This is my father, Balaji Ganesan. As I was taking this photo, for some reason I remembered the time he and I went hiking in the nearby Saginaw forest. When we were there we took our camera and binoculars in search of birds to watch, and when we were about an hour and a half into the hike, we spotted a beautiful Hawk perched on a tree. We were absolutely amazed. I think I thought about this time because of what we were doing outside. We were doing some lawn work together outside, and I took this photo is the middle of our ask. I think this picture depicts that he is 'The Father' of the house, as it shows him while he was working outside, for the house, which is what he does. He supports us and our house. I felt that this very meaning was especially brought out by the black and white image because I feel it shows him as rugged and hardworking.
This is Sangeetha Balaji, my mother. A stone cold killer, as are most mothers. But, this photo is to depict the other, calm, serene and loving side of her. She yelled at me atleast 3 times during this ‘photoshoot’ for wasting her time, yet still managed to look the total opposite of this in her pictures. Even after all that she told me she absolutely loved all the photos. That’s the thing with moms, no matter what they always appreciate any small thing you do. I tried to use the Vibrance and Saturation tool to help bring out the color in her dress, which I think helps us see the colorful, unique life as a mom. I also used negative spacing in the B&W photo as I think it makes this picture look much more artistic.
This is Mr. Ragu. He is a Biostatistics professor at The University of Michigan, and also a Hindu philosophy teacher at the local temple, which is how I know him. Every week during our ‘philosophy lecture’ he presents us with a riddle or puzzle, which strangely we are literally never able to solve, while he, solves it in seconds with no error. I think this is what I wanted to bring out in these photos. Using the black and white adjustment on the right side photo, and taking it from a slight side angle, I think, depicts him as a wise, experienced man, and I think the left side picture, in color, as vibrant as can be, shows how he is a joyful energetic man full of wisdom.
This is the boss himself, my younger cousin Vaikunth. An energetic young man, who I know as the most annoying brother in the world. These photos were taken during our vacation to Florida during the holidays. My favorite of these is the B&W ‘semi-candid’ where I captured the moment right before he was about to burst into hysterical laughter. Of course there was no joke though. Any kid his age, in that ‘awkward’ situation would burst into laughter just because people are staring at him. And of course, that was the result I wanted; to capture that quick moment of happiness, which shows the joyful, young spirit of his. I used the crop tool to make sure the proportions were right and played with the brightness to better show his features.
My uncle, Mr. Anantha was possibly the hardest to shoot for the simple reason being he didn’t want to be the subject, which is the reason for his strange, awkward smile. I actually found this really funny so I decided to use it. He and my father went to the same school as kids so he tells me lots of funny stories about how they both used to torture the teachers together. One time, and I kid you not, the school electrician yelled at them for being too ‘naughty’. So, to teach him a lesson they broke the ceiling fan, and of course got in huge trouble. I really like this story because it lets me see my adult uncle as a child. Maybe if you look close, you can see that though the picture portrays him as a mature adult, his eyes show otherwise, his playfulness. I made sure to crop the image to proportion and bring out the vibrance in the image. I also made sure to bring out the blue in his shirt to give the image a ‘pop’ of color.