Shutterbug!

Pentax just celebrated 60 years in the image capture business and how! Like this! Speaking of cameras, they are such wonderful things. I mean like wow with three exclamation marks.

Without those around would just leave so much to imagination. Not that it’s a bad thing, but imagine this: Tom weds Katie, no pictures; the Twin Towers reduced to rubble, no pictures; Pamela A caught topless on beach, sorry, no pictures; Mr. Politician caught accepting bribe, oops, no pictures; Shahid-Kareena exchange more than a liplock, grrrr no pictures; yours truly seen adorned in a sari, DAMN!!!! DAMN!!!!, NO PICTURES???? Don’t you wish you had something..something handy that’d just snap the moment for you??

No, I was not born with a passion for cameras and stills. Nor did my parents *discover* my skills on ‘gharguti’ type subjects/events for them to gift me a gadget and say, “Here, go forth and shoot”. I just happened to pick my Grandpa’s old (and I mean really old) ‘Baby Brownie’ camera and ‘explore’ it. And there I was hooked, line and sinker. 😛

Then came the Agfa, complete with dire warnings about untoward exploration. This snug and well crafted piece is (I still have it) not even an SLR. When I peer through the viewfinder, I have no idea what the lens view looks like. This camera gave me the chance to play around with a lot of aperture, exposure and timing related setting. If not the other way, I explored its capabilities this way. I believe you learn much better and faster on a rudimentary model than on hi-tech equipment. Makes you appreciate the value adds in the hi-tech model than taking them for granted. Worked for me.

I am the proud owner of a Nikon F55; it’s a film SLR. Over the years I’ve acquired a Nikkor zoom lens, some cam-care equipment and I am more than satisfied with the results. I have always preferred film and always NIKON, always. Of late though, this has begun to burn a hole in my pocket (the film, not the cam) and my next acquisition would be a DSLR.

Still photos are such great levelers. They need not be professionally shot, or even shot in a planned environment. Taken with care, awareness and involvement, a desirable attribute of each ‘subject’ they capture stands out in all its glory. The characteristic hits you as soon as you see the photo. And it has to be indisputably desirable because that is what levels the playing field and because everyone does have such a trait they are born with, maybe hidden beneath layers of idiosyncratic dust or overshadowed by circumstantial disguises.

A Still does a better job than a mirror. Not for nothing they say that a picture speaks a thousand words. 🙂