kaa ka camera

Finally i have bought my own. Canon S3 IS and 2Gb memory.

Its been a while since i have been thinking about getting a camera. Since our family got first point and shoot camera, fixed focus camera some 10 years back, I have been the photographer of our family, our relatives and any function, party,etc. On my uncle's (mamaji's) marriage the photographer ditched us at the final moment. Everyone looked at me. That was the most strenous day for me as a photographer. Working on a camera which did'nt have a battery. So it worked on a fixed shutter speed. So i had to calculate the aperture for every situation keeping that speed in mind. Anyway around 75% of the pics i took were ok. And most were pleased. Though some of those gossipy aunties thought i had missed them on purpose :).

That camera belonged to one of my other uncles. It was a yashica electro. A very popular model once, now there are so many of them, even vintage camera collectors are wary of them. My uncle wanted me to get the battery from mumbai. I took the camera along with me to mumbai to make sure i got the right model of the battery.
Once when I was in VT, i remembered i had the dead battery with me. So I went to the lane which began from the station towards the Gateway. The camera shops which lined the whole left side. I asked one or two who pointed me towards a inner lane. From one pointed finger to another, I found myself in quite a inner lane. There the shop owner told me he did have the battery. He sent his helper to somewhere who brought the battery after around after 10 mins. Just to be sure, i asked him to check it with a voltmeter. He did that, and the voltage was ok. I paid him and left.

When i reached my room, took the camera and put the battery. There is a button which checks the battery. When you press that button and the battery is working there is small green light which lights up. That green light remained silent.
I took out the battery and examined it properly. The base of the battery didn't seem all right. All i had to do was twist the base, and the whole base opened up, like a bisleri cap. And inside where 4 button cells. The ones you can get for a ruppee.

Anyway i continued to use that sturdy camera, throughout my college stay. It was with me on treks, cycling treks. And meanwhile 4 years had passed, and my kind uncle had willingly forgotten about his camera. I will present him a digital camera soon.

Meanwhile, I got another camera a vintage leica. And this one literally fell into my hands. I was walking towards my room in hostel, when I found a guy breaking a lock. And to my utter suprise he was using a camera as a hammer. I snatched the camera from him. Broke the lock for him. He was from orissa. One of his friends father had given him this camera to get it repaired in mumbai. He did'nt have the enthusiasm to do that. So the camera had laid around in his room for quite some time. And he had found it quite useful as a hammer. He was quite glad i valued that camera so much and gave it to me.

This camera is quite famous in vintage camera circles. But I don't want to sell it. But with it's unusable features (there are two viewfinders, one for focus and other for layout), i would rather not use it as well. If I get someone passionate enough I will give it away.

Then came the era of digital camera. Since many of my friends had one, there was no dearth of one. So i spent my days phtographing with borrowed cameras. Once I went to Goa with anmol's camera. I was climbing a hillock near anjuna beach. With all the beauty around I, a moment of carelessness, and the camera came tumbling out of its bag. Flying down some 6 feets, it landed on solid granite, bouncing once it came to rest inches from a puddle. With my heart in my mouth, i found that the lcd had cracked and the buttons beneath the lcd were not working. Other than that the camera was working. I knew what doctors must feel like when they have to tell a family about there dying member. Anyway anmol was quite cool about it. He repaired it himself (he's a microelectronics MTech :), i just had to pay him the 5k for the new LCD.

Recently after coming to delhi, vinod's friend divyanshu, who is a great photographer himself became my photography partner. Once we went to tuglakabad fort at around 11:30 at night. We parked the bike, and were busy shooting the fort in the yellow light with late slow speeds, using a tripod. Suddenly we could here a police siren, from a gypsy which was standing near our bike. We went towards him. The inspector was a punjabi.
"kya kar rahe ho itne raat mein?"
Divyanshu:"jee photo kheech rahen hain"
"yahi time mila hai?"
Divyanshu:"raat mein hi monuments ke photo achhe aate hain na"
"ye ilaka theek nahi hai...jaldi niklo yahan se..kuch ho jaaye tumhe toh sabhi dilli police ko bolenge, aur ye bike tumhari hai? koi le jaata isey toh?"
Divyanshu:"chabi toh mere paas hai :)"
"sirf chabi hi rah jaati"
We left 5 mins after that warning :).

I need more adventures like that :).
And i have made a slideshow, with some basic fundaes for people who are planning to buy a camera.