What a surprise it would be, this August while heading before the month long trip to Goa and Mumbai, I discovered a new photography app called EyeEm, a clean interface, Instagram like portal which officially conducts competitions in partnership with other photography giants to discover new talents in the photography industry. I happened to post some pictures on it and forgot about it. This December I received an email stating that maybe I haven't checked but I have won a photography contest held by EyeEm and Light Co. The theme of the contest was "Capture the moment". Check out the link below to view my winning entry.

I was zapped after reading the mail because I hadn't won any photography competition before and winning the top prize, that too a camera worth rupees over a lakh was too much. More than the prize it was the recognition that boosted my happiness because I considered this photo an important achievement in my portfolio. The picture was taken during the month ofMuharram in Lucknow, India and as a personal project I was covering it in the various areas of the city. I was doing that for a week spending the nights out in the city. On the last day of the month when 'Tazia" of each area is taken to the local burying grounds named Karbala I was lazying around my house and procrastinating going out when I got a call from my father that a processing was heading out not too far from our house.  Immediately I went there and started clicking.I was a little apprehensive first in getting too close to the people assuming it might offend them as it's a mourning after all but one of the men recognized me from our childhood days and and runs a Chaat cart called me in to display the Tazia of their locality and many of them happily posed. Once I got comfortable, I started following them and observed the procession for the first time in life properly while taking the pictures.

What particularly caught my fancy was the presence of children because we generally keep children out of bloodshed, nicks and bruises but here they were breaking light tubes on their head and blowing fire out of their mouth. This scene affected me and it became a sub subject of my series and has kept me to capture more this year too.

I remember that I was looking for a particular picture which I visualized in my mind and started chasing that, in some time I got the perfect timing and grabbed this one happily. I spent my day chasing other processions too but I think this one will remain a special one because it got me my first recognition at an international platform.

The equally exciting part of this win is the L16 camera which is quite revolutionary in its technology. Imagine your phone with 16 sensors and lenses on its back and that you can change the exposure, depth of field and focal point AFTER taking the picture, that's L16 for you. It would be actually useful for me as many a places I have to shoot discreetly and I hope it would be much better than taking out a big DSLR and making everyone around cautious. If you are intrigued about the camera, do click at the picture below and it will take you to it's detailed description.