My tryst with print.

Last Sunday played witness to the launch of my first solo photography exhibition. Titled ‘Landscapes of Ladakh’, a series of 12 photographs are on display till 19th Septemeber at a lovely Greek restaurant, The Blue Door, Rd No. 45, Jubilee Hills, Hyderabad. Please do go and take a look if you already have not. (If you already have, please do buy a print!)

Working on getting the exhibition up and running was quite an interesting process, the most insightful of which, was getting the prints done. Having never printed my photos above A3 size by myself in the past (larger prints were made my clients for whom I had taken photographs), I was quite thrilled to see my landscapes king sized on the 24×36 prints.

Making the A1 sized prints taught me a lot of things about photography that we tend to overlook in the digital era. The importance of getting the focus perfectly right (and hence the need for micro adjustment), keeping the sensor absolutely spotless, shooting at the right aperture to avoid diffraction (thus understanding the sweet spot of your lens), lens vignetting or distortion even on a minute scale (god bless lens correction profiles in Lightroom!), realizing that even a little noise looks like a lot in large size and the list goes on. Sometimes we stumble upon a few old timers on online forums passionately arguing and defending their opinion on what initially seems like a rather insignificant point. However, upon further research one comes to realize the importance of even the smallest of details when it comes to making prints. Fortunately, I usually shoot with such details mind and the hard work paid off when I picked up the flawless prints from the printers.

The selection of framing was another important choice that I had to make and although I was presented with several options from matte laminate finish and printing on Canvas, I decide to stick with the classic black frame, white mount with glass. We did face a couple of slight niggles with reflection on the glass (museum glass is a bit too pricey at this stage) but the glass definitely lent a great look to the photographs.

At the end of the day, I am thrilled with the way the prints have turned out and the Blue Door is the perfect venue to host this exhibition. The response that I have received for it has been absolutely brilliant which has incited me to already start thinking of ideas for my next one. I’ve got plenty of ideas brooding in my head and I am looking forward to seeing them come to fruition.

Its been just over a year since I moved to full time photography and with the support of my family and friends, I’ve managed to pull off my first photo exhibition. People tell me that there are bigger and better things waiting for me. And I believe the same too. But this not the time to rest on my laurels. This is the time to keep working, harder, smarter, and faster.

We got some media coverage with the event too and I’ve included a couple of the articles below. Click the images for high res versions.