Photography

Photos By Om Newsletter

Photo by Chris Michel

Every photo tells a story. And there is a story behind every image. As a writer, I found myself restricted by the social platforms when it came to telling that story.

I believe we all deserve more than a blink of an eye for our work. The web allows me to share higher quality images and gives you a chance to view them on a screen bigger than our phones.

I wanted to unshackle from the silver cage of social media, and that is why I started a small newsletter — to share my creative work.

I also sometimes share links to the work of other photographers, articles worth reading, and soon short chats with fellow photographers whose work I admire.

I hope you can join me on my journey and sign-up for this occasional newsletter.

On Photography
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The Brouhaha over Google Photos

black and white smartphone displaying google search
Photo by Daniel Romero on Unsplash

I am not a Google fanboy. Far from it. While Google is not as cavalier as Facebook or as sneaky as Amazon, it is still a company that plays fast and loose with data and privacy. I point this out because I am about to take a contrarian position to the current brouhaha around Google ending free, unlimited storage on its Photos service. 

In case you missed it, Google recently said that starting in June 2021, there will be no more unlimited uploading of gigabytes of photos to its servers at no charge. If you want to use the service, you will adhere to a 15 GB capacity limit — or you will have to pay. (For comparison, Apple offers a mere 5 GB for free.) The change won’t impact all the photos you have already uploaded to their cloud. Because Google previously touted

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Technology
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What remains in the AI age!

What remains are the things that cannot be relegated to machines and algorithms, copied from others, or reduced to formulas, directions, and recipes: the artist remains—the singular human individual capable of creative ideas, original thoughts, deep contemplation, and unique expressions of complex ideas, philosophies, and emotions.

Guy Tal

On Photography
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Faster & faster it goes as the seasons’ change

The weather in San Francisco is pretty much the same throughout most of the year. It usually only varies by about ten degrees. The cold means wearing a sweater in the morning with a jacket. A warm day involves wearing just a light cotton sweater. Either way, you dress in layers. The seasons of the sea, however, are more extreme and expressive. 

As someone who frequents the beaches around the San Francisco Bay Area, I have learned about the sea seasons. Like the spring, summer, fall, and winter seasons we have on the land, the oceans also celebrate their own seasons. The oceans have three seasons: Winter Storm (December – February), Upwelling (March-August), and the Oceanic season (September- November.) 

As the name suggests, the upwelling is when the ocean has a lot of energy, and swells are significant. The waves are furious and urgent. The oceanic season is more gentle

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Musings, On Photography
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Unseen is what fuels the imagination

It is what we don’t see (or can’t see) that fuels our imagination. As a child, I read about faraway places. I imagined New York they wrote about in the books. I dreamt of San Francisco as described by Dashiell Hammett in his book. And when I got there, I let the reality fill in the gaps. And even today, when I am going somewhere, I end up reading about a place before I look at the images. I imagine before I experience reality. Giving myself a chance to imagine allows me to romanticize the real a little.

That approach has translated into my photography as well. The mysterious is what makes a great image for me. And perhaps that is why I end up making images, which leave a lot of room for others to imagine. It is why I like fog – because it creates room for all

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Musings, On Photography
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Failure is part of learning

I couldn’t sleep. Dreaming some dreams that were neither good nor memorable, I kept tossing and turning. At 4 am, I gave up and got up to make myself a cup of tea and read a bit. I got through about 30 pages of Working by Robert Caro before deciding to go out. I wanted to make photos, even though the forecast was a bit meh. No rain. No fog. Nothing atmospheric. Clouds without character. Not even a good sunrise. I still decided to go. I texted my friend Tim, and off we went to Mount Davidson Park.

Lack of sleep and medication that still had not flushed out of my system made it difficult to walk up the gentle incline. Nevertheless, when we reached the top, I stood right next to that once-famous tree that is now shunned and pushed aside and watched the city, its blinking lights and

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Musings, On Photography
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A frame of mind

This past weekend, just before everything slowed down for Thanksgiving, I got a chance to reflect on my photographic journey. While it is easy to quantify the technological and social success of a craft such as photography, it is much harder for us to ask what the emotional impact is of creativity and creation.

When I look back at the past four-and-a-half years, I think of photography as a loyal and constant companion. I am quite thankful for the role it has played in helping me deal with a deep sense of loss that came from the shutdown of GigaOM.

We are living in boom times for startups. Every year, more and more entrepreneurs are striking out on their own, trying to find a new opportunity. As an investor, I am fortunate enough to experience the Cambrian explosion of entrepreneurial creativity. However, I have also witnessed many broken dreams and

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Musings, My Essays, On Photography
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Meeting Michael Kenna

I had a chance to meet photography legend Michael Kenna at a gallery in Carmel today. He is one of my photography heroes and you can well imagine my excitement. We didn’t talk about photos. Instead, we had a fun conversation about shoes, and why we love them. Maybe it is because as kids we were limited by our circumstances and imagined shoes were a sign of making it in the world. And then I looked at some of his new works and had him sign a couple of his books for me.

November 4, 2019, Carmel by the Sea

Musings
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Patience & photography

Northern California. Made with Leica SL and Leica SL Summicron f2/50mm

Photography is an act of supreme patience — a great landscape image is nothing more than mother nature’s desire to oblige us with perfect light, and environment. It is up to us to await for her blessing and capture the moment. Then it is all upto our mind and soul to interpret it in camera and in a computer and render it anywhere. And all of it needs patience

On Photography
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