Sunday, March 2, 2008

Emotions - Compositions!

If we start finding the root of the word 'Photography', how it originated and how it emerged into another form of art we start finding a very interesting informations.
Wiki says - The word "photography" comes from the French photographie which is based on the Greek words φως phos ("light"), and γραφίς graphis ("stylus", "paintbrush") or γραφή graphê ("representation by means of lines" or "drawing"), together meaning "drawing with light."

'Drawing with light!'
what a beautiful thought!

This implies that a photographer and a painter more or less share some commonalities in the way they look at a subject or feeling the emotion of a situation in order to represent them effectively on the canvas (or film). So the rules of arts apply equally to both!

Composition is the plan, placement or arrangement of elements or ingredients in an art work - Wiki.
This definition applies to every element which comes under the form of 'visual art'. The way these elements of the artwork are arranged decide the amount of impact they make on the viewer. The 'impact' of an artwork on the viewer is subjective! If the artwork relates to any particular emotion of a viewer, the impact of that artwork on that viewer will be high! It stays for a long time in the memory!

Same is true in the case of a photographer. Certain compositions relate in some way to some of his/her emotions which stay close to their heart. If another person who sees that composition afterwards feels the same or not is a different debate and that may decide the success in capturing the emotion effectively! But the feel that the photographer/artist felt at that moment while making that composition is something which is as true as the sunrise everyday! No one needs to give justification for that! Feelings are feelings !!... and they vary with person to person!

When I visited Gudvi Bird Sanctuary in the last monsoon season, it was full of egrets, herons and ibis! The birds were making so much of loud calls that the human voice was barely audible from a distance! Probably some of them were nesting in that time! That part of the lake was having bushes and weeds which had grown quite high! They were giving the feeling to me like the curtains made by nature where on the other side the birds spend some of their intimate time together. I wanted to somehow capture that feeling on the camera. Waiting for an opportunity. My plan was to focus on the dry branches in the front and to make the bird out of focus giving a sense of dreamy or moody feeling to the composition. I was waiting silently by having this sketch in my mind. Finally after sometime made the below image where I was able to get the flight of the egret just behind those dry branches! That bird was just landing near his mate! Patience paid off!




=============================================================

The last night it had rained. The rain had stopped in the early morning. I had decided to visit Lalbagh the morning in order to try some experiments. The overall mood was very wet as well as the paths too! While passing by one of the paths, this below flower caught my attention. In the mid of the whole green surroundings this was the only one which was standing apart from the crowd with the proud red on it! Graphically this scene caught my mind and the result is the below image:



==============================================================

It was my another usual visit to one of my favorite places in the Bangalore outskirts - Ramanagram! The rocks and the mighty Long Billed Vultures always fascinated me and made me to visit that place over and over. The magical landscape of that place still comes in my dreams here! Such a beautiful place! Another interesting creature you find there is the Rock Agama! Very photogenic - in terms of colors and to some extent very brave as well as it allows close approach. All of my initial images of Rock Agamas are from this place.
This time, it gave me a different opportunity! The mighty mountains in the background added a lot to the mood! The soft light was also helpful for me. It was my birthday that day and the place gave me a wonderful gift! -




============================================================

I dont know how much I succeeded in conveying the same mood to you which I have experienced. I might have failed also. May be because of this fear (!!) I had not shared these compositions till now. Each of these images still take me to the same mood and place every time I see them. May be this is what they call - close to heart!

I have some more such memories.... they are the ones which are keeping me alive here!!..... in this dead cold!!

Cheers,
Ash


3 comments:

Anonymous said...

Hey Ashwini,

emotions of a photographer, his views were get written tastefully by u here..:-)

And the image of that isolated but beautiful flower is... Wow, really gud:)

Pramod Viswanath said...

Nice write up Ashwini. As you said composition is very very subjective.

Anonymous said...

supper.....

--harsha