Shubham and myself were returning from the Prince of Persia late night show when Shubham invited three of his junior friends in the same cab. Amongst the various discussions that followed, one of the guys told us about a photography workshop to be held the next day. "Who is taking the workshop?" was the obvious question. "Subi Chaturvedi from LSR, Delhi. She has even been the Miss Antaragni." Suddenly it sparked a new delight on our faces and made the news of the workshop more interesting.
"So what time is the workshop ..... who is picking her up... where is she staying and bla bla...."
The next day we woke up as usual at 2 pm in the lab. The first spot we rushed towards today, unlike other days was not our about to close mess but Visitor's Hostel. The receptionist told us that she was staying in A-1, Visitor's Faculty Hostel and we dropped there on Shubham's scooty in flash of a second.
Three guys, apparently the photography club coordinators, were waiting outside the door while a tall smart lady was locking her doors. As she moved past us, SHUBHAM was quick to pounce on her introducing both of us - "we are into photography" and we got invited to the lecture with our best 20 pictures. She gave some really nice tips on taking better pictures. She showed some of her pictures taken in Europe and east India. They were amazingly impressive. She told us how the getup, colors and light conditions change the look and feel of the picture. She shared her experience when she had to decide Sushma Swaraj's dress after she had won the election. She also impressed on us that we should wait for the right moment of action before clicking and look for the right expressions - as she had clicked Laloo Yadav sleeping many a times in Lok Sabha. Some of the landscape pictures taken by her looked very serene and appeared like a painting which she said is accomplished by introducing a shake by clicking and immediately releasing the shutter button.
Next day, the lecture began at 4 pm. And what more she started off with the discussions of my photos. One by one the pictures rolled and her expert comments coupled with the photography rules - "rule of the thirds", "importance of head space", "perfect symmetry is unpleasant", "leading lines in the photograph", "going deep into the picture into the 3rd dimension by taking pictures at angles with wide angle lens", "using the available light to your advantage"..... made the session unforgettable and extremely interesting for me. Although she kept kicking my ass for being "an excellent photographer but a bad editor" but I really cherish those moments. It was the ultimate surprise for an amateur photographer like me to have my pictures discussed on stage that too by such a great talent. For reference, she asked us to follow Tarun Khiwal, Rafique Sayad, Raghubir Singh, Raghurai and Prashant Panjair. Later, once again we went out to take pictures outside the CSE building. I even tried clicking her picture in the dim light with tips from her but apparently light had a reddish tint which did not allow me to take a good picture.
Back from the two day workshop, I suddenly realize that my composition and photography skills have drastically improved. Such a remarkable difference in a short span of time is simply unbelievable. I went through all the pictures I took in Europe and to my surprise I was very easily able to identify the issues with them and improve most of them as much as possible. Thanks Subi for the wonderful time and being such a great teacher. It has also helped me update my best photos gallery .
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