Connect and Disconnect

Interesting portraits can be made with just with eye contact or the lack of it - subtle or intense, there is so much emotional content to play around with - look at me, look through me or wander the worlds within.

Abandoned Spaces

Just as every being has a life cycle so does a building - birth/construction, life/utilization, death/demolition. There are times the structure can no longer server its what it was meant to do, it enters a state of limbo where uncertainity lays in its future. Abandonment is the first of the stages, decay embraces it, untimely death waits for it in its clouded future. For many you almost know with certainty what is to happen to it, but only the tide of time reveal what is to come.

A series of photographs done for a project - Abandoned Spaces. Locations include the abandoned military base in Alameda and abandoned garrison in Angel Island.

Port of Oakland

A day spent a going around the Port of Oakland.




Loading cranes at the Port of Oakland in the morning. Taken from across the bay on the piers south of the Bay Bridge in San Francisco. The fog and dust was taking its sweet time to clear up.

In search of color

Walking down the streets of San Francisco in the Marina and Richmond neighborhoods in search of color. So much of my past work relied on black and white that I now feel it wouldn't be so bad to shoot just for the sake of color.

First Semester @ AAU - A retrospective

A foundation semester for everything that is coming to you throughout the rest of the program. If I were to go over what I learnt through the semester and summarize it, then this follows

PH 603 - The Language of Photography - Finals

Submit 8-10 photographs which form a consistent body of work. The theme/style/genre of photography are left to you. Plus interview a photographer, someone significant in the field of photography you are interested in or aspire to be a part of, and submit a short paper it.

Some of projects chosen by the students in class
- Color in water - Landscapes and Moods
- Food photography
- Urban decay in industrial Oakland
- Half him, half her - A study on the similarities between people in long term relationships.
- Fashion photography
- A study on trees
- A documentary styled shoot to promote pet adoption from animal shelters.
- Photo montage

I had chosen architecture as the theme for my work. I wasn't particular about structures adhering to specific  architectural style, but instead I went looking for architectural elements with striking visual appeal. Strong composition, balance and rhythm, symmetry form the foundation of the work.

PH 612 - The Nature of Photography - Finals

Somewhere around eight weeks into the term, the time midterms are conducted, everyone in class is asked to choose a subject/theme for their finals and has to submit the proposal in writing. Once the proposal gets ok'ed you have about eight weeks to the day of the finals, where you have to present ten photographs which form a coherent body of work. While I had chosen to make images in the aesthetics adhering to Minimalism while exploring lines, form, shape and texture, others had chosen projects relevant to their style of photography and subject matter closer to them. Some of the projects by other students.

- A study on the personalities of individuals through the tattoos on their body
- Atrocities committed on people with different sexual preferences. An enactment to bring awareness with self as the subject.
- A documentary themed shoot on the days in the life of a survivor of a critical gun shot.
- A modern day take on fairy tales.
- Days in a laundry mart.
- Fences.
- Strong women.
- A documentary themed shoot to the days in life of her 99yr old grandmother.

Now onto the ten photographs which form my submission for the finals - Photographs with Minimalism aesthetics, abstractions both organic and geometric, exploring lines, shape, form and texture

China Town

One of the many shops in China Town selling
chinese statues.

One of the largest and oldest chinese community in Northern America is located in the heart of downtown San Francisco.

Twin Peaks

Atop one of the peaks of Twin Peaks, viewing eastward.
Market Street,  downtown San Francisco, Bay Bridge
and Oakland much further away.

Located in the centre of San Francisco these hills offer panoramic views over the entire city. 

The Golden Gate Bridge

The Golden Gate Bridge

Is there any one is San Francisco who has not seen or photographed the Golden Gate bridge? I don't think so. And its so wrong to be the only one who hasn't done that.

A 1.7 mile suspension bridge connecting San Francisco to Marine County via the US 101.

An evening at Sutro Baths

Ruins at Sutro Baths and the Cliff House restaurant.

A large privately owned swimming pool complex built in the late 1800's by a former mayor of SF Adolf Sutro. Shortly after closing due to high maintenance costs, a fire in 1966 destroyed the building. All that remains now are the ruins and broken pathways.

Foggy morning on the Embarcadero

At this time of the year, you can find fog most of the days, either at dusk or dawn, creating an eerie and dull atmosphere.

Bay Bridge and San Francisco night skyline

A photograph similar to this one is what I had seen a long time back, and it made me go "Wow! Now that's a place I want to be in". After moving to SF and starting the MFA program majoring in Photography, this is the first photograph I went hunting after and created my own version of it. It marks the the beginning of a journey for me. Love it!

Leap of Faith

Some major life changes happening here folks. A change of career path from engineering to arts, from software enginnering to photography, from a professional to a student.

The idea to change has been in my head for about two years now, but the impetus wasn't. Its hard to pinpoint which particular reason stood out and made it necessary that I change. If I were to take a guess, it was not just one but a number of them, each adding a little more to the vessel until there was a spill over.

Toronto and CouchSurfing

Toronto night skyline

An nine day trip in Toronto, running a half marathon, sightseeing, couchSurfing, travel photography and attending some of the top b-schools around there. What started as a simple interest of attending a half marathon event somewhere out of the of the country turned out to be a potpourri of endeavours half way across the globe, making the whole trip quite interesting and perhaps a bit too busy to enjoy the moment.

Nikkor 18-200mm VRII Lens Review

The purpose of having a DSLR, apart from the fact that it can produce images with stunning quality, is providing its user the ability to change lenses at will. Maybe a wide angle lens for landscape and architectural shots, a portrait lens to capture the cute baby laughing, a telephoto lens for your wildlife and sports shutter bug needs; and not to forget a low light lens, plus a prime or two. But imagine carrying all of those lenses just so that you don't miss a shot any time. (and not to mention changing lenses all the time and risking environmental effects on you camera sensor) You'd probably end up carrying equipment which would totalling to about 20lb in just lens weight. Ouch! Though each lens is unique in its own way, lugging around all that weight can really bog down the whole experience. So what to do instead? Carry one lens which has all the focal range you'll ever need, gives you great optical performance and is reliable - and that my friend is the the AF-S DX Nikkor 18-200mm f/3.5-5.6G ED VR II. This versatile lens for the DX format Nikon DSLR's gives you no reason to switch lenses again. Lets have a look at some of the specs and what the lens has to offer.

Fireflies Music Festival 2012

The eternal drums of Fireflies

Fireflies MusicFest has been the most amazing music event in Bangalore in the recent years, and this year is no different. Set in the Fireflies Ashram on Kanakpura Rd. roughly 30km from Bangalore, an open air amphitheatre with the stage below a huge peepal tree. What's wonderful about this event is that its not a corporate sponsored event, so you find no banners all around and no TV stations flashing their cameras. Its a long one though. Starts at 12 on a sunday afternoon and ends 10 at night. The music spans a variety of genres from folk to rock and the artists are from all around. The bands that took part in the event: Vaiyali, Agam, Filter Coffee, La Pongal, Saifa Gharbi (Algerian Sufi Singer), Shabnam Virmani, Something Relevant, OTO 3, Om Viloma ft. Amit Heri and Talavya.