Teaching Computer Skills

I come from a remote area in Rural India.
The first internet connection came there just last year. In all there are just five houses that have internet in the whole town. Mine happens to be one of them.
Now that I am here, I had tried to teaching the basic usage of computers to my parents, so that they could be in touch with me over emails! This was seen as a “strategy” to save some cash over the phone. (Its a different thing that we talk on phone more and the phone bills have not really stopped)
I remember trying to teach my parents about the internet, and how it could help them find “ANY” information that they wan, thanks to Google, (which they confused for goggles! :P).

I thus was happy that I had made my parents “Computer Literate” which happens to be more important these days than the normal literacy programs run by the governments back home.

One day, my mom called and said .. Son , we want to see you! and how you look? and if you are well, whether you have put on weight thanks to American cheese.. or lost weight… thanks to the demanding graduate School!
Also, “email” us a recent photograph of yours.

So one fine day i said.. ok.. i will teach how to use SKYPE so that they could see their darling son! I tried for almost 30 minutes to explain them… And yes. u guessed it.. I failed. I could not teach my parents, both of who are doctors, how to use a simple program. This was also because of the fact that we both are on different platforms, XP vs Tiger.

The point is ..does the standard methods of teaching hold good in imparting computer literacy? Do the rules change? What kind of basics are stressed upon here?

I also happen to have a strong interest in rural education and whenever i am home, i spend hours with children from local school, answering their questions, watching them smile, hearing them shout.

One question that a child had heard a new word somewhere and had asked me was “What is a computer?”. I was dumb. I had no answer in which I could explain that to that kid. I tried… The kid believed me.. But I think i had failed.

Today I was reading Neilsen’s post on Life Long Computer Skills in this article http://www.useit.com/alertbox/computer-skills.html

The points mentioned are really interesting and I do see a clear connection in what Marty said in class.

While I found it interesting, i was shocked at the fact that kids in America are taught how to use Excel sheets in grade 3!!!!

What are other people’s thoughts on this?

Selective coloring

How i wish we could all do it... Selective coloring.
Remove the colors of sorrow in life and fill it only with those colors that give us joy and unending
happiness.
I do remember while interacting with a senior person that Life itself is a Photoshop document. You keep making the actions and the canvas is filled with the events. The only difference is that in Life you do not have the option of Undo (CTRL+Z).


One would argue what are the colors that one can associate happiness with?
Whats a color of happiness in one culture may not be in another. As a designer do we need to be sensitive to such things? Many people say that India is a land of color ! and that its a photographer's paradise. But still we associate the black and white medium to sadness and mourning...
The conception generally is that Joy is present only when there is color. This may be true in most of the cases not all though!



Doing this Selective coloring is really simple.
1) Open the image on Photoshop. This is the 'Background Layer' in the opened document.
2) Copy the image layer onto another layer (this is the "Background Copy layer") so that both the layers are coinciding, and the images are just one below the other.
3) Convert this copy layer into Black and white. Using Image> Adjustment > Gradient Map. ( make sure that the image pallete in the menu toolbar has the colors Black in foreground and White in background.
4) Select the eraser tool and erase those parts of the image which you want in color from the Copied layer. Since the image on the lower layer still has the colored image, the desired effect is easily attained.




I just truly wish that i could do this with Life also!
Enjoy!

Light Painting Workshop

Recently I had conducted a photography workshop titled "Light painting Workshop" for the fellow employees in my department in the company.
The response was good and we had around 20 enthusiastic people participating.
April 6th 2007 3-4 PM.



What is Light Painting?
Light painting is a technique in which light sources are projected or "painted" in selective areas during the camera exposure. All work is done in camera, no computer manipulation occurs. Exposures can range from 20 seconds upwards to an entire evening to achieve.
Light painting opens up a world of possibilities that are not available in the world of near-instant exposure. For example, for infinite depth of field, simply keep refocusing the camera as you light parts of the subject that are at different distances from the lens. To make just a portion of the subject diffuse, put a stocking over the lens while you're painting that part.

The interesting part was that many of the folks had not handled a SLR camera ever. So the workshop also involved giving insights into the way the Bulb mode in the camera functions.



The whole team was divided into two and each team had one Torch, a colored cellophene paper as their props. Each teams were provided a Digital SLR set on a tripod. The idea was to unleash the creativity and also put on the thinking caps and come up with interesting themes for the paintings.



The themes were pretty interesting with people doing the Matrix, Bharatnatyam Dance, the Symbol Om, other body postures etc. Here are some of the shots that were taken from the participants of the workshop.

Know your Soul..

I have always read that of the three things that a human being is composed of; namely the body, mind and the soul, and it is the Soul that should be pleased the most. Only then can the other two remain happy. If the soul is happy, the others are bound to be happy. It is perhaps the reason why the happiness in children are most explained. Having the freedom to do what they please and also do things they like.
"Know your soul" is what the gurus keep saying. So thats what I have been trying to do in the past few days... knowing myself better... and it has been helping me in taking decisions.

So this is what i did... one day.. or rather one night!

I had this strong urge of going for a long drive on my bike... convinced my roommate to accompany me and then we were speeding on the National Highway # 7 that connects Bangalore to Chennai in a short while.
The initial plan was to drive, take a few shots of the sunset and be back in an hour's time.
The weather was nice.. and the breeze blowing on my face on the speeding bike just added to the pleasure.
Though could not capture the sunrise, owing to the clouds that played spoilsport, we decided to extend our drive and what a good decision that was!
Decided to hit Hosur, have a cup of coffee and come back.

Once we reached Hosur, we decided to roam the bylanes of the city and get a feel and smell of a small city. In the yonder we spotted a hill atop which was a temple while doing so. And at that moment the only thought that came to our mind simultaneously was to go there!

The Chandrachoodeshwar temple climb was steep and glad that we had a bike to take us there!
And man.. what a sight from that hill!
The city below just beginning to rest for the night...only to wake up to another busy day the next..

And with the number of lights that one could spot.. the skies felt lonely. It appeared that the world had turned upside down and I was seeing stars on the ground rather than the sky!

It's very rare that I don't carry my camera along to the places i visit. Thus there too i had to take some shots of the breathtaking views below.
So i tried some long exposure shots.
Some may wonder how i did this without a tripod... the rocks and the trees served as a perfect tripod to me and i made the full use of it!

Hosur City in the Yonder at Night


The entrance to the Chandrachoodeshwar Temple, outskirts of Hosur.


Hosur at Night


Light streaks across the road


Hoping to make more such trips in the near future!

Kolkata is incomplete without...

The trams


A photographer's paradise... One place where one can never get tired of shooting! Its a wonder as to how long will these trams remain in function! They are very much in function and is jam packed at times! Even though its slow, one wonders what makes it the preferred mode of transport for the hundreds of people daily..

The Hand Pulled Rickshaws

These hand pulled rickshaws have been the face of Kolkata for long... the very sight of this reminds one of the novel City of Joy... Of late the government has issued an order to ban these hand pulled rickshaws. There are a group of people who are against this mainly for the reason that it will cause mass unemployment... currently there are around 10 thousand such rickshaw pullers there... Some also feel that this is actually a good thing in the crowded city of Kolkata and a welcome thing from the pollution that has been a characteristic of the city.

The street children


There are so many children like these on the streets of Kolkata... they are indeed nice as subjects to shoot and perhaps the most easily available.. but after a while they start to haunt you.. the poverty.. the conditions in which they live... they things they do .. like begging.. looking for food.. not knowing when their next meals would come from.. or perhaps just sleep on the pavements.. hoping for a better tomorrow...

The footpath dwellers

The number of families stranded on the footpaths of Kolkata is just uncountable... There are always so many of them on the streets.. and it appears that their drawing , study, bed room are all on the footpath. The number of such families keep increasing due to people flocking to the city from nearby towns, villages and states.

The earners of the footpath

On the footpath, its their office. They sit there whole day.. wait for customers.. eye each person passing by .. and then leave for the day.. to come back the next day....

The Yellow Taxis

This is one thing that you can never miss in Kolkata. They are everywhere...! The Ambassadors taxis! One of the most comfortable vehicles to travel by! And with the FM radio on full swing, no ride across the city seems to be boring!

The Tea with the daily News

When was the last time you actually saw the newspapers on the walls for a community... when was the last time you actually sat with friends at a chai stall reading and discussing about the latest news... politics.. cricket.. unions..

The Howrah Bridge

The symbol of Old Kolkata...

The Street side Chowmein and Roll stalls

Its a wonder as to how the stomach never gets spoilt! These stalls are there at almost all areas of the city! Oh BTW the rolls and Chowmeins and the chicken chillies here are very tasty and cheap too!

The Victoria Memorial

In houses one of the largest painting exhibitions of the Indian History with artifacts from the historical India. The architecture is indeed marvelous and amazing!

And above all.. Cricket!

Where else but in Kolkata! The Cricket fever is always at a high here! No matter how the country's team performs... the streets have always been and will be a playground to millions!

Well.. This is one place where I could go on and on shooting.. and run out of films/ memory but never out of subjects!
An ancient city with a touch of modernity! I just love the place!
I have more pictures at this location My Kolkata Pictures

Do comment on the pics! I look forward to your comments and feedback!