Modesty is not stupidity

Here's the deal: If you are a wannabe Software Engineer/Photographer/Would be groom/Know-it-all, then you should get your own camera and shoot your own wedding instead of wasting any artist's time. Because probably you may have a lot of time for no use, but an artist is working 24/7. Yes, its true, we work even when we are sleeping. We are dreaming and pipelining projects.

In case you are wondering, this suggestion is for free and I am not charging any consultation fee, so you can read on.

Many times it happens so, that you need a photographer for a specific reason, probably for as petty a reason (for you) as requirement of a "good" social media profile photo (This is know as portrait shoot for personal collection). Hence you scan the best of your preys, the world wide web. Scan your social media profiles for those godforsaken would be lady charmers/photographers you once added to your list of contacts and then contact with them.

Next stage is bargaining like you wanted to buy some 'নিষিদ্ধ জিনিস' (forbidden things, read pornography) from Chandni Chawk market. After a much ado, both of you agree on many terms which has a bottom line that the work will be done free of cost. So, the deal is done, you go and get shot, obviously by camera but to others it looks like it is done by a gun. Then after a repetitive begging and pampering the 'photographer' you get some photographs of a guy looks somewhat like you. You are satisfied or rather made yourself think so, because you din't pay the guy. Oh, WOW! That is great news. More of your enthusiastic friends follow.

Then comes a serious affair, a wedding in the family, probably of your own or someone else's. Because of your 'interest' in this form of art (Oh, really! is it at all art for you? Do you think so?), you have been burdened with the responsibility of finding a 'good' photographer. But to your utter surprise, none of your previous acquaintances working this time. Either they are not interested in your 'project' or they simply don't do 'The under-rated job of Wedding Photography'.

So now another round of scanning the local yellow pages, online classifieds and obviously your best friend, The Social Media (Drum Roll).

You make a list of all those poor creatures you are going to slaughter with your insulting bargaining techniques and even more insulting obtrusive questions. Then started the elimination worse than Nazis' work on Jews. The round starts,

-Do you use full-frame cameras? Ding, 1 point

-Do you use prime lenses or zoom lenses? Ding Ding, 2 points.

-So tell me how do you colour correct your files? Ding Ding Ding, 3 points.

-How long have you been in this 'line' (oh! sorry, did you mean profession?). Aaaannhhhh!!!

-No raw files! Are you kidding me? How am I gonna process my own photos and post them on ******** (certain social media website)? Ding Ding Ding Ding Ding Ding Ding Ding Ding Ding, You won!!!! (Drum Roll)

Then comes the most insulting part. Oh! Mr. So-n-So, you are charging way too much. I know that. Please reduce some 15k from the fees. And you say with such notions that it sounds to me like, "What are you going to do, only click click click with your camera and then click click click with your computer. Then, Voila! My photos are ready for upload in ********"

The Answers I generally provide my clientele is a smile with polite 'No'. I try to be as modest as possible. Even at times I reduce my price to accommodate my clients. However, the problem starts when you start taking advantage of my modesty and take it as my stupidity. So if you are unable to hear it then, hear it now, No, Nine, Nada, Nehi, Na. Probably in as many as 100 other languages I can say that I will not give you any discounts. If you have a small budget, then please mention that in detail but don't expect me to provide you with a Lamborghini in a price of an Ambassador. Either you pay for what you want or you will end up getting what you are paying for. Not easy enough to understand? Read it again.

This sarcastic note is directed for all of you, who treat artists like some vendors at your local market selling tomatoes or potatoes. Don't disrespect the work of an artist and never bargain with them. If you bargain with them on their fees, then you are placing them on a weighing machine weighing hay or paddy. Art can not be priced, it can be contained. For its possession the possessor has to be equally responsible, literate and passionate. For example you may not understand cubism as an art and hence would wonder why would someone pay 1 billion Dollars to possess an original Picasso painting. But the person doing so has studied different forms of art and he probably likes it most. He is passionate enough to spend his riches on it.

So if you like my or any other artist's work, I would first request you to do a very nominal research on that particular form of art that artist is pursuing and then go about meeting the artist personally to discuss the opportunity of engaging him for your event/occasion. Give freedom to the artist and he will do wonders for you. However, if you start treating him like you wanted to buy some grocery of a particular kind, then from that point of time you shut your emotions and feelings for his efforts and endeavours which he refined by years of skilful study and practice. You ignore his judgement and capability and place yourself at a higher ground as soon as you ask him to provide all the photographs, raw. You insult his skill of practicing art when you ask him about how he does it. Ever went to a 5 star hotel? Try asking the chef how he cooked that steak or Mutton curry.

Again, too hard to digest? Then have some digestive tonic and read again.

Take care.

A destination wedding

After a lot of hard work we finished a long awaited assignment. A destination wedding in 3 star resort in Jaipur. It was a big deal this year for me, as a full fledged wedding movie is going to be made for this and I had been working on pre-wedding shoots and other music recording for this wedding since July this year.

The plan was to shoot the wedding with HDSLRs rigged with shoulder rig and nano-jib/panther jib crane. Create a title sequence and end credit sequence. Then use the wedding song we created earlier (read previous post here for the song creation part) inside the movie. We also planned to record live sound for using them as background tracks.

21st 3 of us started from Kolkata by train as a team of photographer, cinematographer and an assistant. We reached there and checked in the on 23rd around 1 in the morning and prepared ourselves for the combat starting next morning.

Equipped with our gears we started shooting videos and photos and recording sounds. We had been provided with lots of opportunities of shooting at different locations with the setting up of the venue stages and decorations.

Second team reached Jaipur in the same train we came, but delayed by 2 and half hours next day, 3 in the morning. On 24th, we had a very active set of schedule and employed 2 different cameras for video and photograph shooting for different perspective captures.

The Sangeet event in the evening was another opportunity to showcase some perspective based cinematography.

25th was a pack day and very very hectic for all of us. super busy schedule, late lunch, running out of drinking water every now and then equipped with two walkie talkie, our assistants worked wonders.

As we finished our dinner a 1-30 in the morning and check in the hotel by 3 by arranging a car after a 1 hour scuffle with the event management crew, it was almost the time for the flight for the first team.

With most of the cameras and some equipment, two of us reached the airport and checked passed security gate. As soon as we boarded the flight, I fallen asleep like a log of wood.

The second team came to know that they had to travel with waiting list tickets as soon as they the stations. Another scuffle took place with the event management crew. Somehow they boarded the train and managed to reach Kolkata without any trouble with railway authority.

So far so good, as I am working on the video, I am hoping to come up with something good. Wait till I post the latest video.

aMUZE: A new venture.

Here comes the new frontier of ACF, aMUZE. A new frontier for song writing and promotion brand for musical talents. I along my close friend Santanu (with whom I once shared jamming pad for our dead rock band) came up with this idea of creating music for every mood and every occasion and hence our first venture of wedding song.

We wrote a song for a wedding that is going to happen in Jaipur in November. We had created this for the pre-weddding shoot of the wedding. After the song is done, I am now working on the picturisation of the song. You can hear the song at soundcloud/acfmuze

The writing was pretty challenging for us, as client's requirement was a clear depiction of age old love song wordings with new age styles. Hence we came up with a retro styled progressive pop. For instrumentation we used three different types of guitar playing with two different guitars and a mandolin. Hours of practice and brainstorming gave birth to our first melodious wedding song. Then came the part of recording which was pretty fast as todays studios are all digitised with solid electronic audio interface integration which gives you a 100% liberty on your style.

The song is finalised with many hours of editing and mixing the tracks. Another work is underway for a traditional folk song. Will update on that one as well.

A scroched, fun-filled, adventurous honeymoon trip

The usuals were didactic, like waiting at the airport lounge and being fed a lousy cup of coffee at the lounge. However, the unusual was 38 degrees in Bombay when we reached and a bleeding nose.

I was in Bombay after 5 years and much had changed as the rate of change I am habituated is quite lower than that of Bombay. Several new roads and flyovers, a completely decorated New-Bombay and some new places to go.

After struggling in that unusual and unpatronising heat to cruise through the highways of Bombay and surfing through the street corners with my wife, we got lost in the madness of running.

Marine drive was a more of a soothing place for others than us. People were busy keeping us busy shifting our sitting positions by their 'scenic' PDA, 'walking-over-our-shoulder' competition, photography skills applied to innocent us.

Searching Shah Rukh Khan's house was one piece of small adventure we had. After some time even our cab driver also joined our cause and gave my wife moral support while I was showing every bit of disinterest in the entire trek. After searching and (later realised) circling few times around the house in question, we found it. My wife almost fainted. No the actor was fortunately not there.

Then came Goa, leaving the usuals....no there was nothing usual, as it was the first time for both of us. We enjoyed every bit of unusual, every minute and hour and the long aimless walks, pointless talks with strangers, meaningless search for shells on the beach, hours of dipping in the water, pomfret fry and prawn curry, getting scorched while climbing the hill at Aguara fort, sleeping on a beach chair, walking on the moon-lit beach, drinking a whole 375ml bottle of Black Dog whiskey and then talk non-sense to each other. A trip crazy enough to make us doze off whenever and wherever we sat, so crazy that we couldn't remember what we ate for breakfast while having dinner. Port wine tasted like bear, beach seemed more comfortable option every time we looked for shelter, sandals were the choicest footwear along with ganjee and shorts.

Returning to Bombay was 2 hours of drive from Palolem to Dabolim and then a 1 hour flight turned into 2 hours, because some jack ass broke the runway light while parking a big ass aeroplane.


I still couldn't recover from the hangover. Dreaming.....

Wedding movie at last

There is a wonderful thing that we are going to do this time. I will be going to make a movie styled wedding video. There is this girl from Houston, Texas, USA going to get married to a Puerto Rican Boy in Kolkata this February 14th. They are very much interested in my photography services and willing to spend for it.

I am hoping for the best. Details later.

The Honeymoon

The honeymoon at last, though 6 months after the wedding happened. I was so God darn busy with assignments during this time of the year, that my wife was deprived of this trip, and she thought its never gonna happen. However, after a much ado with deciding on places to go, solving logistical issues, I booked air tickets for Mumbai and planned for a trip to Mumbai/Goa.

So we are leaving on 3rd of March and coming back on 12th of March. Long Goa, we are coming for ya....