Beyond the negative

Photography today has almost become an intangible output. In the days of the tedious process of converting a negative to a postive in a dark room, the product- a piece of thick paper embossed with memories on it- was a sacred object. A photograph was handled with care, hold only from the corners with a light hand and treasured in a memory book which had thick cardboard at the four corners of a presumed size on the page. Creating a photograph was creating a nostalgia in motion.

Things have changed today. Today, a photograph is more about sending immediate joy than the ardourous wait for the negatives to be developed. Sites like 123bubbles.com make a photo available across the continents at the click of the fingers. Photos have evolved as the centre point of a social dialogue. Photos are manevoured to create an identity, an aura and also sometimes, a foreboding mystery. Photos have not merely remained fragnants of memory and time. Photos pave a way for the future in more ways than one today.

What a party that was…

Our friends have had a very busy week. Their kitchen was simmering with one dish after the other, the hall was flooded with ribbons and glitter and all other decorative items you can think of, and the bed was hardly visible with the heap of gifts piled on it. Yeah, I am not exaggerating.

It was John’s first birthday and they threw a large party, naturally! Little did the baby know what all fuss went about organizing that perfect first birthday party! I know Irene since highschool and we have both stayed pretty much connected ever since, given that we live only a few blocks from each other…

I also tried to help the couple with whatever I could. We had to run about with decorators, finalizing the kind of décor we wanted, keep a tab of the cuisine we ordered and the worst- checking and re-checking the guest list to see if we didn’t miss out on anyone.

Peter, her husband, came across this site which really made things easy for us. From sending invitations, to keeping a note of who all were attending and who were not, this site was a real catch! Some of our net-savvy friends were delighted to receive their invitations by email, what’s more, they are now urging us to post photos on the site, where all the invitees can access the photos of John’s birthday party. Talk about getting cool!

After the party was done with, they also posted the photos of the party at the new photo sharing site I have been ranting about so much. They thought they might as well give a try and make John a little celebrity in the internet community. The child’s so cute, I bet he’s going to be crooned over by one and all at bubbles...

Now that Irene and her husband are more or less settled down in their normal routine after the big birthday bash, and that John is busy playing with the tons of toys he got, I thought I might write a post about how much fun it was to arrange for the birthday party…

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What a wedding that must have been…

  I came across this blushing bride and the delicious wedding cake while browsing thru the new photo-sharing site I tumbled upon sometime back. And I couldn’t resist dedicating an entire post to the beauty of this new bride, to the sinful wedding cake and to matrimony in general…

 (Photo posted by Hendy Nugraha at the new photo-sharing site)  When the merry chaos of celebrations, champagne parties and receptions dies out, begins the true matrimony. When the make-up fades and when the kitchen needs to be cleaned, begins the true matrimony. When the icing on the cake is licked away and only the sweet soft bread is leftover, begins the true matrimony…  I don’t want to mar the pleasure of this beauitful bride and many others… So let’s end saying that, if u still find reasons to celebrate and get the champagne flowing, if you clean up the kitchen and still love your wife without the blush and the mascara, if you agrre to eat half of the remaining bread after the icing is licked, well, rest assured, you will see the matrimony you have just begun to the very (happy) end…

Mona Lisa et al

One of the most intriguing manifestations of art is perhaps Leonardo Da Vinci’s Mona Lisa. Lying at the Lourve in Paris, Mona Lisa’s sloppy smile, or smug, or whatever you can call it, has proved a mystery for many a historians since ceturies. Infact, it’s that curve of her lips that has been the hot topic of art historians, religious bodies and secret societies ever since Leonardo struck his final stroke on the canvas.

Photo posted by Renah Stewart at the cool new photo sharing site

The expression through the visual medium could not get any more exciting and challenging than this painting. But with the internet, there’s a new age of art, expresions and intrigue in the e-community. Surfing thru the net is like coming across many smugly smiling Mona Lisas, many in-the-making Leonardo Da Vincis. Don’t mind the exaggeration, but indeed, today the internet has surpassed the limitations of time, space and money and brought to your eyes an exciting range of audio, visual and static means of entertainment through podcasting, video-sharing sites like Tou tube, and photo sharing sites like flickr, showbeyond, and more recently, 123bubbles.com.

 Out of these, I seem to have developed a soft corner for 123bubbles. I have been to 123bubbles.com quite a few number of times and seem to like the innate simplicity which the site projects. Every two three days or so, the photos change and I see more smiling faces, more toothless smiles and more happy family get-togethers.

 Photo posted by Hendy Nugraha at www.123bubbles.com

and

 Photo posted by Julie Barber at www.123bubbles.com

 This is a cool new site that for once, does not  entirely cash on the technology savvy youth who catch splendid, politically correct photos, agreed, but at the same time, it’s a site where moms and dads and sisters and siblings bare a wide grin and capture some crazy moments of life. And then, they put it up on 123bubbles.com without any inhibitions about how good or bad the photo looks. Quite frankly, Flickr and webshot.com gave me a huge inferiority complex, which 123bubbles.com is slowly easing down.and

Photo posted by Carlos Cerritelli at the cool new photo sharing site

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Flowers

Some clichés are very integral to our lives, they are almost welcome, so to say. Like gifts of flowers and chocolates. Like Candle-light dinners and proposing on a knee. But let us talk about flowers now.

Flowers can express feelings on occasions happy and sad alike. What’s more, flowers are such interior decoration accessories that fit into any style, any shade and any class of house décor. Flowers cheer you out of gloom, flowers make you feel special. What’s more, flowers sell like hotcakes almost any time of the year and we have thus witnessed the perfect transformation of nature’s bounty to a business means.

(For more flower photos, click here)

Have you also been struck by the simple beauty of a roaring bunch of Chrysanthemums gaping at you from the gas-station? Have you ever made an impetuous spending extravaganza on some exotic blooms? Have you presented your love with a bunch of long stemmed roses? Have you posed as a blushing newly-wed in your wedding gown with a bunch of pink and purple and white blooms?

So remember, whoever said, ‘With your last six pence buy not bread, but hyacinth for the soul’ must have had some reason for saying so. Revel in the world of flowers and get some more mirth in, and some more gloom out of your life…

Funny photos

There were always some photos that you deemed fit only to be hidden away in the back of an album. Well, with time, weren’t you surprised how the same photo that embarrassed you quite a big deal ages ago brought back a very tender, almost relishing memory of the good ol’ times.

 

Like, you might have not liked the look of a photo in which your eyes seemed a bit too sleepy, or some pic in which you were just in the process of devouring a large slice of pizza. Imagine that a good decade after that fun pizza outing, long after you had forgotten that you had actually hidden that photo somewhere, that picture fell off the album and on your lap. Lo! The memory of that wonderful day will flood your living room.

You’ll remember the day was bright and sunny, the hottest girl of your high-school even happened to be in the pizza place that day, but damn, you were just too hungry to notice how lovely she looked. And then, this joker of your best buddy decided to use his camera just the moment you were biting the pizza like a hungry convict. What a day that was…

Funny photo? Well, you would rather thank that silly bum of your friend to have clicked that moment. And you might as well give him a call right away, what say?

Btw, I found some nice funny photos at http://123bubbles.com/ … Check this site out…

What is a photo?

A photograph is a relic of a moment

It is a thing which lives when all of us are gone

It gives a vent to curiosity

It creates anxiety, or even a feeling of suspense and mystery

It connects people

It has its own secret life, which many a times pulls on and on till eternity.

A photo makes you remember.

It may even make you sad, for that matter.

It shows you how old and fat and ugly you have become.

Or rather, how slim and pretty and charming you once were…

That’s a photo.

It’s a relic of a moment.

Pet Photography

Photo your Pets… 

Pets are something like love. They bang into your life without any warning, and when they leave, they do so at the tip toe. You might have rescued an injured squirrel, taken pity on a mangled up puppy at the orphanage at an impulse, but before you must have realized, that mangle of a creature would have become an absolute part of your life.

Just when you feel the bliss is going to last forever, that apple of your eyes may have suddenly taken ill and slipped out of your life even before you were prepared for the loss…

That’s the way it is with these fragile creatures. So it’s a good idea to pamper them with a lot of photo-sessions. Not just because some pets absolutely adore to strike a pose or two and may gladly oblige whenever you take that camera out, but because these pics will be a treasure of memories a long time after too…

 Be Patient Pets do everything on their own sweet will, so cajoling them to sit down and look some specific angle is a big task. Especially so, if you have a naughty lil’ puppy who keeps running about in circles after its own tail or takes a fancy for the camera lens and insists on licking it every time you gear up for a close up. So the bottom line is, ‘Be Patient’. Also, keep clicking away all the while, without being too choosy.

You never know what shot might look simply killing though it may not have seemed such a ‘good click’ to you initially.

 Experiment This goes with almost everything you do, especially so with photography. Try a new angle, try a different light. Or simple try clicking their eyes, the expressions they give when they are playful, hungry or when the kitten is growling with her tiny fangs spread out. How about a close up of their baby pink paws, simply the rosy head-portions of a lovebird pair? (Btw, found some nice Lovebird pics at http://123bubbles.com/)Click anything which gives you the pleasure of observation without worrying about how the ‘results’. Digital photography allows one to be a lot more frivolous with the camera than it was back, being worried about wasting up the roll on lousy photos…

 Cover all their growing years Many a times it so happens that the arrival of a new pet in your life so takes you by the whirlwind of joy that the idea of clicking your pet just doesn’t click! But imagine what fun it would be if you maintain a detailed diary of the all their times, right when they were in their babyhood, till they are roaring adults… Fix up a time-line, say, you will click the pet once every three months or so for canines, felines and such alike which tend to grow a bit slowly and after about each month for birds and fish…This timeline should be accompanied by dates and age of the pet. It really helps to know when the hatchlings start feathering, start roosting, etc and when the puppies begin to teeth, their ears get erect, etc. By the way, it’s quite an occasion when your pup actually gives up those cute little fallen ears and pops them right straight one fine morning. The entire look of the pet will change, so you better click it for keepsake… 

Keep the equipments ready Keep in mind that your pet might choose to look adoring just about at any moment, and might strike the most cartoonic pose only for a short time. So make sure your equipments are within easy reach and keep most of the things readied up so you don’t lose much time when your pet obliges you with that photo of a lifetime.

 Get some company  While you are behind the camera, it’s a good idea to get someone to play with your pet. This will ensure that he gets into the mood, playing jolly and stuff and you might come with some wonderful pet moments. On the flip side though, the puppy/kitten may get hyperactive and leave little time to click those perfect pictures…

 Photo any visible signs of illness too This won’t serve as such a pleasant memory, but photos of illness, especially skin disorders, or any visible signs like an ulcer, tumour, etc. will let you inspect your pets’ illness better with the zoom functions and all. This will also come in handy for the vetenarian. It may happen that you can’t manage to take the pet himself to the hospital yourself. It’s a good idea then to at least click a lot of different angle pics and send them across to the pet for some immediate advice, till you can make arrangements to carry the pet too…

What are Expressions afterall?…

Expressions 

Expressions are one of the oldest signs of evolution. They are as old as rocks and stones and even beyond. What else do the layers of the Grand Canyon store in their ancient layers of soil, than a directory of expressions evolved over different periods of time?

Minute creatures which were just an amalgamation of cells gathered together slowly and developed to a being that was capable of expressing himself. The business of expression started with things as elementary as hunger and thirst, went on to become as complex as those of insecurity, embarrassment and delight.

 

Today, expressions rule the globe. Everyone, from the producer, the businessman, to the advertiser and right up to the common man constantly tries to innovate his store of expression as much as possible for, it’s as simple as this: The more diversely can you express yourself, the more individual position you carve for yourself in the globe of aspirations…

Photo sharing sites are the most recent, also one of the most classic tools of self-expression. Visual signs of expression, like a smile or a frown are the most direct means of putting your thought across. It depends on you how you choose to exploit the range of signs and symbols of the human behaviour to make a collage of intelligible communication by the way of photographs.

Even a landscape, without any human figure in it is a definite form of expression for it brings to the viewer a certain idea about the photographer. Also, any expression also provides a wonderful opportunity to be analysed in no specific manner. The viewer may not exactly defer the same idea which the sender associates with the expression.

A person may post a landscape of a lush green field with a blue skyline depicting a clear weather to depict his feeling of delight at nature’s bounty, but a viewer may interprete the same scene as a sign of loneliness with no soul visible in the picture for miles around the countryside.

This is what expression is all about. It is a wonderful bigamy of thoughts and interpretations…