Sundry

Inspired by neonspot

Black Impressions - Pondicherry

Well, I'm not so sure if this is good or bad, but the Black Town or the 'Indian' parts of Pondicherry has remained resolutely true to its origins. The houses are hardly maintained enough to prevent a leaking roof during the monsoons let alone a badly needed whitewash! Yet, i thought these buildings had a charm of its own.. making me want to know more about its inhabitants. I couldn't get far, but given below is a simple portrait of a pair of fruit vendors who I imagine must inhabit on such house in the Black Town of Pondicherry.

The Doors : White Town

These images are from a 2 hour shoot along the streets of White Town/French Colony in Pondicherry.

Dry

Defocused

Blue

I was in Palakkad, Kerala , covering a temple festival when i noticed that the house (which the family was so kind to provide for my stay) was beautifully lit by natural light during the day. The maddam (as the house of a brahmin family is called) is atleast a 100 years old. I havent seen many modern houses with such ingenious architecture. It was cool inside despite the hot summer. I wish they still made houses like these... I cant really say that the house was well maintained. Perhaps the lady wih the Gucci bag living around the corner might disapprove the blue patches on the walls. To me, it looked beautiful (although i admit that my pictures did no justice to it!)

Glass pieces were strategically placed on the roof to light up various parts of the house during any time of the day.

Isn't it fun to have a spot light on you when you are asked to be seated??

This is one my favorite prints. The blue colour seen in the picture is due to the blue paint on the windows and the warm hue if from the light streaming past rusted iron bars on the windows.

A ventilation to the store room. Through a window. Every house had an exclusive water well to themselves. You could say the house was more or less built around it. You had access to the cool fresh water both from the kitchen AND from the bathroom. It is quite a bit of an exercise to draw water from these wells though.

As i mentioned before, i was visiting during the summer. When the temperature was 37 degrees or above. Surprisingly,the water level was still very high in the well.

The brahmin community in Palakkad is a very well educated lot. If you were looking for means to pass time on a hot afternoon, you will find ample amount of books stacked away in a shelf or two which can keep you occupied for the rest of your stay.

I hardly saw any bulbs lit during the day.

The oldest member of the family (he is about 80 yrs old). Do not be carried away by the expression on his face. He loved being photographed. Only, he did not understand my interests on electric bulbs and plastic buckets! I always fancied the studio portraits of newly weds taken atleast a quarter of a century ago. My friend was showing me the image of his son and his daughter-in-law.

"What's a house without the grace of the lord almighty?" Always well-lit, always well adorned. the pooja room.

"When you have kids in the house, you have toys. When they leave, the toys become show pieces..."

A Story

Here is a story i had written long ago, which won an award in the 'Best Short Story' category in a Lit-Fest recently.

Behind Closed Doors

One

Single boiled egg for Rs.5/- Courtesy : The tiny tea stall situated on one of those treacherous slopes in Ooty, near the Rose Park.

Plant

"I don't want to be a tree. I want to be its meaning."

- Orhan Pamuk in My Name is Red

White Flower

Guess i should have mentioned earlier... people, this is a studio shot and NOT shot on location. One of my favorite lighting techniques... the skimming light... -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- I decided to answer Paul's (see comments) question here, for the benefit of photography enthusiasts. Q : Pray enlighten what a "skimming light" is (and how you achieve the effect) for those of us who only know how to point and shoot :) A : Skimming light is basically light that is 'skimming' the surface. It is (usually) used to describe the light that skims over the surface of the earth during sunset or sunrise. This phenomenon is more prominent in hilly areas when the sun is rising/setting just over/below the horizon and you see the lower half of the hill illuminated while the upper portion remains dark.

To view more images on Nature, click here.

In the studio, one can achieve similar effects by placing the flash light (with a snoot attached ) just above the table (imitating the sun's position) to let it skim through your surface and illuminate the elements in its way. In the picture above, if you had kept a long stick in the path of the light, you would have found that the lower half of the stick was illuminated while the upper half remained dark!

Here is a crude diagram of a studio setup. Click on the image to enlarge.

I hope this made some sense. If it did not, DO feel free to shoot your questions. I'm more than delighted to answer. But most importantly, next time you visit a hill station, make sure you watch out for some phenomenal skimming light that is happening around you. :)

The Pepper 'n' Salt Cycle

I had found this fellow hidden in a dusty cupboard of a metal shop near Russell Market. The 'pepper' bottle was missing from the cycle's carrier. But i was happy with the ensemble the shopkeeper provided me. He made me pay a ridiculous price for it though (he obviously knew i adored it!). Now i know this little fellow is in safe hands. Image taken on Feb 24, 2008.

A symphony of colours

They say, every colour has a meaning to it....It invokes an emotion in the heart of the beholder. Have i ever thought that a brilliant splash of color could entice me into gazing at it like a child does when he first discovers a kaleidoscope? No. I haven't. But i sure was delighted with my new discovery........ PS : Please excuse the cheesy annotation of this blog post. I had written it (and clicked the pics) in 2006, when my writing skills were retarded enough to allow that kinda flowery language. However, i decided to keep it as a testimony and documentation of the past phases of my life.