Click Click

For many years now, I have had a burning desire to discover my latent photography skills. Ok, maybe ‘burning’ is too strong a word; let’s say lukewarm tending towards hot. So I bought a digital SLR camera last week. My inspiration has been these fabulous shots of birds that I find on the net. I have always wanted to shoot pictures like those. Of course, being an avid bird watcher with a keen eye for spotting birds, it makes even more sense to buy one.

“Ah !!, that’s an adolescent Greater Coucal or...a crow. Darn it, that’s a cow”

Alright, my bird identification skills need a little more work. A few more days and I will be able to figure out the birds from the animals. But that is no way a reflection of my need for a camera. Like I said I finally bought one having saved enough money over the last several years and having promised the shopkeeper to do his dishes in lieu of the rest of the cost as the damn thing costs a fortune. And for that money, every bird photo I shoot bloody well look like a hot chick.

“Hey you said this was a picture of a scaly breasted munia but what I see here is Elizabeth Hurley”

“Yeah. Same thing”

On Sunday, I took the camera out for a little spin to see how it would do. For a guy who has only handled a 1984 model Yashica camera which had like three moving parts (that’s including the photographer), a DSLR can be a daunting experience. I spent the first ten minutes practicing taking the camera out of the bag and putting it back in. The next few hours were spent in pouring through the user manual. Having finally found the ‘click’ button, I decided to try some shots.

So standing in the balcony of my house, I kept shooting everything in sight – leaves, stray dogs, mud. Quickly, I realized that the secret to great photography involves three steps -Firstly, invest in a good camera which I did; secondly, know how to operate it which I had spent time on; finally, and this is the crucial part, find a good photographer.

Because, looking at the photos I clicked, I knew I could have used a cheap pencil and drawn them all better by hand instead. And I am terrible at drawing. Apparently, buying a DSLR camera does not automatically make you a great photographer. When I think about it, it does make sense – you know, just because you have a calendar, it does not mean that you are going to go out on dates.

That was a deep philosophical moment of introspection for me. But as in the case of all men, I refuse to learn from philosophical insights and shall continue to slog on with my camera (and keep buying calendars, for that matter) until I can finally take decent pictures. I shall work on it mornings through afternoons.

But not in the evenings because that’s when I need to do the dishes at the shopkeeper’s