Why photography ?
Well no apparent reason. If one has the liberty to maintain several affairs at one time then I have taken that liberty. At one time it was guitars and I never could make it a profession. Photography is some thing we all do with our small little travel cameras. I remember our average film consumption was two rolls a year that would start at Easter and last through Christmas, covering a few birthday parties in the middle if they happen to be. Though I did not know then, my dad use a medium format Agfa Range finder for capturing all those family moments in black and white.
Photography was an expensive hobby and still is and would often get criticised at home if one was to contemplate reprinting even a single photo to be given to a friend. But yes we were one of those few middle class families that had the luxury of freezing time when we desired back in the 70's. I would get very excited looking at my dad remove the camera from its leather pouch and load the film and would tail him pervasively until he gave me a chance to cock the film in place or click a single shot.
Years passed by we moved on to the hotshot and then to the 35mm point and shoot. Every time the technology changed we bought a little more expensive camera and a popular brand but we still were stuck at point and shoot. As a average man we never bothered at the results unless they were dark and shaken, but yes we knew it could have been better if not for the low price and technology we adopted. By then I had seen what an SLR camera looks like and wanted one of my own. Problem was I was too small, I had no money and photography was not a priority for our family.
It would have been fullfilled if some one in the family was passionate enough to take it up as an art. But again it was not a hobby we could afford even if we wanted to. Through my college days I asked my folks on several ocassions to buy a SLR camera and the asnwer was quite simple. "We are not professionals and if you want to buy it, buy it with your own money"...So then it was decided that I would buy it with my own money and that no one would favour photography unless it was specifically for family ocassions or outings.
I lost the desire to own one untill three years ago when I read the biography of a couple who started their own photography business after the dot com revolution. I was in a similar position but did not consider it as a career option but more as a skill that I can use as a backup in case I am branded a cabbage. I used to collect wall papers for my desktop and would have the best desktops in my company, so I was partially inclined towards visual arts and knew a good picture from a normal picture. I spent 6 months online trying to study the mechnics of a SLR camera and how it resulted in better photographs. I ran through the price books of SLR cameras on every online portal and finally decided to out source a camera. The first SLR camera I ever shot was a Yashica FX3 Super 2000, loaned my my doctor who never knew how to operate it. But I could, because I had learnt it online and now all I needed to do was have an eye for detail....
It took me 6 rolls to understand how the camera finally worked and how you dont get what you see through the lens. Photography was much more than getting your mechanics right. Even the guide numbers and exposure charts seemed to defy every picture I took. I just could not get sharp pictures. The most important lesson I needed to learn was to discipline my self. I was too hasty, inconsistent, unclear about what I wanted from the picture and had no idea that it was the photo printer who was responsible for screwing up my prints.
Yet for my wedding I packed five profoto reels and shot the entire trip using the yashica. I even took it for my honeymoon. Only this time I noticed that the more I shot I got better and better. I suddenly remembered what most photographers said on their websites, "once you buy a camera just go out an shoot as much as you can, dont worry about the film and the frames wasted, if possible shoot a scene in more than two different ways, use bracketing to get the true color of subjects". All this started sinking in and I realised that a good photographer was an experienced photographer, not only a technically sound photographer.
Put all this together and I decided to get some professional training from a local institute. I was lucky to get a very good teacher who took me on field trips the day I started. Taking professional lessons you expect great things to happen on day one and you cannot go home with out shooting a single frame. Fist thing he did was made us photograph the animals. It was a humbling experience having learnt every thing online by my self. But never the less exciting because I finally got my sharp prints.