Ideas_R_Bulletproof

playing with time....

2012-01-28T15:39:00.000+06:00

07 January 2012
Mohammadpur, Dhaka, Bangladesh

remember the gloomy day photoshoot from fifteen months ago?.... no?.... then let me refresh your memories.... we were in the middle of a photoshoot with two of our best models.... Lamisa and Tabassum.... time flies isn't it?.... to us it seemed just yesterday.... now we know that our children are growing.... and the evidence of their gradual progression can only be recorded in a camera.... what a magic machine that is!!

we had to sacrifice something every time we were allocating some time behind some photoshoot.... at that time we feel all the pain, tiredness, and throw a question-mark on the whole thing..... "is it really necessary?".... "what if I take a rest today and do it tomorrow??"..... I'm glad for every single photosession decision that I've taken in my life.... and I'm sad for every single one of them that I missed for one reason (excuse) or the other.... time is our judge.... I can't possibly answer the question in the ailing days -- "what was I doing on that day?? was I that busy??"

every time I find an excuse to pick the camera in my hand, I feel lucky.... lucky to capture time... history... glad that I chose to be a photographer!!

anyway, we wanted to recreate memory.... so, we dressed Lamisa and Tabassum in almost the same fashion we did fifteen months back.... we could see the difference... the children are no longer one-and-a-half year olds... they're now three-year-old preschoolers... they're much more expressive now....

on a technical note, this time the lighting was totally different.... you can see the background dark in the new photos.... this is the effect only a softbox would leave.... it was taken with an Elinchrom Rotalux 100cm "Deep Octa" softbox..... its punchy light with sharp falloff was quite evident.... and to add to the falloff, the softbox was a bit tilted towards the floor; not 100% parallel to the ground.... the main idea was to take some intimate portraits of the two together..... so, the setup wasn't that perfect to get them dancing around all over the place..... for that kind of shoot, probably the earlier setup was better.... to see the setup of the earlier shoot, please see the earlier blog post.....for this shoot, it was shot on D700 + 28-80mm lens and whole shoot was done at f8... trigger was Elinchrom Skyport....

a lot more to come....

all of that for a single idea....

2012-01-14T15:38:00.001+06:00

Three special shoots explained....

December 2011
Mohammadpur, Dhaka, Bangladesh

December 2011 was a busy time for us.... not just with location shoots, but also with shooting at our studio.... our aim was to create some theme-based photos that would talk.... and for obvious reasons, we chose to make Lamisa as our model..... for a three-year old, the themes may seem a bit too matured.... but we took the challenge anyway.... working with children over some time taught us that it is always possible to bring some out-of-the-ordinary outcomes if the effort is there.... so, we went about the projects in our minds and ultimately they spawned into some of our most favourite pictures!!

Victory Day Shoot.....

the first one was with the 16 December Victory Day theme..... we thought about bringing that sad look in the photo.... just like the most famous song for the special day.... "sob kota janala khule dao na".... a look that would portray a wait; a wait for the fallen heroes of the soil.... that wait had to be in front of an open window, which would symbolise freedom.... and the picture won't be complete without the national flag...

it was a two-day effort to produce the whole thing.... the shoot was much more challenging than preparing the set.... the lighting was kept to bare simplicity.... one light only.... a big light, that would be enough to light our subject, the window, as well the flag, which would be 'behind' the window... used the Elinchrom Ranger + Rotalux 100cm "Deep Octa" combo..... the light is not only big, it also does something that other lights can't.... its quite punchy!!.... it doesn't wipe off all the shadows, keeping the mood in the photos... Elinchrom Skyport was used to trigger the light.... I was shooting with a 50mm f1.4 lens on D700.... wasn't intending to keep the windows tack sharp in the image.... so, used a fairly big aperture of f3.5....

now, the big question..... how on earth did we manage that expression from a preschooler??.... well, thats a lot more complicated than can be explained here.... suffice it to say that it took some effort.... Lamisa was not really comfortable sitting behind the window.... and it was particularly difficult to make her keep her hands on the windows.... and the icing on the cake was the expression.... didn't come easy.... at one point, we became a bit impatient too.... but in the end, it was a success!!

Mercury Dropping Shoot.....

the next one was almost an instant decision to bring about.... as it shows, it all came up from the sudden drop in temperatures sometime around the third week of December.... it required a one-day effort to pull it off.... was less challenging than the earlier Victory Day shoot.... again, kept the technicalities to simplicity.... just one light.... a Lastolite 24" Ezybox Hotshoe softbox combined with a YN-560 flash.... Elinchrom Skyport was the trigger.... used a 50mm 1.4 lens and shot pretty much wide open ~f2.8 on a D70s...this is an old camera that I just acquired recently... and this was a nice shoot to prove that old cameras don't die that easily!!.... 50mm on the D70s produced a nice perspective @75mm equivalent.... a good focal length for portraits....

Lamisa's expression was more of a result of spontaneity than anything else.... as usual, we provided the aid to bring an expression... but ultimately it comes down to the split-second moment when the shutter closes...

New Year Shoot....

now comes the last effort of 2011.... we wanted to have two images made... one would be a sad mood related to a goodbye for 2011... and the other would be welcoming 2012.... it was another two-day effort.... set preparation was done without a lot of difficulty.... but the actual shoot with the sad expression proved a bit of a challenge... it didn't seem too difficult to us as we had already achieved a much tougher project like the Victory Day shoot....

the shoots used two different perspectives... one would show 2011 going out of the frame with Lamisa in the background staring with a sad face.... to show this, I used a wide setting and a very low vantage point... @28mm, and so close to the prop, had to use as small an aperture as possible to have enough DoF.... was shooting @f11... it wasn't an ideal aperture for this kind of a DoF requirement, yet, it was sufficient for the shoot.... the main light was again the Elinchrom Ranger + Rotalux 100cm Deep Octa combo.... but this time, I wanted to cut the shadows.... so, placed three YN-560 flashes in optical trigger mode shooting at the ceiling in the opposite direction.... the three lights ensured a good enough recycle time for the shoot.... when shooting with children, recycle time is always important.... otherwise you may miss that precious moment....

for the second photo, used the same light setup.... only the props were changed and some change in wardrobe for Lamisa.... this time, the whole perspective was different... 2012 was 'moving in' and Lamisa was happy seeing it, as it brought hope.... @31mm, the whole setting was comfortably in the frame... used the cheapie 28-80mm lens on D700 for the whole shoot... trigger was Elinchrom Skyport for the main light... and optical trigger (S1) for the YN-560s....

the second photo was much more natural for Lamisa... and it was much less complicated given the effort to bring that expression....

a whole lot more to come....

the fight within.....

2012-01-08T18:59:00.000+06:00

03 January 2012
Mohammadpur, Dhaka, Bangladesh

Riad is a nice guy.... well, a bit too nice to say that he had nurtured a bit of disappointment at some hidden corner somewhere.... so, it was time to wipe that disappointment off.... he brought in some redundant stuff which he thought might be of use for our photography... but we ended up using all of that shooting him.... what else did we have to do on a nice Tuesday afternoon??

Riad is a big fan of movies.... you name it, he's got some opinion on it.... big fan of action flicks, he always had some of his favourite characters in his mind.... sometimes even trying to replicate them in some way or the other.... its always been a fight within himself.... trying to be something which always lives in imagination....

anyway, keeping that fight in mind, we decided to turn him into a character, which would resemble some tough character, quite opposite to his actual personality.... through expressions and gestures we tried to make different frames with different message... some typical of the character he tried to resemble; some typical of the fight that rages in his heart....

we kept the lighting simple.... as we were doing some low-key sorta stuff, black on black... backlight was essential.... a YN-560 with grid spot on it as the backlight, triggered in optical trigger mode (S1).... another YN-560 inside a Lastolite 24" Ezybox Hotshoe softbox as key light from camera left.... the key light was triggered by an Elinchrom Skyport radio trigger.... used a D70s with a 50mm 1.4 lens.... shot mostly around f2.8....

a lot more to come....

night lights love 85mm.....

2012-01-04T19:49:00.000+06:00

I love my 85mm 1.8 lens... previously I had posted a blog on 85mm, utilising big windows.... but the best use of this lens doesn't come without some small lights in the background.... this lens produces some lovely bokeh.... I don't usually shoot @f1.8.... f2-2.8 produces really impressive bokeh, and at the same time, this improves sharpness.... the lens is quite sharp, mind you... but the sharpest results can be attained stopped down a little...

talking of bokeh, not everything looks that well as a background.... if there is anything as book object, it has to be lights.... out-of-focus lights produce a dreamy backdrop, making it the perfect lens for night-time portraits.... half-body to full-body portraits produce the best results with this lens, when it really shows its colours...

this lens loves street lights at night... lights and neon signs become dreamy and automatically improves the overall feel of the image.... wedding photographers love this lens.... I'm no wedding photographer, but I've used this lens at night many a times to know how good it is....

at night, focusing is bit of an issue... but that natural with any lens at night.... some sort of focusing assistance has to be there.... and when we are talking of full-body portraits, the distance of the camera from the subject makes the camera's in-built focusing assistant much less effective.... this isn't a complain against this lens in any way.... its a trait of a lens that is 85mm in focal length.... you just have to know how an 85mm lens works...

hope to post something similar on 50mm 1.4 and Sigma 150mm macro lenses sometime in future....

the hooded attitude....

2012-01-04T00:15:00.003+06:00

28 December 2011
Mohammadpur, Dhaka, Bangladesh

this was an unplanned session.... we just decided to shoot some photos literally within minutes... the whole shoot lasted barely 10 minutes!!.... we didn't try anything fancy, yet, we wanted it to be representative... we took in a thematic way, rather than literally....

our subject was a confident young man... with an attitude.... we used his hood and made him look like a hooded warrior; though he's not a warrior; not even a boxer; but he's got the attitude of a fighter.... that attitude is always beyond visual; always protected by a strong self-belief....

we had two lights within the frame.... didn't make any effort to remove the lightstands from the frame... the two lights in the back were the brightest, yet not able to revel his full face.... that went more with the theme in our view... the two lights were two YN-560s in optical trigger mode, which were triggered by the main light, another YN-560 inside a Lastolite 24" Ezybox Hotshoe softbox, triggered by an Elinchrom Skyport radio trigger.... kept things simple inside the camera.... 28-80mm lens on D700 @f8....

a lot more to come soon enough....

never forget to experiment....

2012-01-02T15:42:00.000+06:00

Christmas Day
25 December 2011
Dhanmondi, Dhaka, Bangladesh

it was a shortish photo-session.... wasn't even planned.... but we kept the options open for a session; our gears rested in our car.... as it turned out, we were really happy that we brought the gears with us..... when you have an enthusiastic subject, its always possible to come out with something interesting....

our aim was to create something interesting.... the way we started out, we all were kinda disappointed with the typical outputs.... then we changed the light direction and changed the pose to bring out some interesting portraits.... yet, something wasn't really right as we continued to change our setups.... our subject got a bit frustrated as she thought she wasn't the right subject for interesting portraits.... but hey, we just got started.... you should never give up trying until you really think its not possible to do something more... it didn't take too long for us to bring that look in the photos....

we decided to dramatize the settings a bit.... our main light was a YN-560 flash inside a Lastolite 24" Ezybox Hotshoe softbox, which was producing typical stuff.... then we added another flash in the back (another YN-560) with warm gel filter on it.... that at least brought out some feel to the pictures, with a glowing backlight....

then we decided to experiment and to dramatize it a bit more.... took off the softbox and propelled the bare flash through a patterned surface.... experimented with the distances a bit and changed the wardrobe too.... that at least brought out some mood in the pictures....the experiment paid off.... never forget to experiment... you may end up getting something interesting....

the trigger for the main light was Elinchrom Skyport and the other flash flash was in optical trigger (S1) mode.... used an 85mm lens on D700 for close shots... and used f2.8 for a dreamy feel and put the background shadows out of focus....

a lot more to come....

the flag bearers....

2011-12-30T20:41:00.000+06:00

Victory Day
16 December 2011
Mirpur, Dhaka, Bangladesh

the moment we had come to know that Pretty and her brother had the most unique of birthdays, we knew we had to do something about it.... and then when we learned that Pretty's dad was a freedom fighter, we thought it would be a huge missed opportunity if we couldn't manage time for an exclusive photo-session.... the Victory Day was coming; so, we planned for the session right away... and when we ultimately met the family and spent some time with them, we knew that we were about to do one of our most important shoots.... it was a privileged evening; some heart-warming moments and an opportunity to tell an exclusive story; a real-life story....

Professor Abdul Halim had been in the Pakistan Air Force when Bangladesh's independence was declared.... he joined the struggle for independence from the very first day and fought in the Tangail and Pabna areas of the country.... he had been one of those early venturers who risked everything and never looked back.... never had a doubt about what he was fighting for.... he remembrances from those fiery days of 1971 ignited that passion in our heart, and we almost forgot that we had a photo-session to do.... his real-life stories we so vivid and earthly, which could easily differentiate with the unreal.... his descriptions were pure, raw, and uncut.... thats history has to be read; unexpurgated.... he still remembers how after the capture of three Pakistan Army vehicles early in the war (probably around April 1971), he was hailed along with his few brave colleagues.... and how people turned against them when they were forced to retreat from Madhupur.... his words are as fresh as they had happened yesterday.... the history is as real as it can get...

Professor Halim's two children carry the flag of the nation which was born after a few like him decided to raise their voices.... Professor Abdul Halim fought off the enemy in 1971 with his gun.... that was just the beginning of another struggle.... the struggle to build a nation.... Pretty was born on 26th March, the Independence Day, and Hameem was born on 16th December, the Victory Day.... they are the children of the sun.... the flag bearers of today.... they carry forward the struggle to build the nation that their proud father dreamed of....

and there is the family.... spending time with Mrs. Halim showed us the value of this proud family.... their struggle to raise this family is an epic one; something that can inspire people.... her descriptions of the early days were vivid and captivating; capable of brining emotions.... these conversations made our stay over there truly worth-it.... Pretty and Hameem are lucky to have parents like that.... our salute!

the photo-session wasn't complete without some intimate portraits of the family.... we saved it for the last part of the session.... but this time, we did a change.... there was no national flag in the back.... the flag was a very important part of the shoot.... and as it was the Victory Day, and Hameem's birthday, it was all the more appropriate....

technically speaking, this group shoot was dependent on some moody light; yet, the contrast had to be lessened.... the main light for the whole shoot was a Elinchrom Ranger RX + Rotalux 100cm "Deep Octa" softbox combo.... the power of the Ranger was needed to get enough depth for group portraits.... trigger for the Ranger was the Elinchrom Skyport... to reduce contrast, we set up two YN-560 flashes in optical trigger (S1) mode aiming for the ceiling on the other side.... that light trickled down just about enough to cut contrasts.... two lights allowed for a faster recycle time.... the big size of the room allowed the use of 70-210mm lens, compressing perspective.... yea, we turned their living room into a temporary studio!!

anyway, a lot more to come.... getting little time to complete blogs now-a-days... but hope to catch up soon enough.....

five shots only!!

2011-12-25T00:59:00.001+06:00

23 December 2011
Dhaka, Bangladesh

this was the fourth time I had been lucky enough to participate in a graffiti shoot event, though this was the fifth event to take place... the first time it was more like an exploration.... second one was more preparation.... and the third one was differentiation.... and the fourth one??.... well, umm..... please read below....

this was another of those strobist meetups that we used to call "Koba Squad".... again, all the thanks go to Zaim for not getting tired of organising this every now and then.... and also thanks to all the participants for daring the weather and a Friday morning sleep.... and I also need to give thanks to my models for being patient and having faith on my ideas.... thanks to Faryeeha, Ayon, Rezwan, RR, Nasser, Ananya, and others (please forgive me if I forgot your names) for helping to create something different....

the idea was to try out some "film noir" kind of shoot.... but as it turned out, it was less of a classical Hollywood-style shoot, and rather more like a twenty-first century crime drama shoot.... well, sort of... we were not planning for it in advance... so, we made something out of just our imagination.... not a lot of found objects that we could use over there.... but we at least had some space and some rooms and walls to do our stuff.... in sum, we had to improvise.... may be next time, when we are more prepared with ideas, it would be something better.... but I must say, our models did wonderful.... they understood the ideas, took instructions pretty well, and constantly tried to implement the ideas as best as they could.... it was a team effort....

anyway, I had a specific theme for the shoot was more in the line of thriller drama.... "fear of the shadow".... so, there were shadows; lots of it... and darkness, and some striking colours, to strike fear.... and of course there were the expressions.... fearful, of course.... we shot just five frames.... we just thought it was better to go for a small number of satisfactory photos, rather than a lot of less-than-satisfactory ones....

technically speaking, except the last shot, all the photos had two lights.... the main light on the subject was a YN-560 flash shooting through a Lastolite 24" Ezybox Hotshoe softbox.... and the other light was another YN-560 with some sort of gel filter.... the first one had blue gel, second and third one had red gel.... the fourth one didn't have a gel on it, rather it had a grid spot on it to concentrate light.... in all the cases, the lights were triggered by Elinchrom Skyport radio triggers.... I first thought of leaving one flash in optical trigger mode.... but as Zaim & Co. had been using flashes on the other side, I had to resort to two triggers....

the last shot was a bit more complex... I brought out a third flash for it.... two flashes were gelled green... two models created the silhouettes by standing in front of the flashes.... the third light was the main light in the softbox illuminating the main subject... this time, the third flash was on optical trigger, as I didn't bring out a third radio receiver....

this was my first outing with my newly acquired old camera, the Nikon D70s.... its a great little camera with a lot of capabilities.... it performed well.... the 2" monitor was bit of a pain considering the 3" monitors that we almost habitually see everyday.... used a 20mm Nikkor on it, which became a 30mm lens because of 1.5 crop factor... 30mm was enough for the type of shoot I had in mind.... didn't need to change the lens... and in fact, didn't need to touch anything in the camera during the whole shoot... only changed some settings with the lights.... the camera was untouched.... f8, 1/160sec, 200 ISO....

a lot more to come....

frozen memories....

2011-12-24T13:35:00.001+06:00

22 December 2011

Bashundhara R/A, Dhaka, Bangladesh

every now and then these guys make my day.... well, this time it was evening... the Paraboyz are the unique bunch of guys with little similarity... 'living close by'..... yet, that small similarity is strong enough to create a long-term bondage like no other.... this bunch of dudes had been connected for almost twenty-three years.... and interesting to note that some of the members of this group are just too young to remember the early days of interaction!!.... but couple of decades later those early days are more precious than ever...

can't thank Aurnab and Nazia enough for taking the initiative and making it all happen.... would've loved to see the gathering even bigger.... but anyway, thats how it goes now.... people are just too busy to spare an evening.... thats what makes such gatherings so precious.... those who showed up deserve appreciation for daring the weather and weekday traffic.... they all sacrificed their times somewhere else to attend this event.... hats off!!

Aunik and Omi filled the memory cards of their DSLRs with lots of candid moments.... so, I thought it wouldn't be a bad idea to freeze everyone's face given that every time we see one another, there's always some change happening!!.... the group is already much bigger than before, as Srabon noted out in one of his Facebook comments.... everyone's gone through at least some sort of change.... that makes a frozen moment so much more interesting...

I took my tiny little P&S, the LX-5.... and also took a couple of flashes and a set of radio trigger for the flashes.... all that fitted in a small bag, which none would believe contained a portable studio.... thanks to everyone who posed in front of the tiny camera against their will and still gave an expression which should hold until the next get-together!!

on a technical note, the flashes were two YN-560s.... the trigger for one was an Elinchrom Skyport radio trigger and the other one was in optical trigger mode (S1).... the main light was coupled with a DIY tiny diffuser to soften the light.... thanks to Anonto, Srabon and Rahat being excellent assistant, holding both the light and the diffuser.... the second light gelled orange, was behind the subject, shooting into a white wall....

the last few pictures were in a different setting.... basically one YN-560 on camera right shooting into white ceiling.... simple one-light bounced solution.... Shihab was a bit hesitant to make their couple portrait a bit more interesting.... so, the dudes just showed him how to do it!! :)

a lot more to come.....

a casual shootout....

2011-12-20T22:58:00.000+06:00

13 December 2011
Mohammadpur, Dhaka, Bangladesh

we were planning to do a Victory Day (16th December) photo-shoot with Lamisa.... it was still at the planning stage when we thought it wouldn't be a bad idea to produce something for the Martyred Intellectuals Day (14th December).... but we were not really prepared for a time-intensive session.... it was more like a rehearsal for the big shoot ahead.... the rehearsal would be with the national flag... the Victory Day shoot would also feature the national flag as the backdrop, so we thought it would be nice if we could get some practice regarding the setups....

we received lotsa nice feedback regarding the final image that we had shared.... the most striking part of the picture was Lamisa's expression.... that expression took some effort to bring, to be honest... for the three-year old, what could we expect?.... she was much happier to smile in from the camera rather than giving a moody look..... we knew that it created a problem that would trouble us during the upcoming bigger shoot as well, because that shoot also required some moody expressions.... the total shoot lasted 6 minutes!!..... for those who thought these expressions came spontaneously, you have another chance to think about it.... :)

on the technical note, the shoot was done with an 85mm Nikkor on a D700.... to put the background out of focus, I used f2.8.... and also kept a bit of distance between the subject and the backdrop.... so, to gap that distance, I either had to use a separate light for the backdrop or had to use a bigger light to cover it all......I went for the second option.... Elinchrom Ranger RX + Rotalux 100cm "Deep Octa".... the larger softbox ensured enough light on the background as well creating that moody light on Lamisa's face.... Elinchrom Skport was the trigger.... simple, but effective lighting....

a lot more to come....

never underestimate the bounced flash!!

2011-12-13T17:40:00.001+06:00

09 December 2011
Mohammadpur, Dhaka, Bangladesh

yea, this is another of those boring technical blogs!

whatever fancy light-shaping tool I use, its always worth keeping the options open.... by open, I mean considering some of the simplest of ways to modify light.... one of the softest lights is created by bouncing from a large white surface... while wedding photographers use this as their main light almost all the time, there are problems associated with it.... one being the colour of the wall, which you can't change and the distance of the bouncing surface, which may just be too far from the camera or the subject... that way, it will eat up all the flash power and bounce only a small part of the light... and in worst case scenario, the light may not even come back to the lens!!.... anyway, my aim is not to show the drawbacks of such bounced light... rather utilising their potential in the presence of some sophisticated light-modifiers....

while the main light can give direction to the light, bounced lights can help cut shadows and contrasts.... even when using a big and broad light source as the Elinchrom 100cm Deep Octa, I kept an eye on the shadows, some of which I didn't want there.... yet, I wanted that light to be a bit directional....

the main light behind that big Deep Octa was the Elinchrom Ranger RX.... used a couple of YN-560s to bounce light off the white wall on the left.... two lights to make sure that I had sufficient frame rate.... I didn't want the YNs to struggle to cope up with the Ranger.... the YNs were in optical trigger mode (S1), picking up light from the Ranger.... the Ranger, on the other hand, was triggered by Elinchrom Skyport....

our model Naqvi was so spontaneous.... at six months, his expressions stole the show... we played with him with different themes... he shined in all of them.... he felt a bit drowsy at the end of the photo-shoot, but he was able to finish the session in good note.... we had to cut short the session a bit to accommodate his feeding and rest... in any case, for a baby session, its always the baby, who dictates the pace of the photo-shoot....

Naqvi was not a stranger in front of our lenses, as we already had another session with him a while back... he was adorable at that time, so as he is now....

a lot more to come.....

never miss the spontaneity of the moment....

2011-12-08T20:15:00.001+06:00

29 October 2011
Mohammadpur, Dhaka, Bangladesh

capturing the moment.... at least, thats what brought me to photography.... and that thing I realised every moment I found the photographed subject change with time.... street subjects are never the same... I shot the same wall twice in two days... thats how dynamic street photography is... every moment is history... and when talking about history, I've not found a more important moment than a moment in human life.... every moment is history.... you miss capturing it, you miss history.... you don't know what you've missed until you really miss it... and that will be the hardest to forget after twenty years.... I'm glad that I took my camera in my hand to capture history...

anyway, as all moments are important, I do keep an eye on spontaneity of the moment... not all photoshoots are meant to be planned and perfect... sometimes an imperfect moment is probably the most precious.... every picture of my child (Lamisa) I took during her first one year was spontaneous and the photo-series I was able to make out of that one year's effort is one of my most precious works.... after her first year, I did a lotta staged photo-sessions, but still didn't forget about the spontaneous moments....I've had a session with Lamisa with all her toys more than a year back... yet, when I saw her bringing out her own toys to hide herself among them, I had to run to grad my camera.... we helped her out a bit while shooting, not denying the fact that she instigated the shoot...

its been some time since I've used the 50mm indoors in available light.... it was a good feeling.... shot @f1.4 wide open... only had to use ISO 100 as the shutter was manageable @ 1/80.... used the backlight to overexpose the shots.... thats it...

oh, this was the 200th blog post in Ideas_R_Bulletproof blog.... started this blog on 21 July 2009 to record my regular activities... the blog's purpose changed over time and its still evolving.... thanks to the readers who had been following us (yes, its 'us' :) and also gave us lots of feedback.... thats been our inspiration.... :)

much much more to come....

addicted to "one-light"....

2011-12-07T17:10:00.001+06:00

23 November 2011
Mohammadpur, Dhaka, Bangladesh

this is another of those boring technical blogs!!....

its a lazy solution for sure.... and moreover, I'm basically lazy.... this combination is pretty damaging to new possibilities.... I've already learned to call a big DIY light-source as my "Lazy Light".... and moreover, there's the lure of a 50cm x 120cm softbox and of late, the 100cm Deep Octa.... there you go... such light sources can create such moody pictures that you would hardly want to get rid of them.... but all these sources are with the big light.... I use these with the Elinchrom Ranger RX... so, what if the light sources are basically speedlight?... actually even speedlights caused trouble for me, as I've done many a shoot with a single speedlight mounted on a softbox (Westcott Apollo 28" Hotshoe or Lastolite Ezybox 24")...

so, is this good, or is this bad?... its debatable actually... whereas more than one light source can help sculpture the light around the subject, a single light source would try to show what a single light can potentially achieve... there's no doubt that single light sources are faster to setup.... a quicker and less complicated setup can help the photographer to think more about the subject if there is time constraint.... but that definitely restricts the photographer from applying some more creative options in lighting...

another issue here to consider is the size of the light source... the first-mentioned light sources are quite big, indicating towards their suitability for fully-body portraits or group portraits.... smaller speedlights are more suitable for closer portraits, thereby serving a different purpose... single light sources can potentially create more contrasting lighting scenarios if the photographer really wanted to... in some cases it comes automatically, while in other cases, its created... that need for contrast and also the need for Depth-of-Field would decide whether light source would need to be big or small when I've already decided to go with one light...

anyway, enough of that lecture.... this particular shoot was done with Lamisa's new cycle, which can't be termed as a tricycle, as it had, well, more than three wheels!... but it worked a bit like a tricycle.... Lamisa was very much excited to feature with that new craze of hers... this was her parents' gift to her on her third birthday!.... this shoot was done within a very short time.... again, as the topic of this blog said, with one light source.... an Elinchrom Ranger RX coupled with the Simpex 50cm x 120cm softbox...

a lot more to come....

for that background separation...

2011-12-04T11:42:00.001+06:00

24 November 2011
Mohammadpur, Dhaka, Bangladesh

this is a technical blog for my strobist friends.... dark-haired people in front of a dark background always creates a separation problem... there are times when I would go without that separation, but there are times when that separation really improves the image... its not just for the dark hair..... one-light solution creates a shadow on the subject that really gets mixed with a dark backdrop.... so, that back-light cuts the shadows on the dark edges, creating the separation....

I've tried that separation in different ways.... sometimes using a bare speedlight, sometimes a snooted or gridded speedlight or sometimes even a softbox.... the softbox creates the best separation, if flash power isn't an issue... it spreads the light more evenly, while softening at the same time.... a bigger light source, so it gives more options to the photographer...

bare speedlight works as well, but flaring is always a potential problem... snooted or gridded lights work nicely, restricting light within a very small area, preventing flares... but as it restricts light, it gives a smaller area to put the subject... this is a particular challenge when you are dealing with an unstable subject.... when I was doing this third birthday photoshoot with Lamisa, I knew I would be pushed to keep her within the area covered by the gridded back-light... it was difficult keeping her within a reasonably workable area.... we needed to improvise... as we had that big hand-made "three" as the prop, we made sure that she was close to it.... we just controlled the prop, and she was automatically there in the lighted area.... it wasn't that simple doing it though..... but we reached home in the end!

Lisa, my wife, worked hard creating that "three"..... Lamisa was so happy to feature with it.... this photoshoot was done at midnight... she usually goes to bed by that time.... but the lure of a photoshoot with that new favourite thing of her kept her interests awake.... I used the black backdrop to create that contrast of colours.... in the end, the colours were important to us.... after all, it was Lamisa, a 'colourful' personality!!

now, the lighting setup.... the main light was the Elinchrom Ranger + Simpex 50cm x 120cm softbox on left.... a YN-560 (with grid spot) was on an improvised adapter attached to the DIY backdrop stand.... it was triggered in optical trigger (S1) mode, while the Ranger was triggered with a Skyport radio trigger....

a lot more to come....

and the midday sun came down to our knees!!

2011-12-03T21:28:00.001+06:00

03 December 2011
Mohammadpur, Dhaka, Bangladesh

this is a more of technical blog post for my strobist friends..... ever since I got the "Elinchrom Ranger RX Speed AS" in my hand, I had been looking for the opportunity to overpower the midday sun.... and actually thats probably the biggest reason why I opted for the Ranger RX instead of the much smaller and much more portable Ranger Quadra.... I just wish the RX had the weight of the Quadra... but that extra power would justify anything when you need it... if you can remember the TTL group portrait that we took earlier in 2011, you would know what this beast is capable of.... but that shot was done very late in the day, almost near sunset.... that 71-man portrait was done using a single light... the Ranger RX....

that time I used a reflector to concentrate light.... but that reflector is not very polite towards people with softer profile, say Lamisa.... for that, I needed a much bigger light modifier.... I had the 50cm x 120cm Simpex softbox for a while.... but that works more like a strip light and restricts the light within a tunnel... for a single person's portrait, that light source was surely big enough.... still, for some reason I didn't get the motivation to conduct this sort of an exercise.... so, right after getting the Rotalux 100cm Deep Octa in my hand, I started to feel for that kind of an image!.... just a few days back, AKA was showing me an example image that had a child under the midday sun.... that thing kinda reminded of my duties.... hmm.... enough of a motivation to pack everything up and carry it to the top floor of the building.... pain?... well, not as much as climbing the whole building!.... we only had to go from the 2nd floor to the 6th floor.... the 10kg or so weight of the Ranger system couldn't break my back within that short period....

the December sun was under extensive gloom, in an overcast day, which gave me quite a bit of latitude... the sun gave 1/640sec @f11 & ISO100 and 1/250sec @f16 & ISO100... I knew I had to shoot below f11 and also had to bring down the shutter below 1/160sec to reach the flash sync..... that brought the Cokin ND filters in action!!.... for the first time, I put those glasses in front of the 20mm wide lens.... and immediately, I could shoot @1/160sec.... the Ranger wasn't shooting at full power though... it was roughly around 80% power, translating to around 880w/sec..... that was enough power for f14.... tried out a few with f16 at the start, then switched to f14... the first of the below images was shot at f16....

and when I have a model as good as Lamisa, things become entertaining right from the word 'go'.... although it was typically challenging with Lamisa, keeping her in the frame and in focus amidst her big movement.... she at first featured with her new cycle (a blog post coming up) and then posed without the cycle...

I wish there was more texture in the sky, though there was more than enough cloud for a December sky... that gives me another excuse to try this thing out once again when there would be more cloud around... I'm not really a fan of tilted frames... but decided to try these out finding the rooftop railings too boring.... tilted frames creates some diagonal lines, which were at least somewhat better than the monotonous straight lines....

a lot more to come in a hurry!!

first looks at the parabola....

2011-11-30T23:10:00.001+06:00

30 November 2011
Mohammadpur, Dhaka, Bangladesh

this is more of a technical blog.... my strobist friends would be more interested in it than anyone else... just got my hands on my new Elinchrom Rotalux 100cm "Deep Octa".... so, I was just itching to put my hands on it.... I swooped on it like a bird of prey!!.... it didn't take long between unpacking and the first shoot.... although the setup was bit of a pain for me....

tried to follow the instructions fully, but as it turned out, the instructions were for all Rotalux series products, which also included typical softboxes with four edges... but octa was definitely different.... and caused more pain than I had thought about.... the product's build quality is excellent, although the softbox material seemed a bit thin... but that thing also brought the weight down to something really manageable... the steel ribs are awesome... they really give confidence to the user that this softbox would bend, but not break; although this strength also makes it harder to setup in the first place... the strength of the ribs makes them twist and that deforms the shape of the softbox... but gets corrected once the softbox is fully setup for the first time....

I had a hard time setting it up, really.... this was my first Elinchrom softbox, which may be one of the reasons behind finding it difficult to negotiate... but once the whole thing was setup, it looked brilliant!... I used the Deep Octa without the translucent dome that came with it, because apart from the dome, it already had a double diffusion... so, the light was already great.... the dis-assembly was another pain, as I struggled to find an easy way to get the tight ribs out of those sockets in the speedring.... it took me several minutes to figure out the best way.... and then it was easy as anything.... I timed both setup and dismantle at between 3:00 - 3:30 minutes.... and I wasn't rushing at all... the timing included unpacking from the nice soft bag that it came with....

the practical weight (without the diffusion dome) of the softbox with the bag was just around 1.5kg, which is really within acceptable limits.... and considering the size of the soft bag (2ft 9inch) I thought it would be one of the most portable pieces in my collection.... the bag doesn't have any pockets for the diffusion panels, which would've been really nice though... but it gives great padded protection and gives a good feel....

I only had a brief stint shooting with it and got some nice overall results.... the light modifier is a wonderful light controller... its a biggish light source, yet it doesn't spread the light everywhere.... it now gives me lots of new possibilities.... I tired it out with the Elinchrom Ranger RX Speed AS with A-head... I had my every ready model Lamisa ready in front of my camera.... and there you go... I was only looking for an excuse to shoot some frames.... she had her first haircut since her third birthday less than a week ago... so, the big "three" was still there to be photographed.... hope to write some more blogs on those soon enough.... glad that I had been able to break through the busy times and write a blog of some substance....

anyway, lots more to come....

getting along with newborns....

2011-11-23T20:35:00.001+06:00

23 November 2011
Mohammadpur, Dhaka, Bangladesh

its been a while that I had been able to write a blog.... had been busy like hell.... the new business effort of ours has kept us on our toes.... we had received lots of responses from our friends.... and they extended their helping hands to spread the words.... we're really indebted to all those....

our newborn photography efforts have brought us a big audience within a short time.... we don't want to boast, but we haven't come across such efforts in Bangladesh so far.... anyway, this is just the start and there are much much more coming up... we are getting calls on a regular basis from parents of babies of all ages.... a lot of them have lamented that their children have already passed the newborn age (up to 6 weeks).... but we must assure them that moments are never lost with babies as long as they stay babies.... and we are here to make sure that the moments are not lost....

we have learned many things with newborns as we work along.... hope to share those little bits and pieces of experience in more detail in coming blog posts.... newborns are a challenge to photograph, but also great fun.... their adorable appearances make any photography efforts worth it....

had not been able to write the technical stuff for some time..... so, just thought it won't be bad to share some of those, although not in a lot of details.... the first two pictures were done using a single softbox with a single YN-560.... if I'm not wrong, the first one was done with a Lastolite Ezybox 24" Hotshoe softbox and the next one was done with Westcott 28" Apollo softbox.... the third image was done with the above two softboxes combined.... I wanted a bathing in light for that image... so, although flat, the lighting was intentional...

the last four images were done using a single light source.... an Elinchrom Ranger RX + Simpex Pro 120cm x 50cm softbox.... I simply love this combination because of the control it gives...I've used several lenses for these images.... depending on their perspective, aperture requirement, convenience, and DoF, I've used an ultra-sharp Sigma 150mm Macro, cheap Nikkor 28-80mm and the superb Nikkor 50mm 1.4... in all of the cases, Elinchrom Skyport was the trigger for these strobist stuff....

please don't forget to watch our Newborn Photography Album in Facebook....

a lot lot more to come....

looking back towards that road.....

2011-11-14T15:57:00.001+06:00

14 November 2011
Mohammadpur, Dhaka, Bangladesh

the lure of the corporate world is very strong.... it prevents one from engaging in something that he/she might've desired throughout your life.... it makes one hungry for more... for more of that small but pricy piece of paper.... I had tried hard enough to make a meaning of my life... never found a solution in that corporate environ... this environ was supposed to be means to happiness... but as it turned out, it was anything but that.... it was buying my soul off.... and thats the point where my conscience took over and knocked me off the road.... a perfect road to happiness turned into an unpredictable ride... its the choice that we made.... together.... and here we go.... our new life starts right here, right now....

seven years' relationship is hard to forget....lots of memories... and achievements too... some of those have a face; others, not.... some have attractive shapes.... others, nothing but papers... but they all have one purpose... recognition.... a sort of incentive to keep one on that road.... when I look back at that road, I only find memories....

came out of that door for the last time.... just yesterday.... memories are still strong.... it was a quick decision to keep those memories in the camera before they fade out somewhat.... Lamisa was more than happy to play with Daddy's "gifts".... she seemed so happy.... never realising the intrinsic value of those nice-looking shapes.... but it was never the purpose to make her understand that.... she would one day remember the day looking at the pictures.... thats what remains.... isn't it?

anyway, on the technical side, I tried to keep it as simple as possible... used the Elinchrom Ranger + Simpex 120cm x 50cm combination.... its my favourite combination for controlling light.... and also one of the easiest to set up.... used a bare white wall as the backdrop....

more to come soon enough....

fried under the strobes!!

2011-11-08T21:49:00.001+06:00

08 November 2011
Mohammadpur, Dhaka, Bangladesh

well, during Eid-ul Azha, there's hardly any chance of missing the delicious kababs (or some may also say kebab)..... the Eid Day is basically hectic and mostly passes managing the sacrifice and the freezer.... but the day after Eid usually an opportunity to relax.... this is when you can sit down and let your taste buds appreciate the quality of the food.... no place for a vegetarian though... after all, this is Eid-ul Azha... vegetarians go into hibernation during this time of the year....

and when you have some opportunity to snap those delicious stuff before they fill your tummy, you get to grab your camera.... its a difficult shoot keeping your nose-buds waiting.... and also difficult to try to style food as they arrive at the table... and this is a time of rising fuel prices... so, why not try frying some kebab with strobes??.... thank to David Hobby, we now have a hope!!.... those YN-560s can pack a punch!!.... its kebab time!!

and thats a lotta effort for basically one picture.... my wife had a tough time preparing all the items and also to style them.... last time during Eid-ul Fitr, I forgot to mention the names of the food items and faced queries on that.... now, the food have names... Stick Kebab, Keema Salad, Tikki Kebab and Bindi Polao were the items this time.... and yes, all the items tasted at least as good as they showed up.... :)

as far as technical stuff is concerned, used two lights in a simple setup.... one bare YN-560 on a lightstand around 8-10 feet away on left, and a Lastolite 24" Ezybox Hotshoe softbox + YN-560 flash combination on camera right.... also experimented with some warm gels, which didn't produce exceptional results.... the trigger used was an Elinchrom Skyport with the light on the right.... the light on the left was on optical trigger (S1) mode....

a lot more to come....

Saadi..... @11 days only!

2011-11-05T13:44:00.000+06:00

04 November 2011
Mohammadpur, Dhaka, Bangladesh

such opportunities don't last for long..... I became a proud uncle of a lovely baby boy on 24th October... that the second child of my elder brother.... I didn't wanna lose the opportunity to snap this little angel before he became too big to be called a newborn.... babies don't remain babies for long.... so, time was of essence... he was just named Saadi.... and when we came to know that Saadi was coming straight to our place, we simply didn't wanna lose a moment.... it surely was one of the best days we had in recent times... not just with the camera, but with a lot of fun as well.... Saadi is the younger brother of Tabassum, my niece... and Tabassum is the long-time playing partner of Lamisa, my child.... though they don't get that much opportunity to play together....

Saadi was so adorable and kept so quiet for so long.... he gave us ample opportunities to take photos in several different setups.... his patience amazed us and made us happy.... by the time he woke up, we were basically done with our shoot, and trying on a bonus one....

this is a second attempt of ours to catch him in his nap.... we tried this once before already.... we went to Saadi's grandma's place on 31 October to steal some quick snaps.... but we weren't really happy with the results as he was not going into his deep sleep for even a moment.... this second attempt wiped off the earlier disappointments... but we still hope to catch another session with Saadi before he is no longer a newborn....

anyway, our idea was a to use some props to show how small the little champ was.... and to keep things simple, I kept the lighting setup fairly simple.... used two light here... used the "Lazy Light" for an overall fill and used a YN-560 + 24" Lastolite Ezybox Hotshoe softbox combination to remove any other shadows.... for the first six shots, I used a cheap 28-80mm lens for general convenience, and as I was also using a small aperture for a bit of depth.... for the last four images, I switched to a 50mm 1.4 lens to create a soft look with shallow DoF....

please excuse for the big watermarks.... we just don't want these images showing up in a commercial venture without our knowledge.... we had experienced bad things before quite a few times...

a lot more coming up....

once in a while....

2011-10-25T00:19:00.006+06:00

22 October 2011
Mohammadpur, Dhaka, Bangladesh

motherhood is a once in a while thing for most.... its one of those extraordinary times when a person discovers the biggest gift she got from her creator.... these extraordinary times last for a short while and leave a deep impression.... on last Saturday, we were after some moments that would live in memory and leave a deep impression....

huge thanks to Sadia Sharmin.... Sadia, a very accomplished artist, is one of those people who own the frame.... she had displayed her works of art in well-publicised exhibit... and to aid our effort even further, her exhibit was all about her experiences during her first-time pregnancy.... artists are great subjects with their creations.... they easily create a bonding between the photograph and the viewer.... its almost like subjects within subjects.... their creations not just characterise their creators, but also help the viewer to find the very purpose of the photograph.... its only been a day since I had a first ever session with an artist... now, I have two experiences.... and they are both unique....

as an artist, Sadia's creative help made our photo-shoot doubly effective.... she was full of ideas... her perception about framing and lighting made the session so much easier for us.... and how can I ever forget to give huge thanks to Firoze Bhai for making the couple shots so much more intimate.... their first child, Israar, was a bit on the edge at times, but he was managed, mainly by his Dad.... the group shot was very challenging... it wasn't the perfect one, but it was satisfactory in the end considering the 'availability' of Israar....

on the technical end, the first setup (first three pics) was based on two lights.... control of light was the key here... I used an arch between two rooms to control the spill of light on the back wall... Elinchrom Ranger + 120cm x 50cm Simpex softbox was the key light.... SB-900 + Westcott Apollo 28" softbox was the edge light....

the second setup (next two pics) was a bit more challenging.... used the Ranger as the key light and used an SB-900 with a grid-spot... the photo with Sadia and Israar was done almost instantaneously... and as Israar was much more difficult to manage, I just clicked away as the chance arrived....

the third setup (next six images) was much simpler.... two lights on two sides... Ranger + 120cm x 50cm softbox and SB-900 + Westcott Apollo 28" softbox... the third shot in this setup was the result of the SB-900 not coping up.... it was an accidental discovery, more or less... but the shadows and contrasts created by the one-light setup gave the whole thing a different mood....

much much more to come....

arts and artist....

2011-10-22T02:26:00.005+06:00

21 October 2011
Gulshan, Dhaka, Bangladesh

the type of portrait that I like most is probably environmental portrait... I almost invariably get attracted to the environment that somehow defines the subject... its one of the easier ways to talk about a person.... sure it gets complicated sometimes, and sometimes it isn't even possible... but I do look for an environment around a person.... almost always....

I've always wanted to photograph artists.... I tend to get fascinated by their ways of thinking... their eyes are not like others.... its almost like an extra sensory perception.... and not being in contact with a lot of artists, I grew an interest of photographing artists.... several months back, I got to know that one of my young colleagues possesses the unique abilities of an artist... the moment I learned about his special skills, I decided to photograph him....

but deciding to photograph and actually doing it turned out to be quite far from each other.... it took several months to finally reach an agreement on a specific date and time.... in fact, it was instigated by the coming departure of one of our esteemed colleagues for a far-away country.... Riad, my young colleague, is also a great cook... he decided to invite some of our co-workers to taste his superb dishes.... I gave my consent without a delay... well, not for the feast though... rather I took the opportunity to have the portrait session that we had been planning for so long.... and reaching there, I discovered that his multi-talented hands.... the steaks were awesome!!

I instantly got stirred by the disorganised nature of his room.... there's an absent-mindedness about him... his mind doesn't live in this world for the whole day for sure... the arts hanging and lying around his room instantly catches attention of a visitor... heavily inspired by comic books and characters, his works carry marks of his individuality and uniqueness.... not being an art critic myself I only took note of his philosophies behind some of his most favourite works... I somehow enjoyed that session even though I couldn't relate to all the words he uttered!... its the honesty with which he described and critiqued his own works that fascinated me...

anyway, the portrait session was not too simple, but not that complex either.... it was evening and the sun was down.... so, there was no question of using ambient light..... used a Westcott Apollo 28" softbox as the main light with an SB-900 inside.... another SB-900 was with a grid-spot, illuminating the art-cluttered wall.... used a Nikkor 20mm lens to bring all of that environment in the frame....

I tried to keep the whole shoot as representative as possible... moved around a few things including covering up an air-conditioner unit with an art-piece... also photographed Riad with his unfinished works.... doing some final retouch.... with the same setup.... in the same way and place where he actually does it.... the whole shoot was done within a very short time.... its only the setup that took a bit of time... big thanks to Riad for the lovely evening.... and also for being so spontaneous with the session.... his enthusiasm in explaining his works gave me cues about arranging the frame and lighting...

a lot more to come....

perfect memories in an imperfect world.... part four-B

2011-10-21T01:34:00.002+06:00

15 October 2011
Mohammadpur, Dhaka, Bangladesh

well, well, well..... thats it... this is the end.... the last of the last.... this is part two of part four and last of four!!..... the long shoot delineation of the session with Arif and Tajia comes to a close.... feeling relived, and also feeling a little sad, considering there won't be another blog on this wonderful session from tomorrow... anyway, it was a privilege doing this shoot and also a pleasure writing about it....

part one explored the contrasts and commonalities within a specific context.... part two and part four-A showed conflict.... part three showed contrast of interest; yet respect for each other.... and the last part would show how it all glues together despite all the contrasts and conflicts... its the ultimate thing in a relationship.... a relationship isn't a relationship unless there's emotion in it... this bunch of emotion keeps the wheels rolling for years; decades.... and how does emotion do that?.... yep, that what this part is all about....

now the boring technical stuff.... absolutely nothing more to add to the setting used in the prevision setup.... three-light setup against a black backdrop.... there's always a play of light and shadow.... never tried to shoot the daylight out of moody images.... anyway, would've loved to have a bigger studio to control the light even further... for now, you gotta struggle a bit with it....

the last part of the shoot was on request from Tajia... this was her idea... she had seen similar posing in her parents' old images.... she wanted to relieve that... such a cute idea.... instantly loved it... its always good to listen to photography subjects... you never know they may come up with the best ideas.....

their story was so simple in its nature and so honest that we instantly fell in love with the ideas... its the simplicity of our life's small stories that move us most and also give us the most amount of pleasure.... but we tend to forget them over time... this whole effort was tailor-made for Arif and Tajia so that they can remember those simple stories.... we have dramatised the whole affair and made them part of an experience, which would surely give them a stronger memory.... and to help them remember, the pictures will be at their side... may be years from now, these pictures would be able to bring a bit of smile at the corner of their eyes.... may be...

and oh, those surprises in the images were actual surprises!!... the expressions were dramatised for sure... but those surprises were presented just moments before the shoot... :)

more stories coming up...

perfect memories in an imperfect world.... part four-A

2011-10-20T00:48:00.000+06:00

15 October 2011
Mohammadpur, Dhaka, Bangladesh

parts one, two and three are history.... this is part four of four.... but not the last... how come??.... well, this is the first part of the fourth and last part!.... you think I've cheated??... whatever..... its a pain to edit all those images after spending all day at office.... its better to cheat and come with half and post than going blank for the day.... what do you think?

well, enough of explanations..... lets do some formal portraits.... strictly formal portraits; okay?.... naaaaaaa.... would you just do the formal portrait when you have the couple for 10 more minutes?.... certainly not.... there's enough time left here to tell yet another story.... thats right.... another story embedded in that formal portrait.... it may sound weird, but thats exactly what we did..... Arif and Tajia had been so expressive that I hardly had to pinch them; well, not literally though....

again, this session shows the differences in people's behaviour that makes us wonder how two people spend their lives together.... it looks like a miracle... yet, its that miracle that is so common in God's green earth.... a common miracle that is.... we never ask ourselves how this miracle saves our relationships so frequently.... perhaps we know this miracle by another name.... another word.... love....

now the technical stuff.... used a black backdrop to make the setting moody.... the black also went with the deep colour outfit of the subjects.... used two lights from two sides to illuminate the two subjects separately.... on the right was the Elinchrom Ranger + Simpex 120cm x 50cm softbox.... and on the left was a YN-560 + Westcott Apollo 28" softbox.... a third light, a Nikon SB-900 + Lastolite 24" Ezybox Hotshoe softbox.... was used a hair light for separation from the backdrop.... that light was on a monopod, held by my wife.... trigger was Elinchrom Skyport for the Ranger and the Westcott... for the SB-900 it was optical trigger (SU-4) mode.... used the cheapie 28-80mm lens.... its really sharp when stopped down... and I was shooting @f10 for enough DoF... so, no sharpness issues....

hoping to finish the series ASAP....

perfect memories in an imperfect world.... part three....

2011-10-18T22:47:00.000+06:00

15 October 2011
Mohammadpur, Dhaka

the story continues.... this is the third part of a four-part series of a photoshoot with our photog buddy Arif and his life-partner Tajia.... the first part tried to dramatize their contrasts and commonalities.... the second part was all about portraying the differences in philosophies, which increases our interest in learning about their relationship even further... this part tries to portray their respect for each other.... it doesn't always have to be a common interest that would bring them together.... perceptual differences have to be realised and well understood for a relationship a relationship to prosper....

this setup was the easiest to accomplish, as this was just about the same setup as used in the previous part... I only had to make a closer crop to focus on the issues here.... used a 70-210mm lens for the crop..... and another reminder here for the reader is -- this is not to be taken literally... rather its a portrayal of their characters in a dramatic way and in a symbolic manner..... its more like a drama that is based on real characters, but not necessarily real events.... the drama is needed to make photos interesting and to make the overall shoot a soothing experience...

the fourth part of the story is coming up in a hurry....

perfect memories in an imperfect world.... part two....

2011-10-17T22:49:00.002+06:00

15 October 2011
Mohammadpur, Dhaka, Bangladesh

this is the second part in four-part series...... as posted in the previous blog, Arif and Tajia are a wonderful couple.... we hardly had to do anything with them.... every time we told them to do something, they ended up doing even better than that.... so, as a photographer I only had to keep an eye on the technicalities....

the second setup was to be more symbolic than the first one.... I decided to put them against a white backdrop to get rid of all clutters.... that way, we would only be focused towards their activity and expressions.... and as a sequence of images the images were to look as part of a single story....

unlike the previous setup, this was to show the contrasts only.... and again, this is not to be taken literally... rather its a portrayal of their characters in a dramatic way and in a symbolic manner..... its more like a drama that is based on real characters, but not necessarily real events.... the drama is needed to make photos interesting and to make the overall shoot a soothing experience...

now the technical stuff.... the lighting was pretty simple.... Elinchrom Ranger + 120cm x 50cm softbox on left and Lastolite Ezybox 24" Hotshoe softbox + YN-560 flash on the right.... to create an uncluttered background, 8'x12' white backdrop was used.... two lights from two direction created a play of light and shadow, gave some depth to the image..... use of the "Lazy Light" would've made this a flat image.... didn't use any lights against the backdrop, as the subjects were too close to the backdrop... any light on the backdrop would've resulted in a blow-out!.... cheap but sharp Nikkor 28-80mm lens used for the shoot.... shot @ f10.... though about shooting @f11 may be... but it seemed that f10 created enough depth....

the third part is coming in a rush!!

perfect memories in an imperfect world.... part one

2011-10-15T23:06:00.000+06:00

15 October 2011
Mohammadpur, Dhaka, Bangladesh

on assignment.... my photog buddy Arif came into our makeshift studio with his life-partner Tajia.... it was a session long planned for.... and thank God that it finally worked for all of us.... we had been in contact for the last several days to make this session as relevant as possible.... our idea was to make sure that the photos represent the people and their relationship..... not just in a literal sense, but also in the world of symbolism and emotional attachment.... the pictures had to talk.... a set of formal portraits are good to remember after years, but a set of memories are so much more.... and thats what we had been aiming for....

this required a lotta teamwork... both the subjects were involved in the planning and the shoot.... and our three-member shooting team (my wife, the Creative Director; me, the photog and Lamisa, the cheerleader!!) was also busy setting things up.... we also wanted to make sure that the overall shoot wasn't just a set of photos to remember, it was more of an experience.... we had a lotta fun....

Arif and Tajia are a wonderful couple.... just got married recently.... made for each other.... but you have to talk to them to find out what glues them together.... its one of those unsolved mysteries of God that keeps millions of couples around the world together under the same roof.... no relationship is a perfect relationship.... every relationship revolves around a "chemistry" that mixes the contrasts and commonalities, and brings balance.... we were trying to show that same "chemistry" between our two lovely subjects....

I would try to publish the whole story in parts, as it would become a bit too big for one post.... and would also put a lotta pressure on me to publish.... this first part of the shoot concentrates on some of the contrasts and common interests of the couple.... and as said before, not just in a literal sense.... we were in the process of creating a drama, which wouldn't just be of interest to the couple, but to others as well.... and also tried to keep the symbolism to its limits....

as per the tech stuff is concerned, the ones with the blue tone was the more difficult of the two setups.... used a blue gel filter on an SB-900, bounced from a white paper pasted to the dumb monitor, which symbolized a TV.... another light was a YN-560 shooting through a Lastolite 24" Ezybox Hotshoe softbox, which was the key light, hanging from a Manfrotto monopod, held by my wife... used a 20mm lens to bring all of that in the frame and to create a perspective..... the second setup was a simple one with the Lastolite softbox as the only light source... used a 70-210mm lens to shoot those.... trigger was Elinchrom Skyport, and optical trigger for one light when two lights were used....

the expressions in the images surpassed my expectations, really.... you never know what you are capable of doing, until you really do it... and Arif and Tajia proved exactly that.... a simple thanks to them wouldn't be enough....

anyway, more coming up in a hurry.... stay tuned for the other parts....

what to do at the end of the week.....

2011-10-15T01:29:00.001+06:00

14 October 2011
Mohammadpur, Dhaka, Bangladesh

haven't shot an image during the whole week... was a bit out of sorts for several days (still am) and also there was work.... there was one tiny project that just went back without any reschedule.... Lamisa received this lovely locomotive toy as a birthday gift... but somehow kept it out of her reach until she as matured enough to understand at least some of it.... so far so good; she's been pretty generous at this toy; only watching and marveling at its technology... perhaps she made an exception and decided to keep this toy alive for a little longer than we expected.... and thats probably the reason that kept me lazy....

anyway, I had the little push I needed for the late night photoshoot.... Lamisa had her energy... she had a pretty good evening nap (God, how long she lasts tonight!!).... so, there was no point not doing this.... I shrugged off my lazy skin and went to work...

a simple one-light setup was enough for this.... wanted the light to be a bit directional... so, avoided a simple on-camera flash... we would be lying on the ground... so, Lamisa's face would be quite a bit away from the ceiling if I needed to bounce from a speedlite... thats a drain on power... and also didn't want a wash of light everywhere..... so, used the Elinchrom Ranger with the 120cm x50cm Simpex softbox... its a great tool to control light.... didn't set anything else... just the typical white wall behind with other stuff in front of it.... didn't move a thing.... 50mm lens shot @f4... shallow depth... thats it... as simple as it goes.... setup to finish.... less than 20min....

important shoot tomorrow.... gotta catch some sleep...

the 85mm loves those big windows....

2011-10-12T22:59:00.003+06:00

06 September 2011
Natore, Bangladesh

its a pity that we haven't taken Lamisa to a children's park yet.... we've gone to so many interesting places, but not there.... not to a children's park.... well, it seems that the opportunity just jumped on us when we went to Natore.... we had our lunch in Natore town after coming back from Rani Bhabani's Palace.... the place was on the top floor of a 8-storied building, which was probably the tallest structure of the small town.... and most interestingly, the top floor of the building also contained a nice children's corner.... and to complete this already surprising find, the roof of the building contained a big wheel, which wasn't operational yet....

we also had enough time after lunch to hang around the children's corner before we started for Puthia Palace.... this allowed us to put Lamisa on top of the toys there while her meal was complete.... and when I saw those big windows there, I couldn't resist bringing out my 85mm 1.8 lens...... shot almost wide open @ f2.... just blew out the bright windows as backdrop and we have our dramatic images.... didn't need any fill-light at all.... the light was so pleasing.... the 85mm loves big windows.... Lamisa also had a nice time there checking out each of the toys for their quality..... but the time she was talking to check out their quality became a bit too much for us, so we decided to move out.... she had to resist her tears to go with us.... such a pity.... bad folks always leave you disappointed.... anyway, she had tons of fun at our next destination as well... so, it didn't take much time for her to forget her disappointment....

more to come.....

when u have 'available' light.....

2011-10-09T12:00:00.004+06:00

04 October 2011
Dhamrai, Dhaka, Bangladesh

I first used flashes on location during a visit to a jute mill about a year ago.... it surely was a big change for me.... from then on, I don't travel anywhere without a flash.... and when I have a flash always available with me, the definiton of available light changes.... I again used such "available" lights during a recent visit to Dhamrai during Durga Puja....

last couple of years I had the privilege to be outside Dhaka during Durga Puja.... I say privilege because its the uniqueness of the experience that we miss if we stay at Dhaka.... celebrations in Dhaka now have a modern touch; utilising all the latest technology and gadgets.... traditional items are there, but in some cases they get overpowered by the conveniences offered by latest inventions..... in 2010 I had been to Rajshahi... and though I found that to be different from that of Dhaka, it still had the urban flavour in it.... the best experience I had was at Chandpur, in 2009, where I actually had a rural feel.... I still have that in my memory as the best experience I had during Durga Puja....

I like Hindu festivals for their colourful nature.... and Durga Puja has its own version of colourfulness.... I also like the celebrations as they show us the devotion of human souls.... I was lucky to experience some of that this year at Dhamrai.... I went there on the 8th day (Ashtami) of Durga Puja celebrations.... it was on an invitation from one of our long-time family friends.... I had been to such a Puja Mandap way back, when I hardly did any photography.... so, the return visit there was a really refreshing experience.... although the overall visit was short and I was able to watch only a small portion of the celebrations, the experience I received from there is definitely long-lasting.....

the most vibrant part of the day's celebration was Arti.... thats when the dances take place with the playing of drums.... a young Purohit started the proceedings with a very energetic dance in front of Durga.... the weather was sultry, and his performance in that weather amazed me....

the drama started when the next session started.... a couple of old fellas took the "dhuup" and went in a frenzy!..... it was a dance to watch really.... and the ambience resulting from the smoke from dhuup created a surreal environment.... I also went crazy with the camera.... I was literally under them when they were circling and dancing.... the couple of guys who performed showed us what energy means.... and one individual, in particualar, showed us what devotion means..... Mongol Das went on an on when others decided to give it a rest.... he was hardly standing and everyone wanted him to rest... he wouldn't..... he fell down.... yet, he wouldn't listen... he still wanted to go on..... he got bathed in sand....

I was totally unprepared for Mongol Das.... I've not seen anyone doing that before.... his colleagues mentioned that Durga had taken over his soul, which is why he wanted to go on....

our amazing experience had to come to an abrupt close... there were more celebration coming up and more people were preparing for the Arti... lots of dhuup were being prepared.... and to add salt, the people who were preparing to dance were the elderly guys.... the advent of such an unusual group of people performing got me excited.... we went there with our family, so, had to make the hard decision.... it was getting late; so, we moved on.....

I decided to use some strobist stuff (my available lights!!) to spice things up.... I knew how amazing Arti looks when the dhuup is in full power.... set up a couple of lights in the arena.... there were a lotta spectators in the place; so, had to be careful with the set-up.... used two YN-560 flashes on light Phottix stands with Elinchrom Skyport radio triggers.... one light was for fill from the left, behind the camera and the other was the backlight, which was more-or-less against of the lens depending on my camera angle.... there were some misfires from one of the triggers.... I'm assuming that it had something to do with the corrugated iron room of a nearby house, under which I setup my flash....

a lot more to come in a hurry....

a lesson in alphabets.....

2011-10-04T17:01:00.000+06:00

01 October 2011
Mohammadpur, Dhaka, Bangladesh

it was a sudden decision to do this.... such an idea was in the cards, but it needed the effort to actually make it happen.... and unless you really make it happen, its never gonna happen by itlsef.... so, there you go....

it was a tough session.... the main challenge was posing.... its not an adult we were working with.... to instruct a preschooler how we want the whole frame to look is not a matter of joke!.... the weather was sultry, so that made the whole job even more tiresome.... some soothing rain came in during the shoot, which relieved us to some degree though..... there were six different frames we had to make.... and we also used six different wardrobe changes for the six frames....

anyway, the idea was to present Lamisa as part of the alphabet..... we were trying to spell 'Lamisa' using Lamisa and her dolls and other different objects around her.... the whole shoot was supposed to be done from a high vantage point so that the whole frame floats..... to keeps matters simple, we used a white backdrop on the floor and used an Elinchrom Ranger unit popping towards the white ceiling.... as there was a substantial distance between our subject on the floor and the ceiling, the Ranger unit was the safe option.... and to keep sharpness across the frame (which was critical given the distance from the camera to her face and her feet being different), I used f11.... and at f11, small flashes were bound to struggle, unless I was using a forest of small flashes....

the Ranger unit also ensured a fast recycling time.... during the last shoot I had some blank frames, which I thought were because of the Ranger.... it happened again this time.... but given the fast recycling time of the Ranger, I believe its the Elinchrom Skyport radio triggers that is to blame....

a lot more to come.....

Ideas of the Week: Week 5

2011-10-03T22:59:00.000+06:00

Week 5: 24 September - 30 September, 2011

just sharing my ideas, findings and activities in one page at the end of each week... you might have been busy this week, not being able to see all the materials I've shared online during the week...

the weekly update "Ideas of the Week" allows the readers to browse through my stuff in one go... I'll summarise all the blog activities of mine in Blogger.com and Wordpress... would also compile all my best shares through Twitter.... and in this compilation would be a summary of my micro-blog in Tumblr.... my photos in Flickr would also be shared along with any other online activities....

My blog posts on Blogger.com:

just trying to emulate Philippe Halsman's Dali Atomicus..... lets do a Halsman in the digital age!

another crazy shoot idea came up.... this time, with Lamisa's shower.... the first part of the shoot.... do u bring the studio to the shower or vice versa??

the second part of the shoot...... the shower flick continues!!

and the third and last part of the shower flick..... curtain falls on the shower flick!!

My Twitter shares:

Earthshots Photo of the day: Over the Edge by Robert Beideman

Nove Mlyny, Czech Republic – National Geographic Photo of the Day

Boy With Balloons, India – National Geographic Photo of the Day

Earthshots Photo of the day: Explosive Sunrise by Brett Nickeson

White Lions, South Africa– National Geographic Photo of the Day

5 Elements of Composition in Photography in DPS....

Earthshots Photo of the day: Sierra Summer Storm by Jesus Sousa

34 Effective and Emotive Barbed Wire Photographs from Lightstalking.com

Magnum Photo of the Week: Brigitte, Mime and Hysterical Society, USA. Bisbee, Arizona. May 19, 2011

Rhine Falls, Switzerland – National Geographic Photo of the Day

Earthshots Photo of the day: Lake Maurepas by Evgeny Vasenev

Hot Air Balloons, Cappadocia – National Geographic Photo of the Day

Machinery As You Have Never Seen It from Lightstalking.com....

Earthshots Photo of the day: Concealment by Russell Johnson

Blacktail fawn - National Geographic Photo Contest 2011 - National Geographic

one of the best links I've seen!!.. 35 Magnum Photographers Give Advice to Aspiring Photographers

Earthshots Photo of the day: Crushed Ice by John and Tina Reid

Earthshots Photo of the day: Mount Bromo Sunset by Helminadia

Photo of the Week.....I'll come up with a single photo from all my shoots out of the whole week and feature it here.... this week, its my favourite shot from the photoshoot with Lamisa.....

a modelling contract that came a bit too early!!

Ideas_R_Bulletproof - a commercial effort!!

on location portrait photography based on unique ideas....
promotional season going on... limited offer!

contact: +88-01711055524
asharif111[@]hotmail.com

curtain falls on the shower flick!!

2011-10-01T22:36:00.004+06:00

29 September 2011
Mohammadpur, Dhaka, Bangladesh

unfortunately this is the end of the boring shower flick!.... it ends with Lamisa getting out of the bathtub and playing the role of female celebrities... not for the sake of selling the branded corporate items, but for the fun alone... yea, thats it folks! bye!!

wait wait.... there's more.... lets not forget the 'exciting' technical stuff that people never read.... well, not a lot to say actually.... this is the exact same setup that I used for the first part of this shoot concept.... the second part had a different setup.... sorry guys, no long description of how some easy stuff got converted into complex setups and those converted to crazy settings....

Lamisa gets all the credit for her expressions.... I only had to make sure that my flashes were coping up with the frantic pressing of the shutter.... some blank frames as mentioned in previous posts.... perhaps some classic misses.... but I'm satisfied with what I got.....

a lot more coming up.....

the shower flick continues!!

2011-10-01T00:28:00.000+06:00

30 September 2011
Mohammadpur, Dhaka, Bangladesh

yea, sure.... why not?.... promised three separate posts, right?.... this is only the second one.... so, bear with it..... last time we placed the bathtub in a way so that we get a front-on view.... that helped us to shoot vertically... this time, we were placing the tub sideways, requiring a horizontal frame.... this didn't cause a lotta problems, but we had to make sure that there was enough light on our subject Lamisa and there was enough DoF for a sharp image all through.....

I was not overly happy with the light setup of the previous shoot.... the 1/4 power setting on the "forest of lights" wasn't really giving the opportunity to shoot quickly.... I wanted the shoot to go even faster.... some of the moments came for such a transient moment, that you simply had to shoot whether your flashes are fully ready or not... that time, the time lag was really killing me.... so, this time, I really created "The Forest"..... yea, this is what I would call it from now on..... 6 flashes (six flashes?? are you nuts??)...... (4xYN-560 + 2xSB-900) shooting through a 4'x'4' diffusion panel, placed on lightstands and tripods.... this allowed me to dial the power down to 1/8 power, which substantially increased the shooting speed....

the other light was the same "Lazy Light".... I love this light.... this combo, along with "The Forest", allowed me to bring the aperture down to f11.... a lotta effort for such a small feat!!.... whoosh!!..... thats what happens when you want to take it from 90% complete to 95% complete.....

so.... was this the perfect setup for the shoot?.... not even close!!.... ha ha.... not even close??.... what do you mean?? not even close??..... after this much effort you say its not even close??.... yea, it is.... believe me!!..... this time, I got a bit more excited and pressed by shutter a bit more frequently.... and guess what, the unbelievable thing happened.... the Elinchrom Ranger system took a pause!!... yes it did.... it was shooting close to 1/3 power.... and I was shooting shooting frantically.... it did shoot continually, but it required a bit of pause after several back-to-back shots.... this is something I've never faced before.... there were several blank frames as a result of that.... and there's something in the corner of my mind that says, "well, I know there were some great moments in those blank ones!!"..... hmm.... perhaps; perhaps not.... you'll never know....

anyway, I was happy with the shoot..... we again had a great deal of fun.... it was challenging, as is every shoot with a preschooler.... keeping the attention of the child is such a tough ask and also, bringing that expression from the child..... my wife and me work together and make this happen.... keeping Lamisa out of this, as she is the client!! :)

the third part of this shower flick is coming up in a flash!!

do u bring the studio to the shower or vice versa??

2011-09-29T23:08:00.000+06:00

29 September 2011
Mohammadpur, Dhaka, Bangladesh

weird question.... but we did face that question and opted for a weird solution..... we decided to bring the shower to the studio.... well, sort of.... my client (Lamisa) was happy as long as she had her hands and body wet and covered in foam.... we only had to make sure that the whole shoot was done within as little time as possible, so that she doesn't catch cold.... she was already suffering from a little bit of that....

anyway, we did the crazy stuff.... set up the white backdrop to make her float in the frame.... and used the same light setup as the previous shoot.... this made sure that there wasn't any distracting shadow under the bathtub and there was enough DoF to cover Lamisa with the shower bowl....

this time I was using the 70-210mm to be able to compress the frame as much as possible.... I wasn't covering the whole length of the bathtub, so vertical shooting was possible, and so was the use of a tele.... I was facing some problem with the setup, as it was more suited to the earlier shoot, where I was shooting one frame at a time.... but this time, I couldn't afford to lose a frame.... but I did.... hmm..... may be I would have to find another setup for this kind of a shoot....

this was the first part of the shoot.... there's a second part coming up..... and we have a plan to do a third part soon enough, with a little bit of different flavour....

stay tuned for more....

lets do a Halsman in the digital age!

2011-09-28T00:55:00.001+06:00

25 September 2011
Mohammadpur, Dhaka, Bangladesh

I had always been a great fan of Philippe Halsman's works..... his Dali Atomicus alone stirred my imagination many many times.... I always wanted to do something like that in the real world.... when I say in the real world, I mean achieving something like that without digital manipulation..... Halsman did that one in 28 attempts!.... and he was not sure whether it turned out right, as there was no LCD view available at that time!.... doing this today would be so easy!..... I'm sure that most would like to do this in Photoshop and make it absolutely perfect.... but where's the fun in that?..... where's the experience of achievement in that?

so, there we go..... we decided to do this in our little makeshift studio.... we don't have Dali or his paintings to feature in the shot..... and we also decided not to use water or cats or any other rather ungainly flying objects, as we would be throwing all of that towards Lamisa.... yes, thats right, towards my lovely little daughter Lamisa..... we rather used some of her softest dolls to throw at her.... things that wouldn't even hurt a newborn (well, possibly!).....

a white backdrop was a must to remove clutter.... and it was also much easier to edit out rusty spots on the white backdrop..... two light sources were necessary, as one would cast big shadows on the subject as well as on the backdrop.... small aperture needed to make the flying dolls at least somewhat in focus, otherwise they won't be understood as dolls.... one light source was my Elinchrom Ranger in the "Lazy Light" configuration.... and on the other side, I used three YN-560 flashes shooting through a 4'x4' DIY diffusion panel (gotta find a name for this combo!).... the three lights would ensure enough power to eliminate the shadows even at f11, which was the aperture I was shooting.... each flash was probably at 1/4 power to ensure enough flash duration..... the Ranger had no problem with flash duration either.... so, the flying dolls would experience no motion blur.... the YN flashes were all in optical trigger mode, and the Ranger was triggered by Elinchrom Skyport radio trigger.....

my wife was throwing the dolls from behind me, so all the dolls were going in one direction..... there was no other option..... and the size of my studio forced me to do this in vertical frame..... we attempted a total of 25 attempts before we had to call it a day because of some unavoidable circumstances.... it wasn't perfect, but we knew that it might never be so.... yet, we tried it 25 times.... its that try, that effort, that make is something to remember..... if I had done this in Photoshop, I would never have taken the pleasure of writing a blog on this..... the best part of it was that we had a lotta fun.... :)

much much more to come.....

Ideas of the Week: Week 4

2011-09-26T21:25:00.000+06:00

Week 4: 17 September - 23 September, 2011

just sharing my ideas, findings and activities in one page at the end of each week... you might have been busy this week, not being able to see all the materials I've shared online during the week...

the weekly update "Ideas of the Week" allows the readers to browse through my stuff in one go... I'll summarise all the blog activities of mine in Blogger.com and Wordpress... would also compile all my best shares through Twitter.... and in this compilation would be a summary of my micro-blog in Tumblr.... my photos in Flickr would also be shared along with any other online activities....

BIG NEWS!!
Ideas_R_Bulletproof is now officially a commercial effort!!

this week had been a particularly special week for me, as I've finally been able to launch my commercial venture on people photography.... there's a Facebook Page now dedicated to this business.... my wife would be partnering me in this effort..... from now on, the weekly updates would also contain activities from this page....

My blog posts on Blogger.com:

a very intimate work; something very personal..... one picture; thousand memories....

on assignment..... this time its just a follow-up session..... previously we did a session with the same family.... back then it was a maternity photo-session..... but this time, it was a newborn session with Nuzhat..... just a follow-up.....

this was a session planned long ago, but my laziness kept me from making this a reality..... at last we did it...... child or brainchild??

My Tumblr micro-blog:

this is no political office..... the confusing facade of a state-owned bank in Dhaka....

please don't squeeze!!.... an observation of simple human behaviour....

history of the ruins.... exactly what we don't want our city to look like....

waiting for the festivals..... on the coming weeks that would contain some of the most colourful events....

looking for that look..... on the interesting use of celebrity endorsements...

you start off where I finish..... a remembrance from an old photowalk at Dhanmondi...

the human touch..... evidence of human spirits everywhere....

what could go wrong??..... on some of the unsung heroes of aviation....

My Twitter shares:

New Feature now online: Cambodia Land Issues by John Vink

National Geographic Space Pictures This Week: Sun Halo, Galaxy Swarm, More

Pub, Uganda.... National Geographic Photo of the Day

Magnum Photos: Today's Pictures: The Debate Will Be Televised

Earthshots Photo of the day: Smile! You’re in the Arctic! by Vadim Balakin

Magnum Photos: Today's Pictures: Babies!

Grasshopper, Honduras - National Geographic Photo of the Day

Planes, Trains and Automobiles – 28 Views For Inspiration in DPS

Earthshots Photo of the day: Prayer Flags and Monastery by David Lazar

Are You Using These Techniques to Capture Ambience in Your Photographs?... from Lightstalking.com

Winter Carnival, Saranac Lake, New York– National Geographic Photo of the Day

Magnum Photos: Today's Pictures: Railroad Stations

Earthshots Photo of the day: Fairy Bonsai by Adam Gibbs

Magnum Photos: Today's Pictures: Broadsheets and Tabloids

USA. Boston, Massachusetts. 1974. Team mascot and player, English High School... Magnum Photo of the Week

Sharks, Bahamas – National Geographic Photo of the Day

Earthshots Photo of the day: Skimmer aggression by Isak Pretorius

Earthshots Photo of the day: Ash and Warmth by Erik Harrison

Street Scene, Rio de Janeiro - National Geographic Photo of the Day

19 Impressive Landscape Photos of Cliffs from Lightstalking

Cenotes, Chichén-Itzá, Mexico – National Geographic Photo of the Day

Eyeballs: The Definitive Collection of Incredible Closeups

Desert Crossing, Rajasthan, India – National Geographic Photo of the Day

Using Leading Lines for Captivating Composition: Lightstalking

Scott Kelby blog: The Heartbreak of Losing a Full Memory Card

Breathtaking Colors of Autumn from Lightstalking.com

Earthshots Photo of the day: Stormy Sunrise by Jim Lundgren

Photo of the Week.....I'll come up with a single photo from all my shoots out of the whole week and feature it here.... this week, its my favourite shot from the photoshoot with Lamisa.....

the wise child!!

child or brainchild??

2011-09-22T21:54:00.001+06:00

22 September 2011
Mohammadpur, Dhaka, Bangladesh

it was a plan for some time.... but somehow the opportunity was not presenting itself.... and adding to that, I was also lazy enough to present it from starting.... Lamisa in a setting of wisdom was the idea.... the wise child of .... uh... um.... wherever..... and with some unique books of great volume, I wanted to create that contrasting environment around her.... somehow, it just happened today.... my long-lasting laziness gave way to some energy and with that energy I mustered the weighty stuff....

haven't had the time to read books for a long time..... there was a time when I was an avid reader.... still remember being the last person at the Mumbai airport boarding the plane just because I had to spend the last penny at the airport bookstore!!..... well, those are memories now.... with no real reading in the horizon, this is what the books could do best for me....

anyway, down to the dirty..... technical stuff.... I used my "Lazy Light" this time... didn't want to tweak too much with the lighting.... just the basic... the main thing about this shoot wasn't about lighting... it was rather the subject that took a front seat; alone.... used f11 for sufficient depth, and that was one of the reasons to use that light.... its also a light that gives speed in my hand.... I didn't miss a single moment in the shoot....

lot more to come soon enough....

just a follow-up.....

2011-09-21T19:24:00.001+06:00

09 September 2011
Mirpur, Dhaka, Bangladesh

we did a previous session with this family last July..... this isn't just another family.... a very close one; indebted to them for life.... we tried to pay off some of that debt through a short photo session, trying to capture the emotions of an expecting mother..... and it was just a matter of time before the expecting mother's emotions were converted into a mother's emotions.... a couple of months made a real difference in the whole nature of relationship in that family.... it was now a newborn's family....

with the photo subjects changing, we thought of changing the setup as well.... but thinking of the stance of the family from the progressiveness point of view, we decided to stay on the conservative side; not experimenting too much... we kept things simple and mostly straight forward....

we decided to make some exclusive portraits of the Nuzhat, the baby, before taking other photos.... at 24 days, Nuzhat had nothing more to do than to sleep most of the day.... she had a bit of fever during the day, which meant that she was crying most of the day.... as the parents told us, she just calmed down not too long before our arrival and had some badly needed sleep.... now, when we arrived, she was fresh and energetic... but we needed her to sleep to bring out those cool photos.... so, we put all our efforts to put her to sleep again!.... and we were successful.... that said, we completed the job as quickly as possible... used to lights.... one Lastolite 24" Ezybox Hotshoe softbox aimed at a while fabric hanging from the window.... this achieved a complete white backdrop.... a 28" Westcott Apollo softbox acted as the main light.... used a Sigma 150mm macro lens to flatten perspective within the confined room....

Nuzhat had her meal before we could shoot again... and for the shoot with her mom, we used the Apollo as the main light and used the Lastolite as a hair light....

for the last shoot of the day, with the parents, we used one light, the Apollo only.... and used a 34" collapsible reflector from the other side to cut some shadows.....

well, that was a much shorter session than the previous one we did couple of months back.... less complicated.... quick and dirty!

a lot more to come soon enough.....

one picture; thousand memories....

2011-09-19T22:23:00.000+06:00

17 September, 2011
Kazipara, Dhaka, Bangladesh

I had been postponing this shoot for more than a year now.... but thanks God that I've finally completed this.... feeling relieved....

Nazmun Nahar is my aunt; my mother's elder sister.... a strong personality known to a lot of people.... she had been a teacher for most of her life; lighting candles; and also leading others to do the same.... she had been the mainstay of Manipuri School for decades.... now, into her retirement, she still seeks that please in her work.... joining a much smaller school.... but doing the same thing.... teaching....

she had walked most of her path alone.... the school had been her life.... that had kept her busy for most of her life.... she had always been a popular member of our family.... well qualified and opinionated.... she is known in the family as Pakhi (meaning "bird").... indeed she had been independent all through her life..... she had been through quite a lot of medical procedures of late, which left her much weaker than before.... her discipline keeps her going.... her mental strength and willpower are exemplary, even today...

today, at an advanced stage of her life, she holds her mother's (my grandma) portrait intimately and finds all the similarities.... grandma hasn't aged a day since that photo was taken.... but that picture and others like that bring out all the lovely memories.... its just a few pictures we leave behind... but each picture holds thousands of memories....

the lighting setup was simple for this shoot.... just a single light.... a YN-560 inside a Westcott Apollo 28" softbox.... my favourite "window light"....Elinchrom Skyports used as trigger...

this is a series I am currently doing with the senior members of my family.... I need that determination to complete it.... hope I don't lazy again!

much much more to come....

Ideas of the Week: Week 3

2011-09-18T14:29:00.001+06:00

Week 3: 10 September - 16 September, 2011

just sharing my ideas, findings and activities in one page at the end of each week... you might have been busy this week, not being able to see all the materials I've shared online during the week...

the weekly update "Ideas of the Week" allows the readers to browse through my stuff in one go... I'll summarise all the blog activities of mine in Blogger.com and Wordpress... would also compile all my best shares through Twitter.... and in this compilation would be a summary of my micro-blog in Tumblr.... my photos in Flickr would also be shared along with any other online activities....

My blog posts on Blogger.com:

last blog from Rajshahi tour..... exploiting some gel filters, in playing with gels....

I'm getting spoiled by the quality light from the Ranger + 50cm x 120cm softbox combination... spoiled by the light....

strobist on assignment..... Siffat and Arafat's brilliant couple expecting..... more of a matter of time....

My Tumblr micro-blog:

under the shadow of freedom?..... on the waning respect people are showing to our iconic monuments..

washed in whites!!.... remembrance of a photowalk at kashbon one year back....

banana time!!.... on the abundance of banana cultivation in some parts of the country....

Chalan Beel..... life in one of the most unique places.....

this is no noticeboard!..... weird facade in the City of Dhaka....

hanging life..... some risky practices in transports in Dhaka....

the human touch..... evidence of human spirits everywhere....

suffocated!!..... the growing difficulties of living in Dhaka....

My Twitter shares:

Bondi Beach, Sydney, Australia... Travel Photo of the Week -- National Geographic

Earthshots Photo of the day: Leopard Ascent by Morkel Erasmus

Earthshots Photo of the day: Elephant Sunset by Brendon (@#!/AP_Adventures)

The Dazzling Colors and Shapes of Cactus in Lightstalking.com

Creating Beauty in the Mundane: Great Photos of Park Benches in Lightstalking.com

Magnum Photo of the Week: FRANCE. Hauts-de-Seine. Parc de Sceaux. 1987 by Josef Koudelka

Earthshots Photo of the day: Tides Melody by Rui Vieira

9/11: The 25 Most Powerful Photos - LIFE Magazine

Magnum Photos Today's Pictures: Fashion Week

Girl on Swing, Bangladesh – National Geographic Photo of the Day

Magnum Photos Today's Pictures: Classic New York

Earthshots Photo of the day: That Magic Place by Roberto Bertero

The photographer who sits outside of @BHPhotoVideo everyday with his Polaroid by lightenupshoot

Wedding Photography – 21 Tips for Amateur Wedding Photographers from DPS

Colosseum lights - National Geographic Photo Contest 2011 - National Geographic

Scott Kelby : National Geographic Guest Blog featuring Joe McNally

Climbing Wall, Singapore – National Geographic Photo of the Day

800mm lens output!!... Earthshots Photo of the day: Bear Necessities by Stephen Oachs

Sun Storms Trigger Sky Shows: National Geographic

Ballerina, Kazakhstan – National Geographic Photo of the Day

Light & Composition: Volume Three, Available Today From L&C Online Store | Light and Composition

A Joyous Dusk by Kamrul Hasan pho2circle Photo of the Day

Earthshots Photo of the day: Victoria Falls by Brendon (@#!/AP_Adventures)

Photo of the Week.....I'll come up with a single photo from all my shoots out of the whole week and feature it here.... this week, its my favourite shot from the photoshoot with Siffat and Arafat..... a huge thanks to them....

intimacy.....

more of a matter of time....

2011-09-16T23:22:00.000+06:00

10 September 2011
Uttara, Dhaka, Bangladesh

Siffat and Arafat had been great friend of us for a long time...... very frank and opinionated.... and couple of great brains as well.... brilliant students and great friends to us and to each other..... we had been planning this session for quite a while.... ever since we learned the news of Siffat, we we looking forward to this day..... two brilliant brains were bringing another brilliant brain to this earth.... so, it was more a matter of time..... once we were able to manage some holidays, it was set....

the idea was to do some individual frames for Siffat and then to do some couples shoot.... also thought about some conceptual stuff, if possible.... we traveled light for some reason.... so, we needed to be sure what we would do.... we didn't take a black backdrop, so, we needed to improvise for that.... but we did take a white backdrop, which we hung from a window.... a 28" Westcott Apollo and 24" Lastolite Ezybox Hotshoe softbox went with us as the main light.... also took a couple of extra lights to light the backdrop.... all in all, 4 speedlites (2x SB-900 and 2x YN-560)... used only one set of Elinchrom Skyport as the trigger and receiver, and the rest of the flashes were in optical trigger more (SB-900 in SU-4 mode and YN-560 in S1 mode)....

the white backdrop stuff were shot with 2 YN-560s on the ground lighting up the backdrop... the Westcott Apollo was the main light for most shots... the Elinchrom Skyport was inside it as its design implied that the flash had to be inside the softbox.... optical trigger modes don't work with it.... when I used a black background, used a second light in a Lastolite 24" Ezybox as hair light.... that was mounted on a Manfrotto monopod and hand-held (sometimes by my wife, and other times by Arafat... volunteering!!).... for the couples shoot with white backdrop, used two softboxes from two sides to illuminate both the subjects.....

the SB-900s go into hibernation, which causes problems regularly.... I have to see whether there is a mechanism to turn off the hibernation thing.... the YN-560s are much better as dumb flashes.... SB-900, as it seems, is too smart for dumb photogs like me!!.... the room was a perfect one for photography.... it was long and helped me to which to a longer lens (70-210mm).... that, in turn, helped me to reduce the required size of the backdrop....

anyway, a lot more coming up in a flash!!

spoiled by the light.....

2011-09-16T01:53:00.000+06:00

15 September 2011
Mohammadpur, Dhaka, Bangladesh

some time back, I wrote that big lights should be called 'lazy light'..... as the beautiful quality of that light was making me satisfied too easily, precluding any possibility of experimenting with something different.... now, something else has come in and currently trying to capture the position of my most favourite light source.... this is the Simpex 120cm x 50cm softbox on the Elinchrom Ranger kit.... this is one winning combination that I don't wanna keep away..... its beginning to spoil me..... so far, I've used this light source as a single light source.... I haven't mixed any other light with it.... its ability to control the direction of light is simply amazing.... I only used the white wall as a backdrop.... its not really a strip-light, but its output is close to it.... and sometimes, its actually better than a strip-light, when you think that a strip-light would've been too narrow for the job.....

this softbox allows me to put just about enough light on the backdrop to be able to avoid using another light as a separator from the edge.... the greyish tone of the backdrop almost always creates enough separation with the subject's dark hair.... and do I need to utter a word about the Elinchrom Ranger?.... this is one awesome light... shooting with a light like this is so easy... its fast recycle speed and power (providing depth of field) makes the job thousand time more efficient than speedlites.... actually there isn't any comparison....

it was a sudden decision to arrange a short photo-session.... we've done that before many times.... it was on my cousin's wedding ceremony that triggered this.... my wife was more than just willing to make the best use of her make-up and wardrobe.... so, it just happened.... I was a bit tired at the end of a long work day..... I enjoyed the program very much and though a bit tired after coming back, the prospect of taking photos never took a back-seat....

a lot more to come in a hurry!!

playing with gels.....

2011-09-12T12:43:00.004+06:00

07 September 2011
Rajshahi, Bangladesh

this is the last strobist blog post on the Rajshahi tour.... have tried a lot of things on this tour.... though limited by the things I could carry, I had enough to experiment more than once.... the only thing that I needed was time.... on our last day at Rajshahi, we didn't have a lot of flexibility with time.... it was evening before we could finally make some photos.... Lamisa put on her glittering Jaipuri dress, which brought ideas..... Proma's room was well-decorated and had some traditional stuff.... so, I decided to blend those items with Lamisa's dress.... to achieve that, I needed extreme control of light.... I didn't want a washout.... but at the same time, I wanted some drama to go with the dress and posture..... enter the red gel filter.... I placed an SB-900 with a red gel on it outside the window on a Phottix lightstand, which added some drama and filled up a rather dull portion of the white wall... the main light was a 24" Lastolite Ezybox Hotshoe softbox.... my wife held it for me almost parallel to the ground to reduce light spill..... and finally I held a 34" collapsible reflector in front of me to fill up some of the shadows on Lamisa's face....

the second setup was a bit different and again went with Lamisa's attire.... the bright yellow dress she was wearing, went well with a contrasty blue backdrop.... used a blue gel on an SB-900 to throw light on the back wall.... and changed the direction of the Lastolite softbox.... I didn't want any light from the main light source to ruin the contrast of the background... used a reflector in front to throw back some light, as the softbox was virtually behind the subject.... it was a really difficult shoot as Lamisa became impatient and didn't give us enough time to correct any errors!... used Elinchrom Skyport radio triggers for the shoot, as one of the flashes was outside the room, beyond sight....

thats the last of the blogs from Rajshahi..... but did a lot more shooting during the holidays.... so, more coming up.....

Ideas of the Week: Week 2

2011-09-12T11:49:00.001+06:00

Week 2: 03 September - 09 September, 2011

first blog from Rajshahi tour..... outdoor strobist portraits in fading light and some lessons learned, in daylight plus one.....

making the best out of available "artificial" light.... editing platform not with me on travel.... so, hardly any retouching... making day.....

my first visit to Rani Bhabani's Palace at Natore.... a portrait session among the ruins.... all natural light..... the queen and the royals.....

my second visit to Puthia Palace, Rajshahi...... couldn't resist some portraiture in some amazing late afternoon light..... Puthia rediscovered.....

My Tumblr micro-blog:

statements..... on the wall graffiti at Rajshahi Railway Station....

the bridge guy.... crossing the mighty Jamuna River...

rain rain go away.... rain on our way back to Dhaka

just a few drops..... weather report from Rajshahi.....

return to the waterfront..... a second visit to the bank of the Padma....

shallow diver!!..... some easy fun on the bank of the Padma....

a touch of countryside..... a short, but enjoyable trip on the outskirts of Rajshahi City....

green shadows..... train journey to Rajshahi....

the jute.... on the visit to Narayanganj jute mill exactly one year ago....

calm Motijheel...... empty streets of the business districts on Eid holidays....

My Twitter shares:

Earthshots Photo of the day: Vietnamese lady. by Spencer Montero

9/11: 25 Indelible Pictures....

Earthshots Photo of the day: Spirit of Adventure by Vadim Balakin

Magnum Photos Today's Pictures: National Piano Month

our TTL buddy!!... Earthshots Photo of the day: A Risky Journey by Train by Md. Khalid Rayhan Shawon

wonderful aerial photography Peter Cox - Old Head of Kinsale Golf Course from the Air

Earthshots Photo of the day: Serengetti Morning by Jeff Rennicke

Dog Tag Chandelier, Fayetteville Veterans Park – National Geographic Photo of the Day

aerial photography by Peter Cox.... Old Head of Kinsale

Earthshots Photo of the day: Deadly Beauty (Veratrum album) by Robin Black

My Flickr photos:

devotion.....iii..... devotion series continues... from Rani Bhanani's Palace....

devotion.....ii...... another in the devotion series.... this time from Puthia Palace, Rajshahi

only if we wanted to.... a favourite photo from my Motijheel stroll...

Photo of the Week.....I'll come up with a single photo from all my shoots out of the whole week and feature it here.... this week, its my favourite shot from my short Motijheel walk....

only if we wanted to.....

Puthia rediscovered.....

2011-09-10T00:18:00.001+06:00

06 September 2011
Puthia Palace
Puthia, Rajshahi, Bangladesh

its been a while since I last visited Puthia in May 2008.... the beauty of the ancient architecture there amazed me and also left me in sort of a shock!.... I knew I was gonna go there once again... but couldn't manage the time to actually do it... pushed by my in-laws, this time I was finally able to make my second visit there.... and what better way to go there than to take my in-laws there, most of whom had not seen the place.... I had documented the place before with the help of Mr. Biswanath Das..... I have the intention of doing some more work there.... but with the family with you, its time to do something different... just as I did at Rani Bhabani's Palace, I worked with portraits within the ancient settings.... we were already a bit tired from the day-long tour.... so, we kept the number of pictures within some sort of a control....

we met the second caretaker there who helped us look at all the major buildings, starting from the One-Quarter Estate (Char-Ana Estate), down to the magnificent Anhik Temple, and the great Govinda Temple alongside the main palace.... the light inside the One-Quarter Estate was excellent, which made me bring out the camera and do some portraiture there..... we stayed for a while at the Govinda Temple, and also at the Rani Ghat in front of a big water-tank... the last leg of the journey obviously ended at the magnificent Shiv Temple.... we met the two caretakers together there.... met Mr. Biswanath there after more than three years, but he was able to recognise me, which was a good feeling....

my feel for the place deepened with the changes I've observed there.... may be I would write on that in a separate blog..... but this tour definitely encouraged me to plan another visit there with some specific aims.....

blogging from the Rajshahi tour hasn't finished yet... more coming up.... :)

the queen and the royals.....

2011-09-07T19:19:00.000+06:00

06 September 2011
Rani Bhabani's Palace
Natore, Bangladesh

Natore is only about one hour's drive from Rajshahi..... haven't been to this place before, which kept my curiosity high.... a push from my in-laws finally got me there.... this was the second day in our Rajshahi tour.... I had been to quite a few palaces in recent years... and have grown a bit of fondness for old bricks.... my recent ventures with portraiture helped me to see things that I didn't see that often.... its not just the bricks and windows that make a picture..... a human touch always brings life to old things.... one way to introduce the human touch is to do candids, where you capture humans in frame of your choice without them knowing about it.... and the other is to place a subject of your own choice.... fashion photography uses the second approach quite often... making use of a shabby, yet dramatic backdrop to create contrast or similarity with the subject.... for some obvious reasons, I went for the second approach at Rani Bhabani's Palace.... I still went for the abstract approach whenever the opportunities were there....

anyway, to the shoot.... I almost exclusively did the whole shoot with an 85mm 1.8 lens.... aperture ranged between f2-f8... depending on the situation, I opened up the aperture or closed it.... the whole shoot was done with available light, and without any help from any reflector.... I guess some reflectors would've helped... but I only had a small 34" reflector, which would've produced harsh light for the subject, as I was not taking any close-up shots.... no strobes as well, as those would've required a certain amount of setup, for which I had little time....

more to come in a hurry.....

making day.....

2011-09-07T12:40:00.000+06:00

05 September 2011
Rajshahi, Bangladesh

the first day at Rajshahi.... its been almost a year since the last tour of Rajshahi..... the day was quite eventful as we had already explored the bank of the Padma and some other nice places on the outskirts of the City.... now it was time to do something different in the evening.... with the sun down, we had to adapt.... I had brought minimal equipment on this tour, so I needed to improvise for everything.... and as I'm virtually without any editing platform, most of the posts here are to done with minimal PP work... anyway, lets get to the shoot.....

Proma's well-decorated room brought the idea of some environmental portraits.... the show-pieces on the wall, tables and floor caught my eyes and gave me thought that I must have some photos here.... the room is supposed to look best in early morning daylight conditions..... but it was evening; no sunlight.... and the room doesn't really receive direct sun..... so, I had to tweak something to make it look like a day shoot.... I put an SB-900 with a warm gel filter in the hands of an assistant (Shoma) outside the window and used a 24" Lastolite Ezybox Hotshoe softbox as a fill light from the right with another SB-900 inside (on Manfrotto monopod, held by my wife).... both the flashes were triggered by Elinchrom Skyport radio triggers....

the result was some kind of a moody picture with lots elements and warmth.... my subject was also full of expressions and ideas, which made my work easier.... the space inside the room and outside the window were causing a bit of inconvenience, but thats something expected on different locations.... the walls need to be corrected a bit in PP.... it would've been nice if I could set the softbox on the left of the frame, making it look more natural.... but that would've meant changing the whole frame.... didn't wanna do that though.... anyway, the shoot went on smoothly, more or less....

more to come from the tour.....

daylight plus one.....

2011-09-06T08:20:00.001+06:00

05 September 2011
Rajshahi, Bangladesh

on the first day of our Rajshahi tour, we had the opportunity to visit the bank of the Padma only for a short period of time.... we went on a nice visit on the outskirts of the city, from where it took almost too long to reach the Padma.... yet, we rushed and had been able to extract at least several shots out of the almost missed opportunity..... the sky was superb and produced that dramatic backdrop you always dream about.... we actually missed the best colours as we had to pack several minutes earlier than ideal because of security concerns... we could see the western skies go red while we were going back..... I used a single light source and mixed it with a dramatic sunset backdrop.... there was hardly any daylight, but whatever was left of it, was enough to encourage us to shoot.... I only had to provide some fill....

I had been privileged with some basic help, which isn't easy to find.... I had enough assistance for the one light I was using to augment the sun; well, if there was any left of it.... used a single SB-900 flash inside a 24" Lastolite Ezybox Hotshoe softbox, triggered by an Elinchrom Skyport radio trigger.... the softbox was mounted on top of a Manfrotto monopod, which was held by several of my kins in turn.... had to change the settings quickly to adjust to the changing light situation...

some key lessons learned from this.....

lesson 1: show up early..... yea, I knew this all along, but rediscovered this once again.... we were too late to reach and setup.... the sun was already on its way down when we had our first shot.... most shots were done after the sun had actually set....

lesson 2: don't waste time.... when you are shooting against the clock, you keep your experiments to the minimum.... look for the one shot that you this should be the winner.... reduce the time between changes of subjects and changes of settings to the minimum.... I kept the settings simple, with one light.... I had prefabricated most stuff to save time during preparations.....

lesson 3: look for the opportunity..... it was a very public place... and there were so many people going about the place that it was pretty difficult to compose.... I had to persuade quite a few onlookers to step out of the frame.... had to wait for the best moments when the background cleared.... it was difficult to get the best combination of expression, composition and moments.... so, it was sort of a compromise all along....

lesson 4: have patience.... we did miss the best colours.... we left too early.... I was ruining the fact that we left 5 minutes too early.... I knew that in sunset shooting, you should wait for a while to let the colours have a chance.... but I had little chance with everyone around me clamouring about security.....

it was a nice day's shooting though with some good memories... these shots are almost straight out of the camera with very little adjustment.... I guess most of my posts from Rajshahi would look like this.... a lot more coming up, including the evening strobist venture.....

Ideas of the Week: Week 1

2011-09-04T01:19:00.000+06:00

Week 1: 27 August - 02 September, 2011

just thought about sharing my ideas, findings and activities in one page at the end of each week... you might have been busy this week, not being able to see all the materials I've shared online during the week...

the weekly update "Ideas of the Week" will allow the readers to browse through my stuff in one go... I'll summarise all the blog activities of mine in Blogger.com and Wordpress... would also compile all my best shares through Twitter.... and in this compilation would be a summary of my micro-blog in Tumblr.... my photos in Flickr would also be shared along with any other online activities....

My blog posts on Blogger.com:

a lighting tutorial related to technical problems faced in group portraits of Depth of Field, speedlites and recycle time....

the same blog post on Wordpress

food photography on Eid Day.... food and Eid: no confusion; great combination!!

more food photography on the second day of Eid-ul Fitr.... more food, more lessons.....

lots of portraits on Eid Day.... setup, pose, click!!... & calculate lessons...

My Tumblr micro-blog:

cotton clouds!!..... on the lovely skies of Autumn

Eid Mubarak.... moon sighting effort on the eve of Eid-ul Fitr

photowalk.... a short history of photowalk in Bangladesh

the craved moon??..... on the first moon of Shawwal

first colours!!..... the first colourful skies of this Ramadan

friends..... a tribute to the friends who helped me to become me

losing a Messi..... on the upcoming visit of Argentinian football team to Bangladesh

Kamalapur characters..... on the people who live at Kamalapur Railway Station

the last Jum’a prayers of Ramadan.... on a typical prayer day of Ramadan on the street

My Twitter shares:

Just announced: Steve McCurry is the first winner of the newly created Leica Hall of Fame Award

this one really touched me.... Bangladesh-India border: Border of Impunity: Felani is not the last

Magnum Photos Today's Pictures: Last chance for the beach!

Backcountry Skiing Squaw Valley, California.. Extreme Photo of the Week -- National Geographic

superb 18-yead old photog!!.... Earthshots Photo of the day: Scandinavia by Benjamin Hill

Easter Procession, Spain – National Geographic Photo of the Day

Double-Decker bus, London, England... Travel Photo of the Week -- National Geographic

Lightning, Utah-Arizona Border – National Geographic Photo of the Day

talk about photographing dogs?? :).... Magnum Photos: Dog Days of Summer

Earthshots Photo of the day: A Stolen Moment by Mitchell Krog

“Sky Lines, The Wave” by Jim Goldstein

wonderful work with long exposure!!... “Racetrack Light Lasso” by Jim Goldstein

this is what I call landscape photography!!... “Grand Monsoon” by Dan Ransom

Dawn, Baghdad – National Geographic Photo of the Day

50-year old time capsule!!!... Vintage Exposed Film Found in an Auction

Earthshots Photo of the day: Out of the Blue by Harry Haruki Otoi

Vintage Effect in Under a Minute in Photoshop: Digital Photography School

War photographer Peter Van Agtmael at Magnum In Motion event at Milk Gallery... very involving writeup on the event...

The New York Times posts a story on war photographer Joao Silva: "This is What I Do: This is All That I Know".... touching pictures...

Magnum Photos pictures on Wind.... excellent compilation on a single theme

Earthshots Photo of the day: The Color of Thunder by Michael Anderson by Michael Anderson

Low-Key Photography for Beginners – Enter the Dark Side on Lightstalking.com

Autumn Landscape, Adirondacks – National Geographic Photo of the Day

Where We Live by Steve McCurry... a wonderful compilation of pictures on the theme "home" by the master photographer

Monk, in Bagan, Myanmar (Burma) – National Geographic Photo of the Day

Earthshots Photo of the day: Cypress by Krzysztof Browko

Night Photography Tips from Digital Photography School

Muslims travel to hometowns ahead of Eid al-Fitr on MSNBC Photoblog

Yellow Birch, Adirondacks – National Geographic Photo of the Day

Earthshots Photo of the day: Explosion of Lavender by Graham McPherson

Taslima Akhter documents struggle of Garment Workers in Bangladesh by The New York Times

My Flickr photos:

Photo of the Week.....I'll come up with a single photo from all my shoots out of the whole week and feature it here....

superman!!....

setup, pose, click!!... & calculate lessons...

2011-09-03T00:12:00.002+06:00

31 August 2011
Eid-ul Fitr Day, Mohammadpur, Dhaka, Bangladesh

demand induces supply!! :)...... I had the plan to shoot on Eid Day.... if there was nobody else, there would be Lamisa for sure... she's always a good subject (although a bit too unstable)... but once the setup is there, there are chances of taking pictures... and its Eid Day, so, there's always chance of getting subjects.... the best thing that happens during such occasions is that you get to shoot the most infrequent of visitors... and the pictures remain as a document of that time, increasing in value over the years....had my photog buddy Nasif coming in and also had my old buddies Saadi and Shameem showing up after a long while....had some neighbours visiting us after a while, which also provided some unique opportunities....

I had a two-light setup ready for the whole day.... a Westcott Apollo 28" softbox and a 24" Lastolite Ezybox Hotshoe softbox.... a YN-560 in each one of them.... this was the first time I was thinking of using a softbox as an edge light.... I was almost sure that there was no blonde bombshell showing up in my home.... so, the edge light was a necessity as I've setup a black backdrop.... the lights were both triggered with Elinchrom Skyport radio triggers, as they were both in softboxes... with the Lastolite I could take the chance with optical trigger, but when you have the better option, why push?

a lot of lessons learned from this little venture.... the sessions were quick and sometimes dirty!! :)... but it was fun all the way through... tried to make the sessions as enjoyable for the subjects as possible... most of the portraits were typical studio-like portraits.... but wherever the subject was receptive enough, I tried for the different look....

lesson 1: take a safe shot first.... you never know what would happen next moment.... so, its better to take a safe shot first and then try out something different....

lesson 2: swap the main light.... don't just stick on one light as the main light... sometimes, if you swap the lights, you can end up with a different viewpoint... also, putting the edge light higher gives better results...

lesson 3: read the subject.... try to figure out how the subject reacts to photos.... that may give you an idea how much different an expression the subject may offer you....

lesson 4: give them comfort.... most people think that their portraits don't look good.... so, its a must to give them assurance that everyone thinks the same of themselves... not everyone has a model face, so, only the models shouldn't have the right to be photographed!!

lesson 5: be funny.... making fun behind the camera always gives nice results.... that brings out the expressions and also reduces distance between the subject and the photographer....

lesson 6: get crazy..... there's always that inner self in everyone that they don't want to expose often.... try to trigger that.... and that can actually help to bring the subject closer to the photographer.... but this may not work with all subjects....

a lot more shooting during the Eid holidays.... so, more coming up in a rush!!

more food, more lessons....

2011-09-02T00:01:00.002+06:00

01 September 2011
Mohammadpur, Dhaka, Bangladesh

did I say that we had finished all the food on Eid Day??.... well, we did finish, but they were prepared again... yay!!.... and this time too, I was very active with all those funny-looking fence-like stuff they call lighting gears!!

just thought it might be a good idea to change the perspective a little.... used the same light setup as the previous one, with one Lastoline 24" Ezybox Hotshoe softbox as the main light and a bare YN-560 as a backlight.... just changed the vantage point totally.... wanted to capture the geometry of the food.... actually because of the changed vantage point, the lights were coming from the bottom-right (Lastolite) and from top-left (bare flash)..... the bare flash was set at a distance of around 8-10ft from the dishes and became the edge light... I didn't actually plan for such a change of vantage point, and as a result, didn't have a lotta stuff to fill the frame.... it wasn't really possible to bring the whole two plates in frame (had to crop on left side).... that would've made it even harder to fill the composition and complete the shoot... food photography is more about food styling, so this was a big lesson for me... perhaps next time....

started today's session in a more typical fashion... used a Sigma 150mm macro lens to fill the frame.... the same lighting setup.... the YN-560 inside the Lastolite was triggered with an Elinchrom Skyport radio trigger, while the bare flash was on optical trigger mode (S1)...

the food actually tasted a lot better than it actually looked.... that was the best part of it... :)

more Eid photoshoot to come in a hurry!! :)

food and Eid: no confusion; great combination!!

2011-09-01T00:32:00.004+06:00

31 August 2011
Mohammadur, Dhaka, Bangladesh

just like the 2010 Eid-ul Fitr shoot, I had to bring out all that junk up to the dinner table... oh yeah!!... all that yummy stuff were to go into our stomach... but they have to wait.... for may be another half-an-hour.... and that was worth it, as these items are not that regularly made at home... a lot of effort went into those.... and with a much much lesser effort, they went into my camera!!

anyway, not being a food photographer, I tend to bring in the experience of the previous session.... apart from the last Eid's shoot, I only had done shoot for Cafe Higin, which, in my opinion, was a pretty average show.... a new day is always a new experience... so, I went to work with a fairly basic setup.... what I've learned is that food photography was more to do with food styling than anything else.... but lighting is also important.... last time I had the main light shooting towards the ceiling, giving an overall fill for the whole table.... this time, I decided to use a 24" Lastolite Ezybox Hotshoe softbox, creating a more directional light.... and just like last time, there was a second flash giving backlight.... both the flashes were YN-560s... one was triggered by Elinchrom Skyport, the other was in optical trigger (S1) mode.... the lens was 85mm f1.8 Nikkor.... gives great bokeh, but I wanted a little bit of depth, so, used mostly between f2.8-5.6.....

there you go.... just before they went into our stomach..... :)

a lot more from the Eid Day coming up....

of Depth of Field, speedlites and recycle time....

2011-08-30T00:24:00.008+06:00

01 August 2011
Mohammadpur, Dhaka, Bangladesh

while I was photographing Lamisa at the start of this month, I actually had something bigger in my mind... I was thinking of making a plan for some group shots in the coming Eid holidays... so, I was looking for some suitable places in the house and also the most suitable settings for such shoots.... group shots are some pain.... one of the hardest jobs to accomplish.... it creates some technical nightmares and also makes the actual shoot itself something of a challenge.... while experimenting, I figured out some problems that I need to rectify.... some of that I had found ways to overcome, while others had to be bypassed altogether....

1) the first thing that played in my mind was space.... if I needed to cover a large enough group, I needed enough space to cover the whole group.... a wide-angle would obviously require a bigger backdrop, and would also create problems related to distortion.... on the other hand, a longer lens, which might've flattened perspectives and would've made it easier to work with a smaller backdrop, would require a lot of space to shoot.... it didn't entirely got solved, as there's a space constraint in my house that I can't rectify easily.... so, I needed to work with a smaller backdrop and resort to Photoshop, of which I'm an absolute dumb!!

2) the second problem was Depth of Field (DoF)..... a group would invariably require me to shoot f8 and lower.... that would put a lot of pressure of the flashes... speedlites would struggle to say the least.... well, this wasn't a real problem as long as I could put the light source very close to the subjects..... but with a large group, you just can't keep the lights that close, otherwise you'll end up having lights in the frame!!.....

3) so, this created the third problem..... making a bigger light source, as the lights began to go farther away from the subject.... a nice big softbox will not produce soft light if its placed a mile from the subject..... it has to be close to the subject; its size needs to be substantial relative to the distance from the subject... but with a group shot, it becomes difficult.... the light source has to be bigger to keep it at a good distance.... and if the lights are farther from the subject, this creates another problem....

4) the fourth problem would be the power of the lights.... as the lights are placed at a distance from the subjects, the power of the lights need to be higher.... its a simple logic.... the farther the light, the more light fall-off there is..... so, a substantial part of the light would be lost by the time it reaches the subjects..... so, raise the power of the lights...... this brings to the next problem.....

5) the fifth problem is about recycle time.... the further you put the lights from the subject and the more you dial up the power, the more time its going to require to recycle each time you shoot.... there's always a chance of missing out vital moments with the lights taking too long to recycle.... in a previous post, I was talking about making a baby pose in front of the lens, where I've given the tips on making every second count and shoot as many frames as possible within the window of opportunity.... but this would require fast recycle time.... and how is this going to happen if the lights are pushed to their higher power?.....

and all of these are of course taking the most important thing into assumption.... that your lights are at least powerful enough to properly illuminate the subjects..... if thats not possible, you have to find ways other than using artificial lights.....

setup....

so, whats the solution to the problems?..... 1) one thing was sure that I wouldn't get more space than I know I would.... so, have to work with a smaller backdrop and Photoshop.... or alternatively, use other props to fill the frame and make it less dependent on backdrops....

2) use bigger light sources as main lights..... softboxes are good as long as you have powerful lights in them.... but if there is shortage of powerful lights, you have to use multiple lights.... and that basically keeps out most softboxes (at least, the ones I have)... use diffusion panels instead.... they can stand in front of multiple speedlites and create one big uniform light source.... this means, my DIY 4'x4' panels have some work ahead of them....

3) increase the number of speedlites if you're dependent on speedlites.... that way, you may be able to shoot at a bit lower power.... 1/4 or 1/8 power is certainly better than 1/2 or 1/1 power.... since then, I've acquired a couple more YN-560 speedlites, which may give a great support....

4) use powerful studio lights whenever you can.... they're real useful in creating that DoF.... and solves most of the problems cited above.... the Elinchrom Ranger unit (1,100 w/s) and a Simpex monolight (250 w/s) unit would be real handy.... the Simpex though, would be dependent on main lines...

anyway, the shootout went well.... I started with one main light, as shown above, and then added another light to cover the two subjects in some more space.... the speedlites did struggle to put enough light in there, though I was shooting only at f8... I didn't push the aperture down to f11 or lower, as the flashes were shooting at high power (1/2 or 1/4) already; and missing some of the exposures...

every shoot is a problem-solving exercise.... if there's no problem, that may mean that you're no really putting an effort into it...

more to come soon....

setup....

do you think you can make a preschooler pose for you??

2011-08-24T20:44:00.008+06:00

01 August 2011
Mohammadpur, Dhaka, Bangladesh

I had been shooting Lamisa long enough to learn some basics of photographing a baby, especially a really unstable one.... that told me that photographing a preschooler is one of the hardest things to do... they have a mind of their own and would like to stick to it, whether it goes for you or against... they're mobile, so you may have to wait for a long time before they come back to your preferred location.... but there are some ways you can make progress.... sharing some of my experiences....

1. find her interests.... the faster you can figure this one out, the quicker it would be for you to accomplish this.... you may try to use your setup to get to know the baby.... you can build your relationship with the baby while you do this..... babies do love photographic equipment.... they're just too different from their boring toys!!

2. involve her.... make her feel that she is engaged in the whole process and doing some hard work.... Lamisa has interest in new attires... I try to use that to my advantage... every time I want her to pose in front of the camera, I tell her to get ready.... and she jumps into it!

3. have patience; lots of patience.... babies are restless.... they're very unpredictable and would change mind anytime.... but don't give up.... usually they do lose interest in one thing pretty quick.... and thats a good thing when you want her to come back.... you can never say that you can keep her in front of the lens for an indefinite amount of time.... this simply isn't going to happen....

4. be trigger happy!!...... you'll never get enough time to photograph a baby.... so, make the best use of time..... a frame takes a fraction of a second, so, take as many frames as you can when the baby is in the right place and in the right mood.... mind you, she can change her mind in a fraction of a second!

5. take help..... if you can have someone with you who can keep interest in the baby, do to advantage of that..... there's nothing more frustrating than sitting idle with the camera while the baby pursues something else!

setup for this shoot....

there are many other tips that other photographers have shared online.... but these are my findings regarding making a preschooler pose... I would also like to share some more learning regarding doing an actual shoot after you get the baby to pose in front of the camera....

the pics here are from a long backlog, which I started clearing almost a month back... and I'm glad that I'm almost at the end of it....

more to come soon.....

how do you photograph a baby with balloons??

2011-08-22T05:11:00.006+06:00

05 August 2011
Mohammadpur, Dhaka, Bangladesh

how do you shoot a baby with balloons?..... one way would be to give the baby space with all the balloons around her.... but how about shooting only the baby's expressions with the balloons around her?..... you have to shoot pretty close, isn't it?.... thats how it all began for Lamisa.... one of Lamisa's favourite stuff is balloon.... she always demands balloons from the family members when they came back home from outside.... that made us create sort of a balloon stock in the house.... and however transient their lives may be, they still are capable of cheering her up.... and thats all that matters....

my aim was to show only her expressions with the balloons around.... and leave everything else..... for that, I chose the Sigma 150mm macro, one of the sharpest lenses I have, and placed a Simpex 120cm x 50cm softbox on Elinchrom Ranger unit.... I was shooting at f11 to give enough depth to the image and to make sure that I don't miss focus with all that balloon around.... and I also switched to manual focus... Lamisa was playing with the balloons, so the balloons were anything but stable.... for a big portion of the time, the balloons were between her and the light, putting her in shadows...... and she was also preferring to hide behind the balloons most of the time!..... so, I had to look for the slightest of opportunities to shoot between the balloons.... the Elinchrom Ranger provided the fast recycle I needed.... a speedlite would probably not have done the job; definitely not at f11..... the 120cm x 50cm softbox helped me to control the exposure on the subject as well as on the backdrop.... I'm kinda loving this cheap tool..... and not to forget that it fits the Elinchrom mount!!

Lamisa was impatient as usual... and I had to make do.... the shoot had to be done in several sittings.... so, needed to keep the gear ready, looking for that opportunity when Lamisa was in the mood....

more to come soon.... still getting rid of backlogs!!

an evening of portraiture....

2011-08-20T23:01:00.012+06:00

19 August 2011
Bailey Road, Dhaka, Bangladesh

the Paraboyz are some sticky dudes... they don't know how to forget memories.... they know whats important in their lives..... they also know what comes around and what doesn't.... so, when the proposition of a get-together, along with a photowalk came up, it was always a "go"..... the only factor that still remained was when.....

big thanks to the guys for showing up and displaying the affection for that friendship.... a friendship that never had a boundary of age..... this is one multi-age unique group..... the boyz have become men, and busy.... but the effort to keep that friendship alive has never become old.... I am proud to be part of it....

after that short photowalk at Chawkbazar Iftar Market, we had our Iftar at Royal Restaurant of Lalbagh.... but it was just too late for us to sit there and order something good.... but we had enough to call it an 'Iftar'..... anyway, we also wanted to have a guys' evening.... our families (well, those who have!) could wait....

the guys of Paraboyz who had been interested in photography, they were the main participants for this venture.... others were invited too.... ultimately we ended up with just 6 of us.... Omi left right after the photowalk at Chawkbazar.... while the five of us ventured in the evening for something different.... and it was different....

we hung out at Bailey Road; had a lot of yummy fruit juice, and before leaving, we decided to do something that we could remember..... we did some portraiture of ours.... I had a hunch that we might end up doing something like this.... so, I toiled to bring some strobist stuff.... a Lastolite 24" Ezybox Hotshoe softbox, along with a YN-560 flash, Elinchrom Skyport radio triggers and a Manfrotto monopod, to be used as a boom....

Anonto is a great guy.... handsome, good-looking, and creative.... he was a pace sensation in our para cricket team.... but since then he has accomplished a lot more than just playing for his para, though those have nothing to do with his skills as a cricketer..... a young architect in his own right and making his mark in the industry with his creative stuff.... have seen him after a while actually.... his bearded look was something of a surprise for all of us.... he has lived up to his family, which is full of creative people.....

Aurnab is one my favourite subjects because of his expressive nature.... he has been as casual as he has ever been..... great guy to hang around with.... and loveable friend.... would love to see him restart his photography, as he has the eye for it, I believe.....

Shihab has always been a great friend.... one of the earliest enthusiasts among us in photography, he has found his firm footing in mass communication.... and thats where he's discovering his passion for photography once more.... he's been the main instigator behind a photowalk with our click-buddies.... big thanks!!..... and being involved with conservation of Nature, it was just more appropriate to click him in front of that backdrop!!

Anik is one of the funniest guys I know..... I can still remember that trip of ours at Bandarban and Cox's Bazaar five years ago, where we had a great amount of fun having him around..... and as he has found his newly-found passion in photography, it was on me to figure out something unique for him.... I decided to create something that would portray his new desire...... I had only one light... so, I shot two images separately with that single softbox and stitched them together in Photoshop..... never done such kinda stuff in my life.... but it turned out to be pretty good!! :)

the main aim of the photowalk and the photoshoot were to bind ourselves in sort of an activity that would remain in memory for a much longer period..... it wasn't just another adda, or another Iftar or another dinner.... it was a memory.... thanks guys!!

fashion shoot with LX-5??

2011-08-18T23:29:00.004+06:00

18 August 2011
Mohammadpur, Dhaka, Bangladesh

oh yes!!.... Lamisa just got her new pair of shoes from her grandpa and she was more than just eager to show it off.... and when such moments occur, you have to resort to the best camera (which is defined by Chase Jarvis as the camera that is available to you).... I was privileged, because I had a lot more than what Chase Jarvis was mentioning about.... I had the fantastic Panasonic Lumix LX-5, and with it I had my most portable strobist gear (a YN-560 flash, Elinchrom Skyport radio trigger and receiver and a 60cm x 38cm home-made collapsible diffuser).... and all of that was packed inside the same bag where I had my netbook with its charger, mobile internet and some small stuff... this is my most favourite bag, which I mentioned in an earlier post....

Lamisa's mom played the assistant's role with the diffuser and the YN-560 flash.... and that turned out to be a fashion shoot after all.... I used the "Paper Toner" tone in Color Efex Pro for some of the images to make it more punchy and to focus on Lamisa's growing talent as a baby model!!

for the last part, some old collectibles of my wife and her brother gave Lamisa another excuse to stay still in front of the camera.... in fact, that was the only way to shoot her shoes!!

more to come soon enough.....

just a pinch of ISO....

2011-08-16T04:19:00.004+06:00

30 July 2011
Mohammadpur, Dhaka, Bangladesh

its been a while since I've pushed the camera ISO levels to something like 3200 or more.... my efforts had been more towards achieving a higher dynamic range through the use of artificial lights.... and such lights surely do a wonderful job when they are available..... but there are situations when you are too far away from those lights or you are just utterly lethargic to move your body in the direction of those lights.... and you make a decision - what do I do with the camera in my hand?

Lamisa gives me the reason to pick up the camera almost too many times.... thats what she does best and I just have to make sure that I'm not lazy enough.... her expressive ways always inspired me to click once more.... sometimes, without the extra lights.... when you have a beautiful daylight window nearby producing that lovely sidelight, you forget that you have artificial lights nearby...... and then, with a pinch of ISO you get that dynamic range and shutter speed.... with the 50mm shooting at f2.2, it needed only 800 ISO to do a decent enough job.... Lamisa was moving, but it was just about enough to freeze the action....

more backlogs waiting in the wings to get dumped!!

heavenly bodies!!

2011-08-13T16:44:00.008+06:00

12 August 2011
Dhanmondi, Dhaka, Bangladesh

it was an invasion; well, almost..... we just stormed Sumon Bhai and Lina Apa's home with all those equipment..... it was almost a surprise for the family.... we didn't disclose our intention to them until about an hour or so before our arrival.... it was as natural as it could've been..... and it turned out to be a very entertaining evening....

I had photographed Lina Apa's daughter Naorin several times in the past.... the most memorable was when she was one-week old..... lots of beautiful memories.... but its been a while since I had the opportunity to take some photos of her.... busy times and some less-than-best effort prevented another photo-session with her.... she's definitely one of my most favourite child subjects..... and now after the arrival of her little brother Naqvi, there are more reasons than one to invade their house!!

in a previous post of mine I was talking about being flexible with carrying equipment.... that was a good practice and this time that practice paid dividends.... because of the unique positioning of their house, I had to devise a way to bring as much equipments as it is necessary to complete the job, but within the limits of two bags at best and probably some other stuff hand-held...

with Naqvi, it was difficult considering the limitations that we had to face within their house and also to make the best use of the equipment I had been able to bring.... I decided to put the adorable Naqvi within a pool of white... he was really enjoying his upright position, trying to have a look at everyone around.... I used the Westcott Apollo 28" softbox as the main light and told my wife to hold a YN-560 on top to illuminate the white backdrop.... the backdrop is something that we had managed from their household.... we had to leave the backdrops back at the car for obvious reasons..... I switched to the Sigma 150mm macro lens to be able to shoot a bit wider, blowing the backdrop within putting too much pressure on the YN-560s.... the flashes were already firing at 1/4 power....

and all on a sudden, it was feeding time for Naqvi.... so, we took some opportunity shooting the two other adorable kids circling around us..... Naorin was joined by her cousin Diya in their most beautiful angelic attires.... I had a field day shooting those two..... they had been so expressive, and also old enough to take at least some instructions.... used only one light, the Westcott Apollo 28" softbox and a silver reflector on the opposite side.... switched to the cheap Nikkor 28-80mm lens for this shoot....

then Naqvi was back.... he was in full energy!!.... this time, decided to use the top view to give him enough space..... he was so happy.... and when Naorin joined him on, it was another great frame..... used a Lastolite 24" Ezybox Hotshoe softbox as the main light from top; my wife holding it and the Wescott 28" Apollo producing the edge and fill from the bottom right on the frame.....

then switched to the previous setup once again..... the one-light solution.... even though I didn't bring a black backdrop, the Wescott Apollo did a great job with controlling and shaping light..... the 34" collapsible reflector (silver side) was used on the other side to wipe off some shadows..... Naqvi went to sleep, but we continued out shoot.... we evolved from the lovely frame with Naqvi and his mom..... then we added his dad in the frame..... and found out that there was enough space in the frame to add Naorin as well..... it became the picture of the whole family..... but I had used only one light!!.... greatly enjoyed the shoot!!

before we knew, it was quite late..... we didn't think that the shoot would take that long.... but ultimately the outputs justified the delays.... the family was very happy and so were we.... it was a superb day with some heavenly bodies!!

more to come soon.....

mixing daylight....

2011-08-11T00:08:00.005+06:00

29 July 2011
Mohammadpur, Dhaka, Bangladesh

natural light is by far the best light.... but unfortunately, I don't always get the opportunity to use natural light; at least, not on weekdays by any means.... so, practically weekends become my only friend when it comes to using natural light....

when it comes to natural light, the possibilities are huge.... you can also mix daylight with artificial lights to create a different kinds of environ.... your control of light increases dramatically when you can mix a bit of fill-light into it... that said, I thought why not keep daylight in the background and overexpose.... that can give a dreamy kind of look to the images with an abundance of light illuminating the place... creating that kind of feel with artificial lights would've required a lot of effort..... and needless to say, a lotta lighting equipment..... so, here, I just used a Lastolite 24" Ezybox Hotshoe softbox as fill light and let the background take its shape using shutter speed (1/15sec) and a bit of ISO (800)....

but I also wanted to document what it requires to finish a meal of Lamisa.... its true that she requires many types of incentives for that effort, so, I can at least try to show at least some of them..... one of her favourite toys is an old remote keyboard of mine.... its more than 10 years old, but its not that old to Lamisa.... thank God that she still thinks its her "laptop"!!..... this perception is still keeping my netbook alive!! not sure how long we can feed that into her mind.... and there is the TV.... its one of the best tools to help during her meals.... well, a lotta people say its not good to let children get consumed by TV, but there's hardly any options left when babies are born watching all the latest gizmos around.....

all the pics were made using similar settings mentioned above with Lastolite 24" softbox and YN-560 flash triggered by Elinchrom Skyport radio trigger....

more to come soon...... more backlogs need to be cleared!!

through rain, mud and sweat..... all of that, for friends...

2011-08-09T03:37:00.008+06:00

07 August 2011
Mohammadpur, Dhaka, Bangladesh

it was Friendship Day.... and my good friend Ayon gave me a wonderful idea in the morning... to involve the family members in an intimate friendship day shoot.... I got determined, even though it was a hard day at office in Ramadan.... we were supposed to spend the evening at my in-laws anyway, so, I thought this was a day that should not be wasted, no matter what....

my determination faced the first hurdle even before I had reached there..... I had little time to pack up after coming back from office.... and I was thinking of packing the most necessary gears for a strobist evening..... tested the new Lowepro Rezo 190 bag and my old soft bag that I got from office years ago.... it was a new assignment for both the bags.... but more appropriately, it was a test for me to utilise the space as efficiently as possible, as the bags didn't really allow a mountain to go in them.... I reached there everything packed alright... but through the hurry, I forgot to pack the most important small item.... a PC sync cable, without which the Elinchrom Skyport radio triggers won't work with the YN-560 flashes....

so, right after Iftar, me and my wife went out to accomplish some things that could help us remember the day better.... we went to a gift shop to buy some wrist-bands, specially made for friendship.... we reached home from the shop through drenching rain.... and while I was leaving the just-purchased merchandise from the store, I also left the wrist-bands at home..... so, once we reached my in-laws, I realised that I got the PC-sync cables, but left the wrist-bands!!..... we decided to make do.... and somehow, my wife was able to manage something out of nothing.... she extracted some laces from some toys that had the exact messages that we wanted.... and thats it.... we didn't need another splash of rain to get it done!!

folks down there were happy.... happy to have their grand-child with them for an occasion.... its not that they don't have Lamisa regularly... but you know emotions.... and a bit more of that went into this shoot.... we haven't had a shoot of Lamisa with her grand-parents for some time.... so, it was just more than appropriate to have this shoot on this day.... people here are really vowing to keep this friendship for life.... and friendships like this do last a lifetime.....

technically speaking, I used a Lastolite 24" Ezybox Hotshoe Softbox on a Manfrotto monopod as a boom, held by my wife and Riad (my brother-in-law)..... to eliminate shadows, I posted a flash on the ground with a grid spot on it.... but unfortunately, the flash didn't work most of the times as the battery was somehow at its lowest end... too bad that I didn't notice this earlier.... anyway, the shots looked nice enough.... more than the technical quality of the shots, it was more of the moment that made it important.... Lamisa was already searching for bed, so, it was hard to keep her attention.... Riad wanted to feature in an arm-wrestling kind of encounter with Lamisa.... but that didn't really work great..... its difficult make a preschooler understand what you intend to see in a photograph!!

anyway, much much more to come.... the backlogs are still backlogged!!