a taste of speed......

15 April 2011
Narail, Bangladesh

it sure was a treat to experience this.... we didn't really know that such a thing actually existed in Bangladesh.... a horse race; a rural horse race!!..... the moment we heard about this, our heart leaped.... and I couldn't even think of taking my eyes off this event..... Shudipto has let us see the country.... can't thank him enough.... this was yet another superclass tour organised by TTL.... something to remember for a long time.....

Narail is around an hour's drive from Jessore.... but the place where this race was supposed to happen was not that easy to get to..... a further one hour's travel was required before we could see some horses.... it was the village Khashia in Lohagara Upazilla.... we had to cross the River Nabaganga by boat and also needed to travel by some local motor vehicles, which created some unique sound!



it was a demonstration of prestige.....








"Sada Ghora" was the majestic winner.... except only once, it always achieved a head start and the jockey Bulbul was guiding the majestic animal like an expert rider!!







it was amazing to see how young they were and also, how competitive they were..... their competitiveness made the race attractive....




whether its a winning horse or not, there's a bond that remains intact.... they were all tired at the end of the race and needed some time to catch their breath....




there was only one real competition for Sada Ghora.... he won one race beating Sada Ghora.... but his joys were short-lived....



the horses had to be taught the way of the race.... the trainer and the jockey would take the horse down the track to give it a feel of the soil....




the race went on into the fading light.... the last and the deciding lap.....




and there was no stopping Sada Ghora.....

had no idea about this event, actually..... and discovered everything after reaching there.... we discovered all that in testing weather conditions.... reached there by around 1:00PM, but as it turned out, the race didn't really get started before 4:00PM.... there were five laps and the whole thing lasted up to around 5:45PM, under fading light.... the weather was even more tasking on the participants.... we could see that on the soaking wet bodies of the horses and the exhausted faces of the jockeys..... the jockeys were something to see.... didn't expect them to be that young.... forget about child issues.... this is rural Bangladesh and you have to accept what you get.... this is the tradition here..... they are not just low on their weight; they're low on their age as well.... the winning jockey was only 12 years old!!..... but you have to say that he was good..... his body language tells that he doesn't want anything lower than the first prize....

after the race, I hardly had two minutes to complete the portrait of the winner, "Shada Ghora" (literally meaning, White Horse).... improvisation was the key here.... my D700 was suffering from a weird problem with flash sync.... and I discovered the problem right before I started for the tour... so, I couldn't take my chances with this.... I banked on the only way it worked.... optical trigger.... used the built-in flash at lowest power and triggered the SB-900 in SU-4 mode..... Zaim did a great job adjusting to the "dancing" horse and also adjusting to the constantly changing angle of the photographer as a result of the dance.... the SB-900 was bounced into a white collapsible reflector.... used the white side rather than the silver side.... Zaim held both.... the light was tricky, as the sun had gone down quite a while back.... there was hardly any ambient light available to create a dramatic backdrop..... but the moon was up and there was a palm tree to anchor to....



the jockey, Bulbul, was quite a character.... he said that he's been racing for more than four years!!..... and his experience can be seen in his riding..... he's been busy of late.... just one day before, he was racing at Faridpur!!.... and he claimed that he doesn't lose races!!..... thats quite a claim, but he surely had the spirit..... Shada Ghora lost lap number 3 to another horse, but came back to win the rest.... it was a majestic victory!!

anyway, that was that for the day..... it took some time and effort from us to reach back to Jessore.... more on that later....

a tearful achievement.....

08 April 2011
Dhaka, Bangladesh

it was the 29th of May 2009 when I had made a visit to 33 Paridas Road at Old Dhaka..... it was a building waiting to be destroyed.... the 170-year old structure was actually destroyed not too long after that visit of ours.... I had a plan to show the pictures to the owners so that they could rethink their decision.... but somehow, I failed to reach them and the obvious happened....

From Legend of Peari Das, Dhaka, May 2009

From Legend of Peari Das, Dhaka, May 2009

From Legend of Peari Das, Dhaka, May 2009

it was an emotional feel for me when I saw the pictures in a presentation I made for the owners.... even though the presentation never reached the owners, it certainly moved me.... so, when I got a mail from a person who lived in that building way back before the Liberation War of 1971, I immediately knew how he felt like.... even I could feel life and memory in every brick and every bend..... I can still remember the shiver I got when I saw that old picture lying on the ruinous top floor.....

From Legend of Peari Das, Dhaka, May 2009

From Legend of Peari Das, Dhaka, May 2009

From Legend of Peari Das, Dhaka, May 2009

I had a long phone conversation with him tonight..... and that conversation gave me a feel..... a feel that makes you believe in your cause.... you immediately know that you have broken the barriers of time..... and you know that in this day of globalization, its not too difficult to reach to people you never thought could be reached.....

I am glad that one day I decided to pick up that machine called camera..... and whatever I have done with that machine in my hand is going to remain as some of my top achievements in my life..... and some of those top achievements would be tearful achievements....

third time lucky!!

Third High-rise Graffiti Shoot

02 April 2011
Dhaka, Bangladesh

and yes, we went there once again...... when we last went there, we thought that was the last time we would go there... but as it turned out, it wasn't the last attempt after all..... full credit goes to Zaim for organising this yet again.... its a privilege to be able to use that private property time and time again to come up with some unique stuff....

this time, it was the biggest event we've organised there so far.... and it also was the biggest event of TTL Koba Squad by some margin!!..... it was the biggest, despite the absence of a lotta others who promised to turn up... because of the size of the company, we decided to split up the overall group into two teams..... one team was to explore the top floor with graffiti (floor#1) and the other team was to discover the virtually empty floor below that (floor#2)..... as I had been there twice before, I thought it would be a nice enough experience shooting in floor#2.... and it was a great experience all around!!

I was accompanied on my floor by some really dedicated young guys who produced the most outstanding ideas and put them to practice..... it was a tough job implementing the not-so-easy ideas, but the ultimate outcomes justified all that pain.... and hae to say, we had a lotta fun!!.... I was really lucky to have Rizwan and Nasif with me, who were joined by Nasif's very young student, Aymaan.... we were also joined by others during the shoot..... Ronie, Ripon Bhai, MMZ, NiH, and others joined us for some brief periods.....

I had some big ideas with some unique stuff..... and we dragged quite a bit of equipment up there to implement such ideas.... but ultimately we were pegged back by some empty promises.... some of our most important people didn't arrive.... so, had to switch to plan B...

we started off with some fairly simple ideas..... wanted to take a wide shot (20mm) of the empty space with the windows featuring in the background..... Nasif volunteered to be the first subject.... used an Elinchrom Ranger with a softbox to illuminate Nasif... but as it turned out, there were substantial light spill on the ceiling from the softbox, which forced us to use a grid-spot and forget the softbox idea for the day..... the grid-spot worked wonders.... it made the light really directional and there was no spill.... to separate Nasif from the background darkness, I put Rizwan behind a pillar with an SB-900 flash in his hand.... the SB-900 was in optical trigger (SU-4) mode and picked up light from the Elinchrom....

From Third High-rise Graffiti Shoot, 02 April 2011

then were was the turn of Nasif.... we planned to create sort of a Forest Gump with Ronie.... a lone chair and a lonely desolate place with left-over materials.... and Ronie was just looking for some divine help to get out of this mess... a simple, but effective picture that I really wanted to shoot.... but this time, Nasif took the credit for that lovely image.... I played the role of a VAL (voice-activated lightstand) with one SB-900 in my hand....

then came the turn of the more complex stuff.... I was thinking of some funky images with a subject, who represented the new generation.... Nasif brought his young student Aymaan, who I have to say played a great role in front of the lens, which he probably didn't think of before..... he was patient with our constant fiddling with lights and stuff.... and although Nasif's first shot was done in half-an-hour, this shoot continued for a full one hour!!....

From Third High-rise Graffiti Shoot, 02 April 2011

From Third High-rise Graffiti Shoot, 02 April 2011

we used the Elinchrom Ranger unit to produce a red backdrop with a red gel and barn doors.... the first shot was just with that backdrop, which didn't really impress anyone.... then we made it a bit more complex by switching to 85mm from the 70-210mm and shooting wide open @f2.0 to put the background out of focus..... that produced another dilemma.... a window was putting in too much light inside and we had to block it to control light..... we used some readily available dirty stuff to accomplish that (not without some toil, though).... then the empty ceiling came up in the frame... and I though it would be a nice idea to put some contrasting colour on the ceiling..... out came an SB-900 with a blue gel on it and left in in the hands of Ripon Bhai..... now we had a night-club-like backdrop.... the main light was in the hands of Nasif, who held an SB-900 in one hand and a Simpex softbox in the other.... Nasif also wanted to be featured, but his profile didn't even come close to Aymaan's..... Aymaan's was a winner!!

the next one was the ultimate execution of our big ideas.... and it took an hour and 20 minutes to complete the whole thing!!.... I had managed Shudipto the night before to bring in some "dhuup", which would help us to create some smoke-filled environ.... this was an alternative to fog machine, which required AC power.... and we gave up that idea since it would've been virtually impossible to carry a fog machine and a generator up to the 12th floor!!.... Nasif received the dhuup from Shudipto the evening before, only to discover at the dead of the night that he lacked a pot for that.... well, that was managed at the last moment.... and now, the challenge came to light it up..... all on a sudden, Rizwan jumped in and said that he knows how to do this!!..... and we got our shot!!

From Third High-rise Graffiti Shoot, 02 April 2011

well, the actual shot wasn't as easy..... we had to create the whole scene before we could light up the dhuup, as the dhuup would run out of smoke if we spend too much time creating the scene..... the idea was instigated by Nasif.... he thought it would be a nice idea to put a light inside a ghost mask that he brought..... he wanted the light to burst through the eyes of it..... but that mask alone was not gonna be the trick.... we had to have a subject.... suddenly it came to my mind that I had the 4'x4' diffusion panel in my bag..... now Nasif turned into a voodoo magician of sorts..... the mask remained pretty much in the dark, lacking details.... so, we put Aymaan there with a small flash at very low power..... we were short of grid spots, so, Aymaan put his hands around the flash to limit the spill of light..... now there was light coming out of the mask, and yet, it kept all the details..... the mask with the light inside was placed on a light-stand.... Nasif's white "gown" was not featuring much in the scene, so, we hired a YN-560 flash from upstairs and put it in the hands of Rizwan.... now, this was the hard part..... we had to balance the radio triggers with optical slave.... so, eventually, Rizwan was holding an SB-900 and Aymaan was holding a YN-560.... Rizwan's flash had a CTO on it and a DIY grid-spot to focus the light on Nasif's hand, which was like "controlling" the spooky mask!!..... the light also illuminated Nasif's "gown"!!..... the last part of the frame was the background, which was fixed first.... we used the same Elinchrom Ranger setting from the previous shoot with red gel on it.... and we had the set ready.... after 20 minutes' effort Rizwan and Nasif were able to create that smoke and we were in action..... this "lighting-up smoke and shoot" procedure continued for around 10 more minutes before we finally called it a day!!..... it was a remarkable show of perseverance from Nasi, Rizwan and Aymaan.... they all were tired at the end of it..... but we were all delighted by the output we got!!

From Third High-rise Graffiti Shoot, 02 April 2011

the last part of the day was a big disappointing, as our radio triggers kept malfunctioning..... it was probably because of lack of proper battery charge.... the Skyports were not triggering the lights regularly and event though they were firing, they weren't syncing..... it was frustrating to end the day with such disappointment.... yet, Nasif was able to create some more funky shots of Aymaan with the Yongnuo radio triggers.....

it was real festival on the top floor, as there were more people clamouring for space.... there were the graffitis and most had not seen those.... for them, it was another discovery..... we watched them create their last image before we moved out..... that last shot was awesome and really showed some creativity and effort.... the dedication in the shot could be seen in the output..... we were all exhausted at the end of the day.... we started in the morning hours and it was late afternoon when we all finished up...... there was no electricity in the building, as before.... and the top floor was almost suffocating..... we had a bit better time on the floor below, where the weather was much more gentle on us......

it was an effort well worth!!..... and cheers for Zaim once again!! :)

a small tribute.....

01 April 2011
Dhaka, Bangladesh


had been thinking of this for some time.... but at last I thought the time has arrived.... I had been in photography for more than five years now and it was late last year that I finally understood what the most important subject in photography is.... and thats exactly why I took "people photography" as a resolution for 2011.... to me, its the most challenging and the most rewarding in photography........

everything has a start.... where did this thought start then?..... like a lotta other stuff it didn't start too far away..... it was my workplace where I got that spark.... a very unlikely place considering the fact that its work pressure that actually gave me the biggest push behind starting photography.....

it was late July 2010 when this all happened.... he had been my boss for five years.... it wasn't just a working relationship that I had with him..... he had always been beside me like an elder brother with all his experience and advice.... we spent long enough time to be considered as part of one family.... never really understood when this turned into sort of a bondage..... and also, didn't actually realise this until those last days of July.....

I had always dreamed of taking a portrait of him..... but didn't really know that it would be on his day of farewell that I would finally be able to accomplish this..... it was right after we gave him enough time to shallow those tears.... it was sort of an emotional thing for me as well, but had keep my composure to be able to come up with a reasonable outcome..... I had already thought about this the night before and determined that it had to be an image that shows his inner self..... a self that only those close to him knew about....



I persuaded him to clean up his table!!... wow!!.... that was an achievement.... I had never seen that free of piles of paper!!.... I wanted that window open..... I wanted the light to burst in like freedom, breaking all barriers.... reflecting on that glossy table and illuminating those glasses of his that made him an icon among so many...... and I made him do a thing that he had never done..... stare at that light of freedom!!!..... I felt like finding that soul that always wanted to fly.... it was one of those moments in photography when you feel that you've done something good....

there were just too many moments that reminded of him during the last eight months.... we watched the ICC WC Cricket 2011 together and we felt that empty chair... we felt that absent voice..... and we missed that inspiration.... and when he reads this from that far away land, I'm sure that he will know that there are many a souls that will not forget him....