I always had an amateurish interest in photography, but until I bought the camera I own currently, I was still an 'Auto' kind of person. Only recently have I started to pay attention to the finer details, like the depth of field (hence the blog name) or the interplay between aperture and shutter speed. Along with this, and endless trawling of flickr, I have also started to acquire an eye for composition. Anyway, the point is this - I think I am a half decent photographer. And I am becoming quite the Japanese tourist with my long lens camera hanging around my neck constantly, to the annoyance of certain people who believe the camera just makes me interested in taking 'good' photos but I fail to see reality. I disagree. Hanging a camera around my neck does not make me lose touch with reality. I observe everything as it is, then through the lens. If anything, I see more of everything and then preserve it for posterity. But thats not what I'm talking about here.
After coming here, I have also discovered that I quite enjoy driving. With what little opportunities Puneet (may his God bless his soul - and that of his sister-in-law) gave me, I found it quite enjoyable with none of the tense moments that a undertaking motorcyclist tends to create. I wonder why my love of 2 wheels didn't translate too strongly into 4 wheels before.
What do these things have to do with each other? Or am I being terribly immodest?
The reason for this post is that these two things just cannot be done together, unless of course you veer over all 3 lanes and no cop will ever buy the 'I was using the racing line' excuse. I was recently piloting a small Japanese City runabout and I was the only one who could drive. Normally on such a trip, I would be sitting in the passenger seat, clicking away at every sign board, every passing car. On the trip to Boreal, I ran out of batteries before we even got halfway there. But not this day, not one photograph. All I could do as the miles swooshed by was rue all the lost photos. At one point, as the sunset approached, it rained briefly and cleaned up the air and the sun dipped behind a rain heavy cloud. Golden lining, 'rays' bursting from the sides, the works. And I was sitting there, with the gearbox on auto, the throttle on cruise, essentially doing nothing as this great scene unfolded in front of me. I even contemplated taking an exit to stop and take some snaps, unfold my tripod and try some HDRs. But we were running late as it is and I was already at the point where caffeine has taken over. So I let it go.
And that is why this post in this photoblog is without a photo.
