FINGER ON YOUR LIPS

 IMPROMPTU SITUATIONS

 

LT COL NOEL ELLIS

 

27/VII/2025

 

These days I am trying my hands to capture birds in flight. Somehow, the best photographs one has clicked are pure flukes. The camera takes on most of the responsibilities of adjusting everything under the earth from light, to aperture, to shutter speed and what have you. The cameraman’s skills do matter.

 

In the evening when the birds fly home, is the best time to click them. The setting sun plays a very important role. Like our children who do not want to come home even when it is sufficiently dark, the birds which fly low and close are the ones which come in late.

 

I have spent many evenings trying to understand their behaviour and flying pattern. Their direction of flight in relation to the sun matters a lot. My own position on the roof is a big consideration as many times a portion of the roof comes in between the bird and the camera.

 

Point and shoot cameras in the days of yore were good. There were no settings to be played around with. The only limitations used to be the thirty-six photos that one roll could take and the time to get them developed into positives. Nowadays, we are spoiled, in the sense, one can keep taking as many photos as the memory card can hold and the battery of the camera can last. Sifting them is another issue.

 

Be that as it may. Today, I thought of going to the roof in the daytime to click waterlilies. They bloom close to mid-day. Keeping the cloud cover in view, the light was just adequate. I hoped some birds would also show off their flying skills. That never was.

 

However, I caught some different ‘birds’. They were in the common lawn and enjoying themselves to the hilt. The darlings were chit-chatting with each other, cooking up girlie stories and situations. Two of them were in active mode and two of them sat on a bench giving all kinds of instructions to the junior ones. Those moments had to be captured to tell a story in a story. I forgot about the waterlilies.

 

I overheard their loud conversation. The two sitting on the bench were “imaginary teachers” and the two in the lawn were their students. The seniors were sending them on errands to fetch something from the staff room, like teachers generally do.

 

One of them was happy to go to an imaginary staff room, but the other one was not obeying the teachers. She just stood in defiance and threw away her umbrella in protest. “Aap mere ko hi bhejte rahte ho, aap khud jao”, was her answer.

 

This cheesed off the teachers and the game and role play were over. Four of them went their own ways. I didn’t want to keep eavesdropping and left them on their own.

 

One thing I have realised is that one can find subjects not necessarily what one is aiming for. One has to be flexible, to switch subjects as per the situation. For a cameraman these are virtues which he/she must be open to. Mind you, every frame, every photo has a story to tell.

 

With no birds in the sky and the lawn to take pictures of and the weather turning sultry was making me sweat no end. It was time to get back to putting my thoughts on paper.

 

Have you guys changed the subject when an impromptu situation arises? Do birds also role play in their flock like our kids do? I wonder!!!!!!

 

JAI HIND

©® NOEL ELLIS