photo.graph.art.design

 Nicholas Nixon's "The Brown Sisters" stands as one of photography's most compelling longitudinal portrait studies, documenting four decades of sisterhood through annual black-and-white photographs taken from 1975 to 2014. Using an 8×10 inch view camera, Nixon captured his wife Bebe and her three sisters—Heather, Mimi, and Laurie Brown—in the same order each year, creating a remarkable visual meditation on time, aging, and familial bonds. For the full set of images see the PDF below (for academic use only) Forty Portraits in Forty Years PDF What began as a spontaneous family photograph in 1975 evolved into a profound artistic documentation of human transformation. The project's strength lies in its methodological consistency: the sisters maintain their positions, with the sequence remaining unchanged throughout the series. This rigid framework paradoxically highlights the subtle changes that occur year by year, creating a powerful commentary on the passage of time...

 I love Kaziranga; because here they are not caged or fenced as an exhibition item for the homo sapiens . The rhinoceros, elephants, wild buffalos, deer, the occasional tigers, and many other smaller animals roam free in this 430 square- kilometre expanse across the flood plains of Brahmaputra. Kaziranga lies between the Brahmaputra and the Karbi Hills. Much of the park is marshland interspersed with large pools fringed with reeds, patches of elephant grass, scattered trees, and thickets; inhabited popularly by the great Indian one-horned rhinoceroses. I took an early morning walk around the park with my lens, and the woods there is bustling with birds, both resident and migratory. Sighting rare large birds, like, wooly-necked stork, grey-headed fish eagle, the lesser and great adjutant, which
are declared vulnerable and threatened by International Union for Conservation of Nature, is very satisfying. Kaziranga and its one-horned rhinos We took a safari in a private Gypsy into the ...

  The western coast of India is a range of mountains and their valleys embraced and washed by the Arabian Sea. The western coast runs between Kerala and Gujarat and extends from the Arabian Sea to the Western Ghats. Its total length is 1400 km, width ranges from 10 km to 80 km, and the elevation (mountains) ranges from 150 m to 300 m above sea level. It includes the Konkan , which is the Northern part of the coast that includes Goa and Mumbai and extends from Daman to Goa; Kanara , which is the central stretch of the coast that comprises three coastal districts, Dakshina Kannada, Udupi district (South Canara), and Uttara Kannada (North Canara); and the Malabar Coast , which is the southern stretch, a long and narrow coastline that extends from the South of Goa to Kanyakumari. Western Coast: Photo Story For the people of inland India the sandy beaches of Western Coast is a haven of entertainment and rejuvenation. Take a road trip from Kanyakumari in Tamil Nadu to Bhuj in Gujarat: yo...

 Travelling through Vedaranyam, Nagapattinam, at the eastern cost of Tamil Nadu, I was suddenly taken aback by the sight of the vast ex- panses of salt evaporation ponds. A salt evaporation pond is a shallow artificial saltpan designed to extract salts from sea water. I could not drive on. Seeking permission from my co-traveller, I took a walk through the salt fields. I met Bala, a worker at the salt fields. He spoke to me about the salt fields, owned by large companies; though working for them for years, and for meager wages; he had no much idea about the company that gets the benefit of his hard toil. Bala was very articulative about the tough nature of their work. The hardest is the heat. Scorching sun is beating on them directly; adding to it the white salt fields reflect light and heat back to them: like getting cooked in a slow fire. Salt fields: Photo Story It is the year of Azadi ka Amrit Mahotsav . My thoughts went back to Gandhiji, his companions, and the great Salt March...

 The Bengal tiger ranks among the biggest wild cats alive today. The beautiful, awe-inspiring tiger is one of our planet’s most iconic animals. The tiger is estimated to have been present in the Indian subcontinent for about 12,000 to 16,500 years. Today, it is threatened by poaching, loss and fragmentation of habitat. The International Union for Conservation
of Nature (IUCN) has declared Tigers as Endangered species. The wild tiger population in the wild is estimated to be less than 4,000. This is down 96% from 100 years ago (with an estimated 100,000 a century ago). Between 2015 and 2021 there was an average increase in the tiger population. Bengal Tiger: Photo Story Driving through the forestlands of northern part of West Bengal is a pleasure. The mountains of Darjeeling, Kalimpong, and the plains and tea gardens of Siliguri take your breath away. The deep valleys are filled with huge pine, sal, and teak trees. Teesta River carries the rain waters down to the Bay of Bengal, prot...

 India’s Western Ghats, also called the Sahyadri, is a north-south chain of mountains or hills that mark the western edge of the Deccan plateau region.
It runs parallel to India’s western coast, approximately 30–50 km inland, the Ghats traverse the states of Kerala, Tamil Nadu, Karnataka, Goa, Maharashtra and Gujarat. It is a UNESCO World Heritage Site and it ranks among the top eight biodiversity hotspots in the world. It is home for some 139 mammal species, 508 bird species, 179 amphibian species and 250 reptile species. Western Ghats: Photo story It is well known for its majestic beauty. It holds a range of peaks, valleys, waterfalls, and wild life reserves; some celebrated ones are, Munnar, Vagaman, and Thekkady Wildlife Reserve in Kerala, Nilgiri hill stations (Ooty, Coonoor etc.) in Tamil Nadu; Dandeli, Coorg, and Chikmangalur in Karnataka; Mollem National Park in Goa; and Mahabaleshwar in Maharashtra. The highest peak in this range is Anaimalai hills in Kerala, which has an ...

 Kites, like their close relatives eagles, soar high, and frequently hover over our cities. Winter is their breeding season; they descend down from the skies and spend more time in the comfort of the earth, trees, and their mates. Visiting a camp of kites during this season is not an intelligent decision.
Winter has set in; and a pair of kites got busy doing the annual maintenance of their old nest. Kite Family: Photo Story Their nest is a rough platform of twigs and rags placed in a tall tree fork. Both the male and female take part in nest building, incubation and care of chicks. I kept watch from distance. As they built their nest, they often mated. Slowly the mother settled down to lay eggs and hatch. I began to frequent this camp of kites at the far end of our campus in Bangalore, and watched them standing on the top of a tall building close by. They began to become hostile and protective about their space. It takes a little over 30 days to incubate. The male provides the fema...

 These are hard times for deprived children across the globe. Children perhaps are not the face of this pandemic, but they risk being among its biggest victims, especially those in already disadvantaged or vulnerable situations. Approximately 150 million additional children are living in multidimensional poverty – without access to education, health care, housing, nutrition, sanitation or water – due to the Covid-19 pandemic, according to the UNICEF. Children and Covid Pandemic I met one of them in a temporary camp for the migrant workers who were stuck and forsaken in Bangalore during
the Covid-19 lockdown. With the morning sun rising, he sat expressionless, tirelessly working with the oddly shaped pieces of plastic jigsaw puzzle. It wasn’t difficult to realise that many pieces of the jigsaw puzzle were missing. Whether he knew it or not, he kept making effort. Then he grabbed them all in his tiny hands and walked away, perhaps hoping that someday he will have all the pieces; and ...

 Crows, often denounced as annoyance by city-dwellers, and as invaders and thieves by farmers, in fact are interesting birds. Fables associated with crows announce their intelligence. The fact that we can spot crows almost everywhere on this planet speaks of their adaptability. Crows eat anything; they live anywhere; back their folks for good and for bad. Yes. Crows are toughies; and they are survivors. They are here to stay. Crows have huge brains! They have the largest brain-to-body ratio of any bird. Their brain to body ration is even bigger than humans. Therefore they do a lot of intelligible things, like, making tools, making vehicles at traffic to help crack hard nuts, and others. Crows: Photo story Something that amused me as I was birding in Kalimpong, West Bengal, on a rainy day was seeing a crow gathering all remaining biscuits from the hotel yard and flying away. It came back again and again carrying away more and more biscuits. I followed it thinking that it is taking
i...

 Bird photography is finding birds, being as close as possible to them, clicking intelligent picture of them, identifying the name of the bird, and reporting/publishing them. Bird photography engages oneself with nature, it is a good leisure-time activity, and above all it is cathartic. Study the PDF below (for academic use only) Bird photography and mental health PDF A mental health disorder is characterised by a clinically significant disturbance in an individual’s cognition, emotional regulation, or behaviour. I am not a huge fan of lawn tennis but what happened at the French Open in 2021, in these postmodern times of liberty and individual freedom, troubled me. Naomi Osaka, the reigning world no. 2, had to leave the tournament because she was not able to have media interactions after the matches ended, or should we say that in Grand Slam, like in any popularity and profit driven businesses, matches don’t end with the last match point. Post match press conferences have its...

 Narrative photography proposes that an image or a series of images can make unfold a story; or make many stories unfold.  It is visual storytelling through photographs. Narrative Photography The question is whether photographs are capable of telling a story? Photography captures single discrete moments; therefore there is no narrative (that which has beginning, middle, and end. Narrative is irreducibly durative). Photography is only a face. How can one look at it and think, feel, or intuit what is beyond it? The camera's rendering of reality hides more than it discloses. Everything that we see hides another thing, Rene Magritte .  Only that which narrates can make us understand; photography does not narrate, therefore photography cannot make us understand anything.  In photography, the photographer invites us to get meaning out of the picture; in truth the viewers are getting only their meaning to the extant of what they have seen, heard, and read. Photograph canno...

 Digital Single-Lens Reflex Cameras or Digital Single-Lens Mirrorless Cameras are the most used professional cameras today. Study the PDF below For academic Purposes only Photography: DSLR | DSLM Cameras PDF DSLR Camera, as against compact/point and shoot camera, is bigger and more efficient. It has interchangeable lens; and the camera body houses the image sensor. It has a mirror that reflects the light/image to the pentaprism and then to the viewfinder. DSLM cameras are a relatively recent addition to the professional camera world. DSLM cameras have done away with the mirror and the prism unit; this making the camera more compact. Understanding DSLR Camera 

  Camera Obscura Effect The concept of photography began with idea of Camera Obscura. Aristotle (384-322 BC) had spoken about it as a philosophical idea, but never went on to build one. Study the PDF below For Academic purposes only Photography: Brief History PDF Pinhole Camera The first photographic equipment was the pinhole camera. It is a simple camera/box/chamber (light=proof box) without a lens but with a tiny aperture/opening. Invented in the 10 th century, by Ibn al-Haitham (Egyptian Scientist). Here the Light from a scene passes through the aperture and projects an inverted image on the opposite side of the box, which is known as the camera obscura effect. Camera Obscura A pinhole camera with a lens for its tiny opening. Artists used it to get the shape and proportion of images right. Scientists kept discovering and using better optics and lenses to manipulate the image. Images kept improving, but not able to retain images permanently.     First...

  Photography is drawing with light.  If you miss light you miss photography.  Photography is seizing the moment. One must be at the right place at the right time. The photographer must anticipate action by constant observing; And wait for action with patience. Photography Beginning Study the PDF below (only for academic use) Photography: Introduction PDF Photography means “ drawing with light ”. From the Greek words phos , (phōtós) meaning “light”, and graphê meaning “drawing or writing”. Coined by the British scientist Sir John Herschel in 1839. Photography combines two distinct sciences Optics: to gather and converge light rays to form an image inside a camera/box Chemistry: to enable that image to get recorded permanently onto a photosensitive (light-sensitive) surface. A photograph has Format - JPEG, TIFF, RAW, etc. Aspect Ratio - 16:9, 6:4, 1:1, etc. Orientation - Landscape, Portrait. Image Resolution/Quality - Mega Pixels (1MP = 1million pixels ...

  Using lights and accessories (often channelising natural lights )  to illuminate some specific areas ,  create shadows at other areas,  and bring the overall light on a scene to an intensity level  at which the cameras can generate  optimal , beautiful and meaningful visuals. Photographic lighting There are many ways to light to your subject. Study the PDF below (for academic use only) Photography Lighting PDF Lighting patters as per the placement of the lights Three Point Lighting: Key light, Fill light and Back light.      High-key Lighting & Low-key Lighting      Broad lighting & Short Lighting      Loop Lighting      Split Lighting      Butterfly Lighting      Clamshell Lighting      Rembrandt Lighting Lights and Equipments      Lighting Equipments     L ight modifier...

  Light makes Photography. Embrace light. Admire it. Love it. But above all, know light. … and you will know the key to photography . - George Eastman Lighting Study the PDF below (only for academic use) Understanding Light PDF CHARACTERISTICS OF LIGHT Direction:  Where is the light coming from –front? Side? Behind? Top Intensity: How bright is each light source? How close is the light source? Hardness:  What do the edges of the shadows look like?  Contrast:  Is the transition from the highlights to the shadows subtle or sudden? How do the highlights transition into the shadows. The brightest areas of the image are the  highlights . The darkest areas are the  shadows . In between, the image will have, midtones.   Colour:  What colour is the light—white, red, blue…? Colour can affect the mood and meaning of the images

  Mode dial or camera dial is a dial used on digital cameras to change the camera's mode of shoot. One can choose to shoot on fully auto mode to semi auto mode to fully manual mode. More professional the camera you get lesser and lesser automatic options on the mode dial. Mode Dial Study the PDF below (for academic use only) Mode Dial PDF The mode dial on digital cameras offers photographers a range of options to control the various settings and capture images tailored to their desired artistic vision or shooting scenario. From fully automatic modes to manual modes that provide granular control over exposure parameters, the mode dial serves as the gateway to unlocking the creative potential of the camera. This essay delves into the intricacies of camera mode dials, exploring their various modes and their applications in different photographic situations. There are automatic and manual options of shooting mode.  Auto Mode. Automatic Exposure is when the camera chooses the ...

 Exposure is uncovering –here it is the uncovering the image sensor to light. Exposure is the amount of light that is allowed to reach the camera sensor. Exposure is the brightness of an image . According to the degree of exposure we call an image underexposed (less light) overexposed (more light) Exposure in photography is determined by   how much of time the image sensor is kept open ( Shutter speed )   how much of light is allowed to hit the image sensor ( Aperture )   and how sensitive is the image sensor to light ( ISO ). The task is to get  optimal exposure . How do we achieve optimal exposure? Study the PDF below (for academic use only) Photography: Exposure Triangle PDF   ISO is the sensitivity of the image sensor towards light while picture is taken. The unit of measurement is 'numbers'. Lesser the ISO number, lesser the sensitivity of the image sensor to light. Therefore less brightness.  Shutter speed is the durati...

  Photography composition or framing is the process of Selection of a subject, placement of the subject, and choice of background. Photography composition  Study the  PDF below (to be used for educational purposes only) Photography Composition PDF Composition is the result of a series of aesthetic decisions that a photographer makes   1.     Selection of subject What is the Focal point? Where do you want the eyes of the viewers to repeatedly come back to? Where do you want the eyes of the viewers to rest? What is the element you don’t want your viewers to miss? What do you want the viewers to call your image? 2.     Choice of background Background enhances the subject. Background simplifies the frame. Background minimalises the frame. Background qualifies the subject.   3.     Placement of subject There are ample guidelines to make the placement magical. Rule of Thirds/One Third line Middle li...