My Camera. My Companion. My Journey.

YPS Meet | Feb 18 | State Youth Centre

Continuing our series of showcasing the works of women photographers, YPS had the privilege of listening to Professional Photographer, Writer, Entrepreneur Ms. Hema Narayanan during the YPS Meet on February 18th.

The Journey

An IT Professional -turned full time Photography professional, she not only shared her pictures but also explained how the metamorphosis took place and the challenges that she faced and overcame. She summarized it by using the phrase that she actually “Quit IT and Dared Photography”. Her conviction to make this change came from her love for photography. The journey started by production of a Coffee Table Book on Karnataka. Her persistent attempts to get attention paid back in the form of featuring articles and photographs in leading Newspapers, Travel & Other Magazines. She also worked on a Photo Campaign for CRY on the topic of “Reasons that keep the underprivileged children from going to school”. Today she runs her own organization under the name WIDER Angles offering Photography Services, Workshops and Photography Tours.

Hema Narayanan addressing the audience

Master of Many

Coming from Bengaluru, the land of Wildlife Photographers, Hema Narayanan diversified into many genres of Photography with an equal amount of mastery in each. Apart from presenting pictures under each genre, she also shared her learnings in photographing subjects under each genre. She dwelled on Travel, Street Photography, Candid Portraits, Landscape, Architecture, Abstract and Wildlife sharing pictures and shooting tips.

Hema Narayanan unfolding her mastery in different genres

Experiment & Experience

Being a photography professional, like any other professional, continuous learning and adoption of newer techniques is the key to excellence. Following this principle, Ms. Hema Narayanan had dwelled into Time Lapse and Astro-Photography (Milky-way and Star-Trails) and showed how newer genres of photography like Aerial Photography have been evolving with introduction of newer technologies. She quoted the example of Drones and Cell-phones to demonstrate how these devices have changed the world of photography from architecture to travel to wedding photography. There are many more and the changes are happening too fast.

One Eye or Two Eyes

She ended the slideshow on a philosophical note on whether the photographer will be happier living the moment or will be happier freezing the moment on the sensor. She showed a clip from the Hollywood movie “The secret life of Walter Mitty” where the photographer walks away without shooting the Snow Leopard after going to great lengths of scaling Himalayas and waiting for a long time. Instead the photographer chose to relish the moment that he had been waiting for than spend that time in shooting pictures of the Snow Leopard. With that thought of the photographer making a choice of seeing the scene with one eye (through the viewfinder) or with both eyes wide open, she left the YPS members thinking their purpose.

The slideshow was widely appreciated. Ms. Hema Narayanan spent some more time speaking to the participants. We thank Hema Narayanan for sharing her thoughts with YPS members and supporters.