TTL Group Shoot....... a Making of....

17 March 2011
Mohammadpur, Dhaka, Bangladesh

It was 20:00hrs on Wednesday (16^th March 2011) when AKA came to my place with Kamal (Shadow of Dark) to plan this. Shudipto called me up earlier in the evening and told me to plan a group shoot with AKA, who just arrived from KL several days back. We knew that it would be a challenge, not just to execute this, but to make it unique. Unique is a word we’ve learned to love over the last few years with TTL. We’ve made all our effort to make our work stand out; to be used by others as reference; something of a trendsetter. Last year's group shoot before "Bangladesh in Frames II" (BIF-II) exhibition was a marvel. BIF-III had to set a new trend! With less than a day to go, this was more than a small challenge. We didn’t even finalise our ideas or place. It had to be executed within Thursday, which was a holiday.

We rejected a couple of venues because of some obvious complicacies. Martyred Intellectuals Monument at Rayerbazar came up top as the most feasible and relevant venue. When AKA proposed this place, it took us some short calculations before we communicated this to Shudipto, Faisal Bhai and Kamrul as the final one. They handled the organizing part very well indeed! It was a hard ask for them to gather 50-plus shooters with one night’s notice.

AKA wanted it to be a first timer in Bangladesh. And he thought it may be great if we could use artificial light to illuminate the whole group! Well, that may be a unique idea, but to execute that, you really have to know what you are doing, let alone having the equipment on location to execute this. AKA wanted the shoot to be done in the blue hours. In addition to this, I was thinking whether it would be possible to get the sun in the window on the structure. I got the sun there once couple of years back, and knew that was one of the most unique features of that monument. That was the month of April back then, so, it was pretty feasible to try that in March. The thing that we were concerned about was the placement of the group. There are some interesting patterns on the pavement there that can act as friend or foe. We needed to reconnoitre the place before making the final decision on the placement of the group. We also planned to take some ‘safe’ shots first up, just in case the unique shot didn’t work out.

The structure is huge! So, it had to be a wide angle lens to execute this. I thought about my 20mm on D700, but also thought about backups with 11-16mm on crop bodies or 16-35mm on FF, just in case 20mm doesn’t work out. Lighting was a bigger challenge. I was thinking of using the Elinchrom Ranger with A-head as the main light, and possibly using some SB-900/SB-800 or 580EX-ii or YN-560s as fill lights. I also thought about creating one huge light source with a 12’x8’ white seamless with all the lights. I kept all the options on the cards. Called up several other photogs to keep their flashes as backup. To get the proper vantage point, a ladder was a necessity. We called Farhan Bhai organise a highest possible ladder. Getting the light high enough was also a potential challenge, as we needed to illuminate the faces to 50-plus people without overlapping shadows.

Failed to join in an early morning reconnaissance mission there because of too much sleep. So, in the afternoon, had to show up as early as I could. Gazi Bhai helped me out with the equipment. It was just past 16:00hrs. My first intention was to look at the unique angle that I had been thinking of from the day before. The sun was yet to reach the structure, but it surely looked possible, albeit with some challenge.

From TTL Group Shoot, 17 March 2011

16:19hrs..... I was looking for the feasibility of the unique shot.......

From TTL Group Shoot, 17 March 2011

16:41hrs...... the 'safe' shot was already being planned.....

From TTL Group Shoot, 17 March 2011

16:44hrs....... AKA organising the group........

By around 16:40, the ‘safe’ shot was being organised. The sun was still high. We decided to take a place almost at 90-degree angle to the structure. Its not the most creative, but its ‘safe’. AKA started to organise people in his usual manner. It was hard for anyone to ignore his words! Kamal and TM joined him in the effort. Raian was also there doing some policing jobs! A public place like this was supposed have a lotta people, and to clear the whole place was a virtual impossibility. We tried to clear up the foreground, as that would be the cause for distractions. People way back near the structure were not real issues, as I was basically underexposing the scene. Started at f16, ending up with f18!! Sensor-dust apertures!! Needed that depth and also needed to control the exposure with the sun so high. And how well the Ranger unit stood there! Wow! We started with just the Ranger unit with a 9” reflector; bare light! And that actually was enough! Didn’t even have to use full power! This was the first time I have used this much power on the Ranger. And it blew my mind, including all others’!

From TTL Group Shoot, 17 March 2011

17:04hrs...... the safe shot was done!

By around 17:04hrs, the ‘safe’ shot was done, and I started to look for that unique one. AKA and me decided to use a round pattern on the pavement to keep everyone confined. That would automatically create a pattern in group that we had been looking for. Our group had been wearing red and green dress mostly. We wanted it to look more like the national flag, or at least create a notion like that.

From TTL Group Shoot, 17 March 2011

17:10hrs...... New angle under consideration..... the sun was yet to come down.....

From TTL Group Shoot, 17 March 2011

17:14hrs..... AKA feverishly organises the group...... race against the sun....

From TTL Group Shoot, 17 March 2011

17:23hrs..... a lotta policing had to be done to keep the frame clean..... TM is doing it here.....

From TTL Group Shoot, 17 March 2011

17:35hrs...... an exclusive portrait session with AKA, TM and Shadow of Dark..... special feature: a full-powered beauty light solution....

It was surely a lot more challenging with the sun coming into the window from a specific angle. That angle created problems with the circle that we had been planning use as a pattern. The circle went more to the sides. But it was still bearable. In fact, when the sun actually started to move into the window by around 17:38, the placement of the round pattern was in perfect position. We kept the same one-light solution, but this time the light needed more height. The round pattern required the light to create a sort of a spotlight with the minimum spill outside the pattern. Tahmid Munaz and Kamal did their best to hold the A-head up there. They held the light with the lightstand up into the air for some time to make this possible. The 8-ft lightstand needed that boost to make it happen. It wasn’t possible to use any other higher ground.

From TTL Group Shoot, 17 March 2011

whats in a picture if everyone's sleeping??

From TTL Group Shoot, 17 March 2011

whats in a picture when you can't even see a face??...... this is what it looked like without the Ranger blazing.....

From TTL Group Shoot, 17 March 2011

17:43hrs...... its a wrap!!

We were done by 17:43. It took just 5 minutes’ real shooting to give this much pain to everyone for such a long time. It just had to be done. An on top of that, they had to bear with AKA’s brutal directions, without which we could never accomplish this! Around 71 faces ultimately came up in the frame, and looking at that final output, we really thought we achieved something!

the madness.......

From TTL Group Shoot, 17 March 2011

morning strobist......

22 October 2010
Mohammadpur, Dhaka, Bangladesh

after an extremely hectic week, this was a must actually..... the week contained only four days because of Durga Puja holidays on Sunday.... yet, the week seemed so long.... last weekend's Rajshahi tour seems like weeks ago..... its a pity how the hectic city life is making us age so quickly.....we have to find our ways to survive.....

anyway, Rumi Bhai took the initiative.... we planned to go outside Dhaka on some small strobist effort.... but it didn't materialise as some of us dropped out because of personal engagements..... so, we had to live with something shorter.... much shorter.... we met early in the morning at Mohammadpur and decided to venture to one of our old hunting grounds, Martyred Intellectuals Monument at Rayerbazar..... the idea was to spend some time talking and also to shoot some pictures, as opportunities came by..... we also kept the option of practicing some strobist stuff..... actually that was the most important motivation and we were prepared..... we had quite a few flashes among three of us.....


the guy was completely insane.... he continued with his fiery speech whether anyone listened to him or not.... and he was breaking the rule just like other "sane" people, so can't blame him for standing and walking on the altar....



children playing cricket on the historical premises.....
little do they know that they are the ones expected to create history in the days to come.....


although we spent some time shooting some available light lifestyle and landscape shots, we soon figured out that our strobes were still in the bag.... the weather was gloomy to start with, as there was the tropical storm Giri looming over the Bay of Bengal..... but the sun did win its place and illuminated the massive Monument with morning lights.... we spent our time under the cool shades of the numerous trees there...

once we accumulated all our flashes, we came up with the idea of trying to overpower the sun.... or at least, test the potential of speedlites to overpower the sun.... we had five flashes, but to sync them together was something we haven't done before.... two Canon flashes and three Nikon flashes..... how do we do it?..... we had in short of radio triggers..... Rumi Bhai's radio triggers (Yongnou RF 602/C) could trigger only two flashes... I also had Elinchrom Skyport that could trigger only one flash.... I knew that the SB-900s can shoot in SU-4 mode, utilising the light from other flashes as the trigger..... so, thats it.... five flashes...... we tested the flashes and they all synced.... Rumi Bhai was surprised to see his radio triggers working with my D700, as he thought they were only supposed to work with Canon flashes.....

we used all available resources to mount the flashes in the right places..... to overpower the sun, I had to dial down the aperture to f16 and had to utilise the full power of all the flashes.... the radio trigger seemed quite unreliable, as it regularly decided not to shoot..... but after some random pressing, they somehow worked.....



Rumi Bhai volunteered to feature in front of the camera and Pervez kept the two SB-900s in his hand behind the single umbrella, which was constantly under thread from the slight breeze..... the edge lighting was provided by a Canon 430EX and an SB-900..... the SB was on the ground, while, to better utilise the 430EX, I had to put it on a higher platform..... a local boy (Ziaur Rahman) was among the substantial crowd of onlookers enjoying our madness..... he helped us keeping the flash away from the floor....

setup......


it was by no means a perfect shoot, but it was another step to learning more.... and that was a big enough motivation to do this..... can't wait for the next effort....

Have we forgot their sacrifices already?

27 March 2010
Martyred Intellectuals Monument, Rayerbazar, Dhaka, Bangladesh

me and Gazi Bhai went to Martyred Intellectuals Monument at Rayerbazar the day after Independence Day.... it was a morning photowalk sort of visit....... early morning face of the Monument is always very interesting and totally different from afternoon.... this is one of several times I went there with a camera.... and every time I was able to take some different photos.....

we spent some time there gossiping and also clicked a few.... the thing that really shook me there was the attitude of visitors.... it was a real pity that most of the visitors there didn't have any idea about the main purpose of the Monument..... people were walking or resting on the altar where wreaths are usually placed....

I asked myself if this is the situation of our national pride less than 40 years since independence, what would we see another 50 years down the road??..... if the population becomes forgetful of their own origin, who takes the blame for letting it happen??....... someone has to take the responsibility for this mess!!..... but I'm sure that the kind of incompetent leadership that we have become used to seeing since our independence, is incapable of taking the blame on their own shoulders....


under whose provided freedom do you relax??

the spirit of liberation has to live on throughout generations...... generations that haven't seen blood; generations that have enjoyed the freedom without earning it.... its a tough challenge for the leadership; but its the difference between having an identity and not having one.......

for more from the same shooting, please visit the following link:
Martyred Intellectuals Monument, March 2010