About Photovagant
Inform, Inspire and Entertain: The primary intent behind creating this website is to share my travel stories through my photos (light), one frame at a time. Hence the tagline “travel stories through light and time”. I hope that the stories and pictures will inspire the traveler and the photographer in you.
Kumar Ram
First things first, I don’t consider myself an expert in photography, nor have I been passionate about travel until very recently.
Both things changed when I relocated to the United States with my wife in 2002. I bought my first camera that very year. A Canon SLR – not a digital but a film SLR with a modest 18 to 55 mm lens. I still have it and is in perfect working condition. I don’t use it simply because it is not a sustainable option anymore.
A couple years later, I graduated to a digital point and shoot and I went through a series of them – a Sony that I lost in the NY subway with photos that I had not download yet, another Sony, a Canon Powershot and finally the I one that I presently shoot with – a Canon 60D. Almost all of my travels in the last 20 years have been family vacations. I have never really been on a “photography expedition”, attended photography workshops or carried advanced professional gear. I don’t think a tripod and a few filters qualifies. What I lack in gear and training, I make up with passion and keen interest, learning from successes and mistakes and improving with every frame.
Why Photovagant? [fə-tä-va-ghent] I wanted a name for my website that represents my twin passions – travel and photography. Photovagant is my coinage for a traveler with a camera, capturing interesting moments one frame at a time. Well, sometimes in bursts. It may take a few tries and a few days to get used to Photovagant, but trust me it is far easier than my last name, Ramasubramanian.
The inspiration came from the word Solivagant, which is Latin for someone that wanders alone. I do wander alone at times, but I am mostly a regular family guy with a camera.
Most people that are into photography generally specialize in something. Me and my camera are Omniamores (another coinage of mine for someone that loves everything).
The world is a beautiful place and there is beauty in everything – animate and inanimate, big and small, colorful and monochromatic. In my opinion, there are no exclusions or exceptions to what I consider photo-worthy. Is it a good thing? Sometimes yes, sometimes no. What if you walk into the library to borrow books and every section and category interests you equally?
