64 Years of Independence Child Man and the Flag, originally uploaded by firoze shakir photographerno1.
137,827 items / 1,066,880 views
Ever since I became a blogger I have shot the Independence day and our Republic day , my love for my country's flag its ethos and its values , despite all the knocks scams my country cannot be blown away by a few a handful who rob her relentlessly under one scheme or the other.
Most of the time the hand that raises the flag is the hand that has done the maximum harm and it is between them and their conscience.
These are pictures I shot on 15 August but could not post them as I felt I needed to showcase the Indi Blogger Meet I attended for the first time at Sea Hotel Princess Juhu.15 August 2010.
I shot and posted 329 pictures ..I added a few of the youngest blogger ever Marziya Shakir two and a half year old street photographer , and I added her pictures solely on the criteria she shoots like a Pro , she is a up and coming street photographer ,her arsenal Nikon D80.
Many a times I feel like a child in her presence and I think God has been overtly kind in handing her to us as the keeper of our Heritage.
We are second generation Mumbaikars and Marziya is a Pucca Mumbaikar ..our first of the third generation , as she has been bought up by the fisher women of Bandra , she is also known as Marziya Koli .
She has grown in their laps and she is not scared of jumbo prawns lobsters or any kind of fish dead or alive.
She might be the first person in my family to speak and understand the Koli language ..her favorite is Manjula Koli who has been very close to her since she could barely walk.
So what is a Blog?
A blog in my case is a picture that becomes a giant of a tree , as I am not bought up in the tradition of a writer I write a blog , blog is rant if it read as a rant , blog is hope a blog is the beginning of a new life a blog is writing about a grand child that belongs to me but also belongs to all of you.
I wrote a lot of shit when I began blogging all housed in my archives photographerno1.com I kept them alive , because it is part of the change a blog bought into my life the six or seven years I have been a blogger and you are a blogger on which website you blog I began with Buzznet the best , Blogspot brain child of Biz Stone now founder member of Twitter who works off a yacht in the high seas..he is amphibian rare specie called a micro blog.
After this I joined Word Pres till I discovered Flickr and my life changed I became a Pucca Idiot of blogger at Flickr ..
137,827 photos / 1,066,910 views should suffice in three years at Flickr.
So the Indi blogger meet was a good therapy for my soul meeting other bloggers off line and specially Renie Rnvin web architect and founder.
He just sent me a message I share with all of you,...and I have begun my fast as I write this..
Hey Firoze!
It was good to meet you - and thanks for ALL the pictures and the very nice blog post!
By the way - your granddaughter's an absolute angel. I can see why you've taken so many pictures of her. I have a nephew, and he's my fav photo subject. :-)
He added
Hey by the way - do you mind if I post some of your pics onto our facebook page?
Also - please add your pics to the IndiBlogger group on Flickr:
www.flickr.com/groups/indiblogger/
Thanks!
Keep blogging,
Renie Ravin
My reply to him written a few minutes back..
I give you a carte blance to use my pictures of the Indi Blogger meet that I shot in Mumbai..
I may have been a Indi Blogger member but you baptized me with your love and your devotion to a very good cause.
Unfortunately I am not into groups at Facbook or Flickr ..so I wont be able to add those pictures you can addd any you want..
I am bad with names but your team is the jewel in your crown.
I thank them sincerely.
I liked your HDR though personalty I run a mile from sunsets insects eyc preferring to shoot the dregs on the face of mother earth , who have defaced her completely.
If you talk to Gul Panag give her my regards I did not to want to go overboard trying to shoot but she is one hell of a model of the women of substance ..
I like that you are a zoologist ..I am a zoologist in a different way it is the animal in man part of my thesis..
have just got up form my fast..if you are from Chennai you might know the Denison family I am very close to Robert Denison of Bangalore Management Academy..
I a a diabetic sometimes I can barely see what I write or shoot but I manage ..
Take care Bro
Firoze Shakir
So in short a blog a rivulet of words that becomes a stream that ends into the ocean of you heart and I moderate my blogs so my bias should not infect the pristine purity of the ocean of your heart..
This blog has as yet not sold its pictures text or words.. even when things were rotten bad and gloomy I sold my Nikon ED 2.8 80 -200 Lens for R 15000 to go and shoot the Urus of Ajmer Sharif , the ambiance of peaceful Islamic Sufi Path of peace , the hijras the beggars and all.
I am a beggar too and the alms God gives me generously are not pictures but photo blogs.
So now you know what is a blog and a piece of news or a column of chaos in a newspaper..and now you know I shoot photo journalism as a blogger and not as a photo journo..,
I shoot the same thing over and over again too like them but yes I shoot it differently .. not as a photographer but as a poet.
Photography is poetry even if you are not a poet in some cases.
