Showing art to the community

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What’s an artist’s greatest joy? Some may say its creating art. Some who goes a bit deeper might say expressing of his inner feelings via various methods. I thoroughly agree on both of these. But I would like to add one more, Which creates a more deeper warm sensation to an artist’s heart. FEEDBACK.

Balangoda - Photographed by Priyantha Bandara

If I say artists really do not care about the feedback they get from their audience that can be hardly true. There are some artist who would like to create and display their work of art for the sole reason of expressing them but not for getting any feedback in return. But that type of artists are seldom. Which is the reason why giving and taking feedback on all art forms including photography is highly effective and important. This truth must be kept in mind not only by the art lovers but the artists themselves. Because we switch sides so often that we don’t even realize.

How important is community relations to an artist? I will say A LOT. For generations, expressing of art was mostly done via exhibitions, books and some other similar forms of modes which mostly the art lover or the fan must visit the artists work putting some effort. Going to an exhibition or buying a book maybe something which majority does not do for number of reasons. Main reason would be the time factor. Every one’s life has become so tide up with many responsibilities and deadlines they find it hard to set up a time for them selves to enjoy the traditional art forms. And even though they somehow manage to get in touch with the art itself, getting in touch with the artists himself is nearly impossible. This goes same for the artist as well. Even though an artist would like to express themselves to the public and become more community friendly the same factors could limit his movements in the society.

Habarana- Photographed by Priyantha Bandara

However thanks to the internet and its web communities it has become a lot simpler and convenient for artists and well as art lovers alike to communicate within themselves. There are several very impressive art communities on the internet which quenches the never ending thirst of showing art and seeing them. We as photographers love some of these websites which has no strings attached and mostly let us show our art and get feedback from the community for totally free.

Habarana - Photographed by Priyantha Bandara

I myself have several places on the internet which I have put my work on display (look no further you are on one of it at this moment). This has given me immense exposure and opportunity to communicate with many individuals around the globe just by sitting comfortably in front of my pc sipping a cup of coffee at home. Furthermore these websites has provided me with great influence and potential in creating photographs which goes beyond what I some time back thought as impossible.

I would write some more about the community relations on the internet some other time. In the mean time you can check this link where I have a load of my work on display

http://www.farcry77.deviantart.com/

Happy surfing and opening up art accounts.

All photography in this post belongs to Priyantha Bandara. Illegal use is strictly prohibited

Vintage smiles

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Even though no one can really answer the purpose of photography, from the day photography was invented it was used for several purposes. Out of which journalism, advertising and as a medium of art are some key purposes which goes beyond the normal day to day photography. I mean the once who take pics of their own family at the amusement park!

The worlds recent history has become quite visually fantastic after it was started to get captured in photo medium. Photography has come a long way and managed to capture and stimulate all the rough and soft spots in day to day lives and beyond.

Thus I have decided to feature some rare yet watch worthy photography in my blog time to time. As a start today I have picked some vintage photographs which portray a bit of humor in them. I have no information on who are the original authors of this photos or the historic story behind them. But I find them interesting because they bring some smiles from the past. I hope you will enjoy them as well.

On the wall

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Every now and then I come across an image in my image library which let me ponder for a while. I have visited quite a lot of places and captured maybe over 100,000 shots out of which only few I’m proud to display without guilt in mind. That’s how it works with most of the photographers. More you get mature and experience in something more you expect thing to be better. Some say I’m a perfectionist when it comes to photography but I don’t think I will be that extreme. I just give some though and be flexible at the time and after shooting something. Sometimes post process will give birth to entirely different product than to which I had in mind initially. That’s the digital age we live in.


This piece (which looks direct and simple) is a combination of 3 shots. So actually it’s a panorama. And it was captured at the Mahiyanganaya center for aborigines. A wall painting which portray the expressions of age old culture and history. You can find more info on the Sri Lankan aborigines well known as “Weddas” right here. http://vedda.org/

Living jump

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A moment where a talent has become a mode of living. Jumping to the sea to please the crowed at Galle.

Decent mode of living? U decide.

photographs by Priyantha Bandara

Improving your own work

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Today I thought of writing a little insight about improving your own work. Maybe you want to improve your photography as well but wondering what needs to be done as the first step. Maybe you think of investing in major schools or buy a camera which will cost you a fortune. But from my own experience I set those goals to a later date. Read along and see why.

When I was shooting here and there for fun using a very limited featured digital camera which I bought for a cheap rate from the corner Chinese gadget shop all I wanted to do was shoot as much as I can. I had no idea what I'm gonna shoot or was completely stoned and energized by anything which I though suits a second glimpse. So with that in mind I went on clicking till my batteries run out. And most of those shots when I checked on the pc was blurry, grainy, shacked or even blank beyond recognition. But I didn’t stop. Because digital technology made me try over and over on the same thing without an extra cost.

With time I realized that if I need a photograph to be different then I should look at things in a different manner. The equipment for example. Does my equipment fits what I want do was my first question. And then does my knowledge sufficient for what I want to do. Do I need to dig on some papers or magazine or internet to find more great photos or should I dig more to find articles on how to make good photos. And then I thought if the amount of travelling I do which puts me in a photo worthy situations are enough. So I started to work on these points one by one.

First I bought a small yet a bit sophisticated camera. Which actually didn’t cost me much because I was not dreaming of owning the world’s best DSLR at that time. (Even now I don’t) Just a point and shoot camera with all settings automatic which just gave me enough freedom to learn composition and focus than worrying about ISO,exposure, apature,lenses blah blah. At that time I even didn’t knew why people carry big black cameras around with silly looking huge lenses when such lovely small camera miracles are readily available. Well that’s how I saw things.

And soon I realized that digital photography opens the doors for a wonderful opportunity called POST PROCESSING. I read several articles on basic photo editing. Thanks to my keen enthusiasm in graphics and art I was already a bit fluent in using Adobe Photoshop and other image editing software’s. So I thought that I should learn this in parallel to taking photos because I knew its where the world is heading and its where the edge is. So I bought some self learning adobe dvd’s and spend long hours in front of the computer doing tutorials. Soon I learned the basics and then a bit more than the basics which made me combine my talent in photography and the talents in imagination and art together to create.

In the mean time I subscribed for several photography magazines and bought one or two good books about basics in photography. There are many good books out there which will teach you the basics and that’s all you need to know. Believe me when I say it. Books cannot teach you to create magical, jaw dropping photographs. That you have to do and learn for yourself.

While all these happening I worked on the other few aspects as well. Which was travelling to places with likeminded people so that I get more opportunities to explore more on techniques and spend more time shooting. And I went on upgrading my camera to a semi SLR which is still not a highly technical gadget but gave me a bit more space to play with shutter speed, white balance , iso and aperture since I have already learnt the basics of composing and focusing via my point and shoot small camera.

And the other important thing I did was sharing my work with others who will give me honest critics and appreciate what I try to achieve. This I did via creating my own PowerPoint presentations and sending them via email, uploading on internet etc. I did this knowing that some of my work can be used by others for various reasons without my consent but art is much better pirated than not seeing at all. Soon I started to get feedback from around the planet and some told me stuff to improve my work immensely. There is nothing that encourage you than a word of appreciation from someone else.

After doing all these as time went by I invested on an SLR. By the time I bought the SLR I knew most of the end to end image processing techniques and post processing methods + a great deal about on site photography that helped me to get the optimum use of the wonderful SLR equipment. From what I remember it took me a span of 6-7 years to shoot via an SLR from my basic point and shoot camera. And I don’t regret that time spent because I had lot to learn and even I had a SLR I would have used it on the auto mode just like a small cheap digi cam.

Apart from all these the other important factor which I wanted to express is about aiming higher. For a photographer goals such as earning via his skills or winning an award is very much important. But they are not so important as enjoying what you do and really love the art of photography and give space and time for yourself to improve. Everyone tells me to do exhibitions or submit my work to competitions all the time. In fact I hear this from the days I shoot from the very basic point and shoot camera. And when I look back at my work from those days I feel so embarrassed myself and I’m glad that I didn’t submitted them to any competition because they surely will be rejected.

Even to this date I don’t think I have a good collection which is suitable to be printed and exhibited where for people to spend time and money and come and look at. That’s the experience you get by doing what you do consistently and by not trying to jump when the path is set to walk. I always look for faults in my photos. Still I do. Because more than anyone else I know what my lapses are and I can work to eliminate them.

The road in front of me is of much length than the few steps which I have already travelled. But I travel it one day at a time. For everyone who loves the art of photography .. Keep shooting and good luck!!

All photographs belongs to Priyantha Bandara.

Gram seller

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Life is hard. I have said that before as well. But yet every day every minute we struggle to survive it and actually survive. Isn’t that mean we all are survivors?


Some of the best times I have had in my life was as a photographer and some of them are on the beach. Just looking at the waves and sands and counting minutes to catch the best sun rise or the sunset. Pondering on useless crap that hits my mind just like the endless waves just hitting the shore. And this person comes pushing his gram cart and I started to wonder while I take a shot. He comes here to make a living. And I came here to live nature. Does he see the same beauty I see at this hour?