Steve McCurry uses Nikon:)

The master gave a talk in Kuala Lumpur and i had the chance to meet him and hear his experiences directly from him . An evening well spent .

Location: Kuala Lumpur

Note : In case the pics are not visible here all the pics can be viewed here http://www.facebook.com/album.php?aid=85783&id=524303960&l=2912e4ca5c

Steve McCurry signs and tells me that he also used Nikon .




http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Steve_McCurry
http://www.stevemccurry.com/

Waiting in anticipation . I assumed that Malaysians true to the spirit will follow the MST , but to my horror i saw people have jammed in and were waiting from 2 hours before the event . Wonders never cease

He arrives . a very unassuming guy and very simple speaker.

He starts off with India and Holi . His pics from his last 30 years in this business

states that the tradition of wearing a Turban is losing relevance due to the westernisation and thats pretty saddening.

this classic and famous round of pics from Rajasthan , according to him were taken by chance while he was driving around !




One guys asks whether he uses any filters and enhancements . Steve says that all these pics were taken without any filters, flashes and no postproduction almost 25 years ago !

One of his various covers of Nat Geo. He quips that the guys is smiling cuz he was actually embarrassed as people around were telling him that he is being clicked

Thats Steve during an indian monsoon

A different view of Taj .

he says that he went back to the Taj later on to try to replicate this shot with the Taj in the back ground but couldnt as the rail tracks had been removed.

one guy asks how much of digital photography Steve does. He says that out of all the pics he is showing today only 10% are digital rest are all analogue .

Nat geo got lot of comments asking why the sunlight appeared to come from different directions and turned almost into a controversy. Steve says this was because he had used a wide angle lens and it distorted the pic.

This guy put on new clothes for the pic and it seems, borrowed his fathers AK 47 for this !!

Another pic which he says was quite by chance ;)

Steve doesnt usually photograph Celebrities , but made an exception for her . HE was very impressed by Aung San Suu Kyi

Cambodia - Angkor wat . He points out that he likes how the figures of the 3 monks on the right reflect the three towers of the Angkor wat . Loved it ;)

He says it took him quite a while to understand some cultural extremes , but once you understand the spirit and the motivation behind any gruesome practice you will GET it.

One guy asks whether he get model releases for his pictures. And he firmly says No , it is not required for editorial .

Steve plans to make a book on people sleeping across the world . This particular image was striking to me.

Another of his Nat Geo covers.

Steve says that people rarely are smiling in his pictures . In this pic the Mother and daughter had the same front tooth missing . To capture that , he made them laugh till they realised what he was upto ;)

he says Afghan women have the best facial features in the world .

Sharbat Gul ! all 13 year old at the afghan camp in 1984

He points out that the scar on her nose which was crucial in finding her 17 years later.

When he was on the mission to search for her , lots of women claimed to be Gula , and this was one of them. He says that one look at the eyes and you could easily make out that she wasnt the one.

The same girl who claimed to be Gula

Around that time a man came to meet the Nat geo team claiming to he the afghan Girl's brother . Steve says that when he looked at his eyes his heart almost skipped a beat and he knew they were close.

Finally she reveals herself in 2002 after more than 17 years

The team does all kinds of retina scanning and facial features to determine that she is the one.

He points out to the nose scar.


Sharbat Gula's Husband ,

Her husband says that he marriage to him was the her happiest moment till now . !!! steve didnt get it and neither did i . But he guesses that her life in the last 17 years has been pretty tough .

He quips that probably now they are in a condo in LA ;) due to the remuneration that they got

The picture that made the cover as "FOUND" He says that while photographing this , he ran out of film and he went in to change and she assumed that it is done and they left . Luckily he manged to get enough for the article and a cover shot.

2002 cover

Thats sheikh Abu pasha !! ;) Steve cracks at his own joke .

Brands which will not work... back home.

These are real pics and NO special effects ! these are ACTUAL popular brands in Egypt. .

Why they will not work in India ......Self explanatory !






Non Indian Readers who do not get the meaning .. please write to me and i will give the explanation separately :)



Cheers

Brand Control Council of India

Brand Control Council of India

Perhaps the most engrossing news that has been doing the rounds nowadays, is the BCCI announcing new schemes regarding its conduct, pay schemes etc.
I was left wondering on why have they not introduced , Goals, KRA’s , the Deliverables , Hours of Training at the nets per year when they introduced performance based pay systems - in effect a full fledged ‘corporatisation ‘ of the Game.

So far so good - but wait did I miss out on something , I always used to believe that these people (players) have devoted their life to Cricket and becuz they were able to convert their dream to reality they are not in the Corporate rut and boy was I jealous . They were held in high esteem , not because they are famous, but because they dared to be different and had the guts to go out and play their heart out .

Now it is a different story now even they have to worry about year end
performance appraisals and month end paycheques poor guys , Crab Mentality cant have somebody happy ! .

Now lets focus on one of the rulings – No player can endorse more than 3 brands or is it companies or is it campaigns /Ads in a year . And no brand or is it company or a campaign/Ad can take more that 2 players at a time.

Now let me get one thing straight, Research people / Companies do research worth lakhs to find a ‘ brand fit’ between a celebrity and the Brand Values . Lot of MR people go to lots of places stay in great places to get out vital significant Quant and Quali insights into this whole process of Brand Fit . Clients Pay money , MR people spend effort and time period . But now …….
Although somehow all brand values seem to fit SRK or AB or Sachin or Dhoni for some weird reason . but we’ll let this thought pass for the time being!

So BCCI now has controlled how many Brand Fit possible in a year , C mon even if the MR people say that Uthappa is the purrrfect fit for your itch guard cream , you CANT do anything , you must go in for Kader Khan or Pawar (Not Romesh .. you twit ! ) …………Period.

What happens to the Sports Management firms ! nothing they will become like media managers , buy as much brands as possible and allocate it to the players………………. 2 each . Lawyers will get a lot of business as they would be fighting with the BCCI on how a Brand / Ad/Campaign/Company are all same things …. Uthappa would be doing Lux, Surf , Rin, Rexona but they are in fact Brand “Extentions” of only Two Categories ! (We might have some Players and lawyers taking up a crash course in MICA to understand the nuances …. Cheapo ! )


But but , having said that I am again slightly confused reg. the concept of a Brand Ambassador . In the case of sports , I had thought , a Sport becomes popular , more and more people watch it , few sportsmen become popular and their Brand Value is mapped and calculated using sophisticated matrices ( although Sachin will always get more than anybody no matter what he scores but that’s a different thing………! ) As higher number of eyeballs are captured , a brand thinks that by associating with this celebrity it can piggyback and get some leverage . So Far so Good.

So in effect it is supply demand thing , more the demand for a sports more the demand for the people playing the sport , and more the demand for endorsements . So in effect the people (public) who are raising a hue and cry over the endorsements done by players , when in fact it is due to THEM that they are getting any kind of work !

So stop watching cricket and they would stop getting endorsements !!!

hey ………. now that is interesting , I think the BCCI has actually done a BIG favor to the players . As anywayz they were not going to get any renewals of their contracts with Pepsi’s of the world , but now they need not get embarrassed they can always say that they have deliberately not taken up any endorsement for the sake of the country ! Kool Na .. BCCI wins, The Players Wins , The Public …… always the Ch#$@# a’s !


If you have read this far then I must appreciate your patience , anyhow the above thing did not make anysense to me and if it did to you , please please do comment . Would love to hear from you .

Btw, I am raising a PIL that SRk should reduce the ads that he is doing as his films are not upto the mark and also KBC is going down in TRP’s . there should be a cap on 1 ad every year and 1 extra ad for every hit movie he give . Sounds logical right , performance based incentive .. ha ha .


Leaving you with this thought, Turning a hobby into your profession is the most difficult thing to achieve, but once you do that it is no more a hobby!

Btw. If you wondering what has the image got to do with the article ...NOTHING ... I had just clicked it yesterday and was force fitting it .. thats all . Being a MICAn i could have given you a 20 point paper on the relevance of the pic , but lets leave it now.

Cheers