An Exclusive Interview with Sanjoy Sengupta

First of all, I find Light and Composition site quite unique as the whole concept of getting “first time right” is quite challenging, which is the motto of your site, as all photos have to be straight out of camera. So, I feel good to see that setting, timing, and composition worked well in this photo. It’s indeed a great pleasure for an amateur photographer like me to see that jury and people have liked the beautiful ‘Sun and Moon’ lake. It’s a wonderful place afterall.

I am an avid traveller and Sun Moon Lake was the destination for which I travelled so far from Muscat to Taiwan, and I was overwhelmed to see the vastness of the lake at that altitude. Waking up very early and trekking a long way to the pier to get a glimpse of the sunrise, it was a wonderful experience altogether.

[caption id="" align="alignnone" width="650"] Misty Morning, by Sanjoy Sengupta[/caption]

It’s been a long journey since I had my Nikon film camera in 1999. Digital world has made it easy for us to pursue it as a hobby, though it remains a very expensive hobby even today. It’s a continuous learning, but great fun to pursue something which you like the most.

I guess it’s my passion for travelling, seeing new things, meeting new people and understanding their culture that pushes me towards photography.

As I love travelling, my focus is more on landscapes and street, however, I do love to shoot macros and birds. I think, basics are applicable for all genres, and I am still learning.

This is a continuous learning process and in this Art form, a large component is visualisation and composition and then comes the skills of using the machine called “camera” to capture the moment. Guess the universal rule is ‘think twice before you press the shutter’.

Though my journey with photography started way back in 1999 with Nikon’s legendary film camera FM10, I think, I am still at basics and I still have a lot to learn. Thankfully, being in this digital age, I do have my own facebook photography page, flickr and 500px page also, where I upload my pictures and share it with all, so that I can learn from their comments and suggestions.

Yes, there’s a wonderful platform for hobbyists in Muscat called FSO (Friday Shoot out). They are all enthusiast and hobbyists and share the knowledge and some of them are wonderful photographers continuously featuring in Nikon Middle East competitions. I am lucky to be associated with them and my skills have gone up manifold sharing and learning this art with this group. I am also learning from my photographer friends of countries I visit and as I roam around with them to many new places, learn different skills and techniques.

The best advice will be roam around and shoot what you feel a memorable moment and enjoy the journey. As it’s an art punched with Science of light, you have to be at the right time at right spot to get that WOW effect.