Sitakunda won!! :)

ahh!!.... at last!!... Sitakunda won the battle against my busy schedules!!!...... actually I've finished writing half the blog while I was at Sitakunda.... still, it took five days to complete the post.... actually this was the first time I managed to write the blog before I was done with the photos.....

my job is killing me!!.... really!!..... I still have the last Sundarbans trip and Nijhum Dwip trip write-ups unfinished!!..... God knows when can I finish the work...

it was an unprecedented safari from TTL...... not just from the uniqueness of the subjects point of view, the number of participants was something to remember!! :)

anyway, here is the link to the travel story.....
Sitakunda, Chittagong, December 2009

Desherchobi.... yes, its my website!! :P

Had been blogging for a while...... but never really though of getting a web address of my own...... somehow I found out that the name I had been using for my travel blog (Desherchobi) can be found in some Google searches....... so, when I got the opportunity to get the name confirmed over the World Wide Web, I took it.......

so, its official now...... I have a website....... :P

desherchobi: the face of my motherland

I had been trying very hard for the last couple of days to get the website online on Victory Day...... and I think I just managed to follow Neaz Bhai........ :P

please don't feel shy to give your feedback on the website..... I would be very glad if you do so........ thanks!! :)

Through the smog of our making: Journey back from Nijhum Dwip

on our way back from Nijhum Dwip, we enjoyed a great sunrise in a misty river setting...... but the more we got closer to the Capital City, the more we got the touch of industrial noise...... the fog got mixed with the pollutants and presented in front of us as "smog"..... the industrial units on the riverbank reminded us of our responsibilities towards the environment......

eclipsed future..........

it is us who choked ourselves; and it is us to blinded ourselves........ and it is us who eclipsed our future...... did we ever think what we were leaving behind for our followers??

Taken in the River Dhaleswari at Narayanganj, Bangladesh on the way back from a Safari Tour organised by "Through the Lens: Bangladesh" (TTL) group of Flickr; 01 November 2009

Through the forest, towards Chuakhali, Nijhum Dwip........

at last I had been able to do something with the glimpses from Nijhum Dwip tour...... although I'm yet to be able to even start the Nijhum Dwip travel blog....... but I do hope to gradually share some experiences from this memorable tour......

on our second day at Nijhum Dwip, we were going to Chuakhali, the southernmost part of Nijhum Dwip.... during the last part of the one-and-a-half hour's walk, we were going through the mangrove forest in the fading late afternoon light..... we had the opportunity to meet and talk to some hard-working children...... their faces could tell a lot about the hard life on the remote island......



Shahnoori is a typical child on the remote island of Nijhum Dwip....... her shabby clothes grossly show off her family's economic condition, but her smile portrays her dreams, and constantly reminds us what keeps them alive......

Really struggling with busy schedules........

it had been some time since I've come back from Nijhum Dwip...... I've managed to have so little time since then, that it has become virtually impossible for me to anything timely...... the images from the TTL Nijhum Dwip Safari had been edited, but they still haven't found their home online...... so far I've only been able to share some activity pictures from the tour...... work on the travel blog hasn't even started yet.....

but this all hasn't been that bad..... I've had a nice event within this time..... the TTL Studiowalk was a huge refreshment...... I had completed all the work from the Studiowalk within one night..... if I failed to keep that time, it would've added to my backlog..... I still haven't been able to write a word on my last trip to Sundarbans..... its a real pity, since that tour was my longest trip to that area..... anyway, lets see that there for me in the coming days.....

First TTL "Studiowalk", Dhaka, November 2009

actually it required some real effort to make it happen..... after going through some busy schedules, at last we were able to assign some time for it..... Bijuman takes full credit for this meet..... he propsed the original "Studiowalk" at his place..... and the liberty of using his place, where a whole floor was empty of anything, was a big convenience..... great support and enthusiasm came up from the four initial participants, Bijumna, Atia and Shawon, along with me....... Gazi Bhai joined later to give more impetus...... thanks to all of them to make this a success!!

it was a bright sunny day..... and the empty rooms at Biju's place were washed with light..... late morning hours produced enough light to give our thinking a specific direction...... we started with available light.... we used the great big windows as softboxes.... and the light wrapped around the subject pretty nicely..... we also used ambient lights through windows to give some efects......






then we started to think crazy...... the first thing that came to our mind was to overpower the sun..... because the sun was too strong to think in any other direction..... high-speed sync (Auto FP in Nikon) was the result...... we used a single flash light with snoot to illuminate the subject's face, grossly underexposing the bright window in the back..... our idea was to make it look like a late afternoon shot......



setup......


next, we decided to use an empty white wall as the backdrop.... light was falling on the wall from one direction...... but it wasn't really strong..... we opened up a door on one side, which gave stronger light from the opposite direction.... but that light wasn't strong enough to really overpower light from the other direction.... so, we set up a flash with an umbrella beyond the door to give a soft, but natural-looking light on the subject...... I didn't really take any shots here, because I was adding some fill-light on the subject from below using a small reflector..... others took shots of this setting......

the next setting took place at Biju's second floor living quarters..... we had a nice setting in the cozy living room..... we subdued the light coming through the big window with a thick curtain, which allowed us to control light at our own will..... we setup a single flash on a stand and added a snoot..... somehow, light spilled from the snoot on the wall gave the setting a more interesting look...... so, we kept that same light setting.....



setup........



we then setup another flash a minimum power behind the couch to eliminate shadows created by the snoot.....





setup...........


the next setup was again a high-speed sync setup.... we tried to make some "kewl" portraits using a darkish setting..... we used two flashes at full power, one from below with snoot and the other from top behind as hair light...... the hair light, for some reason, didn't give expected support..... anyway, the outputs looked "kewl" enough for us......





setup.........


the next setup was for a high-key lighting...... the idea was to illuminate the background with a flash and to give nice even light from two sides on the subject using shoot-though umbrellas....... we used a higher vantage point to give more emphasis on the subject's eyes.....





setup.........


then we had the crazy idea about capturing motion...... we created action and setup two flashes, one with an umbrealla as the main light and the other as background light...... the outputs were interesting......



setup.........


the last setup was for a "kewl" group portrait...... the idea was to make all the flashes pop with the shutter..... somehow, it didn't go as smoothly as we had wanted.... but it was interesting for sure.......

The Koba Squad!!



can't wait for the next round.......:)

Call of the wild....... its Nijhum Dwip

had been looking forward to this day fome some time..... Nijhum Dwip only lived in my imagination, but always eluded me..... well, until now...... thanks to TTL, and especially Shudipto, I've been granted an opportunity to visit this unique place....

the group is really big.... almost too big for comfort actually.... and the island is almost too small for such big group of people...... the weather seems good..... this year there hasn't been a very active cyclone season..... so, winter is knocking pretty early.... humidity is low and temperature is dropping, especially during the night......

the whole journey would be a journey by boat.... it would be a long one.... so, enjoying the stay on the boat would be the key to enjoying the overall tour......

Lamisa eats up Daddy's strobe!!

yes, she did!!!...... well, not actually!! :)

I was just experimenting with the new white backdrop that I've made at home..... actually my family members helped me with it..... I invested my time behind making the backdrop stand up...... and it was a big challenge....... preparing a home-made stand made of cheap materials thats gonna withstand the weight of an 8'x8' curtain was surely a challenge...... ultimately, it wasn't as sturdy as I had hoped, but it worked..... and the system is sufficiently flexible to be able to update it......

while shooting, I encountered many obstacles, which I hope to eliminate gradually..... I don't have the desire to learn everything in one day..... so, no hurry!.... one of the lessons was the difficulty of getting high-key with this backdrop..... a white paper or a white wall is so much easier achieve this.... the second lesson was the need for a GoBo (Go-between) or a flag to be able to control the direction or spill of light, especially with my speedlights..... more like the Barn Doors used on studio strobes...... in the following pics, I needed the GoBo to prevent light from falling on my cutie's face...... the third lesson was the distance between the subject and the backdrop..... I had space constraints and the backdrop was too short on the ground to facilitate a full-body high-key..... the last and the most annoying lesson was a seamless backdrop is imperative for high-key...... I would rather try to use this backdrop for non-high-key images, utilising the wrinkles on the backdrop, rather than trying to correct it..... anyway, lets see what happens.......

here's Lamisa, chewing up Daddy's strobe...... actually, only the strobe's cover :)







setup........

Strobist Experiment: Orange Gel Filter as Hair Light

this was one of my first experiments with Orange Gel Filter that came with the SB-900..... for once, wanted to use a reflector to reduce the shadows on the subject's right..... but at that time, I didn't have a stand to hold the reflector...... and there also wasn't anyone to act as a human stand.... the backdrop came naturally as a result of slight light falloff from the umbrella..... use of a softbox might have demanded another light for background illumination.......

anyway, the end result, though a bit dark on the subject's right, kind of satisfied me..... the shadows gave sort of a thoughtful mood, I think......



setup.........

Strobist Experiment: Orange Gel Filter on Background Light

had been experimenting with gel filters on flash units for several days...... mainly for hair light....... still struggling to get perfection out of that.... used snoot to get proper direction out of that snoot..... I tried that on this occasion too, but quickly found out the difference and rather used the flash without the gel filter..... this the whole background a glowing look, which is what I was really after......

this was the first time I successfully used the Simpex Prolite 400D flash head in a softbox..... I had to modify it with two thick layers of home-made diffusion materials..... now I can dial-up the power level somewhat...... I still think this flash head needs more control to work properly.....

the reflector is really struggling, along with its stand..... the makeshift stand can't be bent in any direction, which makes sure that the reflector only works horizontally...... and this horizontal workability also happens to be at a fixed height..... this need to be fixed...... and the other thing that I had noticed about the reflector is the focused beam of light..... its workable angle of view is pretty narrow..... so, the subject's slight movement takes the reflector out of use.....

anyway, this was a late night photoshoot once again........ and the idea of looking up basically came from my wife...... it was one in a series of shots..... and this one turned out to be the most interesting.......



setup.......

Kali Puja, Shakharibazar, Dhaka, October 2009

17 October 2009

I had been dying to go out with the camera....... in recent times I had to be satisfied with mostly in-home photo-sessions.... the tour to my Nanabari at Hajiganj, Chandpur was a really refreshing one..... but its been more than two weeks since then that I've clicked outside my home...... the opportunity to break this jinx came in when Shudipto once again invited everyone to a photowalk in the narrow alleys of Shakharibazar...... TTL did it again........ its Diwali; Kali Puja..... and it was a holiday too!!..... what else do you need?...... after missing out on the opportunity to go to Lalon Mela at Kushtia, I was really hungry.......

the special thing about the event was that it all started from late evening..... I arrived there with by little brother-in-law Riad by around 9:00PM..... just thought that we were too late...... but soon found out that we were actually almost too early....... the narrow stretches of Shakharibazar were packed with people..... the lanes were semi-blocked by numerous 'Puja Mandaps'...... but around half of them were empty!!..... the deities were yet to be brought there...... but there still were some to give the feeling of the event.....

it was an event of lights and devotion...... candles, lamps and firecrackers stole the show..... the confined alleys made the place extremely warm...... we were sweating like pigs...... and the pushing and pulling in that crowd made walking difficult, but mandatory...... we had some hard times stopping in the path to take a few snaps......

most of us left the place before 10:00PM, when we also started to move.... it was a short walk..... but it sure gave me a feel of the event...... this was the first time I went to Shakharibazar during a Puja festival...... and I think the effort was worth it......

From Kali Puja, Shakharibazar, Dhaka, October 2009

Lights of devotion........01

From Kali Puja, Shakharibazar, Dhaka, October 2009

Heavenly artists........

From Kali Puja, Shakharibazar, Dhaka, October 2009

With the mother.........01

From Kali Puja, Shakharibazar, Dhaka, October 2009

With the mother.........02

From Kali Puja, Shakharibazar, Dhaka, October 2009

Lights of devotion........02

Strobist Experiment: Three-light Setup

it was another hasty photoshoot...... wasn't 100% satisfied with it..... there are still some shadows that I would like to eliminate...... but it was fun..... both for me and for my models...... the reflector was the third light here...... but I'm yet to get perfection from it..... perhaps I would try to get a bigger one or a softer bounce card....... lets see where it goes.......



the setup........

Strobist Experiment: High-speed Sync (Auto FP)

always wanted to put the background out....... but struggled all throughout because of lack of background setups..... just made this discovery to shoot at very high shutter speeds (well beyond the camera's normal sync speed)..... this made the use of background completely redundant..... also used a snoot to give more directional light; avoiding light-spill on the background....... the background went completely dark even though it was a white wall just 3-feet behind the subject......

loved this possibility...... would surely try out more using different setups....

Lamisa poses for Strobist, 04 October 2009

it was another hasty setup...... the main idea was to utilise the umbrella along with a reflector, so that another flash could be freed to be used either for background illumination or hair light...... the background illumination worked fine before and worked again this time too..... the use of reflector against an umbrella was the first for me..... and another first was the use of a stand to hold the reflector..... in another earlier shoot, my wife helped me being the human stand....... well, you don't always get that advantage...... here is the result and the setup used........



the hair-light experiment wasn't that satisfactory, because of lack of preparation...... need to develop a better snoot or a grid to work with the gel filters....... hope to do this again some day soon.....

Indian Embassy Visa line....... a photostory missed!!

had a really weird experience at the door of the Indian Embassy today...... I heard about all these peculiarities before.... but this was my first experience with it..... first things first..... I would never have gone through these kinds of painful experience for my own benefits..... only a serious emergency could make me do this..... and it was something like that......

around 300 people were already in line when we reached there by around 6:00AM...... and many were sleeping on the road.... it was a Sunday, first day of the week...... and Sundays are usually more busy...... the crowd eases as the week progresses..... this is daylight saving time and the month of October is here...... so, 6:00AM is complete darkness..... these people had been in line for the most of the last evening and night..... but we had a deal with a "professional queue guy"...... he manages several people who stand in line for all night..... and others pay out to take their positions...... these are called "dalal" or brokers by most..... and although none can prove that they are in violation of any rules, they are looked at as part of an illegal gang...... whatever the case, this is an easier method for those not willing to spend their bed-time on the streets and having the ability and willingness to spend for that instead.....

these brokers were working in collusion with the police very openly.... the duty police officer knew every single broker and he seemed to have trusted the brokers more than the others not using a broker....... it was quite obvious that all the people there spending the night there had some interest...... and most of that interest came from the smell of money...... there were people selling the services of filling-up the forms, photocopying, pen and stapler, tea and snacks, and even a place to store your bag, as the Embassy didn't allow bags inside..... small children had their pockets filled with cash just by selling pen and stapler services.... an old woman was keeping the bags saying that she couldn't run away with those..... I also kept my bag there......

the other thing that had a profound influence on me, was power..... these people held some power here that was hard to break by most... and that powerful position allowed them to behave as they wished with whoever they wished to...... they were ready manhandle anyone who didn't follow their rules there..... and the police worked hand-in-hand with these people...... it was almost as if these brokers were part of the system in place!!

we used a couple of brokers who somehow managed to squeeze the two of us into line...... but not without some hassle..... we had to pay Tk 1,200 to the guy for managing the two positions..... we had serials of 23 and 24...... the next phase came when the clock ticked 7:00...... a huge clamour started....... the duty police official went crazy and began to shout, "stand in line!!"...... we quickly realised that it was time for a higher police authority to came up and screen out the people who couldn't show any document to prove that they were the actual applicants....... and even though there were some screening-outs, somehow our serial numbers went back to 35 and 36...... this higher official went through the visa application forms of everyone and gave serial numbers to everyone....... proxy people were all kicked out..... this was the moment our broker was worried about most... if his people were kicked out of line without a client, we wouldn't get anything.... the guy next to us wasn't ready with his forms..... so, the official actually gave the number and signed on his palm!.... and also warned him that he had to get everything completed and got signed on the papers......

emotions were running high from the start..... there were lots of loud voices and pushing and pulling..... the brokers played their due part until the higher police official came up..... it was 'police time' from 7:00 onwards..... the officials looked at us and asked if we were using any brokers to get our positions..... because, according to him, we didn't look like people who stood in line for long..... this was the same question asked by an Embassy official at the entrance..... I was struggling to find out the motive behind such a question....... it was almost as if an Indian visa was something to be achieved..... and visa without an overnight toil would be something illegal...... this question irritated me most......

anyway, the line began to move from 8:30AM onwards...... our turn came quite quickly...... 20 people were taken in at a time...... and we had to stand in line several times inside the embassy...... the visa processing officials tried to present themselves as the most powerful people on earth...... and they used all their power to prove that they were gods there...... we had little problem overcoming this, but some others had some really hard times without any reason..... the officials wanted to make sure that getting Indian visa stayed in their (applicants) head as one of the toughest things they've ever achieved!!

I was thinking what an opportunity this was to do a photostory...... but it was one of the most difficult..... those people, all were pouncing on sort of revenue and none would want to feature in front of a camera.... and judging by the emotions of the place, I could imagine what sort of a trouble one would face with a camera in hand...... and in any way, I couldn't carry my camera inside the Embassy... so, I left the camera back home..... keeping the camera inside the bag and keeping the bag with that woman didn't look like the most prospective thought.....

it seemed ridiculous to me people had to go through this kind of trouble to get an approval to travel to India..... I would never have gone through such a process unless it was mandatory for me...... the human lines outside Indian Embassy in Dhaka epitomized the one-sided relationship existing between the two countries......

Hajiganj tour was a really nice break.......

I had become so bored during this long stretch of holidays....... virtually spent most of the time at home...... missed several photo opportunities for this reason or that...... but I did continue shooting within my home; becoming a strobist by this time.....

my nanabari Hajiganj in Chandpur was a nice break from this boredom...... and didn't miss any chance this time...... missed the Durga Puja Bijoya Dashami celebrations in Dhaka, but got a different taste of the same event in a rural setting..... still trying to figure out whether I've really shot some keepers..... didn't get a lotta time since my return though.......

went to the bank of the mighty Meghna River at Chandpur for a nice break with the family.... it was not just a nice break, an opportunity to give the camera some practice as well....... on the way to Chandpur, I had to stop the car to shoot this........


just when the sun decided to peep........

this was a great moment of Nature...... but I don't consider this as one of my better works...... there's no subject in this shot..... and it hardly has any other substance other than the rays through the smog and the sun-star..... but still, this is one of those pics that keeps ppl interested in my photography, rather than getting bored with images that require a lot of thoughts......:)

will sit with the 550+ images that I shot during the tour again this evening.....

Moha Shaptami at Dhakeswari, September 2009

went to watch Durga Puja (Moha Shaptami) at Dhakeswari Temple with the TTL buddies........ it was a nice photowalk indeed... everywhere I could see TTL-ers........ there were almost too many photographers at times on the stage..... I constantly had TTL-ers showing up in my frame.....

it was a particularly busy place today and had some difficulties shooting with almost too many people in the frame....... as evening fell, the pressure of visitors increased, while light deteriorates...... I came back from there some time after 7:00PM......

hope to go there again during the next few days to cover the event.....

From Durga Puja, September 2009

Temporary tattoos...........

From Durga Puja, September 2009

A bit too high for some........

From Durga Puja, September 2009

Faith........

From Durga Puja, September 2009

A timely support.......

I'm now a strobist!!!

had been looking for off-camera flashes for some time now....... and had been exploring many areas too.... its a pity that photography hardware are so difficult to get in Bangladesh...... you have to change your preferences constantly until you get to a point where things are reasonably available...... I had to give up most of the options on my plate just on the group of availability..... and when I talk about availability, I mean not just being available in Bangladesh, but in south-east Asia too!!...... most people are content with basic outputs....... only a few are bothered about advanced stuff and their availability is next to nill......

anyway, got my new stuff the SU-800 flash commander and the SB-900 speedlight...... they combine with the earlier SB-600 that used to satisfy me up to some time last year.... SU-800 replaced the camera's built-in flash as the remote trigger...... but it uses the same technique, IR; thus has the same limitations...... so far, I haven't found any fault with it shooting indoors...... and its been 100% success up to now.... well, I've shot no more than 30/40 shots with this combination since getting the SU-800 on the 22nd September...... but the SB-900/SB-600 combination has been shooting with the help of the camera's built-in flash since the 18th September......

still haven't got some light modifiers that should improve shooting by some margin....... but for now at least, the need for more power has been reduced..... further addition to overall flash power has to be achieved with studio flash.... camera flashes are way too expensive..... though their portability is a great plus....... but use of studio flash brings to the original problem that I had faced -- flash triggers..... I looked for radio triggers for more than a month, but in vain...... I didn't rely on small brands as I don't have an intention of replacing them within several days....... looked for Pocketwizard Plus II, which is the industry standard........ and it was nowhere to be found.... all the suppliers failed........ and then I had to be content with SU-800, which was also difficult to find..... found it just before I was again giving up on it.....

now, SU-800 is not compatible with anything other than Nikon's latest flashes..... so, if I need more lights, I would have to go for radio triggers....... and need for more power isn't too far..... any kind of light modifier would eat up light and would reduce the available power of the flash units...... and when using flash with light modifiers for group portraits, thats when the need for more powerful flashes would come up......

anyway, I've successfully become a strobist by shooting multiple remote flashes....... lets see, where I can go with this....... here are some examples from the recent shootings...... these were shot using SB-900+SB-600 triggered by camera's built-in flash or SU-800......


Strobist info: Nikon D90 + Nikkor AF 85mm f1.8D (@f4, 1/160, ISO200) + SB-900 (on right; on the floor; indirect; TTL fill-flash) + SB-600 (on left; direct; @1/32) (all triggered by camera's built-in flash)


Strobist info: Nikon D90 + Nikkor AF 85mm f1.8D (@f4, 1/160, ISO200) + SB-900 (on right; on the floor; indirect; TTL fill-flash) + SB-600 (on left; direct; @1/32) (all triggered by camera's built-in flash)


Strobist info: Nikon D90 + Nikkor AF 85mm f1.8D (@f4, 1/160, ISO200) + SB-900 (on left front; on the ground; indirect; TTL fill-flash) + SB-600 (on right firing on white wall; direct; @1/16) (all triggered by camera's built-in flash)



Strobist info: Nikon D700 + Nikkor AF 50mm f1.4D (@f11, 1/100, ISO200) + SB-900 (beside camera's left on stand ; indirect; TTL fill-flash) + SB-600 (behind subject firing on white wall; direct; @1/4) (all triggered by Nikon SU-800)