Say Yes

For almost a year now, I have listened to Sharma sir expound on the wonders of lighting and lenses, cameras and composition. Though theory is taught in English, most of his anecdotes, which I long to understand, go over my head as he uses Hindi to reach his students (except me, of course). What amazes me is how much I have picked up not from understanding his vignettes delivered with his signature crooked smile, but rather by being in the mere presence of all the avid and eager photographers and learned and accommodating teachers. I have long debated with myself about remaining matriculated at Treveni but today, I have ascertained the validity of my decision to remain.

Photography as a hobby has already rewarded me immensely. Celso in Davao has asked me for prints to display proudly in his office. He has also asked me to put together a collection of prints to frame and hang in his sweet shop at the Fort in Makati. He suggested we put them up for sale and donate the proceeds to a charity of our choice. Cherry in Manila has requested a series of black and whites to adorn the walls of her soon to be completed black and white themed house. I have received numerous positive comments about the relatively minuscule pictures I have posted here and requests to post larger versions of my work. All this I receive humbly, with gladness in my heart that my fledgling efforts have not gone unnoticed.

But all patience and hard work eventually come to fruition. Last weekend, Sidharthe (of the Close Encounters of the Third Kind blog fame) needed professional photographs taken of his Silverline jewelry and thought that I would do the job. With a new showroom having branched off the more established and iconic store of his father, Sidharthe J. spearheads innovative efforts at putting Silverline out there for everyone to notice. Young, energetic, and sometimes even irreverent, he is the fresh force driving the new store to success. A firm believer in exposure and advertising, he and Silverline, Khan Market has been the subject of several interviews and features in newspapers and magazines.

I am touched by his belief in me as a photographer. Sidharthe J.and I are "gemology junkies" but this has brought a new dimension to our friendship. I do not for one moment suggest that he has the critical and practiced eye to discern a well composed, well lit, and well focused photograph. Not at all. I see him as a young man who allows his intuitive senses and gut feelings to guide him in his forays. Seeing as he sits on the bosses chair at his store, seeing that people gather and crowd in his showroom, my guess is that he has indeed been blessed with the magic to mix his education and good sense with the intangible of his intuition. I prayed I would not disappoint him.

Jointly we chose pieces to be photographed. I wracked my brain for a way to make the bracelets sit, the earrings stand, and the bangles hang. I was not going to do this alone. I invited Siddarth D. (of the Red Earth blog fame) to be my partner in this project. We set our shoot for Monday, a mere two days before Sidharthe's (J) Wednesday deadline. Talk of pressure! Not knowing that this project would come my way, I had also invited three ladies to lunch on Monday and promised to cook them a simple meal before our afternoon shopping trip. Multi-tasker to the max, I figured I could make lunch, entertain three ladies and my pal Etienne, shoot with Siddarth, and after that, head to Basant Lok for our afternoon outing. Whew! I was tired already.

I worried about the shoot all of Sunday. At the end of the day, upon Siddharth's (D) suggestion, I went to a stationery store to buy poster cards for backgrounds. Black, blue, Indian red, textured and smooth, I bought all I could lay my hands on still not knowing exactly how I would pull this off. Adjacent to the stationery store was a rice and grain store. I saw gunny sacks of various pulses: red kidneys, green mung, black dal, yellow and orange lentils, unhusked rice. What a perfectly organic background to Silverline jewelry! I purchased a kilo of every color of every pulse I saw. I suspect the young boy attending to me wondered what in the world I was going to cook with all these different beans but I didn't care, I was ecstatic with my idea!

Siddharth (D) arrived at my house with his strobe, diffuser, reflector and camera. I was ready with my pulses, Silverline jewelry and of course my magnificent D300 and an array of lenses. Siddharth set up the main light. We struggled with the poster backgrounds, tried bust forms for the necklaces, acrylic hangers for the earrings. Everything looked stilted and stiff. This simply would not do. I poured the unhusked rice in a crystal bowl and sat the Hyderabadi polke bangle and dangling earrings on the mound of rice. Perfection! We experimented with a few shots honing in on the exact exposure needed. Once we got the proper exposure, we varied our perspective to capture the jewelry's allure. It was a tedious process of trial and error, moving the camera up or down, using the 50mm vs the wide angle lens, pointing the reflector to the left or to the right, using its gold or silver side. We complimented a Lapiz Lazuli pendant with red kidney beans, textured gold and diamond earrings with black pulses. We walked back and forth to the computer to view our work. What joy to see our creations! We coordinated pulse colors with jewelry, lenses with the pieces to be photographed. At the end of the day, our energies were depleted but our spirits were high!

I returned home today after having shown Sidharthe (J) our photographs. He loved them! Happily, Siddarth and I congratulated ourselves on a job well done.

Here is what I have learned. Sometimes, we don't know what we are capable of. Other people see it in us but we fail to see it ourselves. Sometimes we just have to take that leap of faith to explore what is out there. Sometimes we succeed brilliantly and I am sure we will also fail miserably. Sometimes, all we need to do is to say "YES." To Sidharthe and Siddharth, my sincere thanks.