[Assam] First Prize Winner!

Sun Aug 13 21:37:58 PDT 2006

Congrats C'da. These were great photos as usual.

On 8/13/06, Rajib Das <rajibdas at yahoo.com> wrote:
>
> C-da,
>
> Have you put up all your photographs on Flickr?
>
> Rajib
>
>
> --- Dilip/Dil Deka <dilipdeka at yahoo.com> wrote:
>
> > Guess who?  Chandan Mahanta had the best picture  in
> > the Best Garden Photography category of the 2006 St.
> > Louis Post-Dispatch Great Garden Contest.
> >
> ======================================================================
> >
> >   Picture perfect
> >   By Becky Homan
> >   SPECIAL TO THE POST-DISPATCH
> >   08/12/2006
> >
> > The pale-yellow flower of a native lotus (Nelumbo
> > lutea) is a close-up photo by Chan Mahanta,
> > first–place winner in the Best Garden Photography
> > category of the 2006 St. Louis Post-Dispatch Great
> > Garden Contest.
> > (Chan Mahanta)
> >
> > How do you tell a plant to say "cheese?"
> >
> > Here's how, metaphorically speaking. You look for
> > the most beautiful, if subdued, daylight - early in
> > the morning on what will be a sunny day, or anytime
> > that high clouds make for bright-but-overcast
> > weather. You find a flower or foliage or some scene
> > that moves you to want its picture. And you come in
> > close if your camera has a macro lens, or you step
> > back with a longer lens and work on just the right
> > composition for your image.
> >
> > Winners in the Best Garden Photography category of
> > the 2006 St. Louis Post-Dispatch Great Garden
> > Contest did most of these things. And more. All are
> > amateur photographers, by the way, but with
> > gardening or photography among their favorite
> > hobbies.
> >
> > "Overall, the entries were impressive," says contest
> > founder, horticulturist and judge Ken Miller. "Some
> > people took pretty common subjects and made them
> > special. Others took exotics and did the same."
> >                  Advertisement
> >
> >
> >
> >
> > Chan Mahanta of the Old Jamestown neighborhood near
> > Florissant did both. He came in first in this
> > category.
> >
> > His close-up image of the pale-yellow flower of a
> > native lotus (Nelumbo lutea) is breathtaking -
> > familiar and alien, all at the same time.
> >
> > That photo, says another of the contest judges,
> > horticulturist John Mareing, "is quite unique in
> > that he has focused his camera on the very center of
> > the lotus flower at the time of pollination.
> >
> > "Mahanta's photo captures the contrast between the
> > impressive developing pod and the delicate stamens
> > surrounding it," Mareing continues. "The composition
> > is interesting and artistic, and the photo exhibits
> > great clarity and depth."
> >
> > Mahanta, like the third-place winner in this
> > category, Dave Bennett, had won prizes in other
> > categories of previous Great Garden Contests.
> > Mahanta placed first in Best Home Garden by an
> > Amateur in 2004, and Bennett won third place for
> > Best Flower Garden in 2003.
> >
> > This wasn't a problem for the judges, who worked
> > "blind" when reviewing the photos and learned of
> > each previous winner's status after making their
> > picks.     MORE
> >   SLIDESHOW: See photos of the winners gardens
> >   GROUP WINNERS: Together again
> >   EDIBLE WINNERS: Edible efforts win prizes in
> > garden contest
> >   SERENITY WINNERS: Outdoor oasis
> >   PROFESSIONAL AID WINNERS: The 'wow' factor
> >   AMATUER WINNERS: From cottage to collections
> >   MORE CONTEST STORIES
> >   2006 Great Garden Contest winners
> >   Judges tell their own stories
> >
> >
> >
> > "We don't have published rules regulating that," Ken
> > Miller says. "We have an unofficial rule not to
> > allow the same gardener to win two years in a row.
> > These (2006 photo winners) already waited two years,
> > and they've also gone into an entirely different
> > field."
> >
> > For Chan, photography grew out his father's love for
> > the subject.
> >
> > The elder Mahanta had dropped out of high school in
> > the Assam state of British India in the eighth
> > grade, Chan says. He went to learn commercial art
> > and photography in Dacca, now the capital of
> > Bangladesh. "He ended his career as a country
> > photographer," Chan adds, when the prosperous tea
> > trade waned near the end of British rule. But before
> > that happened, Chan's father was a society
> > photographer for both native and British society,
> > "all of the 'Who's Who'," Chan says, "and he made a
> > pretty decent living."
> >
> > All of his photography was done without electricity,
> > by the way, in a "lean-to" with a mirror reflecting
> > sunlight through a small hole on the north side of
> > the little building, for making exposures. "When I
> > tell this to my friends in photography now," he
> > adds, "they are mesmerized."
> >
> > Chan's family was able to send him to the Indian
> > Institute of Technology, where photography led him
> > to study architecture. "Photography made a big
> > impression on my life," Chan says. "It is the art of
> > looking at things."
> >
> > He didn't own a camera until 1971, a full year after
> > immigrating to the states. It was then that he
> > bought a single-lens reflex Canon. He still shoots
> > with an updated version of that film camera but with
> > newer Fuji Velvia film that, he says, produces
> > beautiful color. "What I get with the digital camera
> > can't quite match it, yet." All of his contest
> > photos were shot on film.
> >
> > Also a passion is the macro lens, designed to focus
> > at very short distances for nearly life-size
> > magnification. "If you go and frame something close
> > up," he says, "all of a sudden a whole new world
> > opens up, and you see things that most people miss."
> >
> > The lotus photo is a prime example of that. But it
> > isn't the first close-up lotus image that he's had
> > published. He asks a visitor to wait a minute while
> > he walks to another part of the airy house of his
> > own design. (He practices architecture as Mahanta
> > Associates, PC., Architects.) He returns with a copy
> > of a Los Angeles Times magazine, dated 1976. On its
> > cover is a Chan Mahanta lotus, photographed during
> > his first years in this country. He was living in
> > Pasadena at the time and met the magazine's editor.
> > Exactly 30 years later, it is almost too much of a
> > coincidence to see another of his lotus images on a
> > cover.
> >
> > "Lotus is my favorite plant," he explains, "all
> > parts of it, the flowers, the leaves and the buds.
> >
> > "But whenever I see something special," he adds, "I
> > just go and shoot it."
> >
> > Second-place winner Nancy Olson of Mehlville also
> > has a fondness for close-up looks at her garden.
> > "You don't have to be a wonderful gardener," she
> > says, "to be attracted to the wonders in your yard."
> >
> > Judges liked her beautifully lit blossoms of
> > bleeding heart and her painterly image of a very
> > common tomato plant. "Nancy turned tomatoes into
> > art," says judge Miller. "Clearly, to her eye,
> > vegetables rule."
> >
> > "I kind of always have been attracted to
> > photography," says the native St. Louisan, with a
> > degree in English, two grown children, grandchildren
> > and active church work that she shares with her
> > husband, Jeff.
> >
> > But in the fall of 1998, when Jeff's company
> > transferred him to another city "temporarily"
> > (two-and-a-half years), the two agreed that she
> > would stay here. And with plenty of time on her
> > hands, Olson says, she took a course in nature
> > photography at the Missouri Botanical Garden.
> >
> > It made a world of difference for her. "I totally
> > fell in love with photography," she says.
> >
> > Her family's old film camera eventually gave way to
> > a new Nikon that uses film. Now, she also has a
> > Nikon digital "that's just as fast as a film
> > camera."
> >
> > "If you're a serious photographer," Olson adds,
> > "it's just so frustrating with the lag time in the
> > shutter speed of some digitals." Half of her winning
> > contest pictures were shot with film, half done
> > digitally.
> >
> > And like Chan Mahanta, she loves shooting "closer,
> > and closer and closer. The farther in you go,
> > there's another miracle and then another miracle -
> > the exquisite nature of creation."
> >
> >
> === message truncated ===>
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