ExpertDabbler

This is to my friends in US,

I understand that you are coming from US on a month visit and will have lotsa things to do. But unless you have a clear intention of meeting me, it doesn’t matter which flight you land, which one will take you to your home town and when you are taking the return flight, etc. I’m not in air ticketing business. Thanks, but no thanks.

Would it make sense to you, if I mail you about the route I’m taking for my office commute everyday?

Typically, you would send your mobile number in a group mail, stating that you will be available and we can talk, meet blah blah. And stupid me would be expecting to meet you and making plans to take you somewhere when we meet.
As the reality pans out, I have to call a couple of times just to speak over phone, and then you just go back to US without even returning a courtesy call sometimes.

I know, all of a sudden some onnu vitta sithappa will call you for lunch, dinner, kaapi, or a just a session of oor vambu making your plans go awry. But if you are really serious about meeting your buddies, do take the trouble to inform about your change in plans midway.

If you think I am not worth all the trouble, do not bother me with your press release itineraries. We all know how busy you are, even without itineraries. Again, thanks but no thanks

One notable exception was Venkittu sir - He did not bother me with his itineraries but made it a point to stay in touch and meet during his visit.

Time and again a few of my friends ask me about the camera to buy. My advice has always been simple, buy an SLR, which in these days implies, buy a DSLR. It’s by no means a fair or objective opinion. It’s just that I dont consider anything else as cameras. Just like those who’ve got on a bullet will never see anything else as a bike.

Ok, they agree on a DSLR. The next question would obviously be which is the best brand? I’ve suggested only 2 - Canon or Nikon, because I’ve used only either of them for long and both are good. Asking which is better is like asking to choose between Anna or Sherapova. Both are good in their own ways

At least in the good old 70s and 80s, amateurs used to love Canon and professionals always relied on their Nikons.

So either a Canon or Nikon body. How about the lens? Here I have to add one thing. People have this fascination for zoom lenses. Probably since it sticks out like a gun, people think it’s kind of sexy and cool. From my observation, those with the zoom lenses on their cameras receive a few more gasps and envious glances than those without. The camera manufacturers sensed this and decided to make these zooms as part of their standard kit.

Ironically, nobody asked me till date if zooms are better than the normal 50 mm lens. Its an irony because, for once I have a clear cut, objective and categorical opinion on this.

If you are new to photography and want to learn photography like msyelf , never go near a zoom.

My reasons for not advocating a zoom are as follows

- when you decide to buy a zoom, invariably you will look at the cost and will naturally opt for the one which comes either as part of the body or gives more mm range per dollar. Both are dumb ideas. Lets face it, there is no such thing as a free lunch, and unless you go for an exhorbitantly priced one, you are as likely to get a good quality zoom as you would a rajini movie with logic.

- Zooms lenses are ’slow’. When i say slow, it means their maximum apertures will always be in the region of 1:4.5 - pathetic for low light photography. 50 mm lenses on the other hand go upto 1:1.4. No, the high ISOs in DSLRs doesn’t help much. Pictures turn out grainy.

- Nothing teaches you the basics of composition like a 50 mm lens. No ‘jooming’ business. If you don’t like the frame, you have to move further or closer, period. Its the way it should be, atleast when people like me are still learning.

- 50mm lenses are built to a much better quality specification.

Personally, i’ve used my zooms for some time and am totally frustrated with the quality fo the output. Shots which look beautiful in the viewfinder turn out to be damp squibs. The tragedy is, you would not even realise it’s damp squib till you compare a shot taken on a 50mm. Till date, some of my better pics were those taken in 50mm lens. It’s another matter that those have not seen this blog or my flickr album. Some are lost for ever.

Enough is enough. I’m going back to the good old days of 50mm lenses.
I’ve asked my friend to get me an F/1.8 50mm AF Nikkor when he comes here in Aug. It costs about 110 USD and I know it’s value for money.

Let those who want to look cool and who are happy to take ‘Smile please’ vacation pics take their mediocre zooms. To hell with joom lens.

Yes, a novel written by Michael Crichton sometime back. But I chose to read that only a few days back.

A flight from Hong Kong to Denver gets into trouble mid-air. The ensuing dives and climbs are so severe that it leaves 3 dead and 56 injured before the flight makes an emergency landing in LA. The quest to find out what actually went wrong during the flight forms the rest of the story.

In the meanwhile, one also gets to know that airframe builders are different from aircraft engine manufacturers, At least I did not know those till now. This, in effect means Airbus or Boeing will have engine from GE or Rolls Royce depending on the requirements of the customer, say KingFisher. I couldn’t help but wonder what Air Deccan would’ve preferred as their engine :D. We also get to understand something called ‘slats deploy’ and that black boxes work properly only in one out of six planes.

Throw in some additional constraints like the protagonist is a woman in late thirties, impending business disaster, corporate politics, and media madness and the reader is hooked till the last page.

Now, this is what I call a entertainer stuff.

How I wish some movie folks take a leaf out of or at least lift Crichton’s novels like these to come up with a half decent script. Sigh!

Dear Readers, I had a very interesting experience today.  This evening I went to this movie theatre called Brindha in Perambur. They were screening something and called it a movie.

It has an actor who looked undeniably awesome in that mottai getup near the end and in a sequence near a tea shop near the income tax office, it has a music director who had given his heart and soul for this work, an art director who had erected huge sets that look as grand as it could be, it has scores of special effects crew who knew what they were doing, and a cameraman who was brilliant.

However, the producer, who had shelled out a small matter of 60 crores and who expects to make a lot more, had decided not to employ a director and story writer of substance for this project due to some reason, maybe budgetary constraints.:)

So, the cameraman had shot whatever he felt would look good and had dumped the footage to the editor, who incidentally is one of the best in the business. The poor editor has tried to make a movie out of those footages and it shows.

Forget real life logic, there is not even cinematic logic in this collection of footages. Even if I were a fan of this star, I would rather stick a poster of his in my room and watch him all day long without any cost and agony.

I wish,

I could catch hold of the producer and dump him in Bay of Bengal for spending recklessly while not going for a good director and a good storywriter.

I could shut the dialogue writer’s mouth so that he does not give his familiar gyaan on the quality of Tamil Cinema or about how some directors had spoilt his yester year scripts. He could not have written for anything more exotically, splendidly, fantastically ridiculous than this.
 
Go to the star and say, ’I know you can act. So why don’t you start acting in roles which has some substance?’  But he wouldn’t listen. There are far too many things at stake.
Anyways so long as there are maniacs who only care about seeing him on screen, why would he bother?.

Most of all, I wish I could shut the mouths of those who scream, ’Hey its just Entertainment!’. Oh really?, so you think movies like Chennai 600028 are all art movies?

Moral of the story, if we do not respect our time, money and intelligence, nobody else will.

A second class ticket in the sub urban train from Guindy to Tambaram costs about Rs. 6.
The first class ticket for the same distance will be about a prohibitive 50 bucks per trip!!

Except during peak hours, the  first class coaches are running practically empty.
Why can’t the government reduce the fare of first class tickets to some reasonable levels so that many people who can afford can travel in first class often? It’s a simple case of capacity utilisation.
If the tickets are  priced at a reasonable  Rs. 15 bucks, i’m sure a lot of people would not mind paying Rs. 10 extra for added convenience. Now these are simply revenues for the railways at no extra cost!

Will the railway authorities look into this? God alone knows!!

I wish Malcolm Gladwell visits Chennai coming Friday to witness the social epidemic that is Shivaji. To my mind, this is nothing about the release of a movie and everything about mass hysteria. I think the idea that its a movie and that it too can fail as it can succeed is totally lost on the people.

It’s not just the film-crazy fans but even the so called intellectuals like Sujatha who have stoked the insanity with their weekly columns in leading magazines. I did see the trailer of Shivaji and to be diplomatic, i’ve seen better trailers. To say that this movie will be an industry-defining hit is as reasonable as saying that the BSE sensex will cross 100,000 in 3 months. Ennamo!
I think people have forgotten the fact that the reason for Chandrmukhi’s success was the story base of the original and it had very little of Rajinisms. I think the era of Rajinisms [Punch dialogues, innuendos about his entry to politics] are all but over. Going by Shankar’s earlier movies, I do not expect anything from him anymore. It’s a different matter that some folks think he is very creative (Enna Koduma Sir Idhu!!)

We all know the emperor is walking without any clothes but are afraid to admit the facts.I think it’s going to take a child to say in public that the emperor has no clothes after all.
Till then, I am amused by all this irrational exuberance.

PS: Even my close friends and team mates are going to kill me for this post but life wouldn’t be fun othewise

I am of the view that our present crop of cinematographers are getting a raw deal from the media. I saw two very good movies recently - Rang De Basanti and Paruthi Veeran and was bowled over by the works of Binod Pradhan and Ramji respectively.

The reason I am mentioning these two is that both movies would’ve fallen flat if it was handled by any average cinematographer. Yet I hardly find a mention, leave alone an interview by either of these guys in the press.

It’s always the directors who are sought after. Not that i hold any grudge against them but film making is always team work and each person has a role to play. So it’s good to expose and encourage talent. On the other hand till a few years back, the likes of P C Sreeram, Rajiv Menon got enough and more media attention and adulation. 

Also I should mention here that none of the media ever threw any light on the work of editors, arguably the most painstaking job in film-making.

Nowadays, half my time is spent on reading business and investments gyaan. I am more concerned about gold prices, real estate prices, stocks or the latest IT park than about Karunanidhi’s latest sommersault. And it’s not even like I have investments significant enough to talk about. Gone were the days when all I could think of was artistry and creativity. Now every idea requires a compelling business perspective for me to consider.

Maybe it is because of my profession. Some may object by saying “Is not design all about creativity and innovation?”. Honestly, UX design has almost nothing to do with artistry and almost everything to do with user goals and consequently business goals. That is one reason why I feel design as a discipline in the academics should lean towards business schools than tech schools or design schools per se.

Coming back to the point, I think I am now more aware and conscious about money than at any point in my life. I think it’s even fair to say I’ve become more money minded in the last couple of years. I hope my friends see me as the same karthik and if any has changed only for the better. Only time will tell if this change is for good or for bad.