Holi

Gauri wanted to play the Holi. All preparations were done. Herbal colors, water sprayer were bought and kept ready. On holi morning, she was very excited.  I applied some oil on her face, hair and hands. Now she is ready. I too applied oil and got ready. One set of cloths, water bottle and snacks were kept in a cover. I was in dilemma, whether to carry camera or not. Holi, is color (dust) and water, both are not good for a DSLR. Finally I decided to take it. I placed the camera in a plastic cover and made a two openings for lens and viewfinder. I mounted Canon 85 mm 1.8 on my Canon 50D, a fast prime lens, should be good for portraits and blur the background.  I set my camera, in AV mode (aperture priority), F 2.2, iso 400 and +1/2 EV ,spot metering, auto focus in AI servo mode and continues shouting. Due to plastic cover, I may not able to change the settings in a holi setup! My anticipation was perfect. As soon as we entered the battle field, colors were flying and water was sprayed from everywhere. Gauri was with one of my friend and I could concentrate on photography!! Still Gauri was not very comfortable with so many unknown people and hence she wanted to put colour only to me!! . Very soon water sprayed on my lens barrel, and also I could see some colours on my lens. One hand was engaged in managing the Gauri and so I had to shoot with one hand only. Using plastic cover was very clumsy, the finger used to slip from shutter. Very often opening made for view finder was out of alignment, and hence many were blind shots. I shot for 20 min, and later I kept camera back in my scooter box (hand was paining and was worried about lens). After that, whole morning I enjoyed playing holi and loved the way Gauri played the holi and she enjoyed thoroughly. Few pictures are here from this small adventure. ( Double click on the photo, you can have a slide show!!)

My friend Shreya!!

Gauri getting into ground......

Friends

Gauri the teacher

Climbing  staircase.: What is new in that? Oh my daughter has taught me different ways of doing it. Now our house is in third floor. She will use all different strategies’ to climb up and down. Two step jump one step jump, one leg jump, holding the railing, back ward , forward, three together or one by one, one part I will carry her on my back other part she will carry me !!  or she will carry her doll, she will sit and protest or she will slide, she will peep in each step or she will teach and give all the instructions to me and the doll about the safety.

Gauri in bathroom. So what? Different ways to take bath; shower, below tap, inside bucket, Sometimes, bucket will go to the hall and she will watch Doreman sitting in warm water. oh luxury, soaps will disappear, today she rub the soap froth on her belly and made triangle rectangle and even a cow on  her belly. She would take different colour shampoos soaps and mix them. She will be fish in the bucket , I need to catch her with towel as net, only when she comes out of bucket!! She will play many times, oh intelligent fish will test my patience!

Wear the cloth- what is in it?

She has choice. Choice changes every day. If she wants to kill the time, she will change options randomly. Wearing a dress is part of her journey. I mean she will run around the house, I need to catch her and put the shirt on her neck --------- running--------then one hand------ again running -  another hand, and for each cloth process repeats. 

Sleeping-

She thinks that sleeping is waste of her valuable time. So in all possible ways she will postpone her sleep. I never knew time is so precious and should not oversleep. First she never lie down and watch TV in the afternoon, she may fall asleep! In night, she runs for 10 min, lights are off she will bring chair and put on the light, we military parents show our power, she will agree to sleep, but now she wants milk, “no milk” , give me water, that can’t be refused, can I? Now she wants to go to loo, how can I refuse; now she wants to do potty that to at 1 am in night!! Even she will push to her limits and pass out a  small roll of shit to show me that she is not lying, finally stories then songs, then play on tablet....endless... her creativity to avoid sleep. 

Potty- what is this? Oh she will do potty , triangle, rectangle,  train colours and diet she ate, what would make watery and what makes rock.  How flush works – meanwhile she keeps playing with water, I am supposed to see each of the potty sometimes they will roll down the hole (Indian toilet) but still I need to bend and see it. Smell, she is very particular about smell. Appa, today it smells bit different. All potty have names, sometimes they are father, mother,  granny or her friends or they may be good bad and ugly. 

 Anger (gussa/sittu)- She will throw anything or she will go and sit in a corner. When she do this, how do I control. I wonder about it, since when she does this, I too get angry. But doing so, I cant tell her, don't be angry. Bit tricky, keep your cool and tell her that dont get angry is one of the most difficult thing I ever did. Cant imagine? just think, one big bowl of rice with ghee and salt, was thrown across the dining hall; fine, I will get chapati, she will spit it around the house, ok, I will get milk, milk is purposefully spilled on sofa ............. how about that , now keep your cool and teach her anger is not a good behavior!!!  

Food- Let me not write about that, it is long story. She consider it as harassment. This is how she takes revenge.

She is my teacher for the course “creativity”

“It truly takes long time to become young”

“Life is all about journey not destination”

Still learning.......

Looking back, one more year passed......

This is my third year with DSLR. I had set few targets for this year; few are achieved and few are not. Last year I also wondered that, how long this hobby does lasts. ( aarmbha shooratva). I was not really sure about this would last for three years!! Since I am not an inherently artistically oriented person or I never drew any good drawings. Somehow, I am crossing this third year and going to fourth year. I must admit that unlike first and second year third year was less eventful. I wanted to learn lighting and hence the flash. I got two used flashes, but it was bit more complicated than I thought and more demand for time and space. With my daughter running around, forget about the setting up a light stand. So hopefully this year I will do that.

I noticed that, I started taking less number of photos and fewer crops. Still pre-visualization is beyond my capacity. Meanwhile I also observed that bit of ego and I am great feeling creeping in, fortunately I was observing that carefully, I was able to get over with some difficulty (here). Unlike last 2 years, I became extremely choosy about what I take. Even many times I find something beautiful nice or interesting I avoided that since it was already a cliché in internet, nothing new I could add into it. Doing new more creative rather than repletion is extremely difficult. Unlike regular shoot , thinking new making unique above that making a story and most important adding emotion to it – I felt bit too much for my current level of creative maturity.

This year I did good amount of street photography, especially portraits. The time has changed, and people don’t like their photo taken by a stranger. Many times I was asked to delete the photo. Luckily camera/lens was not broken by them!! Good street photography is an ideal mix of daring and timing. Well, I need to add light and composition to those photos. 

Missed opportunities – or did not carry camera- un-photographable ( a site my cousin suggested) – but photography taught that lesson , yes missed opportunities ( low light, wrong setting , abstractions, photography not allowed, fast moving subject , many more) but more opportunities wait in the future.

Not to crib about the last things, make new things, think above the crowd, make it possible, look for opportunity and be prepared to grab that and use it.

Life is all about journey not about destination.