Honorable Mention
The Rockstar | Bali, Indonesia
DESCRIPTION
Over the years, ever since my last visit to Bali, it had merely occupied a tertiary spot in my mind. The Kuta crowd-shock from that trip was acute enough for my indomitable spirit to cave in. Ironically, Eat Pray Love was actually pioneered only a year back to that fateful trip but it took me almost 9 years to even register that a movie of that kind existed. Anecdotes aside, and for the longest time, I had always denoted Japan as my point of spiritual salvation - seeking and replenishing my soul and senses over and over again. And all this while, right beside me, lied one of the greatest joys that I have ever experienced in my life - Bali. Beyond the racket, the hoopla, the glitz, exists a world that is powerful enough to heal the most derelict of wounds, people so humane that you'd discover what kindness truly means, food so appetizing that you'd contest your mom, and scenery so magical that you'd espouse it as home. Bali is all it takes to make you fall in love with life and leaves you with memories endearing enough to never hate it again.Some of the best golden hours of my photographing life have been in Bali as well. This particular beach demands quite a bit of maneuvering and toil to get to but it was all worth it. The sunrise made it particularly special, especially when it was just us in the audience for two whole nights staying by the beach. The morning disco glow and the corals skirting the peaky cliff somehow tricked me to believe it to be a Freddie Mercury act. Yes, I do hallucinate while in nature.
Shot details: Two exposures, time-blended, tripod hosted
AUTHOR
I was born and brought up in north-eastern India – a region that was largely isolated from the rest of the country for most of the previous century. I'm currently based out of Bangalore, India and as for my day job, I’m a vice president with a major investment bank and oversee functions ranging from software and data engineering to NLP, machine learning and analytics.It took much longer for the photography skills in me to take shape. I hail from a time and family where access to internet, need to travel and ownership of a camera were preceded over by other survival essentials. Consequently, it took a while for me to turn technically competent enough to qualify for a camera. For the initial 8 to 9 years of my travels, I strutted around armed with either a hapless single digit megapixel phone camera or a nondescript point-and-shoot. I cringed at the fact that my exploits were so unremarkable that even my family would frown upon them. The moment of inflection and reckoning came in 2017 when I bought my first advanced DSLR. It’s been close to three years now and my fascination with the craft has only deepened every day – taking me across most continents and destinations not even on Google Maps. Photography has provided me the balance and perspective that were unbeknownst to me previously – allowing me to grow both as a professional and human being. I evolved from a ‘tourist who photographed’ to a ‘curator of memories’. I specifically focus on landscape and architecture photography since I’m a tad too shy to shoot other living beings. Hampi, the Peruvian Andes and the Raja Ampat islands remain my dream expeditions.