Kishor Krishnamoorthi’s WebsiteKishor a.k.a Mjuboy’s Blog

I’ve removed the ‘Wishlist’ page since I decided that it was not required any more. I’ve grown up now (or at least I think so), and material wants are hardly at the top of my wishlist. A realistic wishlist would probably involve an African Photo Safari or spending quality time with family and friends. Its interesting to see how growing up and maturing changes so much of a person, for the better of course.

In place of the ‘Wishlist’ page, I have introduced a new page ‘Projects‘, which is a list of projects, both photographic and otherwise that I have completed or currently doing. It is essentially a place for people to keep updated with what I’m pursuing, what I’ve already done and a reminder for myself to continue with current projects.

Furthermore, I managed to break my Canon 50mm f/1.8, which is well known for its fragile nature but after some keen observation, I managed to snap it back together and its working fine now! The debate between digital and film has been continuing at the back of my head for all eternity and I still stand without an answer. I’ve decided that due to the cost and hassle of scanning film, I’ll leave the film to use solely on any projects I undertake and continue to use digital for my daily needs. I have a large collection of films that are waiting to be scanned and that collection seems to be increasing as I shoot more and more film. This has also inevitable led to gadget lust, namely the 5D MkII & 24-105mm lens which is absolutely fantastic to use and has stunning image quality.

Exams have begun and I had my first exam earlier this week, Econometrics, and it went on surprisingly well, much to my pleasure. The next on is on Thursday. I finish by June 4th and I am eagerly waiting to finish my undergraduate degree.

I’ve been reading a plethora of books, still continuing to read ‘Cosmos‘ as well as ‘This Matter of Culture‘ and ‘The English‘ simultaneously. All of them provide for an enjoyable read and a mixed experience as I jump from reading about the origins of the Universe to why the English hate the French.

The weather has improved considerably and is now sunny and warm, reaching temperatures of 20C. I’ve been spending time with my housemates sitting out in the backgarden revising and enjoying the warmth, while reminiscing about the past 3 years at University.

And I have finally received my passport! This obviously means I’ll be going home to Hyderabad in June, I cannot wait!

Currently Listening to – Me and You and a dog named Boo – Lobo

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…but all you know is just a drop in the ocean.

Contrary to public assumption, I did not come up with the above while revising for my exams but rather when I attempted to read this. Having just got delivery of 5 rolls of 35mm Kodak Ektar, I was quite excited about the prospect of shooting good films again. I decided to read up on it in order to maximise the utility of the film, as they did cost a bit of money and as we all know, money is hard to come by these days. My hunt for optimising Ektar brought me to the page above and as I kept scrolling through, the page kept going on and I realized that there was practically an endless amount of knowledge on the relatively small topic of film photography.

After a quick stroll in the fields near my house with some of the newly bought Ektar 100, a 28mm lens and my beloved Canon AE-1P, I rediscovered my love for film photography and the all the thrills that it brings. It makes all the problems in life disappear, it wondrously removes all the worries from life, and presents a serene, calm and peaceful vision of the world. It is so magical that I think I may give up eating just to afford more film.

Next stop is to get my hands on some Medium Format Velvia 50, the legendary landscape slide film that I am yet to try and some Tri-X, arguably my favourite Black and White film to date although I have to say that Neopan 1600 is very beautiful in low light. However, there are still so many more films for me to try and experience, and I imagine my opinion will change over time. I can hardly call myself an expert in film photography, having probably shot around 50 rolls or so. But I think I can still call myself a film connoisseur.

Film forever.

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Earlier today, a good friend of mine told me “Kishor, you know what your problem is? You are too determined and have too much ambition.” Last week, my housemate told me “Kishor, if you ever got asked in an interview what your one bad habit is, I think you should say that you are too helpful.” A couple of weeks ago, I kept thinking to myself, I’m too much of a laid back Hyderabadi, I need to do more work.

What am I? Who am I? What do I want? I do not know. Days carry on like a mad rollercoaster and I just hang on for dear life. Sometimes life seems pointless, and at other times, I never want it to end. Spend too much time thinking about it and you end up falling into its trap. Dont think, do. Dont ponder, act. Dont deliberate, react. Such is life.

The minimal faith I have in democracy has let me down once again with the recent news of a hung parliament in England and after our ‘Union Conference’ today, touted to be the biggest democratic gathering of students, was attended by 46 people. It is tragic that the common man is bothered with nothing except what goes on inside the 4 wall of his house. While this make him a very easy person to deal with, it also makes him a passive member of society, not actively contributing. But hey, I dont blame him! Its hard enough to keep up with our own life, let alone others!

With the exams only a couple of weeks away and our Big British Fete only a week away, there is no lack of things to do but somehow I seem to lack the drive to revise. The motivation has gone for lunch, and hopefully it’ll be back soon. On the other hand, I’m always itching to take up a new photo project. I’m working on ‘Project Untitled’ with a friend, pondering a new portraiture project and considering another project about England.

After going through this set of photos of the Vietnam War, I have once again been inspired to become a photo journalist. Those photos definitely touched a soft spot and have sparked up my love for capturing human emotions on film. Travel the world to conflict areas, risk your life for that perfect shot, witness conditions that you would normally never set foot in, smuggle out film by whatever means possible, it would be worth it all to change the lives of millions with one heart touching photograph. And even if you never manage to get that photograph that would the world will know, you’ve still had a bloody good time doing what you love. And you can even tell your grandchildren stories of all the crazy scenes you experienced.

But enough of the ramblings, as Shaggy sang, life is one big party when you’re still young…..

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The Canon 5D Mark II.

A camera that completely changed the digital SLR game.

When I first wrote about it around a year and half ago, I would’ve given up everything I owned for it. Today, I would still do the same. However, Canon decided that they would lend me the camera without me having to give up my possessions.

After my Round Table Meeting with Canon in December, I was lent the Canon 5D Mark II for 3 whole weeks, most of which would be spent at home in India. I got the camera literally 12 hours before my plane left and the moment I held it in my hands, I fell in love with it.

Every photograph looked stunning, every video looked brilliant, I could sing praises about it for hours at end. One thing is for certain, this is not going to be a technical review of the camera. If you want a technical review, head over to DPReview’s 40 page review. This is going to be a summary of a personal experience with the camera, a brief narrative of what I loved about the camera, what I didnt like and how it fit into my life.

The camera didnt handle particularly different from my 40D except for the fact that it was considerably heavier. The button layout felt very similar as did the menu. The viewfinder was absolutely fantastic, the joy of full frame is really something else. The high-res screen was a much needed upgrade and was gorgeous to look at, although it was a battery drainer. The High ISO capability was outstanding, and being able to take photos lit with nothing but a LED from a crappy phone and make it look like strobes was definitely fun. We shot plenty of videos at dusk, making full use of the sensor and the bokeh with a 50mm f/1.8.

One of my minor complaints with the camera was the autofocusing which didnt seem to have much improvement over my 40D. It proved quite annoying when trying to autofocus in the dark since ultimately it wasnt the ISO that prevented me from taking a photo but rather the focusing. Hopefully Canon are working to sort this out soon, and I’ve heard the 7D has a better autofocus system.

It wasnt only I who fell in love with the camera, it was pretty much everyone who laid their eyes on it. A couple of my friends in India were considering not letting me leave for England so that we wouldn’t have to return the camera. We made the most of it in the 3 weeks I had it and secretly hoped that Canon would let me keep it forever.

During my last day with the camera, I made a small project titled ‘A Day in my Life’ wherein I took photos of my daily activities right from the time I woke up till I went to bed over the course of 16 hours. It was great fun, especially while trying to find an artistic angle for things that would normally be deemed as boring and then attempting to use the tripod and setting the camera to the perfect position. You can see all the 30 photos here.

I got quite attached to the camera and was gutted when I had to return it. I’m back to my loyal 40D now but n eedless to say, the Canon 5D Mark II will definitely be my next investment.

Update – Canon Camera Buzz has been kind of enough to link to my project, check out their post here!

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The Line Up

My relationship with Canon can be likened to that of a lion and his cubs. Hatred one moment and pure love the next second.

Some may recall few of my earlier posts directed at Canon, asking them to get their game into order and appreciating their efforts. If you havent guessed already, this one falls into the latter category.

Earlier this month, I received an email from 1000Heads, a company who I’ve worked with before on BBC Blast, asking me if I’d like to attend a round table discussion with Canon. Being the massive Canon fanboy that I am, it would taken a pack of hunting wolves to make me say no. After confirming my attendance, I got more details about the event and it was finally D-Day yesterday.

After getting to the 1000Heads office in London, I was introduced to the other photographers who had been invited to this session and the Canon Rep, Mark Burnhill. There were 7 photographers in all and as I’ve got used to now, I was the youngest one there. We kicked off on time with the Canon Rep explaining why we were here and we’re going to do during the next couple of hours.

After some brief ‘rambling’ about Canon, he started off by introducing the Canon dSLR line up from the beginner 1000D, working his way up to the flagship 1Ds Mk-III. He had a few lines to say about each camera and patiently answered all of our questions. I’ll mention some of the highlights below.

The Canon 1000D was designed as a beginner/starter camera for students who cannot afford a fully fledged dSLR but would still a reasonable number of features. It does the job perfectly, and is very compact and even used by some professionals as a casual backup camera.

The Canon 450D was initially planned to be phased out with the introduction of the Canon 500D but due to high demand and popularity, they decided to keep it in their line up. It is still very popular and considered as a benchmark camera for the low end of dSLRs.

The Canon 500D received a bit of negative feedback on launch due to its high price but it has gained some support with its high-res screen and video mode.

The Canon 50D is supposed to have much better weather resistance than originally advertised due to different standards of weather testing between Japan and Europe. In my hand, it felt very similar to my own 40D, albeit with a better screen.

The Canon 7D is an absolute beaut of a camera to use. Mark told us that it was one of the few Canon dSLRs to be redesigned from ground up with constant feedback throughout the design process. As the slogan says ‘Designed by you, made by Canon’, and after having used it, I must say it is very true. The handling is very different from the 50D and it fits my hand perfectly. Button placement is great, the screen is gorgeous, the viewfinder is much bigger, full weather sealing and the autofocus system has been completely reworked much to my pleasure. I can sing praises about the 7D all day long but we have to move along. (PS – Christmas present for me, anyone?)

The Canon 5D Mk II, much to noone’s surprise is a magnificent gadget. I think I still like the 7D more than it simply due to the fact that it fits better into my hands but the 5D Mk II does win when compared technically with its full frame sensor vs. the 7D’s 1.6x crop sensor. Every shot I took with the 5D Mk II looked perfect straight out of camera, without any post processing. We were also informed that a new firmware would be out soon to enable 24/25 & 30fps recording at 1080p & a few other surprises. However, 720p would still be missing.

The next camera was the pièce de résistance, the Canon 1D Mk IV. Built like a tank, it weighed like one as well and was a beast to use. The 102,400 ISO is ridiculously high and I cant say it has great quality but it definitely makes 6400 ISO virtually noiseless. Probably a bit too big for my hands, it was still a splendid camera to try out and the shutter click was very satisfying. We were told that sales would start this weekend.

The Canon 1Ds Mk III had quite possibly the most spectacular viewfinder I have ever used. Full frame was really something else and it also weighed a ton! The screen seemed relatively bland after having used all the other high-res screens but I suppose it still does its job. Mark remained tight lipped about its successor but I think we can expect one for mid next year.

Other information we discussed included the famed “Eye Control Focus” which was ditched after using it in very few cameras, and not because of the technology but rather because it violated some patents in America. I thought that was a shame because I really do like that feature in my EOS 5 and would have loved to see it move on dSLRs and be perfected. We talked in detail about the reason for pricing difference in the US and UK/Europe which we were told was due to translation costs for manuals and EU licensing and certification but I still doubt they make the same profit in both markets.

Mark briefly talked about how full frame edge-to-edge autofocusing is something that would a significant leap in innovation simply due to the technological constraints of today. He also mentioned that due to cultural differences between Japan and Europe, it takes a lot of time and effort to convey the requirements of the European customer to them. About new lenses, he said that there were plans to rehaul the full range of lenses over the course of the next few years since a majority of current line up was never designed to work with resolutions beyond 21Megapixels. However, due to technical limitations, they can only redesign a maximum of 8 lenses a year, given that no new lenses were being made.

He said that Canon had no immediate plans to venture into the Medium Format industry and would continue to innovate and excel in dSLRs.

The 2 hours had flown by faster than we thought and it was soon time to wrap up. We were taken to dinner afterwards to a fancy French restaurant, Chez Gerard where we got to know each other better. The food was delicious (I had the Salmon) but the portions were a bit small for my liking. Nevertheless, it was nice to meet other similar minded people, and we exchanged contact details before we departed at around 11pm after a great evening.

My sincere thanks to Nicola & Aaron at 1000Heads for organizing the evening, Mark Burnhill for personally interacting with his customers, Canon for being the best camera manufacturers in my books, and everyone who came along and made the evening pleasant and eventful!

See the full set of photos from the evening over here!

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In approximately an hour, I’ll be catching a train to Agra for a week’s trip to Agra, Jaipur and Jaisalmer. While the initial objective of this trip is to show my friend from England, Josh Wall, around the country, its a convenient excuse for me to fulfill my travel addiction.

As with my trip to Europe a few months ago, this will be an exclusive film trip with one SLR  camera, two lenses, fifteen rolls of film, and tons of shutter buggery. I’ve carefully laid out the trip itinerary after a decent bit of research, perhaps more research than I do for my usual essay. Hopefully, the effort should pay off and you will see a complete record of the trip on this space in a week!

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Its been nearly 2 years since I started my 365 Day Project. It was a life changing project for me, it improved my photography skills and the difference between the first and last photo of the project was vast.

And here comes the next version of the project, the 365 Day Portrait Project.

One portrait every day for a year. A different person everyday. Three Hundred and Sixty Five Portraits.

Like the previous project, this one too was spawned from boredom and a lack of things to do. I was initially reluctant to take up this project since managing to find a new person everyday is tougher than it sounds, I really hope I dont stop it halfway through and only time will tell whether this project is destined for success. I plan to kick the project off in Delhi, where I will be spending the next week with some friends. Admittedly, I wont find a lack of people for the initial few weeks but as time goes by, I may have to start photographing my driver, his brother, his brother’s wife, his brother’s wife’s father, so on and so forth. But I wont let that stop me and I will take on this project with full enthusiasm!

UPDATE – You can the find the photos from this project in this set which is updated daily!

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Roughly 6 months ago, I decided that I wanted to grow a beard like Jules Winnfield, played by Samuel L. Jackson in the legendary movie, Pulp Fiction. After about a month of not shaving and some careful and precise shaving earlier today, I can confidently say that the result has been achieved. I’ve posted a step by step visual guide of the transformation of the beard below. (Click on images for higher res)

The original beard before the shaving began.

Looking like Sabretooth after the first shaving session

Nearly there!

Done! =)

Side Angle

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Yes, I am reasonably drunken right now so please forgive any spelling/grammatical mistakes. Perhaps my first time doing drunken blogging as far as I can recall right now.

And the funny part is we all got drunk playing the Dr.Horrible Sing Along drinking game. It was immense fun and Koppaberg Mixed Fruit is quite divine. And it is the first time in the history of our house that all four of us got simultaneously drunk.

Coming to life, exams have been going on splendidly well, I’ve finished four of them successfully, and just one remains on Monday. The other extra curricular activities have decreased slightly but not ceased completely, I went Gliding last weekend and was allowed by the instructor to do everything from launch to landing, pretty much like a solo flight but with the instructor behind me to ensure that all was good. That was brilliant fun as always. Photos are up on Flickr.

Weather has improved to a nice, warm and sunny situation but with occasional showers now and then. The sun sets at around 9PM and rises by 5AM which gives us quite a lot of sunlight during the day.

I’ve been taking more digital photos recently, primarily due to lack of funds to process film but after going over some old film photos, I once again realized that digital can simply never substitute the beauty and glory of film. Scanning a negative is simply not the same as seeing a true optical print. Each film has its specialized and unique look, all different but still wonderful, while all digital cameras, from tiny compacts to gigantic SLRs pretty much share a similar outcome without a decent bit of processing.

Nevertheless, I shall leave the reader in peace now and try and sober up for a night of photo taking.

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I’ve been spending more and more time in the darkroom making prints and also more and more time in computer labs trying to get some academic work done. While both places are equally fun to be in, the darkroom since there is no greater thrill than seeing a perfect print form in the developer and the computer labs since I’m always there with atleast a couple of friends fooling around and having fun instead of doing work. However, we do know when its time to study and I’ve churned out about 1500 words in one day for an essay, and they are actually not that bad!

I’ve been slowly processing my rolls of film from my holiday around Barcelona, Nancy, Metz and Paris. I’ve got all the colour negs and slides done by labs and I’m doing the B&W ones by hand. While it is really nice to process and print your own film, it is also quite time consuming and with my final exams exactly a month away, I really do need to strike a balance between photography and studying.

And the phrase ‘practice makes perfect’ does come into action quite effectively in the darkroom, the more time you spend in there, the better and better you get, which means you want to spend more time in there, so on and so forth. Its the vicious circle of photography. But I must say that I have come a remarkable way in the art of making prints which is tougher than it sounds. My initial prints were, bluntly put, pretty shit. You can see the improvement quite dramatically between my first few prints and the latest ones I made last night. And while I know I’m still a long way from perfection, it is still satisfying to know that I’m getting better at it, and getting better with film photography as well.

And speaking of which, I havent been able to share any of film photography works with my online buddies since I didnt have a scanner. But not to fear, I got the delivery of my new scanner today, a CanoScan 8800F capable of scanning slides, negs, medium format, pretty much anything you throw at it at a resolution of upto 6400 by 9600dpi. I havent had much time to play around with it yet but here are some initial scans from it to whet your appetite, more definitely coming soon!

And even though I have been embracing film photography so much, the world apparently still likes my digital photos, two of which were selected for an exhibition in London next weekend. The exhibition ‘Dont Shoot the Photographer!’ is being held by BedroomGenius.com on the 25th and 26th of April at Keylight Studios, 330a, Kennington Lane, Vauxhall, London, SE11 5HY. The theme is ‘Life in Motion’ and I believe entry is only £5 so if you are in the vicinity during those days, please do go and take a look at them. It is my first exhibition ever and I’m really pleased about it!

In the world of digital photography, the same competition between the big two, i.e Canon and Nikon has been continuing. Canon has recently released the Canon 500D, just about a year after its previous model, the 400D. While I see that there are some significant changes, including full HD recording, I dont think there is a need to release a new dSLR every half year (the Canon 1000D, a lower level model was relelased about 8 months ago). And its not just Canon doing this, Nikon has announced a new dSLR as well, the Nikon D5000, which apart from having a new naming system, sits below the D90 but still most of its features like 720p video recording. The new and innovative part of it is the tilt-swivel screen which is a first for dSLRs. While this move will definitely ensure that tilt-swivel screens will eventually become a standard for mid-range dSLRs, I still feel that all this heated competition is affecting the average consumer in the end who simply ends up wanting the latest camera just because its new and doesnt really see that he or she doesnt need it.

I also realise innovation is important but maybe it would be more advantageous to accumulate a decent number of new features and release them in one camera every, say two or three years, instead of having small updates every six months. I know of several people, who dont really take great photos, but keep looking for the latest camera all the time, finding out exchange deals for their old one, and in the end, spend all their time on this and forget the main purpose of having bought the camera – to take photos. Taking a couple of thousand on each camera before getting a new one hardly justifies its use. This is obviously what the companies want, to make as much money as possible, but at the cost of having only 25% of your consumers actually learn photography?

Anyways, while everyone continues to bicker, I can go back to my film world, where my 30 year old £50 German camera can outperform all of the dSLRs of today……

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