes with dog tag hanging around their necks venting (read puking)- "Go 'F' yourself if you don't understand me". Its like wearing a bra and then realising that you also need 'bosoms' to fit in those. Hence 'lets go for a sex change'.

The point is, every artist, or I should rephrase and say that if someone is truely an artiste, then that person should be himself first in nothing else, because he wants to express himself without thinking that what some other artiste would have done if he/she was in this situation and then copy that person. He is an artiste because he is vocal and express without any other's influence. Being vocal is not the issue but being someone what you are not is, and that's what I see people doing and they often mistake me as one of them.

I detest some of my fellow colleagues who name/tag me as expressionist. Expression through art is not expressionism, its a lost art in itself. It is if I may refer, a subjective representation without physical reality. On the other hand my approach involves 100% physical reality and most of the time is journalistic one. I am brought up in a family of professionals of different trade as well as artiste of different genres. My education was a motley of realism and aesthetics through out my childhood. I was always given the liberty of choosing every little thing in my life. I was never pampared with luxury (Oh! who are fooling, we couldn't afford any), always shown the balance of love and life, made to shoulder responsibilities when needed, made to deal with exigency. And according to me this what is realism. I strived to find the right place for myself in the social skeleton for almost 3 years. After 5 frustrating and suffocating attempts at different odd jobs I finally saw that creating something I always loved that is what I always wanted to do. I don't take photos to win a competition or supersede someone's work. I work with my own flow. Life had taught me to adjust the sails according to the directions of the wind however I never forgot to sail for the unknown at times, and I think this is aesthetics.

I am an individual who is vocal and to show what he sees, he became a photographer. Why photography? Now that is another story.

Biye-Shaadi: The wedding extravagenza

The word Biye, Shaadi or Vivah itself represent a smell of extravaganza to any Indian. The never-ending 'big-indian-wedding' as mentioned by one of my friends from San Francisco. The colour, luster, lavishness in its each layer portray flavour. The rich and ripe faces around makes your heart jump in joy. Whoever or wherever it is, it has to be lavish or it isn't an Indian wedding, period.

Last year started shooting wedding around November and it is continuing till date and will do so till this month's end. I have successfully finished shooting 5 weddings and 1 reception and delivered to two of the clientele who appreciated my work. This gives me immense pleasure and at times more than receiving a cheque from the client. I think a combination of 'atta-boy' and a cheque will always drive a photographer like me to go some extra mile for stretching the smile on client's face.

I have shot with some different approach which I planned for very long time. I think I succeeded as the effect is very different and the reception is more than good. I feel the pulse now and so does my clientele.

To view some of my work check out the Facebook fan page or visit the exclusive Wedding website . You can also go to the Flickr Link to view different weddings I had successfully accomplished.