The Art of Creativity

What all you people notice when you see a movie?? Definitely the first priority goes to the actress, then the actor, songs and so on..and i am no different:)..It’s indeed true that our audience are really good at analyzing the technical side of the movie, especially about the visualization. In fact, India has got a bunch of exceptionally talented cinematographers and photographers. But for sometime, a new trend has been wavering across Kerala. Yes, I am talking about ‘Photography’, the new passion for our youngsters these days.

Hari Menon

It requires a lot of effort and dedication to convert this passion into a profession, especially this field being very competitive. Some of the best examples being people like Hari Menon, Jayesh Mohan, Ajay Menon etc. Infact, I was lucky enough to meet some of the eminent photographers in Kerala. Photography is a very interesting field to be in, but very competitive too. 

Jayesh Mohan

Ajay Menon

“You don't take a photograph, you make it”..a very famous quote by photographer Ansel Adams. This quote turns so meaningful when you see the photographs taken by these people. Hari Menon is a pure class when it comes to creativity. He has even produced some exceptional photographs from some situations which we never notice in life. Being a traveller, he has almost covered every part of India with his creative photography. Some of his photos leaves us spellbound for sure. In fact, I am a great fan of Hari as his photography continues to encourage more and more people into this field. Jayesh Mohan happens to be a close friend of mine. A very jovial person who came into the field of photography after studying animation(no relation between these two) and turned successful with his hardwork. He is a famous name among the Cochin photographers who specialises well in Fashion and Wildlife photography. He is a great fan of rock music and works as a vocalist in a Ernakulam based band. There is an album called ‘The Jayesh Mohan Way’ in his Facebook profile which clearly proves that all the photographs has got a typical 'Jayesh' touch:)..Ajay Menon also continues to amaze us with his photographs. He takes photography in another perspective, a bit different from the others. I love the way he photographs people, which has got unusual depth and meaning every time. The common factor among the three is that they reached these heights with their own effort and hard work. Their works are the best references for everyone who is new to this field. We can't forget the works of senior photographers like Rajan Paul Sir(truly splendid), Anil Kumar Sir etc. 

A recent snap from Jayesh Mohan..Simply outstanding!

As i said, many youngsters are now aspiring to become photographers. It will be ungrateful if i forget to mention about my friends Nidhin Radhakrishnan, Sunil Karthikeyan, Ashwin Koushan, Manu Manohar, Vishnu Raghav, Ananthu Ganesh etc, who are exceptionally talented. Not to forget people like Munz, Vishnu Prabhakar etc. Nidhin completed diploma in photography and is now moving around Kerala with his Nikon D50. His photos are very creative, some leaves us with a haunted impression, and is really blessed to have received comments from senior photographers like Rajan Paul Sir. I hope soon he will be among the top photographer's of Kerala. Manu and Ananthu are some of the budding photographers from Trivandrum, who are gaining popularity with their awesome clicks. Hope they will be soon among the top. The growth of social network has really helped everyone in promoting their works(all of them owns a fan page in Facebook). 

One of my favorites from Nidhin:)

As for me, i was too passionate about about photography from my childhood. My dad was a photographer, which really made me close to film cameras and lenses. After he quit this career my interest got lost too. But as the time came, the interest gradually came back to me. Now i am very much interested in this field as many are inspiring me to get creative. Some people thinks that owning a DSLR makes them a good photographer. As many are buying these DSLR and publishing photos as they like, the genuine essence of photography is lost at times. Please don't spoil the class of this great media.. Do creative and innovative works, and make photography as a language to communicate in the coming years! 

Palakkad..Photo by my friend Manu Manohar!

Night is always young at Kovalam..Ananthu Photography:)

"When you photograph people in colour you photograph their clothes.  But when you photograph people in B&W, you photograph their souls" ~ Ted Grant

(PS: This is my view on photography and the photographers of Kerala. There are many more talented photographers in Kerala and other parts of India. I wrote this with best of my knowledge. And i do remember and respect the senior photographers even though i haven't mentioned much about them. Do feel free to comment what you think of this writeup. Thanks:)) 

Celebrating an Year of Joy!!!

October 21 will always remain as a very special day as it brought the winds of change to my life. I almost gave up writing after 12th standard, or the apt usage will be 'the engineering subjects taught me to hate writing'. But our life changes in a matter of seconds and my case was not different. When i got in for short story writing competition for Nimantra' 09, i never thought i would be able to write at least a line about the subject. But coincidentally i got the first prize for that. Still i wonder how i got that, maybe due to the blessings of the great Padmarajan Sir..I used the names of many famous characters created by this genius:)..It was really a confidence booster for me. But it really needs an encouragement to move forward, that was given by my friend/editor Lakshmi P Gopal.

Seeing one of my friends blog, i started blogging too. Started just for fun, but later it became really serious. I got great responses from my friends and many others and that encouraged me to keep on writing. The response got quite good when i started writing stories, which included the incidents from my life too. All my blogs are special to me but a few remains very close to my heart..Thoovanathumbikal, January's loss, Cloud 10 and Days in Heaven (especially the last part)! Writing was a passion for me, but now it seems like it will turn out be my profession..hope everything will work out:)..It gives a great pleasure when you find comfort and happiness in what you do, and i think engineering is not my cup of tea (this is a point that everyone should think of..please do what you heart desires and not what others say!). I love to thank many in this note like Lakshmi, Divya, Shamin, Karnnan, Sid, Monu, Deepal, Anoop, Vishnu, Megha, Shabnam, Karthika, Ganga, Aparna, Gouri etc and all my dear friends and readers for their encouragement and never ending support:)..Hope to entertain you in future with more and more blogs..Thanks to almighty!!!