utilise all opportunities.....

28 May 2011
Gulshan, Dhaka, Bangladesh

you have to have a camera with you all the time.... at least, thats what I had in mind for a long time.... I used to carry a DSLR with me for a long time.... even when I was going to office.... but it finally came to a halt when that camera was replaced by a netbook.... the camera quietly took the back-seat and never complained.... the D700 was too big for carry-around-all-day type of use.... unless you have some specific aims, its not really worthwhile carrying a 1kg+ camera kit..... so, when I finally got the Panasonic Lumix LX-5, it opened some new avenues for me.... I'm hoping that this new machine will increase my shooting by some margin....

an opportunity may never present itself once again.... and a moment will never come back.... and to capture that precious moment, you have to carry that camera with you.... all the time.... and I just got that benefit today.... my resolution about people photography in 2011 is on..... and when an opportunity presented itself, you've gotta grab it with both hands....

TTL Photo Adda was over..... most had already left Red Lounge (TTL office).... and then the time came to give a short demo of the smallest possible strobist kit.... the opportunity just presented itself when Faisal Bhai volunteered in front of the camera.... we were testing out with a photogenic face (Rezwan Razzaq).... but when Faisal Bhai volunteered, it was no contest.... you don't always get him to feature in front of the lens....



Saud Al Faisal..... already a legend among a lot of young photographers in Bangladesh..... founder of TTL and a mentor to a lotta photographers.... a great visionary and great friend.... a pioneer in organising young Bangladeshi photographers online..... he is the reason why we are able to do a lot of the things that we do today.... there would be a lot of photographers who can say that they are better than him.... but it would take some effort to equal the success of Saud Al Faisal as a promoter of photography in Bangladesh....

Kamal (Shadow) volunteered to hold the flash (YN-560) and the DIY diffuser (60cm x 38cm)... Kamrul was also asked to hold a magazine on the side of the flash to block light from hitting the back wall.... the flash was triggered by Elinchrom Skyport radio trigger.... I'm loving the hot-shoe of the LX-5.... shot @60mm equivalent, f2.8 1/200sec ISO 80...

a day with the LX-5.......

27 May 2011
Mohammadpur and Dhanmondi, Dhaka, Bangladesh

Panasonic Lumix LX-5..... had been thinking about it for a while now, but didn't really make progress for a lot of reasons..... the most important being the lack of supply in Dhaka.... the market looked almost too pessimistic in Dhaka.... but things really took a nice turn when I arrived at Kualalumpur..... it didn't really seem that there were any kind of crisis going on in the supply of photographic equipment.... at least, the impression that I had received in Dhaka was shattered to pieces during the first several hours of my transient stay at KL..... there was an abundance of camera and accessories in every store I looked into..... that gave me strength to go for the LX-5....

had been reading online reviews for some time now.... I shortlisted the brands to LX-5, Canon G-12 and Nikon P7000..... the list contained 3, as there was apparently a "crisis" in the supply chain..... the situation in Japan was talked about so much.... but my visit to KL made the list shorter.... the LX-5 was everywhere.... so, no issues....










anyway, the LX-5 deserved some tryouts.... and this Friday was the day..... because of the presence of the hot-shoe and complete manual control, I decided to start with my improvised studio.... Lamisa volunteered, as usual.... this was her first photoshoot since she lost her hair to an angry hair-stylist.... she advertised my newest DIY thing..... a very small diffuser that can be stowed within my small netbook bag... the diffuser is 60cm x 38cm in size.... folded, this comes down to around 20cm in diameter.... Lamisa displayed the "product" in front of the LX-5 with Elinchrom Skyport trigger.... the Skyport triggered a Ranger A-Head and that, in turn, triggered a Yongnuo YN-560 flash in optical trigger mode (see diagram).....




I shot in RAW mode.... the speed of the LX-5 in RAW mode was definitely impressive.... its not as fast as a D700, but it certainly isn't slow.... struggled with editing the RAW file for a while.... it eventually worked out..... but after that I confined myself to shooting JPEG only.... and I had received some opportunities of that during the day.... went out with the family and had some shooting opportunities.....

used a YN-560 flash sporadically to test out the practical aspect of carrying a flash in some situations..... its portability and capability certainly made it my camera of choice for at least some occasions..... I'm sure that the kind of shooting opportunity I had during the day, I would've left my D700 back home just to save my shoulders..... it was a cakewalk with the LX-5; even with a YN-560 flash and Elinchrom Skyport radio triggers.... I even carried that DIY diffuser that Lamisa tried to market in the earlier images.... the carry-on pack was extremely comfortable.... I usually carry my netbook in it... and in fact, that bag gave me a real push to look for a P&S camera.... another push came from that weird problem I encountered during the Jessore Safari....

I loved the 24mm perspective of this Leica lens... its truly a revelation.... didn't really expect a P&S camera to come up with a 24mmm lens, although now-a-days a lot of the P&S cameras are actually coming with a 24mm wide lens... the image stabilizer is really good.... tried out this below shot at 0.4sec....




the wide aperture and close focusing of the lens gave me a surprise... it produced some nice background blur.... the following was shot at 60mm equivalent at f2.8.... there was a YN-560 flash on top of the camera shooting at the ceiling....



I've also tried out that small diffuser.... it was a bit clumsy to work with, as the wire structure is a bit wobbly for hand-holding.... certainly not for any windy situations.... but it works well for such a small pack.... the light source needs to pretty close to subject to produce soft light.... thats not a real issue for a lot of shooting types....



more to write soon..... especially my KL diaries.....

shoulder-to-shoulder....

08-09 May 2011
Jamuna Resort, Tangail, Bangladesh

it was a hectic tour actually.... and it was official.... well, not that strictly that I wouldn't be able to use my camera..... and that became the best part of a day that mostly contained mathematical figures.... a dizzy day to say the least....

though it was a tour with the co-workers, it was more like a tour with friends... at least as long as we were not staring at the overhead projector..... and that drowsy stuff went on up to the evening hours when the recess finally came.... while everyone went to the swimming pool in the evening, I began to look for excuses to bring out my camera.... and the opportunity finally came when some of my co-workers raised their hands to participate in some late-night craziness...

I didn't bring a tripod, keeping the official nature of the tour in mind.... but I did have my strobist package with me.... its become something of a staple food for me now-a-days... a couple of SB-900s, a set of Elinchrom Skyport radio triggers, a 34" collapsible 2-in-1 reflector, and a DIY grid-spot.... without a tripod, I decided to use a chair for steadiness.... I was shooting somewhere around 1/10sec with 85mm and 20mm lenses.... the idea was to use the sodium street-lights.... with the white balance following the flashes, the sodium lights created a nice reddish backdrop.... and the 85mm did the rest.... there were more than enough volunteers to hold the SB-900 and the reflector, which were the main lights for most settings.... the Elinchrom Skyports were the triggers...

I wanted the pictures to talk..... to say something about the actual subjects.... in some cases I was actually successful.... and in other cases, they were dramatized portraits reflecting some ideas....

started with Tareq.... a guy with a lot of charm and attraction.... he just did whatever we told him to.... well, not really.... somehow his charming personality was feeling shy in front of the lens.... yet, we were able to produce something very moody.....



the real surprise was Khalid... didn't think that he contained that sort of a personality inside him.... his mild manners took a back seat when he showed up and began to do his stuff... he seemed so natural in front of the lens.... he is a guy who knows how to adapt... and he surely showed what a master he is in that... he became the most spontaneous in front of the camera....



it didn't take too long to find our how I would like Asheq Bhai to shoot... with his meditation background, he was going nowhere else.... and showing off his most common simplicity, he simply refused to sit on the road!!... it took Helal to take off his slippers for Asheq Bhai!!.... and we got the frame we were looking for.... his concentration was unbreakable..... if I had to go out of Jamuna Resort with just one photo, this had to be it...



I had shot Romeo before.... but here I discovered his interest in dance moves and the only thing I had to do was to set-up and shoot.... it was his move all throughout and it became a photo....



I knew his interest in acting.... I've seen that during the office event right after Pahela Baishakh.... but somehow, Helal wasn't able to bring out his expressions.... some people are very good with a script, but without the script they look in too many directions..... I switched to 20mm wide angle and tired to create some drama.... we wanted to make it look like a "Blair Witch Project" kinda shot.... we had smokers among us.... so, you can guess what happened... a bit more smoke would've triggered the fire alarm!!... thanks to the chain smokers for making this happen....



it was Sohieb next and we were all disappointed.... all his interests in music went down the drain.... literally.... he was nowhere.... and to complicate matters, we didn't have any musical instrument or any mike or any other prop that might've added a bit of interest..... anyway, ultimately a candid moment was something that interested me more than anything else..... and it was more "Blair Witch" than Helal's....



last of all, we went indoors..... and the idea was to create a scary-movie kinda shoot..... the light had to look like coming out of the TV.... and the mood of the light had to go with it..... I didn't have gels, so, I decided to play with the white balance.... a second flash (with warm gel) was placed in the room next door to fill the frame.... the dark door looked too empty.... I was really impressed by the expressions presented by Mehrab.... they were superb!!.... similar expressions were tried by Helal too.... but they were not as dramatic.... I would say Mehrab has some prospect with acting.... :)



it was well beyond midnight when we stopped shooting..... there were other subjects who also featured in front of the lens... Aslam Bhai, Sami, Rashed Bhai they all showed great deal of interest.... they had their own stories to tell.... may be would tell their stories in the coming days.... we did this as a good deal of fun.... the best part of it was that we all enjoyed the moments together.... we work shoulder-to-shoulder day in and day out.... and we also enjoyed the moments there shoulder-to-shoulder..... all that would remain in the coming days would be memories....

I will miss Basila.....

01 May 2011
Basila & Char Washpur, Dhaka, Bangladesh

I've gone there so many times and now I have to let go.... how?.... I know its not a pleasant thing to do, but I have to.... Basila had been my quickest getaway place for years.... one of the few places in Dhaka where you can watch a nice sunset..... whenever I got bored with hectic life, but didn't have enough time to manage on weekends, Basila was the place to go.... TTL's first photowalk was there.... that was back on 5th September 2008.... the Third Buriganga Bridge was still under construction.... lots of memories.... Gazi Bhai, Rumi Bhai and me went there too many times.... also went there regularly with others....

From Basila & Char Washpur, May Day 2011

Ail Hossain is one of the handfull of boatmen still operating with their rowing boats.... he's been doing this for more than 40 years, and doesn't find any other alternative.... most of others have already changed profession

I've seen the change of life around that bridge.... the boatmen of Basila had been my subject for some time..... but with time, their numbers dwindled; so did my photography around them... the Buriganga had never presented itself as a romantic place for photography.... but thats the only place where you could see the sun going down.... with all that concrete hiding the horizon, there was no other place to go... the afternoon sun illuminating the Buriganga Bridge had always been a lovely sight... it reminded us that there still was hope if we wanted to do something....

From Basila & Char Washpur, May Day 2011

the maze of pipes and bamboo pillars now dwarf the River Buriganga....


the place on the other side of the bridge at Char Washpur was a great place to do some photography.... at least, we did find some photos during the last couple of years.... there are quite a few brick-fields around that place.... they presented a gloomy backdrop for some environment-theme photography.... there were landfill projects going on over there while we did photography.... now the landfill finally caught up with us and as it seems, thats probably the end of photography for us at that place.... there would be no way to snap the Buriganga Bridge illuminated by the afternoon sun.... the landfill is now owned by some industrial unit, probably a power plant...

From Basila & Char Washpur, May Day 2011

it was May Day.... but that didn't stop work on the embankment for the landfill... it probably is the site for a power plant...

From Basila & Char Washpur, May Day 2011

some idle moments for the workers.....


when we reached the other side of the Buriganga, we found some embankment being constructed over there..... we snapped a few shots over there with the workers.... it was May Day, which is why there were lesser number of people working, but work certainly didn't stop.... there were marks of caterpillars everywhere, making the landscape look scarred... the landfill made the river look even smaller.... and with the sand-bearing vessels unloading their sands through long pipes, the river was hard to find.....

From Basila & Char Washpur, May Day 2011

there were caterpillar marks everywhere..... a symbol of a mechanical world devouring the Nature....

From Basila & Char Washpur, May Day 2011

workers at the landfill are witness to this monster.... a monster of our own creation....

From Basila & Char Washpur, May Day 2011

it was really hard to find the actual course of the river.... most of the river has dried up..... and this is the driest part of the year, aggravating the situation even more.... we were staring at a dead river....


we were evicted.... yes, we were.... all on a sudden a manager with a tough face came up and told us to leave.... he even rebuked the worker who featured in one of our shots.... we probably didn't miss a lot of photography on that day, but the very fact that we got evicted from there was a bad memory for us.... but that bad memory is not even close to the missing opportunities in the coming days.... the snaps we got there until that day would remain as memory..... these are history.... history of Basila and Char Washpur.....

never underestimate the SU-800.......

17 April 2011
Dhanmondi, Dhaka, Bangladesh

well, why am I posting old stories one after the other??.... well, its all about time, isn't it?..... but I'm trying heart and soul to continue with blogging.... I hate stopping in mid-stream..... don't want my laziness to creep in.... that can be dangerous.... anyway, cut the crap and lets go down to the main topic....

as I mentioned in a previous post, my D700 was having a weird sync problem just before I started for the Jessore Safari of TTL... and when I returned from Jessore, I was faced with the prospect of taking my camera to office.... there was a Pahela Baishakh program at my office.... so, before I started for office in morning, I decided to try it out and see whether the problem persisted.... the plan was that if the problem did persist, I would not even take the camera with me, totally shelving the idea of shooting during the program.... and to my real surprise, it started working!!..... it worked in all trigger modes!!... so, the shooting was on.... I took the SU-800 with me along with the Elinchrom Skyports...

the program was arranged within a pretty confined space.... and there was no room to move.... thus there was a severe problem with getting the right angle to shoot.... to get the freedom of movement, I decided to depend on one off-camera flash to illuminate the whole place and to shoot with the 85mm almost wide open.... the trigger was the SU-800.... from the start, I knew that the SU-800 was the way to go.... being able to change power of the flash from the camera is a great convenience... especially when movement is not even an option.... during the whole event, I only shot from two positions.... and to achieve the second position, I had to cross some hurdles....

the power of IR was evident.... it was an indoor event; so, the SU-800 never failed even though I was shooting in different directions.... camera's built-in commander is never that powerful and reliable.... I shot more than 400 images during the event without any slip off.... and another point was the battery life or Eneloop/Cameleon (I forgot which set I was using).... shooting at mostly 1/8 power and sometimes 1/4 to full power, I didn't have to worry at all about battery.... it wasn't showing any strain.... for the whole event, it was one SB-900 placed around 10-12 feet left of my position.... sometimes it was behind me and sometimes in front.... I was shooting all manual setting; both camera and flash.... didn't want the TTL metering to change the settings that I wanted....











it was a pretty lively program performed by Baul singers (traditional folk singers).... they were expressive as well, giving me enough opportunity to test out the flash count of the batteries.... after the event, I thought I could utilise the settings a little bit and do some portraiture (for which I received some requests)... the 85mm was producing some lovely bokeh with the nice tungsten lighting in the background..... I used an on-camera SB-900 to bounce light from the ceiling, but then switched to a 34" collapsible reflector (white side) to bounce light from an SB-900 to create a directional and diffused light source.... the SU-800 again playing the trigger role....




model: romeo

I changed the batteries for this portrait session.... not taking any more chances.... another 100 or so frames followed as a result.... but for the whole event, the SU-800 was the key.... I hadn't been using the SU-800 for a while.... didn't take it to any of the recent shootouts.... but it again proved how valuable it can be in specific situations..... and as my experience from the Jessore Safari taught me, you have to have options and backups..... thats the way to go.....

where there's light, there's a way....

15-16 April 2011
Jessore and Narail, Bangladesh

yea yea.... its been a while fore sure.... writing this blog two weeks after the event doesn't really give me pleasure... but at least, I've managed to write something.... anyway, this is about how I managed location lighting during the Jessore Safari arranged by TTL.... I've shared my camera's flash sync problem in my previous blog post, which really pushed me during this safari.... learned a lot of lessons and now trying to make the best use of those lessons... the first thing is not to forget the lessons and with my poor memory, thats always a challenge.... I rather write things up so that I can revisit them....

the first challenge came up at renowned artist S M Sultan's home.... we found bit of a pottery village there right beside that place and almost like found the moon in our hands!.... an old lady was working on her pottery and presented ourselves with a fantastic photographic opportunity.... but it was a challenging situation to say the least..... lighting was tricky and it came down to the management of dynamic range.... I had decided to emphasize on the wheel, which was decorated for the purpose of worship and tradition.... the wheel was not to turn during the whole month of Baishakh... and there would be flowers presented at the wheel everyday during the month of Baishakh.... the problem was, while the back of the shade was in quite a bit of darkness, including the old lady, the wheel in the foreground was getting harsh summer sunlight.... it was around 10:00AM, but 10AM during April is more than just a bit of sunlight!!..... I decided to illuminate the subject separately with a flash and to block the direct sunlight falling on the wheel.... Shudipto held the SB-900 on camera left to illuminate the subject.... resorted to optical trigger of D700 to trigger the flash.... the flash worked even though it was behind my camera.... I used warm gel on the flash to emulate early morning sunlight.... but the warmth became a little too much for comfort, which had to be corrected in Photoshop.... tried to block the direct sunlight on the wheel with two of our buddies standing right beside me and one holding a collapsible reflector to block light.... it worked to some extent, but there was still some light on the wheel, which again needed to be corrected in Photoshop.... and now comes the most important question..... how on earth I managed to do Photoshopping.... well, when you get the master for free, you try to utilise him, isn't it??..... my buddy photographer Kamrul Hasan did that fabulous job for me and I was dumb seeing his hand in the work....


Pori Bala doesn't know how old she is..... but our guess is, she would be in her late eighties to early nineties.... she's been doing this since her childhood..... that wheel is the witness to her toil; witness to her life....

I've already shared the details of the horse race and the portrait of the winning combination in a previous blog post..... that was the second challenge..... the third challenge came during the next day of safari, at poet Michale Madhusudan Dutt's home.... it was a great combination of arches that I wanted to feature.... there was a poem of the poet on the big wall opposite the arches.... but there was no subject to shoot and the light was pretty bland as well.... I wanted to create some drama by bringing that big wall in focus..... it was a very very warm and humid day and we were sweating like pigs!!.... I decided to concentrate on creating one photo.... and it took me around 35 minutes to come up with something that I desired..... I had already swapped my D700 with Saif Bhai's to keep safe of the problems I mentioned with flash sync.... I put a couple of SB-900s behind the arches with warm gel and illuminated the big wall.... the wall thus got the attention that it didn't have.... and quite fortunately, I got the subject as well.... there was a team of visitors from Iskcon Temple of Khulna.... and one of them was a young monk in orange dress that completely covered his body.... I couldn't poshttp://www.blogger.com/img/blank.gifsibly find a more contrasting subject in that place..... he was quite co-operative as well, standing right where I told him to, controlling the shadows on the wall.... in fact, I did the whole shoot twice with two lighting setups.... the second time I told Zaim to fetch him!!.... and he was so kind to lend himself to us once again.....

the Elinchrom Skyports caused a lotta trouble for some reason I don't know.... they were barely 20ft from my camera, but they refused to fire when my camera was either out of sight or I went closer to ground!!.... there was empty floor in between... anyway, I was able to pull it off in the end.... the shot would've been more realistic if I could set a big flash some 50ft or so behind the arches to emulate early morning sunlight.... anyway, thats wishful thinking..... you have to work with whatever you have....



the fourth challenge came right outside Michael Madhusudan's place..... there's an old mosque; a pretty small one, but old enough to cause interest.... we stopped our car and went in..... we found Ramzan Ali Sheikh to feature in front of our camera.... he was willing and extremely helpful.... he gave us 20 minutes to do our thing and did exactly what we told him to.... I shot some frames, but didn't really like any one of them.... so, concentrated on getting one shot only that I can be a bit happy with..... my main aim was to make it look natural, as it happens on a typical day.... it was difficult to get the subject separated from that window in the back, but as I said, this was the natural position for him so, I kept the frame intact just for the sake of keeping it natural..... a position closer to the window would've made his silhouette more prominent against the window, but that would've been the unnatural position.... and also wanted to keep the details inside the mosque..... now, the details were quite tricky to say the least.... light conditions inside the mosque made it impossible to get all details in one shot.... perhaps some HDR can get this right, but me not being an HDR person, was always looking to create with my available light, which means, the light available in my pocket -- a flash!!.... the line of Qur'ans and the texture on the wall were just too important for me.... I decided to expose them with a remote flash.... told Zaim to stand with a flash outside the mosque to shoot through the window in the back..... the mosque was on an elevated ground, which made the outside flash shooting from below even when Zaim was standing on a chair!!..... so, I told Zaim to relax and brought the flash inside the mosque.... to make it look like natural light, I set the flash near the wall on the opposite on camera left.... the flash was shooting bare towards the wall, bringing in just a bit of light on the dark foreground.... I was trying to keep the depth of field at maximum, shooting at f14.... keeping the subject, as well as the Qur'ans in focus.... but, that was killing the details in the background.... so, kept a shutter speed of 1/40 and ISO of 800.... I was lying on the floor to get this.... without that precious flash, this was an impossible shot.... the camera was again Saif Bhai's and trigger was Elinchrom Skyport...




I've become a strobist for sure... location lighting has become a very important part of my photography now.... ever since I went into that jute mill at Narayanganj, I knew that this was the way for me.... and with the resolution of 2011 for me, this has gained added impetus... the lessons from this safari were really something.... first lesson was to keep options and backups.... I almost suffered because of the only one camera body.... thanks God that Saif Bhai helped me out.... trigger options also have to be there... being versatile is the key.... I shot the winning combination portrait and the Pori Bala portrait using the D700 built-in flash in manual mode and the SB-900 in optical trigger mode (SU-4).... the other two were done using Elinchrom Skyport.... the built-in flash should never be ignored.... it saved me the precious time during the horse race portrait to turn around in record time.... another lesson was gels.... gotta have more options in hand.... at least one diffuser is a must, be it an umbrella or a white collapsible reflector or something else....

well, that it for this.... lessons learned.... have learned some more lessons in recent days and hope to share those too....

end of Baishakh?...... well, not really....

30 April 2011
Mohammadpur, Dhaka, Bangladesh

it was a sad tale on the night of 14h of April, Pahela Baishakh.... my family was ready, while I wasn't..... it was some weird technical trouble that prevented me from recording those happy moments of my family..... what good are your equipment if they fail to impress your dearest ones??.....

I was preparing for the Jessore Safari of TTL before we were to visit a relative's for a Pahela Baishakh party.... and it was a small window of opportunity to shoot some colourful picture..... and then it happened.... the D700 stopped syncing with off-camera flashes.... the flashes were going off, but the light wasn't featuring in the exposure at all!!...... checked the shutter speed.... went down to 1/30sec.... no change.... changed radio trigger batteries..... no change.... switched to SU-800..... no change in any mode.... cleaned the hot shoe.... no change.... then switched to built-in flash as commander.... no change!!..... this is the time I realised that the problem lies with the camera body..... something happened that prevented the camera from syncing with off-camera flashes..... now I switched to manual mode for the built-in flash..... 1/128th power and kept the flashes in optical trigger mode..... whoooosh!!!.... it worked!!!...... that convinced me that it was sort of a software problem..... all this took long enough to force me to abandon plans for any shoot..... my heart sank!!.... it wasn't just a disappointment not being able to snap my little angel in lovely attire, I was also leaving for the safari with a specific aim to shoot people..... it was a bad evening.... really bad!!.... what happened to the safari?..... well, hope to share those in a separate blog post..... had been too busy of late to post all the experiences from the tour.....

now, lets come back to the present..... since that Pahela Baishakh disaster, I was looking for the opportunity to recreate those moments in my makeshift studio..... couple of weeks passed without being able to do that..... but I didn't give up..... the patience paid off.... and here we go..... I had to clean off most of my equipments as they have collected bit of dust over the last three weeks.... looked for a simple big light setup, but also wanted to put a light behind the white backdrop..... used a second light behind the backdrop for couple of shots, but abandoned that in favour of one light, as the second light had to be set up on the ground, making the light direction bad.... one light was struggling to recycle at full power as I was shooting at f10..... with the second light idea shelved, I reduced the power of the backdrop light.... the main light was simple..... used a big white cloth as a 4.5'x4.5' diffusion panel and used the Simpex 25"x25" softbox bare on Elinchrom Ranger A-head to control light spill....











it was never easy to shoot Lamisa..... she loses interest quite quickly.... and not to mention that she always wants to see the output on camera LCD before the next shot.... a total of 14 minutes was more than enough to complete the whole shoot, which also included a long wardrobe break!!..... anyway, I was happy.... and thought I've at least closed one chapter from that disappointment..... oh, forgot to tell.... that weird problem..... is gone now!! :)

set-up....