It was the usual lunch time on a normal day. As I had gone for the full day birding at Savanadurga the previous day I was in a mood of birds and photography. You know me very well that when I am in such a mood I will kill the other people with my oneway talk on any of the above two subjects... :-) Today the same thing happened. I was explaining the reasons for my decision to go for Nikon D80 rather than D70s for my friend who hardly knows about photography,forget about DSLRs! :-) The discussion turned quite interesting and the same continued over the mail after lunch also. Below I am pasting the mail conversation between us where I went a bit emotional in the end...:-)
"
Adding onto the discussion, I am sending two photos. The “shrike.jpg” is taken by Ganesh H S and the other one by me. You can see the background blurring effect in both. First one was taken in DSLR and the one by me(with my friend's camera) in SLR compatible. Mine was with very minimal zoom. But his was with a large zoom lens. From the SLR compatible lens we can have a fixed zoom (12x till date) where from SLR we can upgrade the lens for higher zoom and better quality. Normal aim and shoot cameras will have zoom but not effective for photographic point of view…."
My friend replied :
"Hi,
Yeah..i observed the blurring effect in both the photos...the shrike is more blurred n the bird is more prominent...But in giving prominence to the main object..ther shudnt be too much of background blurring...shud b a limit for the blurring too....shud b able to atleast make out with little difficulty whats ther in the background...I could see the difference in the amount of blur in the background. But not exactly the amount of difference it made to the main object...Thats what i feel..."
Then I went ahead:
"Hi,
You are right… If the intention of the photo is to only highlight the object then what you are telling is perfectly right. In that case the blurring of the background won’t make much different…. But if the intention of the photograph is to present in the best way possible irrespective of the object (which may be a very common object, a very common bird or a rare bird also) then the funda of lens comes into picture…Now if you just think a little more then you can “feel” that a photographer (or a photography freak, I would say) always aspires to take such a photo where the presentation of the object is the one what matters him a lot… So to get that effect he struggles hard all through his years… This is the one that makes him so restless… this is the one that steals his sleep sometimes… this is the one that makes him to strive for the next upgrade of his kit… and these restless nights silently bring a great photographer in him…
And while writing the last few lines I was really carried away by my emotions. I dont know how much my friend understood that but it was definitly a good look for me into myself about how much I am passionate about it!
Yeah..i observed the blurring effect in both the photos...the shrike is more blurred n the bird is more prominent...But in giving prominence to the main object..ther shudnt be too much of background blurring...shud b a limit for the blurring too....shud b able to atleast make out with little difficulty whats ther in the background...I could see the difference in the amount of blur in the background. But not exactly the amount of difference it made to the main object...Thats what i feel..."
Then I went ahead:
"Hi,
You are right… If the intention of the photo is to only highlight the object then what you are telling is perfectly right. In that case the blurring of the background won’t make much different…. But if the intention of the photograph is to present in the best way possible irrespective of the object (which may be a very common object, a very common bird or a rare bird also) then the funda of lens comes into picture…Now if you just think a little more then you can “feel” that a photographer (or a photography freak, I would say) always aspires to take such a photo where the presentation of the object is the one what matters him a lot… So to get that effect he struggles hard all through his years… This is the one that makes him so restless… this is the one that steals his sleep sometimes… this is the one that makes him to strive for the next upgrade of his kit… and these restless nights silently bring a great photographer in him…
I don’t know how much you can understand these feelings, but this is what the phase I am going through now… I have not yet started the journey!! I have learnt the things that are needed to start the journey… have walked through some distance using others shoes and came back on the same way to return them, keeping only the experience with me… It feels really amazing when the time to get your own shoes is around... and why not? After all I have waited for almost 10years to have my first SLR in my hand… So the 5-6 months ahead look small to me… And by the time the kit comes in my hand I may welcome that with tears…!!"
And while writing the last few lines I was really carried away by my emotions. I dont know how much my friend understood that but it was definitly a good look for me into myself about how much I am passionate about it!
Thanks dude...:-)
Ashwini
