BPOY 2011

I am really excited to share with you all that I was selected as category winner for Still Life: The obvious Things in the annual photo contest conducted by India's leading photography Magazine "Better photography".











My attached image Paper Swan was selected as winner in the still life. In the category "Joy of color" another image "Rainbow Twirl" was nominated in final 6 whereas "Paper Waveform was shortlisted in top 20 images.

It was overwhelming to see my work on paper abstract being appreciated so highly especially considering around 70,000 entries from all over India.
The eight category winners were invited to Mumbai & were offered the challenge to photo shoot in Mumbai on the theme of "Spirit of Mumbai". I was supposed to shoot for 4 days & submit 10 individual images & 8-12 images in series for photo essay. Though I didn't able to turn that for grabbing overall winner award among 8 I was happy enough to get opportunity to shoot the Mumbai for 4 days.

I just can't express in words the thrill & feel of the overall face-off session, sleepless nights, endless opportunity to shoot in Mumbai ..!

The day I come to know I have to fly to Mumbai for face-off session I was eager to meet other 7 category winners & participants for this contest. What's more I was excited to know I was going to share room with Baiju Patil one of the great wildlife photographer from India for 4 days. I really thank him for co-operating so well & giving me excellent tips. Honestly I invested this opportunity to learn more from him than entirely focusing on the contest.

It was excellent experience to understand the work from each photographer & understand their perspective towards photography. I was really touched by their work & it was interesting to see how each photographer having their individuality & way to see the life.

Nilesh Bhange accepts the Canon-Better Photography Photographer of the Year 2011 award for the category 'Still Life: Obvious Things' from photographers Ian Pereira, Girish Mistry and Vikesh Ramchandani, Asst Director, National Retail Division, Canon India. 

It was honor to share some time with India's legend photographer Raghu Rai & getting refreshing inspiring positive energy. The way he speaks keeps you to isolate from the rest of world & start feeling the things around you. Receiving appreciation from great persons like Girish Mistry, Hari Mahidhar & Indranil Mukherjee was enough to boost the confidence for putting more hard work towards photography. 

The team of Better photography main editor K Madhavan Pillai (Editor of Better Photography,) & Senior Features Writer Raj Lalwani & Neha Mutreja was kind enough to guide us at every step 24x7.

It was great experience to see & feel the Mumbai through the lens of my camera. The spirit of the people is commendable especially after seeing most of things might not be in favor of  them may be it the area of Dharavi, Dhobi ghat or high society area. Everybody is trying to match them with the speed of city.

Note:
I will also like to mention that the photograph "Paper Waveforms was also shortlisted (Top 30) in the international photo contest conducted by Digital Camera World Photographer Of The Year 2011 for the category Creative License.

Update on: 10/2/2012
A small publication about my work in local newspaper "Nai-Dunia" in Indore.
Link: Indore_Nai Dunia

I will like to thank all my friends & family for encouraging me time to time & appreciating my work!

The Spirit Of Indian Fair

In Indian city & villages the fair/Mela other than festival & cultural activities are being regularly devised. It mainly contains various adventure sports specially for kids like giant wheel & rides. I visited such fair with my kid & sharing some shots showing the spirit of Indian Mela. Mostly there fairs are being run during vacation of children's like summer vacation, Diwali vacation,new year celebration etc.

Mela is a Sanskrit word meaning 'gathering' or 'to meet' or a Fair. It is used in the Indian subcontinent for all sizes of gathering and can be religious, commercial, cultural or sports. In rural traditions melas or village fairs were (and in some cases still are) of great importance. This led to their export around the world by south Asian diaspora communities wishing to bring something of that tradition to their new countries.

The purpose of these fairs is to offer an opportunity to enjoy amusement rides like Giant Wheel, fun slide, merry-go-round, toy trains etc. It also has Indian chat & food centers to serve for food lovers. 

Image 1 : The senior old man enjoying the balloon shoot like an innocent kid. This is a very favorite game part of such fairs/melas in India.

The Joint Wheel scares, it makes heart beat faster, and brings it to a standstill that to give a feel that the rider is no longer alive. A long time back, someone shared this secret with me, on enjoying the ride on a Giant Wheel. The advice was "breathe in when it goes up.. hold your breath while you are up there, and breathe out when it comes down.". Any fair will not be complete without a Giant Wheel. Does this idea is applicable to our life also? Breath well while riding steps of success & fame, be stable & breath out in tough times?

Image 2 & 3 : Photograph of a giant wheel  & Rides for the kids in motion along with the fair in background.

It was really nice to take an opportunity to  see a Kathputli show (Puppet show) in this fair. I was more interested because my daughter had never seen such a live show before. Kathputli is a join of two Rajasthani language words Kath meaning wood and Putli meaning puppet. Kathputli means a puppet which is made entirely from wood. However it is made out of wood, cotton cloth and metal wire.

The art of puppeteer has a long tradition in Rajasthan, but the puppets themselves are fairly simple creations. Mostly, they consist of painted wooden heads draped with dresses made from old fabrics and sequined for charm. The hands are made simply by stuffing rags or cotton into the sleeve of the dress and filling it out. The most quaint aspect of these puppets is the way their expressions are painted, large expressive eyes with arched eyebrows, and a curling mustache for men, or a nose ring for the women. Inexpensive souvenirs, they recall more easily than most other things memories of a visit to this state of chivalrous kings and beautiful queens.

In Kathputli Dance in Rajasthan India, the puppeteer narrates the stories through soulful ballads. Kathputli Rajasthan features puppet plays based on popular legends (now here Indian Bollywood stars) being performed by skilful puppeteers. Various types of puppets or Kathputlis are used during the Kathputli Traditional Dance in Rajasthan. These include Glove Puppets, String Puppets, Rod Puppets and Shadow Puppets.

Image 4 & 5 : Photograph of a Kathputli Dance & junior show player in the fair.

It was sad to see people taking away their interest of paying for the free show conducted by the performer. It also shows that how a marketing has become necessary to earn the money from your art for daily living.

 

The three persons drive two cars and a motorbike simultaneously along the walls of the `maut ka kuan' (wheel of death), a wooden well 18 ft deep and 50 ft across. The maut ka kuan has been in existence for about 35 years. But, the use of cars in the kuan was started in recent years.

 Image 6 Spectators waiting before starting the adventurous ride in "Maut Ka Kuan"( wheel of death )

Image 3 One of the three daredevil drivers keeps a car on track, firmly driving along to the wall of the well.  

  Image 7  Car driver taking special prize money offered by the spectators without loosing control of the vehicle.

 The drivers feel confortable between the speeds of 60 to 70 km per hour. That way we are stuck to the walls firmly and find sufficient time to veer when needed. needless to say that these peoples with big heart are far away from having any knowledge about gravitational, centrifugal or centripetal forces. They just rely on their personal co-ordination, in between understanding & judgment. The owner of the show after asking "don't they fear from death & accident?" he said "The performance is called well of death. Death is alway beside us. However, it is the grace of God that we are still alive".

The highlight of these fairs is that everybody enjoys it without bothering the age, cast & class of others with a right spirit. It was nice to see the existence of such sports even in so called modern age delivering the thrill & adventure at such a low cost lived up to by the courage & efforts  of the performer.

"Painter" in NGM Daily Dozon

Dear friends during online surfing it took to me surprise that my image "painter" was shortlisted in National Geographic Daily Dozon for the 3rd week of May 2011. Unfortunately I didn't got any mail intimating that to me but seeing my image as a part of shortlisted group of images was nice experience.

For those who don't know about Daily Dozen NGM from the Daily Dozen, Photographer across the world post their images under the section "Your Shot". Images under these categories were shortlisted for the Daily Dozen. a selection of photos publishes in monthly National Geographic magazine if photograph gets qualified through voting machine.

January 2011: 2 Finalist Selected As Winners

I am intensely happy to continue to be selected as winners & being listed along with great photographers in the monthly competition on Betterphoto website. My two images were selected as finalist & were resulted in winners in the January 2011 monthly contest. The image "Staring Girl" was selected in the category People whereas "The Boy & The Bicycle" was selected in the category "Nature & Landscapes".

As a very popular competition this month too it was having a lot entries as 17200. It is really wonderful experience having my two images at second place along with top 10 winners at second place in each category.

Staring Girl:

This image was captured at Maheshwar. She was selling flowers on the Ghat of river Narmada. I was eager to get her portrait but she was a little bit shy. I convinced her if she doesn't like the image I will delete it in front of her, that helped me to get a pose from her. Her face is having very dry skin because of cold though her eyes are having a warm smile as on little bit lips. The earlier version was a color it was selected as finalist but not as a winner. Recently this black & White version was published on 1X.com so I thought to give a try again on betterphoto & fortunately this time it was selected as winner.

The Boy & Bicycle:
 This image is taken in a field on a winter morning. The sunlight was filtering through the leaves of a mango tree & due to fog resulting into nice sunbeams.

Intimation From the site administrator:

2/11/2011 Photographer Nilesh J. Bhange of Indore, Madhya Pradesh, has won Second Place for January in the prestigious photography contest sponsored by BetterPhoto.com, the site's founder, Jim Miotke, announced Friday.
More than 17200 entries were submitted to the online photography contest, which attracted contestants from around the world and featured 10 separate categories.
Bhange's stunning image, "The Boy & Bicycle", garnered top honors after being submitted in the Nature & Landscapes category.
Bhange's stunning image, "Staring Girl", garnered top honors after being submitted in the People category.
All of the winning images can be viewed at BetterPhoto.com's contest page: http://www.betterphoto.com/contest/winners/1101.asp
The contest is conducted each month. Categories include Nature and Landscapes, Animals, People, Elements of Design, Digital Darkroom, Travel and Place, Flowers, Details and Macro, Catch-All, and Monthly Theme. Judging is performed by a panel of professional photographers.

Composition: subject in center ?

Every beginner in photography does one mistake which professionals don't like i.e. keeping subject in the center of the frame. He must have been bombarded for not doing that mistake again by seniors .

This place is considered having less visual attention of the viewer. A subject in center divides the frame equally & may confuse the viewer where to look at? This offers a less visual weight to the subject.As soon as subject is moved from the center of the image gets a dynamic feel from a static. The golden point according to very famous rule of composition which is Rule of thirds.

Image1: Egg in glass

In this image I have placed the egg in center of the frame but is it really not visually interesting? The answer is yours since it is going to be subjective. I think dividing the entire frame using shapes of circles helps the viewers eyes to recognize the subject with an ease (Ref: Gestalt Law of grouping). So the egg in the centered portion doesn't matter to much, in fact it is catching the viewers attention without loosing interest. If the subject was only egg then there will be enough space to divert viewers eye in entire frame.

A centered subject can also be made interesting by using virtual lines leading to the subject. It will avoid the viewers eye  to wondering everywhere unnecessarily  while guiding it to the subject of interest. Image 2. is an example illustrating this.

Image 2: An Old Coin

Your feedback will surely help. Kindly correct me if you find anything wrong here.

An Event by Snapster's & IPC

It was my great pleasure for being part of the  event organised by IIM Indore (Snapster-Aperture Photography Club) + IPC (Indore Photography Community) on Jan 23,2011. In this event seminar from the great photographer Mr. Hemshankar Pathakji was delivered. It was very informative &  with  rich information about composing & using natural light at best in photography. It was a visual treat to see his beautiful work captured through his vision. A photo competition was also planned contributing the images taken in the beautiful campus of IIM. The competition was open to the only photographs taken on that day after the seminar.

I took this opportunity  at best to explore the beauty of the IIM campus through my camera. The architecture of all buildings is really very artistic & inspiring to shoot. The evening light was making it even beautiful giving elegant shadows & lights. I will like to share some of the images taken in  this event along with small information on it.

Image 1, 2 3 are shots of the beautiful architectures of different buildings. Image 1 shows the arches as main component.The shadow of the arch helped me to double the lines dynamically leading into the frame exploring the viewer the beauty of the architecture. I deliberately kept it in grayscale to keep it simple & placing importance to shapes & light.

Image1: Arches

EXIF:

Camera		Canon EOS 400D Digital
	Exposure		0.008 sec (1/125)
	Aperture		f/13.0
	Focal Length		10 mm
	ISO Speed		200
	Exposure Bias Lens Date and Time (Original)		+1/3 EV Sigma 10.0-20.0 mm  2011:01:23 17:59:01

Image 2 is of a wall with arch & small windows. I like the shapes of arch enhanced with it's shadow & placement of the windows adding interesting graphical elements. Same is true for the the Image 3. It's taken from bottom of the arch pointing camera upwards using the edge of the arch to lead the lines. I kept it color because I like the contrast in the colors of building against the sky.

Image2: The wall & Windows   Image3: Shapes

The Image 4. & Image 5 were taken at the beautiful sunset point. I was inspired to shoot there in my last very short visit to IIM, Indore before the Pratibimb 2010. I visited there for giving the poster of the exhibition of Pratibimb & from that day this location was in my mind. Due to non-justifying reasons it didn't happened. But as I come to know about this event I was unable to control my excitement.

During shooting I realised some practical problems which were not suiting to the idea with which I was visualising to compose. The chair was half hidden behind the tree.  Fortunately it was not fixed so with help of friends it was placed as in the shot. The sun was on right side of tree whereas I was preferring it on left to take advantage of the slight inclination of tree towards left & a it's lower horizontal branch (not visible in image) framing from top. The light poles (cloned away) were big distractions, thanks to Photoshop. Anyway Finally I composed this image & two exposures were mixed manually in photoshop.

Image4: it's Part of Life

Image4: The Sunset Point

Thanks goes to Abbas, Renu, Pranjal & Pranshu for helping me to take this shot. Abbs really took strong initiative (:)) to be beside Renu. The Mr. X on left was not planned actually. There were some guys who were also excited to shoot on this beautiful sunset. He did helped not only adding another angle to the story in the image but also balancing the image with virtual triangle forming between him,sun & the persons on chair. A also see an virtual triangle between these peoples & the peak of the tree. While shooting I was with only two lenses sigma 10-20 & Canon 55-250. I was missing my 18-55 to frame it properly in my camera. Fortunately Pranjal shared his lens for this shot which is taken at 30mm.

During post processing I realised that this image may have been further better composed by taking more area in the left side. Maybe it was not possible due to other enthusiastic photographers shooting sunset. I like the light & small vignetting effect added in post processing using "GESTALT PERCEPTION". The imaginary oval shape formed on right side whereas another portion on right speeds up viewers reading to the image identifying the objects in group with an ease.

EXIF:

Camera	Canon EOS 400D Digital
Exposure	0.04 sec (1/25)
Aperture	f/11.0
Focal Length	30 mm
ISO Speed	200
Exposure Lens	+5/3 EV EF-S18-55mm f/3.5-5.6

Image5: Missing You

Image 5 is of Kiran Bhatt, a very sporty member of IPC group. I was looking for model to take advantage of some interesting background & light, she was looking for photographer. Though this shot come out good but it's not very sharp due to low ambient light & slow shutter speed. i still hesitate to increase the ISO of my camera above 400.Thanks to her for being not only model but also when it was really needed.

I really enjoyed the day where I learned from seniors, shoot & shared very nice moments with my friends. Hope you find the article & images interesting.

Nomination in Photographer of the Year 2010

Dear friends I am happy to share with you that my image "Over The Clouds" has been shortlisted  in the category "Patterns Of Nature" for Betterphotographer of the Year 2010. Overall 60,000 images were entered in all 8 categories.Total 6 images have been shortlisted in each category. I have participated in all categories with maximum number of images allowed.I will like to share with you the participated images in different categories.

About The Competition:
The Better Photography Photographer of the Year is a much coveted title among photography enthusiasts-from beginners and hobbyists to serious amateurs. The contest has been conducted successfully for four years now, and has seen keen participation from photographers from varied walks of life, across the country. Our participants and winners have been proving that India has a wealth of photographic talent that is just waiting to be recognised. And this year the event goes international. Our finalists - the first-prize winners of the 8 themes will fly to Singapore for a final Face-off contest! The winner of the Face-off will not only win the title of Photographer of the Year 2010.
 

Faces:

All the participated images are street shots, taken in available natural light without any camera/off camera flash. I really enjoy to interact with the people for taking their portraits. I like the way most of them like them being photographed. I like to share the happy moments with them. 

The first photograph is of innocent child with a hand of assurance from her elder sister. This was taken at the checkpost of changu lake near Gangtok. This image has been selected as top 12 runner up for the oakwoods contest "Trust is.." recently. The second image is taken at Maheshwar, India. The young girl was selling flowers on the bank of river Narmada. I like her face with full of character specially the gaze in her eyes. The eyes with mystical confidence. It was a bit difficult to convenience her for getting photographed but finally she did. I really like the way the wind added additional touch in the photograph. Her skin was considerably dry due to cold weather.

The third image was a candid shot taken at vegetable market, Nanded. The senior person was using an empty basket as his hat from protection from the sunlight. I found it really funny & got near to him & keep on shooting, undoubtedly we both enjoyed those moments. The fourth one was of a worker smoking on the bust stop near Annapurna road, Indore.I like the way mustache & hat adding in his overall character. All these faces are really unforgettable for me & the moments I lived with them.It was most difficult for me to choose only 4 images among my personal favorite images. Thanks goes to my IPC (Indore Photographer community) friends for helping me sorting that out.

Man & His Environment:

I submitted all the images taking this challenge as environmental portraits. I am yet not sure whether I took it correctly or not. The first image is of a potter engaged in his work. I like the way I was able to use the graphical shapes & element in composition of the image. The second was taken at Maheshwar while this lady was engrossed in her pray. I like the way the blue color contrast against her red sari. The movement of the water reflected with ripples against her calm composed pose also add something about faith,trust to me.

The Third image is of about sunset & sunset lovers. This was taken at Pachmarhi, Madhya Pradesh on a sunset point. I thought of capturing the peoples along with sunset using split ND filter adding interesting twist to usual sunset image. The fourth image is of the people from Rabri community. More about in the discussion with the images in "A place called home".

Shadows & Light:

I was very clear about my submissions in this category since I was not having too many distinct images suiting to this topic in my portfolio. The first image "frustration" was taken for my DPChallenge contest with topic "cardboard box". I used only single table lamp for lighting this image with my close friend as model in a big cardboard box. The line of light for me is leaving little way as hope in the overall gritty mood of the image. The second on is newly executed image for this contest with my old concept of "Defeat". The King who had lost his war & a dead pawn near his feat. The standing King shows his character such as confidence as well as courage even in such situation but the pawn can not withstand & it's defeat of his strength & courage. The dead pawn, the light, exposure & long shadows were used to create the atmosphere of defeat, sadness.

The third one is "Painter". She is a painter from The Tibetan Refugee Self-Help Centre at Darjeeling. I shared some nice moments with her. I asked her about the painted text on windows "Free Tibet" & "Save Tibet". She told me this is in protest of Chinese occupation on Tibet and for the fundamental human rights of Tibetans to be respected. This has been photographed completely natural light. I have to take care for not getting the window in the background overexposing areas. The fourth one is of leaves looking interesting only due to the play of light keeping half side lit by light while other side in shadows.

 

Architecture & Monuments:

Shooting architecture & monuments without loosing interest of viewers I think is a quiet a bit challenging. There are huge chances of having monotonous look & getting a usual record shot of known places. I don't do much on this subject. The first image is taken at Darjeeling "Shanti Stupa" on a misty morning. Actually it may not be visible very well in the small version of it but I like the way I can use the lines of walls & arrows in the bottom pointing/leading towards the statue of Lord Gautama Buddha.A larger version of it can be seen at See on Flickr .

The second & fourth image was taken in photowalk 2010 in Indore on 25th July 2010 organised by IPC.The second image was selected in top 10 Honorable mention images fin this event. In this image slightly distorted reflection of an apartment can be seen in the reflective surface of another building. The third image showing an interior of an old ancient architecture of Rani Rupmati Palace, Mandu. The fourth one show view of the Bombay hospital building taken d A viewpoint through the grid showing symmetry of two buildings.

Patterns Of Nature:

A wide variety of subjects was suitable for this category. The lamp image was taken on the holy river Ganga at Varansi. The touch of sunrise light making the water look as gold & the ripples creating interesting patterns. The web with drops was taken on a misty morning formed on fencing of field. The background bokeh is of crop wheat husks.

 

The Published image along with other Nominations in the Betterphotography Magazine issue January 2011

Over The Clouds shortlisted image

The third one was taken from the flight while traveling from Delhi to Bagdogra in my trip to North East India. I must praise my luck for getting the interesting view of clouds along with the land & space above the clouds.The spider one is macro image showing the details of the spider. I wonder the way the patterns of wood is matching to it's body but the DOF is helping me to get nice contrast for isolating him from the surface.

Waterscape:

It's my favorite subject. I like to shoot the falls, seascapes any images including water.I can spend hours shooting them without getting tired. The first one is of a small stream at Patalpani waterfall & the fourth one is of Tincha fall. Both these falls are from Indore.

The second one is taken at the rock garden of Pelling. The third one is taken on the holy beach of Somnath,Gujrat. Probably it is my the first image which was appreciated in various online contest & forums. It was my very old image taken with point & shoot camera SONY DSC-H2 in 2006. The image of lamp on river was also taken with this camera.


Wildlife:

I was knowing this category is not for me. I feel no shame to admit that I lack the patience to capture the images in this category. I do have very small portfolio with these kind of images. I was also doubting to include the 2nd & third one suits this category or not.

The lion is from the Zoo of Hyderabad, giving me a nice portrait. I feel myself lucky to get the second & third shot with beautiful light & clarity. The fourth one is of Yellow-winged Darter taken during Photograph taken on the Kajligarh outing, Indore conducted by IPC under the inspirational guidance of Upendra Upadhyay. I cropped the wings during capturing the shot to show it's beautiful details.

A Place Called Home:

I was really touched by the the way  these Rabri community people face the hard life.Traditionally they are camel herders. They sell wool and clarified butter to city merchants and manage all money matters.The Rabari men can often be seen roaming the countryside with their droves. They travel hundreds of miles on annual migration routes in search of new pastures to graze their animals.

I shoot their open houses & kitchen. I was sure these may not suit completely to the challenge but all the images were on the same topic showing the open house as per as physical material is concerned but it was nothing less than their emotional bonding among each other. I didn't find any of them lacking love & affection. The various image shows these things, the generation gap & their habits. I wish to highlight the thing that the house without these things is of no use irrespective of how nicely it has been built.

I hope you like the images & story behind them.