Beyond Shotz

April 2006

2006-05-04T00:44:00.000-07:00

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Dear Readers,

We at Beyond Shotz are extremely thrilled by your continued support and participation. It is heartening to see an ever increasing list of subscribers eager to support and encourage us by spreading the good word around.

This issue is a special one. It brings forth a bouquet of articles telling the story of our society. Leading us to places where we rarely go, talking about the people who we rarely hear about, showing us pictures of those who are at the very edge of our society and telling their stories.

The cover story Behind the curtains of color by Dr. Vivek Muthuramalingam, is a moving account of the circus artists, the trapeze, the clown and the innumerable people behind daredevil acts. This article is the story of these entertainers, their daily trials and tribulations and the lives they lead. Dr. Vivek is an extremely talented, independent photographer who has a special interest in the field of Social documentary. I am sure you would enjoy this issue for both the photographs and the story.

Ordinary people can accomplish extraordinary things. In fact Gregory Smith is more than just an ordinary person. The interview of the month features his work with street kids of Brazil. CARF (Children At Risk Foundation) started by Gregory in 1992 has helped rehabilitate many street children who would otherwise have slipped into a dangerous life. How Greg did it against all challenges is truly inspirational.

Sanjay Arora more popularly known as Sanzen is the Artist of the month. He talks about his spell binding images and his photography instincts in this issue.

Akshay Mahajan, a talented photographer and a riveting writer takes you through the by lanes and gallis of Dharavi in this beautiful article Dharavi, Land of enterprise? My own memories of Mumbai resonated with joy whilst reading this article. Mumbai does make people passionate, no doubt.

Vinay Panjwani has written an article Alive which narrates the existential struggles of the Nath community popularly known to us as Snake Charmers. He traces the common issues these people face and asks what is perhaps the least asked question in India today.

Is globalization changing India and Indians in a way that we would forget our roots and wither away our strengths. All for a few dollars more.

The article by Harish about Nilgiris Railways is the perfect foil to lighten our minds and take us through an enchanting journey of misty mountains, fragrant tea gardens and the bustling hill station of Ooty and finally, Rakesh Dhareshwars interesting article on Extreme Macro completes this issue of Beyond Shotz.

We have no doubt that this issue is a path breaking one and gives Beyond Shotz its true character. It is about more than photographs. It is about the stories, the people and the lives we live.

Hope you enjoy it as much as we had enjoyed bringing it to you.

We at Beyond Shotz welcome your support and feedback. Do write in your mails to beyondshots@gmail.com

Team, Beyond Shotz

March 2006

2006-03-31T03:19:00.000-08:00

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Dear Readers,

Riding on the success of the February issue, Beyond Shotz continues to explore newer avenues of life; to reach out to the people; to spread the message beyond the photographs. The March edition of the magazine covers experiences of photographers capturing moments of everyday life of people of the world.

As you read through the pages of this magazine you will discover interesting facts, stories and truth behind those "awesome" photographs. These carry thoughts from across the world. From the cities ravaged by war to those filled with fun and happiness.

As we take you from cities to villages to holiday destinations, you will discover the faces of innocence of Rural India. This story goes beyond the sufferings and the poverty found in Indian villages. It is a pleasure for any photographer to travel to such exotic locations. The passion takes you there. It took us to Arambol. Here was a place so different from the densely populated beaches of Goa. This place offers you a relaxed atmosphere and will elevate you to a new level in capturing the essence of the place.

The world continues to migrate to digital. Now that the two majors have decided to shelve all their film cameras, its only natural for the trend to follow India. From mobile phones to digital point and shoots, people in India are shooting like never before. We do hope that out of all this digital junk, the art of photography still prevails.

Your support and feedback is making this magazine better by the day. As always please continue to provide us with your valuable feedback. You can write to us at beyondshots@gmail.com.

Team - Beyond Shotz

February 2006

2006-02-27T22:19:00.000-08:00

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At the outset, on behalf of the Team Beyond Shotz, I would like to express my gratitude to all the subscribers/readers for giving the magazine a warm reception. Over five thousand downloads in the very first month is quite an achievement by any standards. The most encouraging aspect of all this was the attitude of the subscribers towards this magazine. We recieved several mails and telephone calls telling us that they want to be active participants and contribute to Beyond Shotz magazine. Thank you! You have driven away all our doubts and we promise to take this magazine to greater heights.

In this issue, we bring you a very interesting article on "The Art and Science of Bird Photography" authored by Sudhir Shivram. Sudhir is a well known face in the Indian wildlife circle and when contacted, he immediately obliged. I am sure the story fascinates birders and non - birders alike.

There is another special feature, "Migrant Workers - a different perspective" written by a talented young artist Sandip Debnath. This is featured under a new section called "Beyond Shotz Special". This section will be exclusively dedicated for documentary photography.

Mr. Anand Sharan, a well known photographer, is a familiar name for all shutterbugs in Bangalore. He is our featured artist of the month.

We have brought out many other new features - Travel feature, equipment review by the subscribers called "My Gear" in this issue. There are regular features too, City Watch, Artist Showcase, Gallery and BSB Photo of the Week. We hope you will enjoy the package.

We also have a vastly enhanced design of the magazine and it now features links to the web sites directly from within the magazine. So, go ahead and click them.

Please continue to give your valuable feedback to beyondshots@gmail.com, with your support we both can make this magazine better.

Team - Beyond Shotz

Beyond Shotz Launched!

2006-01-29T09:08:00.000-08:00

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Winter in Bangalore is always a special season. It was on such a cold winter morning in Cubbon Park that some of us associated with the contest met and discussed on "what's next?" Ideas floated around and someone popped up the idea of a photo journal. Everyone connected enthusiastically to that idea and "Beyond Shotz" was born.

Yeah, you read it right. We are launching an online monthly photo journal by the name of Beyond Shotz today. The journal is positioned to be a platform for all passionate shutter bugs to display and share their work and at the same time improve on their photography skills.

The inaugural issue of the journal has the following sections

Cover Story
Like any other magazine, this will feature a special topic related to different aspects of photography like the one in the inaugural issue pertaining to travel photography.

Artist of the month
An interview with noted photographers giving an insight into their work and photography instincts. This month we have an interview with Kalyan Varma.

Gallery
Some of the wonderful pictures taken from the web will be published here. The link to the photographer’s website will be given. In this issue we have published a few selections from Flickr but this will increase and will feature pictures sent by members. Details will be announced soon.

City Watch
This feature will cover a special event in a city, of course from a photographer’s perspective. This is not restricted to Bangalore alone and members can send contribute articles about the events around your hometowns too.

General Features
General articles about photography. Basically anything under the sun as long as it is related to photography and makes for interesting reading. This month we have covered the issue of Copyrights.

Artist Showcase
One member from the group will be selected and showcased in this section. Apart from featuring the best photographs of the member, a brief introduction about the artist’s background and equipment used will also be given. This month we have featured a talented member of our group, Nathan. Details will be announced soon regarding how members can submit their photographs to be showcased in this section.

Do it yourself
This an interesting section on how to build assets that aid in photography. This month, Nishant takes you through building a light box in your home itself with minimum cost.

Back to School
There are many amateurs amongst us who might be shy to ask basic questions about this hobby. This is for the benefit of all those beginners who have just come into the wonderful world of photography.

BSBPOTW pictures
This section will showcase the previous month’s winning entries.

Apart from these, there are plans to include the following from the next issue onwards:

Digital Darkroom
Photoshop/Gimp tips and tricks

Behind the Picture
There are plenty of pictures which makes one go "Wow". Such pictures will be featured here with a brief backgrounder.

Beyond classroom
If you have experimented based on the lessons of the previous issue, you can send the best pictures to the board. The selected pictures will be published here.

Feedback
Selected letters from the members about the previous issue.

News and Events
News from the world of photography

Beyond Shots
Members can submit their photograph and ask for review here on how to improve the picture.

Classifieds
Buy/sell photography equipment here.

The list does not end here and will continue to grow based on your feedback and response.

All in all, Beyond Shotz is an interactive medium like the contest on Flickr. Your participation and contribution is the lifeline of the journal. So spread the word and help this journal to reach out to as many photographers as you can. This magazine belongs to you, we are just custodians of this. Do put in your creative cap and start sending your articles and photographs for the next issue.

Please send your feedback and your articles to beyondshots@gmail.com

Before we end, about us - the people behind Beyond Shotz

Jayanth Sharma
Kishore Murthy
Nishant N
Satish N
Sudarshan
Suyog Gaidhani
Venkatesh K

That’s a lot of introduction and you must be wondering about the magazine itself. So here it is:

Download (~2 MB)

Download January 2006 issue [MIRROR 1]
Download January 2006 issue [MIRROR 2]

Note - It is recommended to use the latest version of Adobe Acrobat Reader (ver 7.0). Lower versions may not be able to display the contents of the magazine correctly. Download the latest version from http://www.adobe.com/products/acrobat/readstep2.html

Special thanks to Kishore Murthy and Ashwin K for allowing us to use his webspace to host the inaugural issue.

If anyone has a problem with downloading, send a mail to beyondshots@gmail.com and we will mail the copy to you