Photography and Philosophy
I am way over the time when I took random pictures, anything which could make a picture but not have philosophy behind it. May be things haven't changed much but that the fact that now I find a reason/excuse to photograph :D
With that being said, I recently attempted night sky/star photography. I wanted to see if I am really able to capture the earth's rotation in a picture. The answer is yes, even with my basic setup. And for that I'd to travel to a place faaaaaaaaaaaar from city lights and pollution, on a new moon day. And I couldn't think of a "safer" place other than my hometown.
To capture star trails, one needs a tripod and an intervalometer mandatorily . Camera needs to continuously capture photographs for hours, in the exact same position, absolutely. I'd setup for 100 shots ( 60 seconds exposure with a gap of 10 seconds ). I was in the middle of a field/playground in pitch black darkness. Everything went fine until some stray dogs observed our presence and started barking. That pulled lots of local farmers around and they came out with flashlights to check on us.I'd to stop at 85th exposure.
Here are few pictures from that night:
This is selective B&W version, thought it had more impact than the previous one;
Only if I had a faster lens, I would have been able to capture milky way, but here's the noisy /High ISO version:
Even though the experience was scary, I really had an awesome night. Almost all alone ( while my brother-in-law was snoring profusely ), I was looking onto the night sky most of time. For the first time in my life, I observed five meteors in the night sky! In just one night :D. It was really an amazing feeling. I was initially restless as I was scared of snakes. One local guy has told me to be beware of snakes as they come out from ground when it cools down. It was just a matter of time that I surrendered to the night. While the cool breeze kicked in and I was lost in another world. Did you know that whatever starlight you see took millions and millions of years to reach us. That effectively means whatever you see in the night sky is the past. Time so old that life wouldn't have existed. Even sunlight you feel is eight minutes old when it first emanated from the sun.
The "present" moment is so transient that it becomes past in just a moment, just as I type this has become past. So what do we do? Do we live in the past most of the time thinking of what happened and why it shouldn't have .. or should have? Do we live in future, worrying about it and making our present a stale and mundane past? From my perspective, I only prefer to live in present, trying to savor each moment, not much worrying about the future. And because of that, I've got into trouble, several times, including examinations/interviews/relationships and what not. Makes me think what could I have been if I had/hadn't done certain set of things. What could have I achieved than what I am today? Or am I happy with whatever I am today? And all these things intermingle and create such a ruckus in life. In the end, we are what we are. We can't be everyone. Huh, this confusion! I hope am not the only one so confused.
This is the picture I shot the next day.
A fun way to kill a hot summer day :)
And yeah, currently I am waiting for a friend to join me for my next photography venture :D
Keep in touch friends.
With that being said, I recently attempted night sky/star photography. I wanted to see if I am really able to capture the earth's rotation in a picture. The answer is yes, even with my basic setup. And for that I'd to travel to a place faaaaaaaaaaaar from city lights and pollution, on a new moon day. And I couldn't think of a "safer" place other than my hometown.
To capture star trails, one needs a tripod and an intervalometer mandatorily . Camera needs to continuously capture photographs for hours, in the exact same position, absolutely. I'd setup for 100 shots ( 60 seconds exposure with a gap of 10 seconds ). I was in the middle of a field/playground in pitch black darkness. Everything went fine until some stray dogs observed our presence and started barking. That pulled lots of local farmers around and they came out with flashlights to check on us.I'd to stop at 85th exposure.
Here are few pictures from that night:
This is selective B&W version, thought it had more impact than the previous one;
Only if I had a faster lens, I would have been able to capture milky way, but here's the noisy /High ISO version:
Even though the experience was scary, I really had an awesome night. Almost all alone ( while my brother-in-law was snoring profusely ), I was looking onto the night sky most of time. For the first time in my life, I observed five meteors in the night sky! In just one night :D. It was really an amazing feeling. I was initially restless as I was scared of snakes. One local guy has told me to be beware of snakes as they come out from ground when it cools down. It was just a matter of time that I surrendered to the night. While the cool breeze kicked in and I was lost in another world. Did you know that whatever starlight you see took millions and millions of years to reach us. That effectively means whatever you see in the night sky is the past. Time so old that life wouldn't have existed. Even sunlight you feel is eight minutes old when it first emanated from the sun.
The "present" moment is so transient that it becomes past in just a moment, just as I type this has become past. So what do we do? Do we live in the past most of the time thinking of what happened and why it shouldn't have .. or should have? Do we live in future, worrying about it and making our present a stale and mundane past? From my perspective, I only prefer to live in present, trying to savor each moment, not much worrying about the future. And because of that, I've got into trouble, several times, including examinations/interviews/relationships and what not. Makes me think what could I have been if I had/hadn't done certain set of things. What could have I achieved than what I am today? Or am I happy with whatever I am today? And all these things intermingle and create such a ruckus in life. In the end, we are what we are. We can't be everyone. Huh, this confusion! I hope am not the only one so confused.
This is the picture I shot the next day.
And yeah, currently I am waiting for a friend to join me for my next photography venture :D
Keep in touch friends.
Vamsi, i do take night shots but i never thought the way you have explained it! It feels eternal and I feel so connected with nature!
ReplyDeleteBuy a 2.8, wide angle and make more trips to your home. keep them coming(without noise) :D
Thanks buddy! btw.. rokinon 16mm f2.0 seems a better option, but.. as of now no budget to shell out $350 ;D
DeleteThat was an interesting fact about the stars. I never gave it so much thought. Good one!!. Love the last pic.
ReplyDeleteThanks Swathi :)
DeleteWell the phrase,' there is always a scope of improvement' is what i think of each time i read and see the pics you post Vamsi. Great pictures and even better article on your thoughts!! Keep soaring new heights dost!
ReplyDeleteThanks Kanika! Yes, there is a lot of room for improvement here, this was my first attempt at Star Trail photography, I took back lots of lessons from this trial :) Thanks again for your comments :D
DeleteSo i read your blog and it is 'past' now!! but the past is beautiful i can vouch... :)
ReplyDeleteP.S: The last photograph stole my heart.
Thanks "Unknown" :) .. Lots of people liked the last pic, but somehow the quality of star trails is not able to do justice with the effort involved :D .. and yeah.. glad that you found it beautiful! :D
DeleteKrish! I love these photoblogs more than anything. I love it when you dip into philosophy and the way you question aspects of life. I'm going to do something like this on my walkabout and I hope it's 1/10th as interesting as this!
ReplyDeleteI've thought that often about the stars - they are 'old light' in a very literal sense. Some of the stars you saw that night may very well have given their last light long ago until one night they flicker and the next night they're no longer in the night sky.
As far as living in the present, my old friend Alan Watts likes to say "the wake of the boat doesn't drive the ship." It is such a trap to be worried all the time about what you've said or done in the past or what you might encounter in the future. To learn to live only in the present is the only way to achieve 'peace' in this life. It's all about letting go. Letting life happen. That's what I've discovered anyways and on my journey I'm putting it to the test.
Can I come with you on your next photography adventure? :D
-Johnnyboy
Oh come on Johnnyboy! You are a poet! Your blogs will be much better than these :)
DeleteAnd about stars, yeah, the light is so old that they might not even exist today... made me think what an illusion this night sky is! :D
And all the best for your upcoming journey! Hope you'd have loads o fun! And about my next photography adventure, I would love to.. ! Though it's a small world, so I gotta say, may be, one day!! :)