"It isn't what a picture is of, it is what it is about." - John Szarkowski
1. Nitin Arjun
I maybe would have spent more than a hundred thousand rupees on photography past many years. This eight thousand rupees that i invested a month ago was my most sensible investment in this hobby, which will pay me dividends for the rest of my life. I thank you and Shailan, both of you are true lovers of photography as you whole heartedly want to spread this wonderful hobby.
Till date I was shooting either on auto or on aperture/shutter speed priority mode, wondering why the results were so bad. And now i can never go back to auto. your work shop has been like giving eyes to the blind.
One thought maybe for future work shops. It would be helpful if you could prepare a handout of your slides, specially the technical parts, to be kept by us for future references on say lenses and filters etc.
I look forward to our future association as part of the Photosensitive family and would love to be part of the yahoo or any other platform that you have. I will of course bother you in the future to share notes and ask anything that still boggles my mind on photography.
Thanks once again and maybe see you guys soon on a early morning shoot some where interesting with lots interesting light and shadows.
2. Shubhra Chaturvedi
To start with a big thanks for the lovely session.
I know its a little late but here's the feedback. I can't think of any brick bats as of now but good or bad some thoughts that come to my mind...
-It was a nice experience and I got to learn a lot about my camera and how it has so much to offer to me.
-The session where we learnt basics with display of a manual camera was very enlightening.
-The presentations more or less covered most of the things and were very enlightening, splly the 1st one where u showed us diff pictures and asked us to tell how did this happen.
-Maybe you could have covered a bit more abt composition. That was a bit rushed up and i feel that's really key for a good picture.
-The photo shoots were good exp, splly with digital camera, u could know instantly what u were doing and why and how.
-However I feel that if we were asked to show our pictures on computer in the session, it wud have been nice, everyone wud have gained from that... more from what went wrong to what went right.
-Even though i tried to listen to the feedback of all others but it wud be nice to see how the same thing was captured by the other person...
-I know time was a constraint but if something can be worked out to that effect than it maybe a good idea.
- In photo shoots, if one evg session was also organized than it wud have been a nice exp.
-If u had also taught us also somethings about flash and night photography, it wud have been useful. Reason being, most ppl hve flash in the camera but have no idea when to use it and how.
-i know my list is getting long and all of it may not be possible, time is a constraint, but i feel if these can be incorporated than they will add immense value to the sessions.
-Maybe I am a hungry student. I wouldn't mind coming for 4 more session :)
Overall I had a great experience. Maybe you could have a review session after 3 months and tell all the group members to do a photo shoot. You can see how they have used this skills and also places where we get stuck... we can get clarity. Of course whatever I am saying is subject to a lot of time availability but I hope somethings can be worked out.
I will keep shooting and get back to you whenever I can. It was nice knowing you and I hope its just the beginning.
3. Darilang Mary Rymbai
Appreciating things of beauty was all that I thought I could do. That it was the only contribution to creativity from my end. The idea of creating it was something I simply dismissed.
I always wanted to give photography a shot. Visual images have never failed to stimulate me, both intellectually and from an aesthetic standpoint. Having said that, my love for the camera is but natural. Come 2006, in Delhi I chanced upon "photosensitive" in a newspaper. After a series of emails and an 8 month waiting period, I finally enrolled for the workshop. Running the risk of being labeled dramatic, I can state that my experience with your organization was amazing to say the very least.
My perception of my surroundings has changed; I still see the same things but in a different light. Today I am in a position to better appreciate things of beauty - something I thought I was well accomplished in. Simple things that I had long ago stopped noticing have become much more interesting. I now want to create the beauty I see and appreciate so much and immortalize that beauty in a picture. And I do this simply for the love of it and for nothing else.
Though I enjoyed both the theory and the shoot sessions, I loved the photo shoots more than the presentations. However, I realized that one cannot be done without the other. To take a picture is not so simple as just 'the click of a button'. I painfully found this out when I had missed a presentation and went for a shoot. The results of the shoot is not worth a mention, but I guess you figured that out.
My interactions with both of you have been one of the most pleasurable experiences that I had. I used to be apprehensive and uncertain before a shoot. But you guys had this way of putting all that to rest. You have both been very patient . I loved the way you have explained the intricate nuances of photography and have made it all so much fun. So, from the girl who thought she should be content with just gazing upon beauty and never create it, today I can confidently walk down that road and work towards being an artist in my own right . I would like to say thank you.
My perception of my surroundings has changed; I still see the same things but in a different light. Today I am in a position to better appreciate things of beauty - something I thought I was well accomplished in. Simple things that I had long ago stopped noticing have become much more interesting. I now want to create the beauty I see and appreciate so much and immortalize that beauty in a picture. And I do this simply for the love of it and for nothing else.
Though I enjoyed both the theory and the shoot sessions, I loved the photo shoots more than the presentations. However, I realized that one cannot be done without the other. To take a picture is not so simple as just 'the click of a button'. I painfully found this out when I had missed a presentation and went for a shoot. The results of the shoot is not worth a mention, but I guess you figured that out.
My interactions with both of you have been one of the most pleasurable experiences that I had. I used to be apprehensive and uncertain before a shoot. But you guys had this way of putting all that to rest. You have both been very patient . I loved the way you have explained the intricate nuances of photography and have made it all so much fun. So, from the girl who thought she should be content with just gazing upon beauty and never create it, today I can confidently walk down that road and work towards being an artist in my own right . I would like to say thank you.
4. Ravi Kiran
First off, it was a really wonderful experience getting to learn from pros like you & Shailan. The theory sessions were very informative & useful in learning the basics of camera, its internals, appreciation of light, composition, etc. The on-field sessions were also great in that we could apply some of the techniques, if not all, that we learnt in the previous classroom session out there in the field.
Things that could have been incorporated into this workshop, according to me are:
How to shoot in low-light situations
Flash photography
I really liked the concept of evaluating photographs & discussing the nitty-gritties.
Just felt that you could add at least a couple of more sessions to make it 10 sessions.
5. Sangeetha Vaidya
I had been planning to attend your workshop for the last 2 years and I regret not doing it earlier.
Your workshop completely met all stated/unstated expectation that I had from you guys except that I thought you could have been a bit harsher on improvement areas for us. As a result, while I am comfortable exploring the manual modes, I am not sure if I can leave my job and start doing photography for a living
More specifically, I think when we review pictures, we should categories them as excellent/ good /could have been better/deserves to be deleted… or some such thing so that we know our handicap in BLACK and WHITE. You may also want to warn all first timers about the crazy dog at Qutub
6. Priyanka Dev
First of all a big thanks to both of you for helping us (like I said on shailans card as well) "see' light in a whole new way. Its really amazing how many "new" things I see around me now– they were always around – just that I think I never really "saw" them!! – and that itself should tell you that your methods were very effective
About the workshop – I thought for a long while but I still cant seem to be able to come up with any concrete criticism…so im just penning my thoughts as they come…
I really think though that taking us out for an outdoor shoot on the very second day really helped in opening up inhibitions – at least for me – I was a bit taken aback at first when you said we would shoot ONLY in manual mode – since for me it was the very first time with my SLR and hence of course I had no idea what shooting in manual would be like. But I think I surprised myself because once you get there and with whatever you have gathered in the first class – its really a lot of fun going manual and experimenting with capturing light and shade – it really opened my eyes to the effect of light and shade on things around us.
Then I also think the phoolmandi was another really good thing – I really felt like as a beginner, I had been thrown into the sea and told to start swimming - and that's a very effective way to learn!!
But then I also think that on that particular day if I had had an opportunity to talk to you earlier than I actually did it would have changed my entire perspective – I saw this in not only my own pictures but also in pictures of a lot of other people – there was such a BIG difference in the pics of those who had been told to see the "light" and others who were either told a wee bit late (like me- I was already quite tired by the time I ran into you )– im not sure if you got to talk with everyone that day at all. I couldn't focus on the flowers coz there were soooo many people around – and then I started including them in my frame.
Maybe a little talk about back light and side light on Saturday would have helped take much better pictures on Sunday….
I also think that now I need some reading material – just like that card for the aperture readings – a few more cards eg about depth of field thru different lenses and something about different kinds of lenses (macro, fish eye etc) would help.
Is there a book that I can get for reference??
I do feel that I have a long way to go …but then I also know that I've had a good start thanks to you guys!
7. Akanksha Gupta
I enjoyed the workshops a lot, they were very helpful...and i must say that i'll miss them even if i hated waking up at 7:30 in the morning on weekends.
Being a student of multimedia, I was taught the basics of photography in the college, not by just one teacher but three and with all three of the teachers, because of one thing or the other, could not really get the hang of it. If with one teacher we were taught the practical, the theory part was missing, the teacher who taught us the theory, did not teach us how to implement it in practical and so on. In these workshops, I could do both. The method of teaching the theory part through a visual presentation helped me to understand the art of photography very well. And again, since we were asked to get the prints even if we had a digital camera, for the first time I got to know how important a role printing plays in photography. All in all I would say that the Photosensitive workshop is ideal for anybody who is keen to learn photography.
8. Vikram Pratap
Firstly, thank you for the great time and all the knowledge that you have shared with us over the past 4 weeks. It has definitely changed my view-point on photography and is making me see my camera in an absolute new light.
I had a good time.. the presentations were well composed and executed. The shoots were exciting and the review of the prints was the real learning experience. The time was sufficient for the topics covered. However, I would like to request you to please include Indoor Photography also in the future workshops. Portraits and profiles, familiarity with specialized equipment and usage.... well, given the time, I guess that would be tough, but and extension of 1 more weekend would be great. That is I guess what I want to share for now.
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