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Photography Club

PI X EL Issue 2 - Feb 2022

Tales of Travel

Image by Shruti Sen

ABOUT US The Photography Club of K J Somaiya Institute of Management has been encouraging students to use the art of photography to express their emotions & thoughts. We aim to create an environment for all the students to discover, develop, and express their creativity in photos & videos, by honing their capturing & editing skills. To keep the passion of photography alive in the busy lives of the students, the club conducts workshops, events, photo-walks, competitions, and official photoshoots around the year, throughout the year under the guidance of Prof. Hitesh Punjabi. To be a member of the club, one may not need to technicalities of the photography world, but certainly have an eye for it and passion towards it as our shutters keep capturing moments and lives around us in some way or the other. The club believes that every picture has a story to tell, and to let everyone tell theirs, the club gives the whole institute the opportunity to showcase their best shots of various themes the club runs throughout the year for all the students of the institute. Pixel, the club's official magazine bringing various styles of photography and camera techniques together as well as expert's views and journeys to encourage the budding photographers to take on their picturesque journey forward. We hope you like reading through the content of this issue. Regards,

Photography Club

THE TEAM D E S I G N E R S

Amogh Tendulker

C O N T E N T

Alipriya Ghosh

Siddharth Yadav

C U R A T O R S

Aaron D'Souza

Kuntal

Shruti Sen

Mahima Jain

Krittika Tewari

Yash Munot

CONTENTS

Theme Overview Get introduced to the world of Travel Photography

Capture The Perfect Shot

Aesthetic Edits

Tips & Tricks

Learn the techniques to click the best shot

Enhance your shot to make it come alive

Use hacks to get professional looking clicks

A Photographer's Journey

The Professional's Insights

Shots From The Club

Know about the journey of Abhinav Chandel

Interview by Rishi Rathore

Glance through the best captures of our members

Theme Overview When was the last time you thought of booking your tickets to an amazing place you just saw online? or vicariously lived through your friend's travelogs? Not so long ago, right? For us as well. The pandemic halted most travel plans, but some luckier than others managed to make it to one scenic lockdown. Our social media continued to buzz pushing our almost involuntary need to check all pictures shared; and how can't we share? (source: Canva)

After all, they photographs and videos of majestic waterfalls, breath-taking mountain views, impromptu scuba diving, warm bonfires on starry camping nights, and the list goes on. Beautiful moments like these, captured by our fellow photography-enthusiasts, are truly the shots that kept us looking forward to the future. With each like and share, we made a mental note to definitely visit that place, drive down that road, or swim in that lake, ultimately helping us get through yet another day. So, what makes travel appealing & engaging?

photography

- Maybe it is the innate human tendency to appreciate beauty even through our inner wanderlusts.

- Or the fact that Travel photography unlocks a sense of oneness with the photograph taken, while also allowing the photographer and his audience a chance to experience the moment captured each time the photograph was viewed. - Or the intriguing aftermath of celebrities posting photographs of the blue sea at Santorini in Greece, was hundreds of tourists visiting Santorini, giving Greece a muchneeded economic boost. (source: shutterstock.com)

According to Google Play Store, Instagram has 1 Billion plus downloads, while CNBC has reported over 2 billion monthly active users on the photo-sharing platform in 2021. One of the most interesting developments is carving a niche for Travel Influencers in the world of Photography. Tourists who travel to exotic locations and photograph breathtaking images of lagoons, lakes, quaint little towns, grand historical monuments, etc. From the sandy beaches of the Philippines to the hustle and bustle of Times Square in New York City, social media users have photographed all aspects of travel, and look forward to seeing more. The Photography Club of K J Somaiya Institute of Management is pleased to introduce to you the theme of the Feb edition of our official magazine, Pixel - Travel Photography.

We hope you're ready to come on board, travel through our articles, experience through our exclusive interviews with eminent photographers specializing in travel photography, and even learn a few nifty tricks to help capture the perfect photograph on your next vacation or escapade!

Capture The Perfect Shot! As a traveler, you always want to carry as light as you can and what’s better than a mobile phone camera with a high-quality lens? Bringing your bulky, big DSLR with you isn't always practical. However, in times like these, your smartphone comes handy; you can take with you everywhere you go. In fact, this is the most distinguishing characteristic of a smartphone camera. So let's take a deep dive into smartphone-based ‘Travel Photography’. (source: by Shruti Sen)

Mobile Photography Location for a Perfect Shot!

(source: by Shruti Sen)

Location plays a crucial role in capturing the perfect shot. You could be traveling to mountains, beaches, heritage sites, etc and it would serve as a perfect spot or backdrop for your click.

Improve your Shots Using Gridline Grid lines are used so that you can actuallyget a perfect composition of a picture. The first step is to horizontally divide the image into thirds. What is the location of the horizontal lines? Are they in the top third, the middle third, or the bottom third? The lines look better if they remain away from the center and are in the top or bottom third.

(source: iphonephotographyschool.com)

Make sure the horizontal lines are at the bottom or upper third of the shot if you're photographing a sunset. The image may appear flat if the horizon is photographed in the center. Shoot from the left to the right, making sure the subject is in the right or left third.

((Source: industrialempathy.com))

iPhone: Toggle on the grid in the camera settings. Android: Go to the camera's settings and select the grid.

The Wide Angle Shot An ultra-wide lens helps you to capture more of a scene. This makes it ideal for photographing dramatic landscapes. The extra-wide field of vision catches more foreground and background detail, as well as a bit more surrounding scenery. More expansive skies, longer mountain ranges, and expansive ocean views are all part of this. The wider viewpoint adds to the sense of space and provides a more natural picture of the surroundings. (source: www.sandmarc.com)

Without Lens

With Lens

Keep the HDR on Auto Mode In auto mode, the camera automatically identifies that the image has a wide range of bright and dark areas. It will then take many photographs to record the details in the bright clouds and shadows, and then mix the best of each into a single image. This is ideal for bright outside trip photographs as well as interior shots with a bright window. (source: Xiomi.mi.com)

With HDR

Without HDR

Aesthetic Edits We all love capturing moments while traveling. Travel photography tells the journey of your travels with the memories you captured with your camera, just like a time machine you can look back and enjoy.

(Source: pinterest.com)

Every click is a snapshot of the culture, landscape, people, feelings, history, and stories of that place. It also inspires others to visit that place. Just like a pinch of salt adds flavor to food; likewise, a bit of edit adds magic to your photo. Editing a travel picture is essential because most clicks involve outdoor photography, i.e., natural light, primarily in the harsh midday sun. While traveling, you don't always have time to set your camera as per the landscape. Like this hill station view looks dull due to overexposure; however, it looks more beautiful and lively after editing. (Source: pinterest.com)

Dull due to overexposure

Bright and beautiful after editing

There are a lot of elements that play an essential role in editing a photo. Lighting is one of the key players; it determines the brightness or darkness and the mood and tone of the picture. Thus, a perfect balance of light gives your subjects the best texture, color vibrancy, and brightness. (Source: pinterest.com)

Before

After

Contrast is a crucial component in conveying specific emotions via your photos. High contrast images stand out, revealing the subject's textures and giving a sense of edginess, high energy, and power. At the same time, low-contrast photographs have a dreamlike quality to them. (Source: rei.com)

Low Contrast

Medium Contrast

High Contrast

(Source: pinterest.com)

Color plays a significant role when it comes to visual appeal. A picture with proper color composition grabs the viewer's attention and reflects the emotions of a photographer. Color correction is a crucial part of photo editing as your camera doesn't always capture a scene's hues the way it should. And with color grading, you can enhance the color and saturation of your image. If you want your picture to appear cold, you can add blue hues, or if you want it to look warm, you can try yellow-orange shades.

Without Saturation

Saturation is also an essential element in terms of the color, as it shows the intensity of colors in an image. High saturation gives rich, bright, and intense colors to the photo. Like the visual appeal of the Trevi fountain gets enhanced with high saturation.

With Saturation (Source: pinterest.com)

One of the most creative and powerful tools of photography is shutter speed. It gives you the power to convey motion, smooth water, freeze action, gives a brightening effect, and many more. When your lens is overexposed, keep shutter speed short (1/1000 to 1 second) and keep the shutter speed large to get a brightening effect.

Water gets smooth with shutter speed effect

A proper balance of elements enhances the beauty of a picture; however, excess of them destroys the natural beauty of that picture. A picture that looks more realistic is more appealing and eye-catchy.

Tips & Tricks The Travelers Way (Source: Alipriya Ghosh)

After months of planning, weeks filled with excitement and hours spent on last moment shopping, it all falls in place and is worth it all, as we reach closer to our traveling plans. Be it a new city or the mountains that you couldn't wait to experience, and you're finally there.

Making a list: Nowadays you can look up online and quickly get the information needed to make a list of places to visit. With research, you can decide which location is right for sunrise and which is better for mid-day walks. Post lunch, reserve time to relax in a spot which comes ore alive in the golden hour. Preplanning always helps in saving time as well as making the most of the day!

In the new normal, no matter how much we've adapted and learnt, traveling has become rarer for most. Well, traveling to a new location is not just full of new adventures and memories but also means that you're unlikely to revisit soon. That is why it is important to travel ight and plan well in advance. (Source: Alipriya Ghosh)

Traveling light: Depending on the location, you can decide the lens. You might want a

(Source: Alipriya Ghosh)

Telephoto lens like a 70-300mm for Mountains but a Fixed Aperture lens like a 50mm or a 85mm works miracles for Cities and Beaches. But, it goes without saying, keep your Phone camera ready too, to not miss any moment. Right settings:

Even after you master all the rules of photography, be it the ‘Rule of Thirds’ or the ‘Leading lines’, remember that sometimes rules are meant to be broken. Take more walks and use local transport to imbibe the culture and stories of the place.

Since while traveling you're always on the move, keeping your DSLR on Aperture Priority and Auto Focus mode goes a long way. You can also pause and tweak the settings if you have the time. Carrying a tripod is recommended if you are looking to capture Long Exposures with ease. Otherwise you can always get creative and find a flat surface for the same (Source: Alipriya Ghosh)

Be on the lookout for moments that strike a chord with you and the world around, and be ready to capture it. But more than anything, experience all that is happening around you with the people around you and don't get completely lost behind the camera screen.

A Photographer's Journey (Source: thebetterindia.com)

Two roads diverged in a wood, and II took the one less travelled by, And that has made all the difference We rarely come across someone travelling the path described by Robert Frost in his poem The Road Not Taken — the one with no tracks to guide you and the road that is just waiting to be discovered. Abhinav Chandel, a writer, traveller, photographer, and Instagrammer, has been down that road and can assure you it's well worth it. Abhinav is a full-time traveller and photographer who lives to pursue his passion. He is now stationed in McLeod Ganj, Himachal Pradesh. (Source: thebetterindia.com)

Abhinav, who grew up in Kashipur, a tiny town in Uttarakhand, aspired to be a successful IT engineer one day. He didn't pursue that desire but is now pursuing a new one: travelling around the world. He looks for work that allows him to pursue his interest without having to make sacrifices. In this way, he has achieved the ideal balance between his paid profession and his passions for solo travel, writing, and photography.

(Source: instagram.com)

In the beginning, it was tough for him to afford his travels. He had to save a lot of money and go on really low-budget trips. He once went to Rajasthan for a week on a shoestring budget of Rs 2,700. To save money, the tour included sleeping at railway stations. He now approaches sponsors, which entails doing some work in exchange for the funds he receives. Alternatively, he can write to travel companies and work with them while on the road. He occasionally uses his social media connections to discover like-minded people who might be willing to host me or show me around.

He has done a lot of things to generate money over the last four years without jeopardising my travel plans! Here's the rundown: He has worked as a freelance itinerary planner for an Indian travel company. He sang in a church for a while. He had previously worked as a photographer and social media manager for a few local resorts. He had just returned from a twomonth job in Spiti, where he had covered the area for a travel firm by writing and taking photographs. He also made money through brand deals on my Instagram account. These collaborations have helped me become more financially secure and a better traveller.

(Source: instagram.com)

At little shows in several cafes, he had sold postcards and huge copies of his travel photographs. He is currently employed as a freelance consultant for a travel company based in McLeod Ganj. He had curated a number of unique trip ideas and assisted them with social media content. He doesn't consider himself a natural artist but rather someone who is always honing his talents and learning new things. And he aspires to create content that encourages people to see the world in new ways and to explore. (Source: instagram.com)

When things weren't going his way during his struggle years, he used art to cheer himself up and motivate himself to be hopeful about life, and he tries to bring that element into his work as well, where he wants it to become a medium of hope for others. He is a creator who began his career as a photographer by selling picture postcards while sitting on the side of the road and in random Mcleodganj cafés, where he would tell people stories about the images on the postcards before asking them if they wanted to buy them. Now, he continues doing that in digital space as well, where every picture is a reflection of moments filled with tales.

Head on to her Instagram page : @abhiandnow Check out her work : https://www.instagram.com/abhiandnow/

The Professional's Insights

Q. How did your photography journey start?

RISHI RATHORE

I guess I have always been interested in different visual art forms. Be it the craft behind making films, the vision behind framing pictures or the colours used to make a painting, the creation part of art has intrigued me since the time I remember consuming content as a school kid. This curiosity led to my interest in colours, light and the whole idea of capturing a moment. What started as a hobby in the second year of engineering, initially was just me going out with my friend’s camera and capturing the streets & beaches of Chennai. To practice it more & learn from people around me in the process, I started a small photography club which used to host photowalks, workshops & competitions for photographers. Slowly, it started coming to me and I started enjoying it. It gave me a high that I had never experienced before.

@the.indian.traveller

From weekend photo walks during graduation to weekend trips with friends while working, in the last 5-6 years, I have made sure that I take out time for something which keeps me sane and gives me a break from the otherwise monotonous life. I love the reality of everyday life, the liveliness of the moments and the beauty in the stories of places and its people. So I keep travelling to live these moments and in the process, end up framing a few.

Q. Do you plan your shots before or are they spontaneous clicks? It’s a fair mix of both I guess. It’s spontaneous when I am travelling to places I have never been before and when I am exploring some of these offbeat villages with completely new culture and people. You can’t plan most of the candid moments you observe while you are on that evening walk or the sunrise/sunset colours you end up witnessing on an otherwise gloomy day. But when I am working on an assignment or I am revisiting a place with a particular frame in mind, I definitely plan my shoot; the time of the day, subjects in the frames and few other things. Q. How do you manage taking out time for photography while being a full time employee at Google? There is a clear line between following your passion and doing something full-time, and as long as you have that clarity about your art on where you want to put yourself at, it becomes slightly easy to manage. While I do understand that it becomes a challenge to maintain work life balance while pursuing a passion, I strongly believe that if you are passionate enough, you can make it possible and you will end up finding ways to take time out. I wish I had a fancy formula or a mantra to give here but it's as simple as ‘Plan your time really well, specially the time around weekends & holidays.’ Personally, I pre-plan my calendar for extended weekends, festivals around India & my quarterly breaks. And after I come back from these short breaks, I enjoy the post office evenings/nights processing the images or learning something about photography on YouTube. Fortunately, like in my case, it also adds up when your employer supports you to keep doing what you love and follow your passion, ensuring that your work is just a part of your daily life and it’s not the other way round. And there will be times when you can’t make it for an assignment or a brand work because of your commitments at work, but I guess that’s completely fine and every opportunity need not be associated with a calling. Q. Are there any places you haven’t visited and are hoping to? Oh, this is an endless list! Talking to fellow travel photographers I have realised that I have probably been to just 5% of places I wish to go to. From capturing the tribal & indigenous life of few South East Asian communities in their natural environment, to framing the landscapes of Iceland, Turkey & Mongolia, this list literally just keeps on growing. Talking about my short term plans for the next year or so, I am planning to visit North East India, Valleys of north Himachal, Laos & Mongolia for some environmental portraits & landscapes. Hopefully the travel restrictions lift up completely and all of us around the globe are free from any new variants of the virus to move freely.

Q. What would be your favourite shots/locations till date?

Few of the places where I have absolutely loved taking pictures are :5 lake area with the Mt. Fuji view around Kawaguchiko town in Japan Pushkar Camel Fair in Rajasthan Backwaters of Kerala Valleys of Himachal Pradesh & Kashmir

Q. Photography equipment can be heavy. What are your absolute essential equipment for clicking while travelling? The fomo of keeping everything in your bag to get that perfect shot is real and I have been a victim too. Initially, I used to take all my equipment with me irrespective of where I am going and it was definitely a challenge not just in terms of weight but also because you end up getting confused on what to shoot with. But now, I make sure I carry equipment based on what I want to capture at a particular place. My absolute essential equipment includes, my Sony a7iii, a (50 or 85 mm) prime lens, a semi wide telephoto (24-70) & my drone (Mavic Air). Q. Travel photography may also include shooting outdoors on grey/bad weather days, how do you cope up with this difficulty? On gloomy days it not just becomes tough to frame landscapes but also to capture moments on the street, because there is hardly any light. When you are on a tight schedule and there are no more days with you, indoor shoots or dramatic shots outside are some options which can make up for bad weather. But if you have more days with you, the best is to plan for your shots the next day, gather more information around your shots, talk to people and decide vantage points for your landscapes. For portraits specially; the stories, the cultural aspects and personal touch will definitely make for better frames. Q. A few words for amateur and budding photographers like us?? As a fellow budding photographer in the community, all I would like to say is keep clicking until you feel content about your pictures. Don’t click for anyone else but for yourself. At the end of the day It’s your unique style which will speak for you and not how well you can imitate someone else’s style. And when it comes to building your craft and style, there are 2 aspects to it; skills & language. Take up projects where you can challenge yourself on particular skills, for ex., clicking only BnW frames for a few days to help you understand light & contrast or using only one lens to logistically restrict you for creative results. While you get the technical skills right, work on the language of art as well, i.e. What do you want to convey? Do you know why you are pressing the shutter to capture that particular frame? Think about that every time you go out and click pictures and you will definitely start enjoying the process more.

YASH MUNOT @yashmunot95

Shots From The Club

SANJANA SANEJA @_tripper_ss_

GAVIN WAGH @gavin.wagh

APOORVA KALE @_apoorva98_

SHIVANI CHAPHEKAR @shivani_chaphekar

RAUNAK JOTWANI @raunakjt

PI X EL YOUR LENS TO EXPLORE THE WORLD OF PHOTOGRAPHY

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