Hello! Today, I would like to share here a conversation I had with an experienced photographer.
He has his own website, please go check it out! - https://www.sumanmitra.com/
He lives in the mountains and is a lover of nature and portrait photography. Mr. Suman Mitra. Born in Kolkata, his passion for photography started when he was a child and was given a Carl Zeiss camera by his father, which was passed down by his grandfather. After experiencing that, he switched to a film roll camera, specifically the Minolta SR-7. In his own words -
"It's a film roll camera. You developed the film in a dark room. You could get 36 images out of it, 37 if you tightened it. That's where I started. Those days."
After the Minolta, Mr. Suman took a break in between due to work and other personal occupations. When he returned to the hills, he continued his journey.
"I started biking as well as doing photography. At that time, I bought the Canon 5DSR, a mirrored camera. I started clicking pictures and submitted them to salons."
Salons are photography exhibits are competitions. After he started submitting his pictures, he started get recognition from all over the world. These are his distinctions till date -
2021 – AFIP (Artist of FIP) – FIP, India
2021 – AFIAP (Artist of FIAP) – FIAP, International
2021 – GPU CR 2 – Global Photographic Union, International
2021 – AAPG (Artist of Association of Photographers, Georgia)
2022 – EAPG (Excellence of Association of Photographers, Georgia)
2022 – CMoL (Competitive Master of Light) – Master of Light Photographic Association, Canada
2022 – QPSA (Qualified) – Photographic Society of America.
2022 – BAPU (Bronze Exhibitor) - Asia Photographic Union, Singapore.
2022 – EFIP (Excellence of FIP) – FIP, India
2023 – EFIAP (Excellence of FIAP) – FIAP, International
2023 – GAPU (Gold Exhibitor) - Asia Photographic Union, Singapore.
"I just kept on doing it. Kept aiming higher and higher. I first got the AFIP distinction, which is the Artist from Indian photography and then it was...AFIAP, which was international. It's from UNESCO, they have a club for photography, which the countries are enrolled in. I think around 82 or 83 countries are enrolled. Yes."
What makes it even more impressive is that whatever he knows is all self-learned.
"From developing the roll, to what all chemicals are used in it. Till today, even Adobe Photoshop and Lightroom, it is all self-learned."
When asked about his favourite genre and style of photography, he answered Portrait. Not only limited to people though, it is all life. Animals, plants, flowers, fauna. He likes to photograph them all. He owns many Canon lenses. The main lens he uses is the Canon 70-210mm f 2.8. When asked a bit for his lighting preferences and for some of his favourite pictures he has taken, he said he has many.
"I've got many. A portrait of a child, the milky way, and more. And for lighting, I've worked with both studio and natural lighting and I prefer to work with natural lighting. It's the easiest and the best lighting you can get. Also, staying up in the mountains, it's very beautiful. Dawn and Dusk. At times, I do use reflectors to fade away the harsh lighting. It bounces the light. And then, I do use studio lights now and then with a flash and a full specific studio setup."
Something that he wanted to share with everyone was that when one sees the photographs getting accepted and getting recognition worldwide. That's when the realisation hits that the hard work has paid off. Everyone will have stories behind each photograph that they click. This doesn't mean the picture will always get accepted from day one. It's natural. Just keep on going.
"There is nothing known as a bad moment. Everything is good moments. How do you portray it? That moment that you capture. It all depends on your eye. What are trying to portray? What are you looking for? You'll start out click many, many photographs just like that. As time goes on, you will get the eye for it. What to click. Start."
Here are some sources that distinguish him -
It was truly a pleasure to meet a wonderful human such as Mr. Suman. I aspire and look up to him. He is one of my inspirations.
Thank you for checking out this article! My next one comes out on the 6th of November, which will be talking about photograph formats, more specifically go in depth about shooting in RAW and then talking about JPEG and more.
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