a taste of speed......

15 April 2011
Narail, Bangladesh

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

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



it was a demonstration of prestige.....








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







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




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




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



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




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




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

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

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



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

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

Day Two: BIF-3..... in full motion!!

26 March 2011
Drik Gallery, Dhaka, Bangladesh

BIF-3 is rocking, not just Drik, but outside as well.... another great day..... the day started with an FM radio campaign on Radio Foorti.... Faisal Bhai and me went on air at 10:00AM to give an overview of TTL and BIF-3..... it was a pretty good exposure for the exhibit.... thanks goes to Radio Foorti for giving us the coverage.....





it was the Independence Day..... and as expected, the day was pulling a big crowd.... there was hardly a moment during the day when the galleries were not full of people.... Anwar Hossain was there with us for the second day in a row.... our selector Andrew Biraj also spent the day with us.... and the best part of the day was the cake!!.... it was TTL's birthday!!..... a big cake, symbolizing the national flag was introduced.... and almost immediately, it became the most photographer cake ever!!..... the cake-cutting ceremony set the tone for the day..... it was a day of fun.....

the outside weather changed during the evening and we had to remove all the images from the open-air gallery on the ground floor..... but our spirit remained high until the exhibit was closed right after 8:00PM..... the authorities literally had to throw us out..... but before that, we were able to exercise a bit of madness with lights and shadows......


model: Xoaher
D700 + 70-210mm @92mm; 1/400sec, f9, ISO 100
Strobist info: 2 x SB-900 + 1 x SB-600 firing from camera left; TTL, high-speed sync; placed on ground; shielded by human shield formed by several TTL-ers so that the light doesn't spill on to the back wall, which was lit by many lights... well, it still did!! :O
Editing: tilted the image around 90 degrees!! :O

up there once again!!

Second High-Rise Graffiti Shoot
03 December 2010
Dhaka, Bangladesh

we knew we had to go there again..... that was the impression we had the last time we toiled to climb those 10 floors.... the rarity of such items made us take the pain last time and we simply weren't satisfied enough..... now, just a few days back, Zaim came up with another proposition, stating the increase in the number of graffiti there... we simply couldn't resist.... we jumped into organising the second venture there.... though the number of participants weren't awfully high..... yet, the enthusiasm was there 100%.... big thanks to Zaim for making this happen and also thanks to all the participants for making a fantastic enjoyable event!

this time, we also had several models with us...... Ornob and Rafi were great subjects...... these two friends of Ashif were superb!!.... big hands for Ashif for bringing them .... they were not only great in front of the lens, they had great enthusiasm and energy...... we moved around so much with our setups; yet they were never tired a bit.... they enjoyed the event as much as we did..... and our fellow photographer Nasif was also superb in front of the lens.... he showed his multi-talented traits with pride....

it was a morning venture with intention to close off by mid-day, though we overshot our targeted timing pretty easily..... winter days are short, which is why we opted for morning rather than afternoon hours..... we started to gather right after 9:00AM, but we couldn't start our shoot before around 10:30AM.... it was a first timer for me with the Ranger unit.... the first test was portability.... it passed the test pretty much comfortably.... around 10kg weight up to 10th floor.... well, thats a good start..... I'm still alive.... didn't really end up testing the power of the unit, but we did test its ability to stop action.....

I had the privilege to help others and got some pics myself as well.... the first effort was to shoot some funky portraits..... I started off with the Elinchrom Ranger, shooting through a 60x60cm softbox... the light was overhead, while an SB-900 illuminated the background through a DIY grid spot.... Nasif was seriously moody here....





then added another light behind Nasif on a tripod (SB-900 on SU-4 optical trigger mode) to give some edge light.... also told Ashif to hold a foldable reflector (white side) to bounce a Canon 430EX flash off it.... that reduced the shadows created on Nasif's face as he turned away from the main light....



next, illuminated Ornob with a single gridded SB-900..... this created a really funky look....





and then brought in the Elinchrom Ranger with the 60x60cm softbox to do a similar shot, but in a different mood..... used the surface of the newly acquired 50x120cm softbox as a go-bo, preventing light from creating highlights on the wall.... thanks to Ashif, Nasif and Dhrubo for taking the pain holding the go-bo up there....



Nasif then featured under the same set-up....



then it was time for action..... the Ranger got the 50x120cm softbox without the diffusion material..... the idea was to stop action keeping the subject in focus and having minimum exposure on the graffiti wall.... Rafi, Nasif and Ornob produced a great series to ubran warriors..... it was a great shoot and utterly hilarious!!













that was the end of the session with the action shots..... we almost forgot how much time we had crossed..... we packed up almost in a hurry..... but not without getting a really creative group shot...... Dipa has the image in her portfolio..... that was the last fun for the day..... while we were packing up, we discussed the fact that the place it probably counting its days as a photography venue for us..... that made us think whether we could utilise this superb place once again!