This photo-essay is all about the independent spirit of a woman. She was alone and jobless when she decided to look for work. She finally found work at a road construction site. Not stopping there, the woman socialized with other women who contributed to her work. Not making this job her final goal, she went ahead and started talking to other men in different sites. Her eagerness to work made her get another job in a sewage repairing site. This is a real story of a woman laborer in Chembur. This is her daily life. Such stories signify that women need not depend on anyone.

— By Shreya Shetty, Sophia College

I present this Photo-Essay in a very intimate and personal form, exactly in the way I’d see people or their experiences. I name this essay ‘Ladies Coupé’ after being inspired by novelist Anita Nair who has written a book which is titled so. But this essay focuses on the various moments women, as travelers, face throughout their journey. Eve-teasing, frustrations, being scared, being happy, are a few moments I’ve tried to capture of the daily commuters of the Western Railway, Mumbai Local. This is a whole different level of Candid photography! The crowds, the women, their priceless expressions and the daily photography sessions helped me see traveling in a completely different light. Hope you enjoy my work!

— By Mariya Sethjiwala, Sophia College

Nature, in all its forms, presents not only a great escape from the hustles of city, but if you look through your lenses closely, it can provide various career opportunities. Ever thought YOU could be a wildlife photographer? Today, photography has become a common hobby for the metro youth. The great thing is it is a highly diverse profession. One of the most interesting and challenging streams of photography surely is Wildlife Photography.

A passion for photography and a great deal of knowledge about cameras and lenses is a must to start with when you talk about becoming a wildlife photographer. Apart from that, you need to have a genuine love for animals, birds, forests and everything natural. This profession, whether taken up as a hobby or a profession, requires a great deal of perseverance and patience from the photographer. Moreover, it is imperative that you respect your subjects. Awareness about the various laws of forest and environment and their compliance is a necessity.
As such, being a wildlife photographer requires no formal training. Most wildlife photographers would tell you they started doing it just by chance on some camping trip or a family holiday to forest reserves! If you are intrigued by nature, start as soon as you lay your hands on a camera. Who says you have to get to a forest? Begin by observing closely your surroundings and environment and the creatures that live around.

When you decide on turning a pro, a journey that might well change the way you see the tiniest of things awaits you. Getting close to nature also involves communicating well with the forest officials and even local tribesmen. You have to get information from these people as to what is the most suitable time and place to shoot the animals, birds or any aspect of nature you are looking to capture. Doing your homework before you start shooting and drawing up a schedule is also an important aspect of shooting in the wild.
After you have done your shooting and finished working for the day, the important task of getting your work noticed lies ahead. It is advisable to do as much independent work as possible when you have just started off. You can share your work with magazines, newspapers or even wildlife NGOs. You can even use your pictures as cards and calendar backgrounds. Hosting exhibitions and booking gallery shows to display your work once you get known in the local market is what will follow.

Fortunately, India’s rich and diverse wildlife offers great opportunities to photographers to capture breath-taking images. After all the hard-work and, just one amazing image is enough to make your day!

I believe life is all about hardwork. It is a common thing recognised everyday. One works hard to fulfill his/her basic needs, to live life comfortably. It is the key to all the locks that stop one from achieving his/her aim.

These photographs not only depict how hard people work so as to achieve success but also to get through life, one day at a time.

Organization Name:  BMMBox.com

Organization Description: The one-stop shop for all stuff BMM!

Location: From home

Role Title: Creative Writer/Photographer

Role Description /Role Responsibilities:

Creative Writer – We are looking for someone to write fun, whacky, entertaining articles for our site. If you think you can make people smile/laugh with your words, puns then this is the position for you.

Photographer – If you take photographers and are pretty good at it, then we’d like to have you on board for a photo-essay series. If you capabilities lie in bringing out the essence of one topic through myriad photographs, then this is an opportunity you must take up.

Qualification Requirement: FY/SY/TYBMM

Experience Requirement: Nil

Compensation/Stipend: A certificate of appreciation shall be given. You will be given credit for your content we upload on the site.

Application Process: Email current and updated resume + 2 writing samples (on any topic) to connect@bmmbox.com

Selection Process: Sifting through resumes, followed by phone interview

Key Dates: Applications close on April 30, 2013

Shivangi Prabhavalkar is an exceptionally talented photographer from SYBMM, KC College. Showcased below are some of her best photographs. Hope you love them just as much as we did. 🙂

Here is what Shivangi has to say about her passion, “Photography is my passion and I love to experiment while capturing frames. According to me, it is important that you connect and understand the subject of your photograph and thus in most of photographs I make a conscious effort to capture the subject’s uniqueness. I like to defy some rules and add a touch of my own to the compositions. I like challenges and tackling them from behind the lens is what I enjoy.”

You can get in touch with Shivangi, here: www.facebook.com/shivangi.prabhavalkar

It is said that Black goes with any and every colour; but to achieve a level of acceptable balance is rather difficult at times whether you are a painter, designer, or photographer. Black is not a colour but something that increases the depth of the colours around it, sometimes a void that graciously gives its surrounding life. Here are some tips to help you aspiring photographers and artistic visualizers out there.

Low light levels make night photography a challenging yet rewarding subject. After sunset, the everyday world is magically transformed, and city buildings, fireworks, thunderstorms and the northern lights all become popular subjects. But with the variety in elements and perspective, twilight photography takes a whole different dimension which you can sometimes achieve in the absence of your fancy equipment.

Now there is a constant search for finding colour in the darkness, be it in the streetlights at night, or the moonlight shining on branches; these different shades of black give a feeling of the unreal. During such times, your biggest weapons and tools are your eyes, you have to see and alter your perspective to tame even that faintest call of light and life. So if your eye perceives it, your lens receives it.

The results can be very stunning and strange effects are easy to master. With many night photography subjects, total darkness at night isn’t necessarily the best time to actually do ‘night shots’. I think late dusk is usually a great time. This is when there is just a bit of light left in the sky after sunset (or before sunrise for the early rising photographer). The advantage of shooting at this time is less large areas of black in the image, this cuts down on excessive contrast and adds more colour to the image. The residual daylight that is left will also ‘fill in’ the large shaded areas that are not lit by artificial lighting. But this does not mean that all night shots should be taken at dusk. There are certain subjects and night photography techniques that are more successful when practised in total darkness at night.

Now, in the “old days”, there were issues regarding film that made it more difficult to get good night exposures as we could not see the final image. But this is not the case with present day dSLR cameras. However, the problem with dSLRs and using them for night photography is that the higher film speed or ISO you take, the chances the noise your device will make increase. The only way out is the traditional solution – to practise.

An important factor in night photography is how the lighting is portrayed in the scene. When portraying rows of street lighting for example, the direct light source itself is being photographed, therefore the lighting being exposed is very bright. An image of a floodlit building on the other hand is an image exposed by reflected light. This naturally is much weaker and would need a much longer exposure.

With extremely low light levels, moving subjects such as people walking will not register in the image so long as there is very little light shining upon them. Cars are a good example of using this technique. With long shutter speeds and moving cars, the headlights and taillights will register as streaks. The cars themselves will not register on the image.

Some reminders:

• Use the self timer or a cable release.
• Also try not using your flash unless your subject is within 10 meters of your range.
• Learn your camera like the back of your hand to mix and match your shots. And remember to use a camera with a high ISO for night shots (like from 3200 onwards)
• Try using a tripod for added stability since night shots require a bigger aperture and slow shutter speed
• Click more pictures of the same subject from different angles, settings, and perspectives.
• And most importantly, visualise your picture before you click it

Twilight photography may seem decently challenging but the final product is exhilarating to say the least. Happy shooting.

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