BENGALURU: The usual subjects for photographers are landscapes, birds, wildlife, nature, city-scapes. However how many photographers can claim to have an interest in taking pictures of the paranormal?
A city based software professional, Venkat Raman, who conducts photography events on weekends is exploring this “new genre” of photography. He has been a professional photographer for 10 years and has been teaching photography courses to over 300 of his students in the city for five years now.
He realised he had had enough of mainstream photography and thought about a genre that was not explored yet. “I realised that anything unnatural is hardly captured,” says Venkat and adds, “Paranormal means anything that is not ordinary and I believe in ghosts and spirits. However, according to my research, no one has been able to capture the paranormal. The Internet is flooded with photoshopped images of such activities although there are no concrete proof of the existence of the same. We are just a bunch of people trying out this new activity for the first time,” he adds.
The idea is to go to the places in the city that are known to be haunted and spend a night there photographing and video recording. “We concentrate on items in the surrounding such as furniture. The equipment carried will be a DSLR camera, video recorder and a couple of lighting sets,” says Venkat. Besides, furnitures, the focus will also be “untouched spaces in the nooks and corner.” Venkat is going to conduct an even on June 30 relating to paranormal photography.
“We are discussing it on our Whatsapp group. It should be somewhere around Domlur area for our first try,” says Venkat, who also runs Geeksidea, a one-man events company. He says that there are more photographers showing interest on the subject and was hopeful of at least 10 people being there on the day.
“It is not guaranteed that we will capture ghosts and spirits, but it is for the experience and the thrill of doing it,” he adds.
The team of ghost photographers usually meet at 8pm when they go on their mission. “Since paranormal is not anyone’s cup of tea we will ensure they are not minors,” says Venkat. He hopes to conduct at least twice a month.