JYOTISH DUTTA

  How I wish sometimes that the companies would customize their incentive program for their employees too. How about a 10 days, no phone call trip to Tso Moriri on achievement of quarterly targets? Wishful thinking I guess .  

"Look at the things around you, the immediate world around you. If you are alive, it will mean something to you, and if you care enough about photography, and if you know how to use it, you will want to photograph that meaningness. If you let other people's vision get between the world and your own, you will achieve that extremely common and worthless thing, a pictorial photograph." - Paul Strand - "The Art Motive in Photography"

    During a recent trip to the mountains with a group of photography enthusiasts, I realized something funny about the way in which we approach digital photography. It seems more and more importance is given to the 'Rules' of composition over one's instincts or intuition. Needless to say, on coming back, everyone from the trip ended up with similar images, displaying a lack of creativity. This trend isn't surprising as most of the online content on "Taking_better_pictures" swear by the Rules of composition. They tend to create the impression that without the 'Rules' photography doesn't exist. Photography contests and Digital Saloon exhibitions seem to prefer photographs that adhere to the laid out rules of composition, indifferent to the types of photography. Judges check if the photograph fall 'IN' or 'OUT' of the set rules. I have also been to some workshops, both basic and advanced, where the mentors try...