Well.... Here it is Year One....

Year One: 

Silhouette 1: The Voodoo Man

Hey guys,

The following set of photos are portraits and random shots I took whilst in Birmingham for my freshmen year at UAB. This album is called Year One. I want to be able to give you an overview of how I met this person and how they impacted my life. Well without further ado here it is, the first of this series....

Person: Michael Ndungu

This guy was one of the most influential people I have ever met in my year in Birmingham. Called The Voodoo Man, Michael was the guy who taught me how to shoot pool properly. He gave me advice when I needed it and he helped me through some tough shit.

The Album with No People: Final Scene

Scene 6: Reminding Utopia That Astounds

The photo that you see on this page is a very special place to me. It was the place where I had decided to fix who I was. You see during a recent time period that I went through I ended treating a certain person in particular like complete and utter shit. I regretted it so much that while I was walking on the green, I sat down on a bench and started crying and cursing myself. After about crying and cursing myself for a good 20 minutes, I looked up and I saw one of the most stunning and intense visions.  I saw "this certain person" walking in the dead center of this view I had the luck of looking at. As she walked towards me I realized instantly that I had to change.
A constant reminder of who I was and who I should be that is what this is to me.

With this I end The Album with No People. 

Thank you for your support. 

Caption: My Reminding Utopia That Astounds walks and completes my final image.

The Album with No People: Scene 5

Scene 5: The Wondrous Park

So on UAB campus we have a little tree covering that is a sort of local park. The place looks beautiful and is one of the most inspiring places and we are very lucky to have that place in this bustling iron forged city. So I figured I would share this place with you and I hope it makes your day as it made mine.

Caption: A solitary man walks through an empty park. 

The Album with No People: Scene 4

Scene 4: The Beautiful Couple's Rainy Moment

Here is a picture that took me forever to take. I was shaking causing it was raining icy water and every time I would finish editing the picture was blurry. But still it was a really good moment if you ask me when I got that picture finally. Who said hard work is not fulfilling...

Caption: A couple sits peacefully on a bench.

The Album with No People: Scene 3

Scene 3: The worn and cobbled path...

Last night I couldn't sleep. Like all insomniacs I don't sleep when I need to. I end up working and the slightly more interesting option, binge watching a television show just because I can. So I pulled an all-nighter and I was looking out of window and it looked beautiful and for once it wasn't cloudy.  So I felt like I had to take pictures today or I would miss something big that I wouldn't be able to get back. This picture is one of my favorites, but it would be perfect if there was person walking down the path, but alas there was no one at all during the early morning.

Caption: An invisible stranger walks the worn and cobbled path...

The Album with No People: Scene 2

Scene 2: The Centenarian Building

In this one the owner of the building was walking by as I took the photograph and he and very candidly asked me to never do it again as well as telling me he would harm me if I did it again. So sneakily I took this one just for the sake of having it.

Yet a very nice person if you ask me.

 

The Album with No People: Scene 1

The Album with No People: Scene 1

I was walking back and I saw a women walk past this alleyway and the image fit perfectly. Sadly she didn't want her photo taken so she "politely" threatened me to delete it or she would stick the camera up some place and take a photo that no one would want to see. 

She was really nice.

So when she left I took a picture of just the alleyway.

Caption: Imagine a person in this alleyway.

The album with no people

The album with no people: Introduction

So I decided to get some early morning street style pictures. The following pictures were taken as replacements due to the fact that Birmingham is a terrible city to take pictures. You will see that no one is in these pictures although they are "street photographs". This is because any image I had with people I nearly got my ass kicked by those said people. At one point a cop approached me and asked me what I was doing.



The point of all this....?

Birmingham is a terrible place for street photographs of natural and uninterrupted life.

Anyway here are the photos that I took.

The Second Story: A Japanese Catfish

The Japanese Catfish is one of the most iconic images of Japanese Culture. When painted, The Japanese Catfish stood as a representation of perfection. Perfection is what we people stride for. It is a fleeting idea. The sad reality is that perfection does not exist. Nothing in this world is perfect and those who think that their actions or their life is perfect are idiots, who will mess it up for themselves. Perfection is the idea that makes us work as hard as we possibly can, yet always staying out of our reach. 

Not only this, but perfection is a relative thing in this world. Defining what you want in this world is just the same as defining your perfection. 

Now after that little rant here is the story I wanted to tell you guys.

Back when I was in India working myself through the high school chain, the one thing that I was absolutely obsessed with was Math. Math was everything I wanted to do. For me in that moment it was Math. I learnt everything I could possibly care to know about Math.Calculus, Differential Equations, Linear Algebra, Applications of ODEs, Basic Algebra, anything that interested me was related to Math. For me perfection meant being the best at Mathematics. Then at one point in my senior year I had a dream. My dream was more of a memory than a dream. 

It was when I was 10 years old. 

I was holding a National Geographic Magazine. It was the June 2007 Issue. It was this picture of an Iceberg melting with the title "The Big Thaw". I was captivated by this image. At that moment I knew that I wanted to take a picture like that. 

My perfection had changed the moment I woke up. I knew that my perfection will be to take a picture so natural and beautiful that it takes people's breath away. That is my fleeting life goal.

For those still struggling to find what you want to do with your life, Dream big. We tend to forget that idea and follow your Japanese Catfish.

The First Story: A Fading Rose (Cheesy Titles for the win)

 There was a situation that happened while in high school that put everything that I was confused about at the time in perspective and cleared all the chaos in my mind. I remembered it when I took this picture. So if you the reader are willing to continue, here is that story.

I was on my way to a girl's house. Not just any girl's house, this girl was astonishingly beautiful and she captured my heart the moment I first saw her. Anyway, I was sitting in my car, nervous as hell, and I saw a man selling bouquets of roses. I asked my driver to pull over so I could buy a rose and as I opened my door, I stopped.

I stopped. I didn't get out. I don't remember why though, All that comes to mind now is that I stopped because I realized that it would never work out and I didn't want to invest everything I had into this girl.

That moment, was one of the moments where the idiot in me triumphed.

I thought I should wait for a couple days and then get her that rose. Once I took this photo, I  imagined those bouquets back on the dusty streets of India fading and wilting in the same manner as this rose is.

Cause it ain't a photographer's first gallery without a picture of his/her lens cap. :P