Itanagar Monsoon

I loved Monsoon. Warm blanket, hot tea/ coffee and a good read used to beckon me but not anymore. I dread monsoon now because it brings all sorts of maladies. My dogs get sick and there are other inconveniences such as traffic, landslides, road blockage, water clogging, crawly insects in the bathroom (I can't kill them and my time is spent throwing them out), etc .
With the shower, things become calmer because suddenly everyone stops running. While I can take a break from my mundane life and smell the fresh air, the thundering and storm keeps me on my toes, esp. at night. My biggest concern are my furry babies. They loose their appetite and various illness befalls them during the monsoon. Very recently Bhola had diarrhea (I was so scared that it is Parvo Virus) but she is alright now after medication, Thank God!

As I am getting older, I am becoming more like my mother. During my childhood, when it stormed and thundered, my mother used to wake us up even in the middle of the night and change us into day wear and warmer clothes just in case we had to run outside. She used to stay guard till the morning....

I am not married and have no children, so I worry for my dogs who are my babies.

Monochrome conveys the dreaded feeling I have during the Monsoon.

My photos may looks repetitive and confined to certain landscape because I am house bound due to personal reasons for sometime now and click around the house (which is my habit and hobby anyways).

Towards the end, the photos are more cheerful...

Camera used: Olympus E-Pl2
Lens used for the landscape and the photos of the chairs: Nikon 105mm f/2.5
Lens used on the Child (Hukpi) : Nikon 50mm f/1.2

 

Fun with friends: Portfolio shoots

Got together with Dinu and Jaya for portfolio shoot for fun and practise. Dinu's younger sister Daisy joined us. We are all bunch of novices; neither am I professionally trained nor are my friends models. Poses may look old fashioned and cliche but we did have some good time shooting around the house (Dinu's) even though it is on the same spot!

I took the responsibility to style them and do their make up.

People close to me me understands that I am struggling with people/ street/ fashion Photography since I am quite shy and it takes a great deal of energy to work with other human beings. I've been working on my attitude to be a better Photographer. 

I shot the photos with my trusted Olympus E-PL2. It is already showing signs of overuse in it's plastic body.

Jaya

Daisy Baby

Dinu and Daisy

 

 

Below are older photos taken long time back with canon 40D. Dinu is my frequent model because she likes her pictures taken.

 Fabulous Aku

 

Blast from the past!

Recently my mother brought few old negatives with her when she came from our native village and I decided to digitalize them using this way ( I shared earlier): https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEg-r9xVcK7FnzgI_xBWnniWB7iwVUVPxCg5Kbx7O9Bp221xEHczUGqEx2Dqsv0uOrRHrT5QJ9VKAVDUBnAtwyuJxZ-5wrEe4NqxGKQjrDEdNOTFR1VkP0dvGwJYaRvyrrwMFgIZA0KcSNI/s1600/Photo0005.jpg

This time, I switched off the room lights and shot the negatives during night in darkness apart from the lit laptop screen. Someone in flickr suggested that I used a black box for the purpose but since I didn't have one and didn't feel like making a DIY box, I simply switched off the lights!

The negatives are totally covered with fungus marks and has lots of scratches so I didn't know how the results will be. After I converted them into positives in Adobe Photoshop CS6, I was very excited looking at the results. 

The photos my mom have had of those negatives were tiny 2X2 inch squares and the details could be hardly seen but after I digitalized them, I could see them more clearly in a better light even after the poor condition of the negatives. I tried restoring them but but left the most to the age since it gives a unique feel to it.

I am product of the mid 80s but my childhood photos looks like they are from 1960s since the place I belong to was quite remote and late in catching up with new technologies. It is not true as of today since we are now well connected and whatever gets' launched in the world market, we can get it shortly after but it was not the case around the time I was born and before that. Some of my friends and seniors have their baby photos in colour but because my parents were technologically challenged (still are), my toddler photos were taken with Agfa Click III plastic camera which my father had since he was in college! He took all his college and then the family photos with Agfa Click III with B&W film roll till 90s! Once I resented for not seeing my toddler photos in colour but I like the B&W and sepia now. 

Working on the photos for last 2 nights, I’ve been feeling very nostalgic and also it has been raining since….

Apart from my parent's studio portrait, all the photos were taken with Agfa Click III with some unknown B&W negatives.

Here are few of the samples. I will get more negatives from my native house and scan them later. 

 My parents: newly wed (17 years and 24 years old)

 My parents with their first born. My father was the Circle Officer in Pasighat then.

 Me and my older sister. Out caretaker- Kali was a Nepali and a Hindu so she used to put those black dots on our forehead. The black dot (bindi in Hindi) is used to ward off evil intentions and protect children from illness.

 In Pakekesang: one of the most remote places of Arunachal Pradesh even today. The time this photo was taken, there was no road connection and people had to walk on foot from one place to another. This photo was taken during Independence day (as told by my parents). The field behind is a helicopter field where food supplies used to be air dropped by the Indian Army. I still have vivid memory of the place. My caretaker- Kali used to bring my sister and me here. There used to be these tall fox grasses in this field where I used to play. There was brook nearby and a small bamboo bridge.... I have somewhat clear memories of few incidences even from my toddler time and especially this place...feels like a dream now...

 My parents above with their first born. My mother's younger sister is holding my oldest brother and a young caretaker (it is common in these part to have teenagers working as caretakers because of poverty and most of them are from Orissa, Assam and Nepal).

 My parents with my older two brothers

 In Pakekesang during Independence day.

Tomy- furry companion, Oldest brother, Kali- the caretaker, older sister and second older brother.