Photographic Series

I really liked the photographic series above, it captures the attention, and makes a statement.    Everyone can grasp a message from the series, and thats why I think its beautiful.  

A different way to Montage

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LwfQwLR2rbQ

Many photoshop users combined, or montage, two photos by using the lasso tool.  Another way to montage two photos are to overlap two photos, and then erase the layer.  This way is more tedious and takes more time, but I personally feel as you as more control then the lasso tool.  I used this way of photoshopping in the image bellow.

Photoshop Tutorial: Changing Eye Color

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=u-tNGRjMjzI&feature=watch_response

Since the portrait project is soon approaching, I thought it would be useful to learn how to change eye color.  There are many ways to change eye color, but the way presented in the video is the most natural.  This method uses the paintbrush and filter tools.  Check it out!

Leonardo Da Vinci, The Genius

Leonardo de Vinci is considered a genius, because he not only excelled as a painter, but sculptor, architect, musician, scientist, mathematician, engineer, inventor, anatomist, geologist, cartographer, botanist .  I am amazed at the things one man can do.   Leonardo is widely considered to be one of the greatest painters of all time and perhaps the most diversely talented person ever to have lived.
Leonardo affected photography with his painting that were of people.  The look almost like a photograph.  One can argue that the Mona Lisa was the first portrait. 

Thanksgiving 2011

My aunt and I on Thanksgiving 

My aunt, my brother, and cousins 

My grandmother (mom's side) and I 

Every Thanksgiving, it is tradition for my family to go to Florida.  My family and I spend the holiday with my grandparents who live in Orlando.  It is great getting away from the cold weather of Bethlehem, PA.   At my grandparent's house,  we eat a traditional American Thanksgiving dinner.  My Indian family is not accustomed to the "bland" taste of turkey, and all throughout the dinner, it is funny to see my grandparents complaining.  Eventually, we end up substituting the turkey stuffing for hot sauce.

After dinner, my large family goes Black Friday shopping.  First we start at the outlets and eventually go out to eat at a local breakfast.  Black Friday shopping is my favorite part of the trip.  I love the Christmas music, and all the people rushing around at 2 AM in the morning.  It is so exciting.

Holga Photographer, Michael Bryant

It is absolutely marvelous what one can do with a pin hole camera.  I did not realize this until I saw the work of Photographer Michael Bryant.  Bryant uses the pinhole camera in his professional work.  Deciding to use the pin hole camera, allows Bryant to be unique, and gives his photographs a vintage appeal.  Also choosing the pin hole camera allowed the photo to have a natural light leakage, and gives the photo a halo around the image.   In the last picture, one can see how he excellently used multiple exposure.  I hope to learn from Michael Bryant, and apply it in my work.

Simplicity is Happiness...My Trip To Dar Es Salaam, Tanzania

Family is posing with the "yayas" (means maids in Swahili)

Beautiful scenery in the morning

When there is no television, you find other ways to entertain yourself..

I did not want to leave my world of luxuries, and visit a place with no internet, no television, and most important - a place where my smartphone would not show the all-important three signal bars!  It was an unfathomable thought, and despite arguing with my parents, the inevitable had to occur.   As the days passed, my trip to Tanzania, East Africa, was approaching. Tanzania was the place where my parents and their parents grew up.  It was always a dream of my father to take all of us there in order to reconnect and learn where our roots were formed.  For me, a beach trip to the Bahamas would have sufficed. 

My arrival at the airport only seemed to confirm my initial view about a third world country.  Although, as one see above, it is hard not to fall in love with the place.  I could not stop gazing at the beautiful, luscious, green vegetation, and natural wonders of a place so undiluted with man made constructions, that we were familiar with in America.  However, the red bumpy and sandy roads eventually changed, and transformed to a smooth tarmac road as we approached the capital of Dar es Salaam.  I was astonished to see the contrast of modern buildings next to the miles of untouched areas of the land.

It was at that point that my thought processes about this adventure seemed to change.  We were greeted by relatives that I had never seen before.  There living standards were much lower than ours, nowhere was there a cell phone, nor did I see a color TV, or any modern appliances.  The flats in which they lived in were old, with cracked doors, and windows that appeared frail and thin.  Yet, to my astonishment, they seemed to be quite content, happy and secure.  How could such poverty and lack of amenities create so much satisfaction and inner peace?

As I slept cloaked under a mosquito net, I anxiously pondered about what I saw that day.  It was the humble and good natured behavior of my own relatives that forced me to question my own feelings and selfish demeanor towards my everyday expectations in life.  How could I crave for all the luxury amenities that the west had to offer and how could I complain about the smallest inconveniences when most of the world lived in such deprived conditions.  This contrast in lifestyle caused me to drastically alter my views during the trip.     Flying back to America, the in-flight movies and meals did not seem to matter anymore.