Thursday, August 13, 2009

BACK TO BLOGGING

Last two months was absolutely hectic. A 12000kms drive across the Western Ghats photographing monsoons, delivering talks in schools and colleges, doing post work at desk for continuous 2 weeks was brilliant. It was a superb learning experience.

I have planned to keep this space systematically updated about my work from now. Check out for frequent updates.

Cheers,

Ram

Current mood: happy and energetic

Sunday, May 17, 2009

SECRETS OF THE KING COBRA

The film that i worked on in 2008 with Felis creations is being telecasted in National Geographic Channel.

The schedule is:

INDIA -Sunday, May 17th at 8pm, re-telecast at 11pm & 3 am


SINGAPORE/HONG KONG -Sunday, May 17th at 9pm


US -Saturday, May 16 at 8pm ET/11pm PT

Dont miss it!!!

cheers,

Ram

Friday, December 26, 2008

Thinking phase

If u want to know the value or duration of one minute, best ways are to construct a sequence in the editing table and to workout in a fitness centre. 'How long a minute can stretch' can be known if u these two.This entire month has been scheduled completely with desk work and stuff. The last Fuji supersix exhibition will be inagurated on 29th december 2008 at all india fine arts and crafts society by Mr.Raghu rai. If u r in Delhi please step in to have a look at the exhibition.




cheers,

ram

current mood: happy

Thursday, December 18, 2008

RAINFOREST SERIES

Here it is...atlast

IMAGES FROM THE RAINFORESTS

http://www.ramnathshekar.com/rainforest.htm

Comments and suggestions welcome.

current mood: happy :)

Wednesday, October 15, 2008

off to field

It has been two months since i got back from Agumbe after being in field for quite sometime. Last few months have a good time at desk making a promotional film, a booklet on frogs et cetera. I will be off to field for couple of weeks to do some serious still photography and it will be a special shoot for me as this is the first time i am taking my bolero into the field for work. Hope everything goes fine.


CHAOS




cheers,

ram

current mood: happy

Sunday, October 5, 2008

TIRING WEEK, EDITING AND TRAVEL

Last week has been a phenomenal week in my learning curve(on the positive side). I sat to work on a promotional film without knowing anything about the post production part of film making. Finally after four days of continuous work without sleep, i managed to make a 12 minute promotional video and i hope it has come out decently well and will serve the purpose.I learnt a lot about post production part of film making and a lot more in this four days and also found that film making is very close to my heart and i am loving it.

During an awarness exhibition at Rajapalayan, Tamilnadu.




from left:Me,Mr.thangam Tenarasu,Education minister and Mr.maleswappa, IFS.


RAJAPA LAYAM WILDLIFE WEEK CELEBRATIONS
I came back from editing on 3rd morning at 6 AM. I left to a Rajapalayam in the southern part of Tamilnadu which is 700 kms from Chennai. It was a tiring long drive as i havent slept for the last few days. 75 pictures taken by me was exhibited there for around 2000 school children. I was a very good experience interacting with them. I had an oppurtunity to meet and interact many IFS officials from the southern part Tamilnadu. The exhibition was opened by Mr.Thangam tenarasu, the Education minister of Tamilnadu . Talks given by Mr.tenarasu and other forest department officialswas different from the usual long talks.They were good and informative.I had to drive back to chennai today morning as my brother is leaving to UK.
It has been a hectic week after editing and driving 1800 kms in two days but an extremely memorable week which made me learn a lot and also drive continuously with the bolero.

cheers,

ram

current mood:exhausted, Need a break.

Thursday, September 25, 2008

MY NEW BABY....MY STRESS BUSTER

After shifting from chennai few months back, i am shuttling between field, my native place and my aunts house in chennai. Equipment in one place, backup stuff's in some other place, it was fully of chaos travelling with all my equipment in buses was extremely unsafe. last time when i got back from agumbe i was travelling with 6 months of baggage, equipment, Hard drive's etc. I was badly looking for a second hand utility vehicle for travel and to dump all my stuff when i am going outdoors. Finally me and my dad decided to get a new Bolero. I took it for delivery last week and i am just loving it. Driving is my second passion and an absolute stress buster for me. Now with my second baby , i am planning to do a bit field trips and get back to still photography for couple of months.




cheers,

ram

current mood: happy and energetic

Thursday, August 21, 2008

goodbye to the land of rains

back to desk work in chennai. shoot is over...... trying to create a gallery of pictures in my site on the rainforest... 

cheers,

ram

Friday, July 18, 2008

FUJI SUPER SIX EXHIBITON-AHMEDBAD


cheers,
ram
PS: sorry... no time to write anything or post images.

Friday, July 4, 2008

UPDATES

  • The banglore fuji super six exhibition was good. we had a good response.
  • Relaxed life for 2 weeks.
  • Drove 3000kms in 10 days.
  • saw Dasavataram- good movie but i expected a lot from kamal. story line was weak.
  • Finally i gave all my windows related stuff and shifted to apple completely.
  • still processing and managing last 6 month's images.....
  • Driving back to Agumbe tomorrow for the final shoot tomo.

I promise to open a new gallery in the site for my Rainforest Series once i come back from the shoot.

stay put

cheers,

ram

current mood: Energetic

Friday, June 20, 2008

BACK TO CIVILIZATION

     

    After a continuous two and a half months schedule, i drove back to chennai today. It took me 14 hours with a little bit of break. The first Two schedule for the National Geographic documentaty by Felis creations is over and we will be re grouping again for the shoot soon. Before i write about  my rainforest experience i would like to inform a superb news to everyone.

   I got a mail from BBC informing me that i reached till the finals in the Eric hosking award and semi final in Gerald Durrell award and creative visions of nature catergory . i am happy that i got to finals this time. i hope i will work better this year.

    secondly the Fuji super six exhibition is commencing in Banglore on the 25th of june at 11 AM

 

VENUE: VENKATAPPA ART GALLERY, KASTURBA ROAD, BANGLORE G.P.O, BANGLORE

 

DATE AND TIME: 25th to 29th June 10am- pm

 

INAGURATION: 25th june at 11 AM

 

friends in Banglore do come to see our works.

 



Before i finish my post i would like to write a few words about my experience in the rainforests of Agumbe. 

      Photographing in rainforests is stunning and never easy. Every inch u move, u find something interesting. Fungi grows on every bark or tree. Tree frogs and toads are abundant. In the night the forests reverbrate with male frogs&toads calling for mate. u can never imagine how many frogs are calling in the night. probably 1000's or maybe more than that. If u get up in the morning the entire rainforest is covered by mist. A hornbill zooms past through the most echoing the forest with its voice. In the night distant calls of the brown hawk owl, forest eagle owl makes sure that the forest is completely alive in the night.  words cannot describe the beauty and serenity of the rainforest. we were filming for NGT documentary. there are lots of hardships in keeping you and your equipment dry as fungus literally grows on everything. the equipement, your foot, clothes etc but the images and sequences u get in this conditions are out of the world. we filmed lots of sequences that were never before filmed in the wild. 

   I did a bit of still photography apart from filming. covering yourself with rain proof clothes, carrying a tripod, camera in heavy rains photographing it under the cover of an umbrella is just amazing. mists and rainforests evoke so much emotions in you. 

      with months of backlog i processing pictures, getting camera equipment serviced, college work etc etc i don think i can keep my blog active but i hope i will keep updating about my trips and work.









cheers,

ram

current mood: burnt out



Saturday, April 26, 2008

WILDLIFE PHOTOGRAPHY. 1st ANNIVERSAY

hi people! long time no communicate!
life is very hectic with work nowadays but i decided to post this blog on this very special day. on april 26th 2007 i started wildlife photography and how my parents got me all the equipment in a very difficult situation. my life changed completely after that day. according to me, my year starts only on april 26th. i am very happy to post this picture from the rainforests of Agumbe were i am currently working. its extremely great here. never in my wildest dreams i dreamt of everything that happened after april 26th 2007. i am hoping to maintain this and work hard to follow my goals.

thats it! i give up. net connection is slow like a snail.
cheers,
ram

current mood: exhausted and happy
PS:- success is 99% perspiration and 1% external inspiration :)

Friday, April 11, 2008

GOODBYE CHENNAI


I was asked to shift to chennai from my native place so that i can get a good training here to join some medical college. i was a mom's kid. they asked to do medicine and i came here joined some coaching classes etc. i don know wer it went right n one fine day i met shekar dattatri in the year april 2003. i still remember the nagarahole: tales from the indian jungle being screened in satyam theatre. after the show i met him and  the first question i asked was " was this film shot in a ' high density' camera? people say first impression is best impression but i think that didnt work in my case. by 2004 i decided i should do wildlife photography as a hobby after seeing all the films and photography by various people. gradually paths changed and i got addicted to wildlife and photography like crazy. later i the nikon f55 and a normal lens wont work out for anything good. when i realised it was 2005. then i asked my dad to get a nikon d80 and a 50-500mm lens ad began shooting with it. i was quite satisfied with the results but i wanted to do something professionally. when i was in my last year of schooling my thougts comepletely changed and i got hooked on to wildlife. i bunked almost 100 out of 180 working days in school. finally in 2007 april 26th i convinced my dad somehow to invest on high end camera gears. i am still figuring out as to what made him get all the equipement i use now. not even in my wildest dreams i imagined that i will get addicted to it like this. almost the whole year till now everything happened in the blink of an eye and now i am the happiest person in the world because i will be doing what i wanted to do.
     i am leaving to agumbe tomorrow to work with felis creations. i wont be coming back to chennai again for atleast a year or two due to many reason.. till the day i came here, chennai and my friends have made me think completely different, and and gave me extremely good support to pursue my passion and always welcomed me to teach me whatever i wanted. i am grateful to all my friends in chennai. i hope i can meet them if i come back to chennai later. i hope i will find time to do some still work. i will keep updating reports about my experience in agumbe. 
   i don think i can sleep tonight as i am very excited about working in agumbe and extermely happy that i am leaving chennai. i had enough being here and i just couldn work here anymore.
just thought of quoting few lines from the poem " the road not taken " by Robert frost

........ i shall be telling this with a sigh
somewhere ages and ages hence
two roads diverged in a wood, and I
took the one less traveled by,
and that has made all the difference.
                              - Robert Frost


cheers,

ram

Wednesday, April 9, 2008


I just dont have enough time to write about the Fuji supersix chennai launch that happened yesterday. considering the fact that chennai is a sleepy city, the opening was good :) the exhibition is on till 15th of this month. if u r in chennai, do step in to see our works.

                                   shekar inagurating the exhibition



                                      shekar and me


cheers, 

ram


Thursday, April 3, 2008

FUJI SUPERSIX EXHIBITION, CHENNAI

Dear friends,

After a very good response received from Fuji super six exhibition in Mumbai, we now take the exhibition to Chennai. I cordially invite you for the exhibition on behalf of Fuji and Jindal photo.

For friends in Chennai, I will be leaving Chennai on april 12th once for all. I hope to meet you all during the exhibition.






VENUE: LALIT KALA ACADEMY,REGIONAL CENTER, NO.4, GREAMS ROAD,

CHENNAI-6

DATE: 9-4-08 TO 15-4-08

GALLERY TIMINGS: 11 AM -7 PM

INAGURATION BY Mr.SHEKAR DATTATRI AT 5PM ON APRIL 9TH.



cheers,

ram


mac is here

It has been exactly five days since my old laptop went for a toss. i had given it to the service to get it fixed. meanwhile i was gifted a macbook by who else but my dad :)  i got it this afternoon and i am just loving it. editing pics in mac is just out of the world. its extremely superb and to edit images with a mac. past few days has been busy getting stuffs ready for the fuji exhibition which is gonna be inagurated in chennai and enjoying last few days of my life in chennai :) 

PS:- its a bit difficult to work on mac after working on windows for a long time. hoping to make my laptop made for each other soon :)

cheers,

ram

current mood: happy

Thursday, March 27, 2008

FREEDOM ATLAST

I don know how the experience in hell will be but if someone asks me if i had experienced hell, i will definitely say i experienced hell with people in chennai for the last four months coz of my grave mistakes. i was finding a good reason to leave chennai. finally in another 12 days exactly i will be off from this dump next few months i will be working on BBC/NGC assignments with felis creations ( www.feliscreations.com ) i am very happy that i will be taking few years break from my college and working on what i love, wildlife, forests, photography and filmmaking.
the fuji exhibition will be in chennai on april 9th. i will write a seperate post about it soon. stay put for more happenings :)

TENDERNESS AND TRUST

Enjoy this image till then.last april i made this image in my backyard at my native place. however troublesome this guy was, the mother didnt let him down. I always love to shoot primates, elephants and bears. the emotions they show is out of the world. somehow i nowadays feel i can converse with animals i shoot :) guess i am going mad

cheers,

ram

current mood: happy

Monday, March 24, 2008

NATURE, ART AND LOVE

i got a call from my friend, a well known musician asking me to come to his house immedaitely When i went to his house and he was soaked in tears. when i asked wat was his problem he told that his x lover has been engaged to another guy. he was giving a beautiful philosophical touching words which made me think a lot. people, its not just a philosophical talk given by a guy in such conditions. It makes us think a lot. excerpts from watever he spoke:


History has a lot of bizarre patterns of love failures, which apparently implies that only the guy eventually become the losers. Rite from romeo-juliet, devdas-parvati, anarkali-salim to every single tom dick and harry we find on streets have found love broken up due to usual and unusual reasons. But the common pattern that I observe, is that its always the guys who ruin their lives thinking about their lost love and its mostly the girls who end up as parent driven puppets or people who find love almost instantaneously after their long drawn “ I will be single for ever, Its you or noone” speeches. Statuory warning: for people who disagree with me, please mail me historical details, articles, fiction, facts proving me wrong and I bet u r gonna give google a run for its money :) ( No offence meant )

I like to change sides here and state that the guys are really stupid and they are ruining their lives thinking about their lost love and the girl’s being very clever creatures have mastered the art of “moving on” .They have moved so far that they have circum navigated the globe six times whereas the stupid guys moved on to the nearest liquor shop or to the next phase in his life where his main aim is to stay away from her memories.

Let us take a classic example of a boy and a girl who are madly in love with each other and due to usual “unforeseen family circumstances or unusual break ups” they decide to end their relationship and what succeeds can be predicted by any onlooker. The story will most probably go like

a) Guy-girl breaks up. Guy takes to alcohol. Girl engages in a sob-fest for a temporary period of time and starts acting clever :)

b) Guy-girl break up: guy goes abroad, throws away all his loved ones belongings, tries to stream line his life based on one bottom line “ I have to avoid her memories”

c) Guy-girl break up: girl takes to alcohol, guys moves on with another girl,girl grows a beard and meets the guy after two years. The guy has two children and one girl child is apparently named after the lover ( are u shocked? Are you flabber gasted? )

If u are really shocked or u laughed at option ‘c’ you have accepted my theory indirectly which is the one possible way. If u find at option ‘a’ amussing pack your bags and move to Bollywood. and so jokes apart. Inevitably whether we like it or not the girl moves on( no she doesn grow a beard!)and the guy doesn’t( oh yes! He does grow a beard)

I seriously like to ask this question. Wat is love and trust in its most pure and unadulterated form?

Answer:

1) when u throw a three year old child up in the air and catch it, it smiles having the trust that u will catch it again.

2) the unconditional love given by a mother to a child irrespective of how the child treats her.

3) Any art form

God is not visible. He does not reveal himself directly. But we feel his divinity. Don’t we? That is because he has created nature, art and love as his representations in this world. Such a divine spot has been allotted for love. With these being the case how can we even think of polluting it? Me being a connoissuer or art, I can raise my voice to stop the pollution of nature and art. How can I raise my voice against the pollution of love?

The reason why god gave love such an important part in our lives is because of the fact that bonding between any two entities is only possible through it. If u ask me art has been showering its unconditional love on me since the day i was born on this world. Sometimes I reciprocated it. sometimes I did not. Did my impudence ever affect the unconditional love art has been showering on me. The answer is no. It has created an unbreakable bond similar to a bond between mother and a child and, me being the irresponsible child of my loving mother ( art) so I guess now your are clear with what I meant before.

Love between humans has to condescend through all barriers void of pollution if that situation happens. It can be equated to my love story with art. But the unfortunate and the bitter truth is that humans are humans. We are wicked, evil, fickle and we strive to destroy every single bit of the innocence that we have left in us. In the process we are deluding ourselves coating sugar to these bitter facts. Love is one which has its divine place and we as humans should keep its divinity intact. I don ever think that is happening. The biggest mistake I have made and I regret doing it is believing that no matter what happens, love can be so unconditional between two human beings.



I was completely moved by watever he said. i guess this will imply for people who are truly in love and not for people who fake in the name of love.

PS:- the musician didnt intend to hurt anyone and he is not a male chauvinist
cheers,

ram

current mood: depressed.

Sunday, March 23, 2008

working 20*7

off late i have been working like a mule. spending hours studying photography,filmmaking and wildlife. lot of surprises coming up soon :) its already 5 AM and i am still working on how to improve my working style and skills. i get to YM and i am welcomed by my friends:

pras: you?
pras: :)
pras: cant believe man
ram: yes dude, its me.
pras: when i see ram getting up so early my comp is acting weird dude

abhi: dude how come so early? its gonna rain cats and dogs man

sara: grt ram! someone had started to work on academics...

wat??get used seeing me up even at 6 AM . nowadays i am available online almost 24 hours...

cheers,

ram

current mood : thinking

EMOTIONS, PHOTOGRAPHY AND WRITING

Recently when i was in periyar i discovered that i can even write songs :) i found out that any form of art is reflection of what our mind thinks. when u r in a good mood, energetic and happy, u tend to make images that show happiness and vibrant colours. if u r sad and depressed, its reflected in the images we make.
when i was trekking in periyar, i sat down on the river bed late in the evening to try my hands on writing. The distant call of a white cheeked barbet and the sound of cicadas echoed across the forest. The silent sounds of the periyar river was soft. The moon gradually rose up from the hills of western ghats. Till with the sudden sharp call of the sambhar, the wind is suddenly still and the barbet stopped calling. i started writing emotions and finally it shaped up like this.

"Why can't I speak when I have so much to tell?
Why can't I write when I have so much in mind?
Why can't I sing when there's music in my heart?
Why can't I dance when there's rythm in the air?

Too many words left unspoken
Too many things left undone
Why can't it be and why can't I?
For all I know this pain deep inside
Took the gladness from my heart.

Is this the pain of missing you?
Is this the reason behind it all?

Hear the agony of my heart
Longing for you and for your touch
Feeling your love, feeling your face
Missing your sweet talks and care

When will the waiting ever be over?
For as long as we are apart I can never be whole
Oh! My Dearest Love
I just want you to know
That my heart is aching because
"I'M MISSING YOU!"


think i should give up photography and start writing poems. any comments? :) currently writing an article on emotions and photography. hope i will complete it soon and post it. stay put.


cheers,

ram

current mood: exhausted