What Lens Do You Use ?

What Lens Do You Use ?, originally uploaded by firoze shakir photographerno1.

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This was a question posed by a person to a celebrity photographer on Facebook.

And I wondered about the naivete of the person , before the camera or the lens takes the picture it is the mind that captures it on your soul..

The body is a camera and I wont go into scientific details.. the lens is Shivas third eye embedded deep into your foreheads karmic consciousness..pictures are shot here..

There was a ad in the newspapers learn to click snaps at Rs 7500 in three days , this is photography served as a Thali.. makes me throw up..

And I am only 10 years into photography..I am a street photographer , you need a temperament to be a street photographer , you have to be fast on the uptake, or you lose a fleeting moment completely.

Photography should be made a compulsory subject in school and colleges as it is a holistic healing instrument of peace.

You dont need to run after pictures , pictures themselves fall into your laps,but you must have an eye to see the ordinary..the ordinary picture steal our own emotions, as I raised my camera to eye level this little florist girl looked at me curiously than before I hit the trigger she gave me a gift of a smile..

There was no need to tweak this picture I shot it in color , but I used the extract tool to add poetry to what I shot..I gave back life to the flowers as they will touch the mortal soul of god , and I desaturated the rest of my picture , so you could see the power of a smile that heals..

I dont crop my pictures I use wide angle , the pipe in the picture is the path that leads to a light in the tunnel of despair.

So street photography binds me with my surroundings , I shot a lot of stuff on this card, and I dont discriminate I shoot what appeals to my soul, I shoot selfishly yet I share it with all of you..

For me street photography is the mother of all photography , and here it is a vast genre to document , it covers all the feasts and festivals on the roads, the pain and the sorrow , hope and tomorrow , the head cutting the scourging the Moharam processions, Lalbagh Cha Raja his last journey, Durga Visarjan, Raafaee body piercings on the road..the road piercings or Maryamma feast of the Hindu Tamils , and something or the other is happening like the Stations of the Cross on Good Friday , the Hijra procession or Sandals at the Dargahs..

And of 123681 pictures I have posted as blogs at Flickr I can tell you that over 75% is nothing but street photography.


And in another one hour I go to Colaba to meet one of the most energetic , fascinating photographer Laurent , he is a visionary, a poet and a realistic dreamer of broken dreams too..
He is a Frenchman and a lover of my country ethos..

Yes is a street photographer too..