Exploring Bangalore: Commercial St.

17th June, 2012

36 Pictures

'Inside' Commercial Street

Bangalore

I have to admit that I was so not in the 'mood' to photograph on this day. I wasn't expecting to see anything new and it's true in a sense, there is nothing 'new' under the sun. But it's new to me. Every experience counts. Everywhere there is beauty.

Father's Day.

Moksh.

While I was in Bombay my friend Robert and I trekked over to Kandivali and had the wonderful privilege of photographing and interviewing Moksh, the apple of his parents' eyes and the cutest 11-month old little boy I have probably ever met.


Today Moksh will have completed a whole YEAR in the world and so in honour of Mr. Moksh's birthday, here are some of my favourite shots from our shoot and a write-up from Robert.


Mr. Moksh, thank you so much for allowing me to photograph you. I was blessed by your parents' hospitality and your amazing zest for life!

Before you were in our lives, we often thought of Moksh as a

deliverance away from and out of the travails of this world. But we

are grateful, for your arrival and the metaphor of your life has

brought about a paradigm shift in the way we think. A change in how

we perceive various facets of the world around us. We are now on the

path of true understanding. Rather than striving to attain another

worldliness through our own meticulous merit, we discover that Moksh,

although pursued with passion, is intended to be received and

experienced with hearts of overflowing gratitude in the here and now.

Deliverance into the world of joyful living, that is the gift that you

are in our lives. Happy Birthday Moksh.

Mr. Moksh is a Surat born Mumbai resident, who celebrates his first

birthday today, 8 June 2012. His primary interests and fields of

expertise lie in naps, eating the Mumbai Mirror, communicating with

good pigeons, and most importantly, hanging out with his awesome

parents. He cannot be contacted for further information (sorry) as he

has no mobile phone, email address, or facebook page.

Happy Birthday once again sir. We all love and welcome you to the

extended family of humanity.

(write-up courtesy of Mr. Robert Stephens of www.premamilan.blogspot.com)

Vini.

Didn't quite finish all my editing but I did get this one done!

Vini is my dear dear friend from college. I'm quite bad at describing how I felt or what I thought upon first meeting a person but I have a picture of it in my head and it's a happy picture. Happy was the day I met Vini :)

Happy also was this day:

This Week.

Ummm, it's really all about last week... 

Many many awesome things have happened and life is slowly getting busy which I am loving!

I am currently drowning in piles of editing to finish off before my next travels coming up this weekend. Eeks.

Yesterday I decided I needed a change of scene from my 'office' so I went over to my sister-in-law's place to work but to be honest, the cute face of my nephew was kind of distracting and I didn't get a whole lot done! It was also SO ridiculously HOT yesterday, all I wanted to do was sleep!

So yeah, Tuesday is the new Monday this week and I am going to work my butt off today and finish ALL my editing. Ha! (Not really, but optimism is good, right?)

I am currently reading this book called 'One Day' by David Nicholls and hoping that I might actually finish this book. My non-reading phase has lasted waaaaay too long this time :/ I got the book at a super awesome sale in Bandra where I bumped into my friend Cara and got introduced to her cool friends. As far as I know the sale is still going on on Saturdays and Sundays in front of Al's Tattoo parlour on Hill Road so if you live in Bombay, make sure you check it out!

I miss Bombay. I guess it's no news on here that I am crazy about Bombay but I'll say it again, I LOVE BOMBAY. It was kind of painful having to come back in a rush but thankfully I had some awesome stuff lined up for me here when as soon as I got back!

Last Wednesday, I spent the night at a resort on the outskirts of Bangalore! Through a pretty cool series of events, I got to assist an awesome wedding photographer Claude Loren at a grand wedding for two days. The experience was nothing short of extraordinary. In fact, the whole time that I was there, I couldn't believe it was happening. The stuffs of my dreams. Claude and Neil (the other shooter) were so fun to work with and I learnt a LOT from them both. It was like a crash course in shooting with a Canon 7D, lighting, flash photography and wedding photography all in one and I couldn't have asked for better teachers!

L-R: Neil, Claude and Tina
Golden Palm Resorts
Bangalore

My first big wedding shoot this year and since I've gone all out on this crazy path of photography that I love. First big wedding of many... I hope!

Looking forward to sharing the pictures!

36 Pictures - Photographer turns subject.

After shooting pretty much every day for the last two and a half weeks, I wanted to take a break this weekend. So I arm-twisted (*insert evil laughter*) Sharan and Anu to photograph me instead! Posing is tricky and I think part of the learning process is literally putting yourself in your subject's shoes. What would you like the photographer to do/say to make you comfortable in front of the camera? I for one am super awkward if I'm the only one standing in front of the camera. My face automatically goes into frown mode, very unlike Barney from How I Met Your Mother who always manages to look immaculate when he's photographed!

Anyway, it was a fun experience made all the better with having my friend Antu around too. I insisted on painting my nails red in the middle of the shoot and I think this was a good call :P Sharan also did a good job of occasionally calling out "Ryan Gosling!" which immediately put Antu and I in a happy trance. Haha.

Here are some of the pictures that resulted! Love them all!

S's Cupcakes

27th May, 2012

S's Cupcakes,

Sea Breeze CHS, 

Nerul, Navi Mumbai

Last weekend, my friend Vini and I went over to Shreya's place in Navi Mumbai. Shreya was our junior at college and we got to know her through our mutual friend, Sharan(ya). Over the summer vacation Shreya decided to start up S's Cupcakes which is a little catering business of... you guessed it... happy little delicious things called cupcakes! 

When I found out that she was doing this (and I was going to be in Bombay for a couple of days!), I asked Shreya if she'd be interested in letting me photograph her at work and she agreed! So my able-assistant for the day Vini and I urban-trekked (yes, I just made that up) to Navi Mumbai by train last Sunday and had a wonderful afternoon with the talented and uber-lovely Shreya of S's Cupcakes and her family!

Upon arriving, we were very excitedly greeted by Oscar, the family dog! We sat and chatted for a bit and then after a brief recce of the house, Vini and I proceeded to re-arrange the furniture! We finally decided that Shreya's room with two lovely BIG windows was the best spot to make use of the ambient light and so we rearranged her room a little bit and then Shreya got down to business! 

I came away happily satisfied from the experience and a tasting session of the cupcakes and I assure you, this girl knows what she's doing and what's even better is that she loves what she's doing so you are guaranteed to get not only yummy but 'baked-with-love' kind of goodness if you order from her ;) It doesn't get much better than that so if you live in Navi Mumbai, make sure you look her up and place your orders for some of her scrumptious delights!