Picture perfect

His sights are set on the Canon 5D, but P Nandagopal, MD and CEO, IndiaFirst Life Insurance, still vividly remembers the first professional camera he used. “It was a Yashica model that a college friend had bought. I learnt all the basics of photography — aperture, focal length, film speed, shutter speed — from him, and together we became the unofficial photographers for college events, attending any functions as we pleased, just playing around with the camera,” Nandagopal recalls. Now, as the 53-year-old former Reliance Life CEO expertly pulls out and assembles professional photographic equipment from the cabinets of his spacious suburban Mumbai apartment, he betrays a more than amateur interest in the subject.

Over time, Nandagopal’s early dabbling in photography and filmmaking has developed into a full-blown interest. From his father’s 35 mm Kodak film camera, he has graduated to the Canon 40D for still photography and a Sony videocamera for short films. But the motivation to shoot remains the same — to look at the world from a different perspective. “I think all photographs have to tell a story. I don’t like taking tourist-y pictures — seeing the world’s beauty through the viewfinder restricts your perspective. To take good pictures, you need to slow down, soak in the mood of the place and not go by a set agenda. Perhaps then something might catch your interest,” he says.

Fittingly, Nandagopal’s camera kit travels with him only to places he’s exploring for the first time — the beaches of Rio, Tanzania’s rolling grasslands and, later this month, Mexico’s rugged landscapes. “I take it along only if I’m travelling alone, otherwise I have to spar with my family about the space taken up by it and time spent taking photos,” he laughs. Given that he owns an 80-400 mm telephoto lens, several macro and wide-angle lenses, a dolly, trolley and even studio lights, it certainly isn’t just an extra suitcase they’re often arguing over.

However, time for vacations is hard to come by for the busy insurance professional. How, then, does he keep his passion for the camera alive? “As a child, I used to watch and analyse films with family and friends. Now, my family and I keep that tradition alive by analysing every movie we watch, and keep adding to our 600-700-strong DVD collection. I also follow online courses by Sony and Canon and read scripts and screenplays to understand filmmaking,” he says. 

Nandagopal, who used to write for AIR Yuva Vani in school, now participates in company filmmaking events to keep experimenting with the medium. Though he doesn’t upload photos to any social media accounts, he has had to revisit that position of late, after his photo albums got washed away in a minor mishap at home. “I’ve learnt my lesson and keep backups of my photos now. Though I haven’t thought about exhibiting my work, I do want to collate it into a scrapbook of sorts and make a full-length film someday,” he says. Unfulfilled ambitions of becoming a filmmaker? “Probably,” he chuckles, “But the moment I fulfil that dream, the motive to create new work will disappear. It is much better to keep learning.”