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

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!!

twenty-taka light.....

23 July 2011
Mohammadpur, Dhaka, Bangladesh

I always try to make a picture different from the one that I just took.... its not easy when your options get limited by lack of time.... but every now and then you do get that opportunity when you encounter something new.... it may not be the most valuable stuff... its just different from what I shoot everyday.... and that opportunity was presented to me by a cheap top that illuminates while in action.... Lamisa is a bit too young to operate it.... but she loves to watch it; though its hard to keep it away from her hands... she tries it, and thats where she takes all the joy.... the toy in others' hands just creates that desire for her...












to accomplish this, I wanted to drag the shutter.... to create light-trais.... it was pretty easy when I set up a black backdrop.... a one-second exposure did the job well enough.... the flash did the rest... at first, I decided to turn off the lights in the room, which scared Lamisa off a bit.... then I decided to do it even with the lights on.... and it worked!!... the difficulty was with Lamisa.... she was not in the mood to stay in one place.... and we were able to make a few number of shots before we had to call it off....

before we ventured in this, we did some typical shoots as well, with Lamisa and her pumpkin doll.... and she also had her hands on the sticks of my 120x50cm softbox...









more to come soon enough..... lots of backlogs....

and a dancing baby shoot.....

17 July 2011
Mohammadpur, Dhaka, Bangladesh

I was just testing the 120x50cm Simpex softbox.... its a nice tool for almost a full-body portrait; at least for a child.... Lamisa was quiet.... well, for the time being.... showing the beautiful light quality of this cheap tool.... then it all began to change when Riad showed up....










Lamisa likes to dance.... so, capturing her in her act came naturally..... Riad became the catalyst for it..... but capturing a dancing baby under artificial lights has some challenges.... especially when the baby is jumping around over some space.... it was a real challenge to capture the right moments in the right manner....













I was working with one light only.... the Elinchrom Ranger unit powering a 120x50cm Simpex softbox.... the shape of the softbox allowed me to control the spread of light.... and that, also facilitated a separation of the subject from the background.... but it had its drawbacks.... the narrow light source meant that Lamisa was easily out of the lights every now and then.... and the way she jumped around, some of the best moments were ruined as she partially jumped out of the frame!!

anyway, it was fun..... and it was a precious shoot as well, as her "guitar" doesn't seem to have enough life in it for another shoot....

more to come soon.... would be dumping some of the backlogged stuff one after the other...