Photography for Geoscientists

Why a Geologist Should Know The Basics of Photography

--Arindam Biswas

We, the Geologists are trained to observe and record the world around us. The simple use of a hammer, clinometer compass, hand lens, GPS, and notebook can help us to solve the mystery hidden within the rocks. Often, we click and use various photographs to unearth these mysteries. But do we really know how these photographs are taken? Or the proper use of a camera to take the best shots? Nowadays, with the advent of good mobile cameras, we click numerous photos during our field works but, if you notice carefully, most of those photos lack the basic requirements to be a good photograph. 

A camera is one of the most important tools for a geologist. When supported by proper knowledge of photography it can help us unravel the processes that shaped the landscape around us both at present and past times. Any geologist in the world needs to use a camera or a photograph for a better understanding of the processes going on and under the Earth’s surface. Even while using Google Earth, one is using a set of photos unknowingly to find features of their interest. So, as Geologists, we must know how things are working when someone is using a camera or a photograph.

I am not an expert in clicking photographs but I do understand the necessity of this valuable skill. So, here I am sharing my knowledge to make all my geologist friends aware of this valuable skill.

To be a useful photographer one must know a few things like how a camera works, how to compose the perfect frame and a little bit of post-processing knowledge. To read the full article click here.

Here these fractures in the ice are leading your eyes to the end of the horizon automatically. You do not have to put the effort to move your eyes from one point to another. (Image source: www.oreilly.com)

I am a sportsperson, hence a Geologist!

I am a sportsperson, hence a Geologist!

                                                                                                     - Sandro Chatterjee

From collecting Rafael Nadal’s posters in schooldays to stealing money from my mother’s purse to watch India vs. Pakistan at Eden Gardens, Kolkata; I always dreamt big, when it came to sports and I still live with it. The ultimate legacy of the Samba football and the ruthless mentality of German blood- both attract me like iron shavings to a magnet.

Being smashed with statements like “Everybody is not Sachin”, a simple boy, bearing a simple family name, I had to give up my dream of being a jock, quite early in life. School days failed to motivate me to fall in love with any academic subjects and I got completely lost by the inexplicable chemistry equations. The playground appeared to me as the most exciting of them all. I had to, somehow, choose a career to pursue my dream, otherwise, I’d be stuck in a boring headspace throughout my life.

That’s when I stumbled upon Geology (Earth Sciences) and for the first time, in my life, I fell in love with something other than sports (P.S. -I come from an all boys’ school). Sports isn’t only played in the field, it is played in the cranium of the human brain, it is played in the sweating gym and I found the exact charm of a subject in all its academic beauty, in Geology. From the brainstorming concepts of structural geology to the unending shlokas of Stratigraphy, it will teach you to solve countless puzzles really fast, albeit with serious patience. It can lead you to the best destinations in the world; from the hot beaches of Maracana to the cold mountains of Alps, which even Lionel Messi dreams for a holiday. You can’t get grip of it until and unless you have the proper eyes to study the field, its structures and you sweat a lot through the terranes, to reveal the hidden treasures, exactly like Kante runs across the field for 90 minutes with the same passion and exhilaration.

That’s how to train everyday for a 9.58 seconds Olympic 100-meter finish

Me and Supratik during a detailed mapping of a ridge at Galudih, Jharkhand, India.

You might be a mediocre student and might not like quantum mechanics, inorganic chemistry, quadratic equations but you know you have all the potentials and need a stage to perform; Geology is the place for you. Carry your concepts and just explore the charms of field geology, you will come out as a star. The testing field arena will also teach you how unfriendly an area can be and you have to judge and plan well enough to come out at the top against all odds, otherwise, it could be a mess similar to what PSG put themselves in, in Camp Nou. Read the full story.