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A night of focus. I went back to the welders in Mohammedpur to add to the photo note that I’d put up previously, and that was successful. I covered less ground, but took more time and it was ultimately a very productive night. I’m comfortable with how many photos I have for the night set. Worked from 7pm to 10:00pm. 265 photos.
- Two main set situations, with the welders and also a crowd of men being sold an aphrodisiac vial out on the streets. Took time (shot 120 photos before I knew what was happening), hung out, talked to people and justified my presence there. Came away with enough welding shots to make a small set of them separate to the night work. I wonder if going back for a third night may be the thing to do. Or perhaps finding a new place to shoot welders.
- What’s really interesting about the welding pictures is the magic that is happening that that eye can’t see. The power of the photograph to slow things down is crucial to revealing the wonder that is there. A key use of the photograph.
- Some white balance issues where the colours on camera turns out to be flatter usually because of Auto WB over correction. So for example, yellow light gets converted into a dull grey blue. Really need to try manual white balance. My style of shooting seems so fixed. I shoot around a 80 to a hundred photos and hour. All the time. It seems I can’t deviate from this. I thought that after having shot a certain amount, after having exhausted the clichés I’d slow down. But what usually happens is that I pick a topic and then spend the time on shooting madly on that topic. What would be nice is to concentrate more on each individual image and get each individual ones right. But of course that clashes with my primary aim, which is to produce, produce, produce. There’ll be plenty of room for perfection later. (Well there won’t be but it’s worthwhile lying to myself).
- I really tried to enjoy the shoot. Spending my time just taking pleasure in looking. I shouldn’t lose that. The real, and only sustainable reason I’m in this business, is to look, and take pleasure in that looking.
- I’m at the point now of closing off the set, but I don’t know what closing off would mean. I never know. So instead I’ll just keep shooting for the next couple of days and see how it goes. I’ll have some other obligations before I go so I don’t know how much time I’ll get.
- Tried to experiment with wedding lights, slow shutter speeds and moving the camera but they didn’t really come off. It’s funny how concentrated effort often leads to failure, but a capricious relaxation does wonders.
Why tomorrow will be better
- Continue at the same pace and see what I see. I need to shoot on the other side of the city today and get away from the east a little. It’ll be my last chance to see Sadarghat and I think that’ll be the perfect place to shoot tonight.
- Will try to slow it down just a little bit and see if I can explore the light in a little more detail, with some more shots.
Posted 2 years ago
