31.வெள்ளை ... வெள்ளை

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30. சிகப்பு ... சிகப்பு ...

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29. பச்சை .. பச்சை ...

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கான மயிலாட
அதைக்கண்ட வான் கோழி மாதிரி ..

இந்தப் படம் எடுத்துப் பார்த்தேன்.


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28. MEENAKSHI TEMPLE - KUMBABISHEKAM

27. AUTOBIO(PHOTO)GRAPHY - 10

MEENAKSHI AMMAN TEMPLE is a veritable cove of architectural splendors. Getting into that temple to click some shots had always been a great thrill. I would have gone there a few times and many shots that I liked better are not with me now. I have lost them in the course of this long time. I present a few that are still in my personal album.





But more than the photos I took, one photo which I missed to take is still in my mind – in colour with its beautiful composition. It was the very first time that I visited the temple with my newly bought SLR camera, Mamiya Sekor. I did not know the rules and regulations for getting a camera into the temple. So I just stopped at the main entrance and covered only the front yard. On both sides there would be shops for puja materials. Tall columns with grand statues on both sides. It was a morning and the entrance faces east. So there was beautiful lighting. On my left at the base of one such column was sitting an young north Indian girl in bright red dress. It looked so good to me. The front of the column getting the diffused reflected light, dark background and a girl in the lighted area – it all looked so good. I wanted to maintain some etiquettes and so asked the girl’s permission to take a photo. When I finished asking her permission, the girl with all smiles, got up and moved a few feet away and sat again in another spot away from the column. Then I understood that my half-sign and half-English made all the difference; she understood, it seemed, that I was asking her to move away so that I could take the picture of the column!

Looking back it appears that all through these times the photos which I had never taken were quite better than what I took!

26. AUTOBIO(PHOTO)GRAPHY - 9

Some more 'wild' shots:







ON THE SEA SHORE



























THE LAST JOURNEY:

























அலங்காநல்லூர் ஜல்லிக்கட்டு:






It is a "period photo"! One can see the knee-length trouser and heavy boots of a cop with a stick in hand. Those were the days when the lower level cops had to wear this costume! Poor guys they did not have proper socks instead they had to use long and thick woolen (!) tapes for those very heavy boots. A British legacy!

25. AUTOBIO(PHOTO)GRAPHY - 8

During these days ‘expeditions’ to ‘shoot’ were quite often. The right mood and some amount of petrol in my Jawa would take us around to places. But visiting Meenakshi Temple and especially the visit to the top of the South Gopuram was quite unforgettable. At the top of the Gopuram there were openings for people to climb out and be on the very top of it. At that spot, what you have to hold are only the “kalasams”. I came out only to my hip level and the height, force of the wind at that height and the view of the whole Madurai at the foot – it all made me tremble and I safely kept myself within that opening while Ravi got on top of the tower and stood in between the kalasams! I barely stayed to just click few snaps and started my way down ! Of those two came out acceptably okay which I am posting here with one another shot of the Gopuram from the South-East corner of the பொற்றாமரைக் குளம் - the usual spot for photographers to take the full shot of the magnificent South Gopuram with Thirumalai Naicker in one of the pillars forming the foreground.

24. AUTOBIO(PHOTO)GRAPHY - 7

The trials in photography were an unquenchable thirst. Mostly it was Ravi and I. We tried so many techniques we had in the books. Some came out with satisfying results. Many became flops. One such successful thing was this photograph:




The process is called ‘solarization’ and the product is ‘bas relief’. We would have got a 10% success in our attempts. What we tried for days, it is surprising, can be achieved in a jiffy with the modern software, say, adobe !

In those colorless bland world of the day, getting some color to the photographs was a great thing! We enjoyed such moments of success when the so-called toning processes were successful and we had some “color photographs”, though they were mostly monochromatic pictures. Still they had colors and made us feel great. A blue metal-toned picture:

23. AUTOBIO(PHOTO)GRAPHY - 6

The photographic spree was in its feverish pitch. Camera was always ‘pregnant’ - I mean, loaded with film. Buying 100 feet of film rolls in cans and spooling them in the darkroom was itself a great excitement. Any time the camera was handy; any object was catchy; any place was alright. Whenever I found anything worth taking my bike would stop there and I would not have any inhibition or whatsoever. I would start clicking. The roadside scenes were so many and one such shot is this:

Marriages of friends were inevitably another occasion when I would be busy with my camera. Mostly it was for fun and friendship and not for money since I never had an idea to turn a pro. Turning into pro would have made a lot of good for me financially but I would not have enjoyed photography.

I remember once being busy in a friend’s marriage, who is now a high level policeman. After a hectic time of photography, finished the lunch and came out of the marriage hall. There was a very old lady, haggard and pitifully sitting outside the hall, waiting for the leftovers of the marriage-lunch. I took a snap of that old lady. Though I don’t have the negatives or positives of that marriage, I valued this negative and still keep it safe. A withering leaf in the stream of life…here she is: