My name is Mahesh Bhat and I'm a Bangalore based photographer and India is my canvas. I've been photographing the life and times of my country and parts of the sub continent for 25 years. I'm an assignment photographer with Getty Images and represented by Global Photo Associates, NYC. I've worked with Polaris Images and Agence Vu.

In the last 25 years, the city of Bangalore went from where every place was 15 minutes away from each other to every place is at least an hour from each other. It became a megapolis. Over the years I have photographed the city. In last few years I've been commissioned to photograph for publications as varied as The New York Times to Newsweek of Japan – from over 20 countries. Assignments have included coffee addas of Kolkata to a profile of a female suicide bomber from the LTTE for Marie Claire.

I love to work on really long term projects. In 2004, I began UNSUNG, a project about people who have made extraordinary contributions to society against personal odds. I published the book in 2007. It helped raise over Rs.8.5 million for the causes of the heroes featured in the book. The second book will be published this year. The project is ongoing now for eight years. Do visit UNSUNG here.

Since 2007, I've worked on a book project on Bangalore. It's a collection of projections from my conscious and subconscious mind. Through my photographs, I explored how the city had changed in the last two and a half decades. It is also an impassioned plea to support the arts and creativity to drive the true growth of Bangalore.

I self publish my books and this new book – Bangalore/Bengaluru – In First Person Singular is in bookstores since February 2012. An application based on the book will launch soon.

Unlike some of my friends who were born and brought up here, I am not really connected to the city. In a way I am disconnected. The 17 images you see below, in a way represent that disconnection. I'm eager to hear your opinion, your critique.

Do we have a deal?

Think along the lines of how an image can convey content better. How can this work be refined? What does the photographer need to do to elevate her/his game?

Based on your responses, Tiffinbox will invite other photographers to submit their work to also be critiqued by you. So, it is vital that you get involved. Mahesh is, after all, willing to submit his work in this way. The least you can do is to support his work one way or another by commenting below.

I suspect, a tragedy that took place a little over three months ago, far from where you live is a distant memory. I happen to live an hour from Newtown, Connecticut, where on December 14, a deranged killer murdered 20 children and six adults. So, that memory is fresh and very raw.

To say that this tragedy shook the surrounding communities would be a gross understatement. As my wife and I struggled to make sense of it all, we made sure to hug our kids a little tighter, spend more time with them and simply be more present for each other. That hasn't changed, but I wanted to do something more to remember those innocent souls.

A few days before this disaster, as I was driving around the New Britain (a town near Hartford, Connecticut) one foggy morning, I came upon Batterson Park Pond. The fog was so dense that I couldn't see past 30 or 40 feet. As I got out of the car with my camera, I could hear the flutter of birds taking off. I couldn't actually see them. And then everything went quiet, except for sound my feet were making as I walked over the wet grass. Since I couldn't see anything anyway, I closed my eyes for a few months and took a few deep breaths in. Slowing down felt good. I had been running from one assignment to another and things were starting to blur.

I opened my eyes again and I saw this image you see below.

I made four or six frames and felt in my gut that I had captured something I would go back to some day in the future. These images were made deliberately because I truly felt the urge to create them.

The sounds I heard but birds and animals I didn't see left an indelible mark on me. There was solitude and peace amidst the chaos of life. After the Sandy Hook Elementary School massacre, I couldn't help but think of my time at the pond and the images I created there. I pulled them into Lightroom and as the images popped up, I think I surprised myself a bit by choking up. As I said, emotions here are still running high.

As fathers, mothers, brothers, sisters, uncles, aunts and grandparents we have to find a way to pull together and find that peace amongst us. Somehow. I am not sure the passing of time will make things any easier for the parents of those 20 babies. That line people use often is trite and rather ambiguous at best. It leaves us nothing to hold on to, which is what I think as a parent I would want to do.

As a photographer, I'll continue to make quiet images like the one you see above. That may be the way I survive through this. It's not so much to keep my mind off of it but to bring more presence into what I am doing any way. It's not about “moving on” but carrying on with more purpose. Does that make sense?

When Ann Curry, the news correspondent, urged us to ask ourselves – “what can I do?” – and proposed 26 act of kindness, I wondered if I could share the image as a large print with 26 individuals. I first proposed the idea to my neighbor Carmine Masi, who didn't flinch even for a second before diving for his check book and making a donation.

These prints aren't for sale in the traditional way they would be available on one of my sites. No, what I am asking people to do is to make a donation of $100 or more to the Sandy Hook School Support Fund, c/o Newtown Savings Bank, 39 Main St., Newtown, Conn. 06470. Once you make that donation, simply email me your receipt and include your full name and shipping address so that I can send you the print. Email me with your receipt and contact information here – seshu {at} tiffinbox.org. Please use the subject line – “Sandy Hook Elementary School Fund.”

A word about the print and the printing: I approached Caitlin & Jeffrey Lazo, who own the award-winning custom print lab ProDPI, at the annual Mystic Seminars. They readily agreed to sponsor this initiative and print and mount this image as a 16″x20″ print. I am truly grateful to them and want to recognize how incredibly generous they are towards photographers. By the way, if you haven't guessed yet, ProDPI is my preferred lab for all of my client and personal prints.

Please note that no one is attempting to make any money on this gesture. I have simply supplied ProDPI one of my images, which they have agreed to print free of charge. This image will never be printed again as a 16×20, and in fact may never be offered again. Right now, I am just focused on delivering 26 prints to 26 homes to remember the 26 people we lost at Sandy Hook Elementary School.

If you are interested in displaying this image on your wall, now is the time to make that commitment to the Sandy Hook School Support Fund. Thank you for being you!

Travis North is a Landscape Architect and freelance fine art Photographer out of Philadelphia, Pennsylvania with over eighteen years of experience. He is the founder and editor of Shutter Photo Magazine, which has been a source of photography inspiration and wisdom since 2008. Follow him on Twitter.

Photography as a medium can be described a great number of ways. It’s a creative release, inspiring and emotional. For many, it’s a source of income or a private business where you are your own boss. And Photography is expensive. It doesn’t matter how you cut it down, by the time you add up the cost of all your equipment – and let’s not forget the accessories right down to the camera strap – the bill would make your accountant cringe. Now it’s one thing if you’re been lucky enough to make a substantial income from your art. But every photographer I know (even the most successful) is always talking about the next product they’re thinking about buying. If money wasn’t the object, there would not be “thinking”, you would already have that new $1,400 USD lens. So in this article I’d like to focus on a very businessman’s term: ROI, or Return On Investment. Worry not, we’re not going to talk strict numbers – we’re going to talk gear. We’ll talk about where you get the biggest returns and what gear is ultimately important. But most of all, we’re going to talk about where you can cut corners for the sake of ROI.

Focusing on the Deliverable

When it comes down to determining the value of something, you ultimately need to focus on what is expected in the end: What is the deliverable? If you are working as a fashion photographer and your works are expected to be posted on billboards throughout the urban landscape, then you might have a case for buying yourself a high-end medium format camera. But if photography is more of a hobby and your supplemental income is in the form of post card sales, that would be the opposite end of the spectrum. Now I’m not trying to simplify the context too much, but the end product ultimately drives what type of equipment you have and use. It’s a simple philosophy, really: Use only the tools that you need to use.

There’s an interesting story about the space race back in the 1960’s. The problem was that a traditional ink pen does not write in zero gravity, and so NASA allegedly spent thousands, if not millions, of dollars researching and developing a pen that can write in zero gravity. In contrast, the Russians used a pencil. Now the story may not be true, but it makes the point: The simplest tool that does the job is the one you ultimately should use. On a personal note, I use a Nikon D80. It is not the best camera on the market. And to be fair, it’s not the best camera that I could be using for the type of photos that I create. But photography is not my primary income and so I have to weigh the ROI vs. my gear lust, and I couldn’t justify spending the money on the camera I really wanted. Instead, I took the money I saved and funneled it into gear that gave me the better ROI; like better flashes, better tripods and better lenses. Of course as my income from photography increases – or if my photography business moves in a direction that warrants it – then I may revisit the camera body upgrade down the line. But my current deliverable demands do not require such an upgrade at this time.

Planning for Upgrades

If this is your studio, the best return on investment will come in the form of tripods and lighting equipment. A better lens won't necessarily have as much impact here as you would think.

The hopes are, of course, that your work and your scope will evolve. Your client base will grow larger, your income from photography – be it primary or secondary – would increase and then you will be able to revisit the ROI considerations again a year from now or two years from now. Ultimately, the hope is that you will be looking to upgrade your photography equipment down the line. You’ll need an upgrade plan. You probably have some idea of where you would like to go with your photography, and you should create your upgrade plan to compliment your photography goals. You can expect that the plan will change as you evolve or as new products come to market. But every upgrade, every accessory, needs to be thought of in advanced. I have three simple rules when considering gear upgrades:

1) Avoid proprietary features that would channelize my upgrade path.

2) Quality is worth extra cost, but it must be justifiable.

3) I must have immediate and continued use for the product.

These three rules apply to every product I consider, from the camera body all the way to my camera bag.

The first rule is the most abstract, so let's speak on that briefly. Basically, I don't want to be locked into any single proprietary format, nor do I want to limit my options down the line. The exception is camera systems because that's unavoidable. There’s a very strong reason why I most often recommend Canon or Nikon products: Between the two companies, they control more than 70% of the market. Both manufacturers make great products, and they tend to be neck-and-neck in terms of advancement. In short, you couldn’t go wrong with either brand. But the real reason I suggest those brands more than any other is the simple fact that every other photography-related company on the planet wants to tap into Canon and Nikon’s market. That means that you can find compatible products – from remote triggers to lenses – for either brand. Not only does that yield a massive amount of options, but when companies compete, you and your ROI win.

So let's talk about where you get the biggest bang for the buck. The answer could be different for each photographer. A photographer specializing in landscape photography may want to look at a more premium, full-frame camera to take advantage of wide-angle lenses. Sports photographers are going to want to spend their money on lenses. Macro photographers may be interested in bellows systems or extension tubes. Personally, I shoot a lot of ruins and work indoors very often. While I would love to have a camera body with better high-ISO support, the reality is that the best investment for me happened to be off-camera flashes and accessories. Your case will be unique to your own style of photography. So you'll need to evaluate and weight your options to determine where's the best place to spend your money.

Quality vs. Cost: Taking Advantage Of Small Margins To Save Costs

The most innovative and best products are not always from one of the big brands. And even if they are, the cost difference is in many cases beyond the point of diminishing returns. In other words: If the quality differences between two products is not discernible without the use of a testing lab, go for the more economically priced product. Because the truth of the matter is that if you can’t tell the difference, your client certainly won’t be able to either. To illustrate my point, let's talk about lenses.

It’s at this point that I would like to remind everyone that Ansel Adams was working with lens technology far inferior to whatever you’re using right now. With the advancements in lens technology over the past twenty years, the quality comparisons have gotten so tight that the margins aren’t even measurable without adding extra decimal places. We fixate on these tiny details and make exaggerated claims that one lens’s sharpness is “far superior” to another when in truth, we’re arguing about a 0.1% difference. Is it really worth it? No. And it certainly isn’t worth the cost difference.

Twenty years ago, when Canon and Nikon were the clear front-runners in the lens market, third party lenses weren’t a consideration to pros. Third party lenses were a consumer product. They weren’t built as well and the image quality wasn’t strong. But they were significantly cheaper. Pros could justify the cost, but a consumer could not. Fast forward to 2013. In my opinion, some of the strongest innovation comes from the third party lens manufacturers, and their still carry a significantly more economical price tag. My favorite comparison is the Sigma 24-70mm F/2.8 vs the Nikon or Canon version. On paper, they are all essentially the same lens. All have great image quality, all yield the same amount of distortion at the wide end and all are built very well. The images created with either lens are interchangeable. The quality differences between them is immeasurable outside of the lab. The primary difference between these two lenses is not image quality, it’s price. The Nikon (about $1,700 USD) and the Canon (about $1900 USD) are each more than twice the cost of the Sigma (about $825 USD). And so I ask, is the Nikon or the Canon worth the extra cost? The cost difference is simply beyond the point of diminishing returns. Is that fraction of a percent in image quality worth twice the cost? I would say no. Not even for the full-time professional.

And the discussion could go into any topic, from remote triggers (Pocket Wizards vs. Radio Popper) to Tripods (Gitzo vs. Manfrotto – they’re even under the same parent company) or hot-shoe flashes (Nikon vs. Nissin or better yet, Nikon SB-950 vs. a used Nikon SB-60). But if you can keep that point of diminishing returns in focus, and if you can clearly keep an eye on how tight the quality margin is between two products, you have an advantage. You don’t need to buy the Nikon 24-70mm or a Gitzo tripod when the Sigma and Manfrotto versions will serve you just as well at half the cost. Simply knowing about what options are out – and knowing that the ROI is going to be much greater – could really change your gear upgrade plan a great deal. Heck, you may even be inclined to start with a different camera body from the start.

Final Thoughts

Of course the purpose of this article is not to take business away from the giants, nor do I intend to promote specific third-party brands. My hope is that this article got you thinking about justifying your equipment purchases. I would encourage you consider my three rules every time you contemplate product purchases. Ultimately, what I really want for you is to have a better return on your investment. And that starts with buying smarter. So continue to analyze your options beyond a reasonable doubt because, let’s face it, we’re all gear nerds. We find joy in reviewing such data. But keep the quality differences in perspective with your ROI and buy the product that makes the most sense for your needs and budget. Good purchasing habits will only help you and your business.

Today's guest post is by Tony Urban‘s second guest post for this site. He is a high school senior portrait photographer based in Western Pennsylvania. Read his first post here.

If you're a photographer who is giving your clients their images on a disc, you don't care about your business or your clients. Sound harsh? I'm sure it does but I believe with every fiber of my being that it's the truth.

When I started my photography business, I began in wedding photography. At the time, including a disc of images with the digital photos was pretty standard. I was new to the business so I assumed if everyone else was doing it, it must be right. I gave a disc of high res images to every client whose wedding I shot and never looked back. It was nice to not to have to bother with album designs or ordering prints from the lab. Instead of having Aunt Ruth coming to me for a 5×7, I could simply tell her to have the bride and groom email it to her. I was happy, the clients were happy because they got “all the photos” and all was right in the world, right?

Wrong. I stopped shooting weddings a few years ago as my portrait business exploded. In portraiture, at that time, images on a disc was unheard of, so I sold print collections, albums, wall portraits, etc. to my new clients. They loved the high quality products I was giving them from a professional lab and I liked knowing that the images they were showing off were printed well, not by some kid making minimum wage at the local department store.

Over the past few years, the “pics on a disc” business model has invaded portrait photography like a virus. New photographers have latched onto the idea and coupled it with dirt cheap prices. They think it's is a superb idea. Their clients, who are seeking a “good deal” like it too. After all, they can take their disc to Walmart and print out a plethora of 4x6s for a couple dollars. What could go wrong?

Everything is going wrong. Giving your clients their images on a disc is giving them “half” a product. It would be like going to the car dealership and having them sell you the body and wheels, but no engine. It would be like going in for surgery and paying the doctor for the operation, but having him tell you that you need to stitch yourself up. Why does anyone think this is a good idea?

At one of the last weddings I shot, I happily bumped into former wedding clients. I had photographed their wedding a few years earlier and loved catching up with them. During our conversation, the husband mentioned to me in an off handed way that they had lost their disc in a move. They had never got around to printing their photos even though they loved them. I was happy to burn them a new disc, but what if I would have moved or gone out of business or even died? They would have had nothing left of their wedding but memories.

In a related anecdote, I was recently contacted by another former wedding client asking me if I could have some large wall portraits printed for him and his wife from their wedding photos – a wedding I had shot 8 years prior. He explained that they looked at their pics on their computer all the time, but with kids, jobs, etc. never got around to printing anything. Now that they were ready to get some large photos, they didn't know where to go to have them printed and, quite frankly, didn't want to be bothered with it. So, their disc of photos, which they had paid me good money to create, was basically worthless.

Stories like that are bound to happen even more frequently in portraiture. If you hand your clients a disc of images and expect them to do all the work of printing the photos or making collages or designing albums, you're showing them that you don't want to take the time and make the effort to give them a true finished product. You're being lazy and cheap and you're justifying it by telling yourself, “That's what they want.” but the customer doesn't know any better. You're the pro – you should.

What your clients don't need is a disc of dozens of files and to be left on their own to figure out crop ratios, to find a good printing lab, to figure out whether the prints they get back are too dark or have a magenta color cast or if the paper is of low quality and will fade in a few years. Why should your clients be forced to go to Shutterfly or Blurb and design their own albums? Why are you telling them that your doing “half” the job is good enough?

If you're basically a hobbyist who takes photos for fun and a little money, maybe giving “pics on a disc” is the right choice for you. But if you're professional photographer who is going the disc route, you're sabotaging your business and cheating your clients out of the professional product they deserve.