A Participant’s experiences of our Level-1 Photography Workshop for Beginners

Suman B, who attended out photography workshop for beginners last month, wrote to us about her experiences and learning from the workshop. See more details on this workshop at Level 1 Workshop – Introduction to Digital Photography

The joy of owing a good camera (Canon 550 D) dissipated fast when I looked at various settings in the device. Not being the manual-reading-types did not help either and was also averse to experimenting with a 40K camera. I kept it under wraps for a year in which time I went on three holidays with my outdated digital camera.

My last trip to Manali was a disaster of sorts in “photographic” terms. It was clear that my pictures did no justice to such a picturesque locale. My friend had even refused to pose for my good old “digicam”.  That‘s when I remembered Darter Photography workshop. Having known them before, I was familiar with the kind of work they did.

Enrolling in the workshop conducted by Darter was the best decision ever. That they value quality is evident right from the start. Right from the beginning, the instructors made me feel comfortable enough to admit that I knew nothing about the camera – the first question he asked was to identify the shutter release button: / and lo and behold, I did not know (I referred to it as the click button). I was a total novice, but was never made to feel that for the duration of the workshop. From that first hurdle I went headlong into learning all aspects of picture taking – focal length, aperture, shutter speed, ISO all new terms went swirling over my head.

We used objects inside the room as props for practice. And I could feel my confidence building in handling the camera. On my way back home on the first day I was noticing everything around and wondering how I could capture the moment in photographs. Once back home I took some pictures form the terrace and felt a renewed sense of accomplishing something.

The second day was the field trip to Lal Bagh. I had a photo story in my head and clicked some shots right from the time I left home. The shoes, the ride to the venue, entrance, time etc….but the moment I tried to capture the sunrise, realized that I need to practice for the perfect picture. Did not let the technicality scare me though. The instructor was patient with all of us clamouring for his attention, opinion, help with the hundreds of pictures we clicked. The field trip was the highlight of the workshop. After breakfast we were back in the indoor class room to review & critique our work. It was great to see our picture up on the screen and receive feedback. The last session was post processing images.

Two days had just passed by so fast. I was not bored even for a single minute and had learnt so much.

Hello world! Here I come, camera in hand, to record everything for posterity!!!!

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