Smart Photography 201707

My Life with

Cameras...

Ashish
Vagal

D

uring my school years we had a

Konica Minolta point and shoot

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used during functions, festivals and

trips. It was my duty to take the photos

and I gradually became interested in

photography. I wanted to know how an

SLR works and what is the photography

process.

When I was in an art school I learnt

about camera manufactures like Pentax,

Nikon, Olympus, Canon etc. It was

during this time that I took up a course

at the prestigious National Institute of

Photography (NIP) in Mumbai. I received

in-depth knowledge about photography

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development and printing.

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Nikon F80. It was considered to be one

of the best Nikons at that time. I studied

the camera settings and experimented to

learn what each setting did to the image.

I did get 36 surprises in the beginning

but improved as I went along the

learning curve.

In 2006 I

went to Kanha

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a tiger reserve

in Madhya

Pradesh.

Instead of

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SLR, I borrowed

my friend’s

Canon A95. This was a 5-megapixel

digital point and shoot camera, which

later on, I purchased from him. The

reason for going digital was the novelty

factor as well as the ‘N’ number of shots

and video clips one could take were very

useful for such an adventure. The A95

delivered good results despite being

just a 5-megapixel camera. I did use this

camera for quite sometime but later I

planned to

move on to

something

more serious,

like the Nikon

D70s with

18-70mm (kit

lens) and a

70-300mm

Nikon

G-series lens.

The Nikon

D70s

widened the

picture-taking

possibilities

and my interest in nature and wildlife

photography grew exponentially.

Wildlife tested my perseverance and

challenged my level of patience. I

travelled to various national parks and

frequented various areas in and around

Mumbai city on weekends.

I purchased a Canon 350D in 2007. Not

wanting to be a brand agnostic, I bought

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f/2.8 EX DC in Canon mount and started

practicing macro shooting in week-end

nature walks.

I covered various trails at Yeoor and

Nagla with Yuwaraj Gurjar, one of the

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learnt a lot about macro photography.

The misconception that I had in my

mind that macro

photography is

easy, soon vanished,

because it is certainly

not; neither are any other genres of

photography!

I used the Canon 350D and a macro-lens

combo extensively for 6 years, and in 2012,

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ultra-wide-angle Tokina 11-16mm f/2.8

DX, a Tamron 90mm f/2.8 macro, and a

AF-S Nikon 300mm

f/4. These three lenses

served me well in

capturing landscapes,

macro, mammal and

birds (to some extent).

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for any particular brand

and equally love all

the brands that I have used over the years.

Using different brands has helped me know

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is the eye behind the camera that matters

more than the camera or its brand or the

model. I like to compare the similarities of

the different models out there, rather than

comparing the dissimilarities.

I also believe that it is better to invest more

in good lenses rather than in the bodies;

new camera bodies are introduced nearly

every year, but lenses serve you best for a

decade or more, depending on how you use

them and care for them.

I recently bought two long-awaited Canon

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EF 400mm f/5.6 USM L. I will soon will be

going for a Canon full-frame body and some

lenses from Canon which I have shortlisted.

It’s been 10 years since I started my serious

journey into the world of photography. It

has been wonderful so far and I eagerly look

forward to more. |SP

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Smart PhotographyJuly 2017

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