Some things only get better ! (aka BCB4)

BCB4 (Barcamp Bangalore 4) Day 2 was one of among those. Day 2 was more sessions, more interesting conversations, more pictures. Now that I had sorted out how to traverse through the labyrinth that is IIMB, I put my mind to taking a few pictures – shooting RAW this time. So with the new 50mm lens on the camera I was mercilessly shooting down entities (mostly people except for one stray black cat) emerging from Geekland .

I spent my time tap dancing between the Bloggers (extensively blogged by Mutiny.  It is a kinda ‘India meets India’ blog. Check it out. You wont regret) , Social Tech and Photo collective on Day 2. Among corridor conversations, very thought-provoking was the chat with Ravi on differences in level of expertise between American and Indian engineers, how social pressures impact accountability at work and  why the huge knowledge pool and brain power does not translate to industry expertise proportionately.Equally interesting was the discussion with Srinivas at CCD on living styles, social disparity and impact of software industry (&similar booming sectors) on society.Thej was all over the place with brand EventsBangalore :o)) Dhempe did some PR for BRTFF at BCB4. Also we are gonna have T-shirts sponzed by EventsBangalore for BRTFF Edition 2. Yay !  In a location change melee, I missed out on the PP and workflow sessions by Amogh :-(( Indeed a pity, given that I made the request for this session to start with :o)  The SMS was cool. Though sometimes one felt a bit swamped, it was very handy and cut down on commotion that cluster L area would have seen.

But nothing is perfect. There was a little bit of  ’collective chaos’ during the Barcamp and quite a few passive people :( . I saw much less of the spirit of unconference than what I had originally expected to see. So, the event did offer a few lessons to be learnt, but that is to say that BCB5 could be so much better. Not that BCB4 was’nt good.  Given what an acclivitous job it was to put an event of this scale together and succeed at that, I got only word to the organizing team - BRAVO.

 Overall, two days of Awesomeness.All pictures from day1 & 2 are tagged bcb4 an are on my flickr.  Here you  go !

PS: Did I tell you that perfection is what the 50mm lens is. Oh yeah, I did :) The pictures are so sharp and to be able to open up to 1.8 is indeed a pleasure. The 50mm/1.8 is really a classic lens and for 5K it is *huge* VFM. Nikon must be selling this by the kilos !

- Sample picture from the lens -

Barcamp Bangalore 4 – Day 1

Saturday started late (Surprise indeed) :) Reached IIMB at only 13:00, though right on time for lunch with the Blogger’s collective. Followed by a corridor talk with Amogh, Thej, Hrish, Balaji, Cipson etc on photography. Amogh’s pictures and his MacBook are an inspiration :)

Just as we thought we had converted our discussion into the Photo collective, Jace called saying that the photo collective was starting very soon at Amphitheatre :)  After pick-the-place was done, we got rolling.. A very interesting discussion on shooting experiences and photog thoughts by Jace, Amogh, Srinivas, Vinayak, Hari and others. For more info on what transpired, talk to Thej - He has a full recording of the session :)

Came back with tons ideas to improve shooting techniques. I wonder why I never thought of them earlier.

1/ Start shooting raw. 2/ Post-process with Nikon Capture (Thanks to Srinivas) 3/ Check out Bangalore weekend shoots. Vinayak says they are a very active group.

Overall, I’m super glad I went. Looking forward to the post-processing workflow demo by Amogh tomomrrow.

Not too many pictures from today – can’t hope to walk away with tons of pictures if I landup at 1pm, can I ? You can find the few I shot, here . Stop by again tomorrow !

The spirit of ‘Whatever it takes’

I barely started the new blogspace. So I dont intend to strew spite on it already.

I just read Anuradha Sengupta’s post on the Edwina-Nehru relationship. Judging someone does feel like wisdom, does’nt it – however baseless those judgements are.

Picture this: What if I track her an entire day -with she fully aware that I’m doing so- through her journalistic life, through her conversations with men, women, through her news ‘negotiations’. And what if come back and post my ‘les moments décisives’ right here. And let her write a post on THAT. She will. I can almost see it run - ’Telephoto lens, Timing and Chromatic Aberration’. Nothing about man, woman or love.  And no further requests for paparazzi pictures either !

But then, this is not about Anuradha Sengupta, is it ? To borrow Mark Tully, when will the folks at media stop passing untreated sewage to the public ? When did WE let the national news channels become kitty-party gossip ? And how can they sell out for a story and then come on national television and pretend as if there is any honour in that ? That I  cannot understand ! Oh, *that* must be the spirit of whatever it takes !

PS:

1/ I know I was very critical. I also know I am right about the media. 

2/ Also, a precious picture by HCB. I would give my right hand, both legs and some more to get a picture like that :)

Edit: 3/ I realized the pic I was talking about was two websites away. So posting it here.

A Phlogger’s guide to the Blogalorean meet

So, the Blogaloreans met once again this Saturday. The agenda was to get meet the Bangalore bloggers community and set the stage for the Blogger’s colective at BCB4 next weekend. Though we ended up doing much more.

For those of you who were’nt part of the brouhaha , here is a photo log. Thanks Sanjukta, Deepa for putting this together !

This is brewhaha

Himanshu @ 1600 (ISO that is)

Dhivya (&Harry Potter), Sanjukta, Ashwin (& the-one-whose-name-I-do-not-know :( )

Ashwin on WINGS

Sanjukta speaks

Listening to ‘Influential’ blogging by Arun

Writers, I reckon -Sanjay, the film-maker

Jayanth speaks

Things going OHT for Dhivya ? :)

A few others who have covered this event:

Adheeth, Neha , Jayanth , KPowerInfinity , Arun (Phlog) , Himanshu.  And these links will lead you to more links covering the event :)

THAT one more thing !

Trouble , as I understood later, can come in all shapes and forms. My trouble took the form of a dream, a dream filled with pieces of glasses. Just that, those glass pieces in my dreams were made by Nikon :)

So about a year ago, I bought a Nikon SLR and a 18-70mm zoom lens. At-least half-bought. Part of the dough came from my bro who works and lives in the US. That is what family is for I guess :)

The day my Nikon arrived, I shot a few pictures. I shot some more on the weekend that followed. I was very impressed with what I now possessed. Soon I started reviewing other people’s work on the net. Now I wanted to shoot things up-close. By this time, I knew what I had was not a do-all lens. So, what I wanted was a 105mm lens for portrait and macro work and a good tripod. And a flash, of course. I do have a Sigma 105mm now. But then the lenses I have are not exactly for available light shooting – A 50mm/1.8D will perfectly fit the bill. I do have very a strong feeling that if I had *that* one more lens, I’d start making amazing pictures. I just KNOW it. But, thankfully here I observe the pattern. Months from now, it would be that one more telephoto. It does’nt take a very smart person to realize. The That-One-More-Lens syndrome is incurable. 

Sometime ago, I chanced upon this essay on a website (interestingly the guy who quoted the essay was running a never-ending race with his career). I’m not much of an inspirational book reader; have never been religious or spiritual. But this one essay seemed to sum up my Lens Acquisition Syndrome very well.

Read on: The Station

PS: Neither the realization nor the essay did absolutely anything to stop me from deciding to buy the lens. Jayesh (Fotocircle) is busy this weekend with some exhibition – So , it will happen next weekend I guess. Or over the week, if I can’t wait :)

Blogalore: Meet the bloggers

For all those who are part of the Bloggers collective for the forth-coming BarCamp Bangalore 4 (28-29th July @ IIMB), there will be a pre-event collective meet this Saturday (21st July).  For more details, head to the wiki here.  You’ll find the agenda-in-progress on the wiki. Feel free to add to the agenda. 

Date: 21st July

Venue: BrewHaHa, Near JyotiNivas College, Koramangala.

You can find more info on BCB4 on my earlier post here.

Che and Rudyard Kipling

Re-reading a book on Che. Revolution after revolution, struggle after struggle – And all of this year after year. How much can one man do ! I can’t help but wonder how Cuba & LatAm would have been like today, had he been alive.

——————

Read below a poem (by Rudyard Kipling) for truly all times and moods. The first time I read it was when I was in school, and again when I was at college, and then again when I went to work. I have read it many times since. It really doesnt matter whether it a great verse or a poem. What matters is that it makes a difference..

IF you can keep your head when all about you
Are losing theirs and blaming it on you,
If you can trust yourself when all men doubt you,
But make allowance for their doubting too;
If you can wait and not be tired by waiting,
Or being lied about, don’t deal in lies,
Or being hated, don’t give way to hating,
And yet don’t look too good, nor talk too wise;

If you can dream – and not make dreams your master;
If you can think – and not make thoughts your aim;
If you can meet with Triumph and Disaster
And treat those two impostors just the same;
If you can bear to hear the truth you’ve spoken
Twisted by knaves to make a trap for fools,
Or watch the things you gave your life to, broken,
And stoop and build ‘em up with worn-out tools;

If you can make one heap of all your winnings
And risk it on one turn of pitch-and-toss,
And lose, and start again at your beginnings
And never breathe a word about your loss;
If you can force your heart and nerve and sinew
To serve your turn long after they are gone,
And so hold on when there is nothing in you
Except the Will which says to them: ‘Hold on!’

If you can talk with crowds and keep your virtue,
‘ Or walk with Kings – nor lose the common touch,
if neither foes nor loving friends can hurt you,
If all men count with you, but none too much;
If you can fill the unforgiving minute
With sixty seconds’ worth of distance run,
Yours is the Earth and everything that’s in it,
And – which is more – you’ll be a Man, my son!

BarCamp Bangalore 4 (BCB4)

Geeks of all interests , unite ! You have nothing to lose but a lazy weekend !

The Bangalore BarCamp edition 4.0 is well on it’s way. And this time it is organized as collectives.  Head out to the BCB4 site & read more on how it is organized. There are tons of collectives, plus a few all night sessions. You can find the list of collectives here . 

I’m on the start-up, photo & bloggers collective. Collective chaos , you said :) ? Yes, it is gonna be a bit of multi-tasking I guess.

If you dont know what a BarCamp is, head out here to know more. And once you are done, you should look up the list of collectives you are interested in and register on the wiki. :)

The bcb4 logo selection process is in progress. Go ahead and vote for your favorite logo for the event here.

Traffic Signal

Was trying a friend’s camera on the bus on the way back from work today. This was at the Marathahalli signal.  Not a perfect photo technically,but I liked the story that the scene tells. Talk about contrast in Indian society! :(

 ’Duh ouch’ all over from the gym! :-(

Operation Flood

Here is an ad that I used to LOVE as a kid and still do to this date.. I must have seen this about a million times and just can’t get enough.  Happened to find this on youtube sometime ago. (Scroll below for video if you dont want to read my la-di-da) 

Considering that it was made atleast a decade and half ago and that it was a ‘government-funded’ ad campaign, it is of remarkable quality. Forget it, even without these considerations , it is remarkable ! It really wants me to go and grab a glass of milk !

Trivia: India was dependent on imports for the milk until 1975 & used to import milk powder. All it had was a milk distribution system. Until Operation Flood came along. Operation Flood was the largest diary developement programme in the world.  It made our country self-sufficient in milk & milk products. The biggest win ,of course, was that this was achieved via the co-operative model (Corporates of the world, wake up !) Too bad the model was’nt effectively employed in other sectors.

If you want to know a fact or two about Operation Flood, NDDB , Amul , Anand or Verghese Kurien - there is a book called ‘I too had a dream‘ written by him. The book ,though, is unfortunately a little dissapointing. It is merely an account of how a man made it good in public sector India. There is half a page about the cooperative structure in the entire book :-(  Anyway, bless the man for what he DID.

The ad 

Now that I wrote so much about it, may be it is time to find a copy of ‘Manthan’ and watch it ? :) Anyone having a copy please be kind and leave a note.. Thanks.

Doodh doodh doodh.. Man, that tune is really catchy..