honorable mention
Som Roy indiaPhoto © Som Roy
title
Turntablism | Blouberg Beach, Cape Town, South Africa
Shot details: Single exposure, handheld.
It took much longer for the photography skills in me to take shape. I hail from a time and family where access to internet, need to travel and ownership of a camera were preceded over by other survival essentials. Consequently, it took a while for me to turn technically competent enough to qualify for a camera. For the initial 8 to 9 years of my travels, I strutted around armed with either a hapless single digit megapixel phone camera or a nondescript point-and-shoot. I cringed at the fact that my exploits were so unremarkable that even my family would frown upon them. The moment of inflection and reckoning came in 2017 when I bought my first advanced DSLR. It’s been close to three years now and my fascination with the craft has only deepened every day – taking me across most continents and destinations not even on Google Maps. Photography has provided me the balance and perspective that were unbeknownst to me previously – allowing me to grow both as a professional and human being. I evolved from a ‘tourist who photographed’ to a ‘curator of memories’. I specifically focus on landscape and architecture photography since I’m a tad too shy to shoot other living beings. Hampi, the Peruvian Andes and the Raja Ampat islands remain my dream expeditions.
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entry description
There are very few cities in the world that manage to capture your imagination even before you have set your foot on it. Welcome to the most beautiful city in the world. Cape Town locked out our curious gazes and sucked us right into it even as we lay 15,000 feet above it. Apart from combining the very best of the Tahitian white beaches, Tuscan vineyards, the Australian outback, the Amalfi coastline and Bondi-level hotbods, it also boasts of an unprecedented and unique collection of flora and the quality of the Afro-Indo-Continental cuisine is just par excellence. There are also whales, penguins and the big fives to spot. The Cape provinces must have been hand crafted by the gods. And probably at a very very leisurely state. We spent close to two weeks here and oddly, none of us were keen on getting back home. When you experience sights like these every other day, who'd actually like to? The food, energy and weather hardly help.Shot details: Single exposure, handheld.
about the photographer
I was born and brought up in north-eastern India – a region that was largely isolated from the rest of the country for most of the previous century. I'm currently based out of Bangalore, India and as for my day job, I’m a vice president with a major investment bank and oversee functions ranging from software and data engineering to NLP, machine learning and analytics.It took much longer for the photography skills in me to take shape. I hail from a time and family where access to internet, need to travel and ownership of a camera were preceded over by other survival essentials. Consequently, it took a while for me to turn technically competent enough to qualify for a camera. For the initial 8 to 9 years of my travels, I strutted around armed with either a hapless single digit megapixel phone camera or a nondescript point-and-shoot. I cringed at the fact that my exploits were so unremarkable that even my family would frown upon them. The moment of inflection and reckoning came in 2017 when I bought my first advanced DSLR. It’s been close to three years now and my fascination with the craft has only deepened every day – taking me across most continents and destinations not even on Google Maps. Photography has provided me the balance and perspective that were unbeknownst to me previously – allowing me to grow both as a professional and human being. I evolved from a ‘tourist who photographed’ to a ‘curator of memories’. I specifically focus on landscape and architecture photography since I’m a tad too shy to shoot other living beings. Hampi, the Peruvian Andes and the Raja Ampat islands remain my dream expeditions.
back to gallery