 So good afternoon Amrita ma'am, good afternoon to all the students, to the coordinators and to my very lovely students. Thank you for joining in. Today we are here to be a part of a very interesting session. Did you all like the photography competition? Did you all enjoy it? Y'all can just raise your hand and zoom. Yes ma'am. Okay brilliant. Yes ma'am. We received overwhelming entries and I was really happy to see the kind of pictures that you all have submitted. Great work done by all of you. So my many, many congratulations. And so this session is going to be very interesting. We have a guest today who is from that field and who's going to be sharing some really sites with all of you on photography and he is also the judge of the competition and he has a winner for us. So I am very excited to know the winner because I'm picking out my favorites as you all kept sending me the entries but I'm very, very eager to know that who is the winner. First of its kind competition that our school held and I promise that I'm going to make it a ritual and all of you using photography because trust me it is a beautiful art. Right. So without any further ado, take this opportunity of welcoming and introducing our guest for today, Mr. Rahul Maheshwari. Rahul if you can switch on your video please. Hello, hi. Hi Rahul. So I will take a quick two minute time for introducing Rahul. You know, part of the daily office work and the family business Rahul decided to do what he always wanted to do a career in the creative field. At 25, while his friends were settling in with jobs and getting married, he decided to trade and everything for a one way ticket to US. Now, amazing. While in design school Rahul ran into photography by chance. He began his photography career assisting in his college darkroom in exchange for free film roles so that he could shoot with the studio camera. Before he landed up at the national National Geographic on an expedition which was headed by senior photo editors and photographers from the National Geographic. In 2005, Rahul's photography journey took a dramatic turn when he was selected to assist the photography legend Steve McCurry at his studio in New York, eventually becoming Steve's digital editor. Rahul has assisted workshops with photographers like Raghu Rai, Fritz Hoffman, Luke Townsend, Mixon, Ricardo Cases and the list is so on and so forth. It's a huge list. A bachelor for print and association of arts and TV and film production from Collins College, Tempe, USA. He has also been the communications chair for American Institute of Graphic Artists, Arizona. Rahul is the technical director at studio pomegranate, which offers photography and video services at a white spectrum in Kolkata. He teaches photography at the Calcutta International School to students across grade 6 and 11. Oh, wow. What an impressive dossier that is, Rahul. A welcome from all of us to you and thank you so much for taking time and being a part of this session. Thank you. Thank you for having me here and a very good afternoon to Principal Ma'am, all the teachers and all the coordinators and the students from your school. Thank you, Rahul. We also have a very interesting guest today who is going to be interviewing Mr. Maheshwari. Please welcome Ms. Araditha Saraf. Hi, Araditha. You're on mute, Araditha. Good afternoon, everybody. Hi. Can you hear me now? Yes. Great, great. So taking this opportunity to also introduce Araditha, she is the founder at Willoughquin, the digital writing center. Additionally, as a digital hygiene trainer with Google News Initiative, she ensures that all content generated from her platform is fact checked. Araditha is our content partner and has worked extensively for the school and avid photographer herself, she will be interviewing Mr. Maheshwari who was hot and getting various insights for all of us. I welcome you, Araditha and I'm so looking forward to this session. Thank you, Sugandha. It's been a pleasure. Without any further ado, Araditha, the platform is yours and we are looking forward to this chat show. Thank you. I hope all of the students really enjoyed submitting their photographs, experimenting with their cameras and just trying to click photographs during the quarantine. I remember when I was younger and I just got my, I used to use my mother's cell phone to just click around photographs and just the sky or maybe when I went out for a walk, anything that I thought was beautiful. So it's truly an enjoyable experience just playing with your camera. So, before we waste any time, I'd like to learn from Rahul first more about his journey in photography. And I'll start with the question, when did you first realize your passion for photography? So, for me, photography happened by chance. It was never the intention because I went to the US to study graphic design. I was always inclined towards design and that was the intention for the degree. Now, in the curriculum, we had a four-week mandatory course in doing basic photography. The concept was very clear. You know, as a designer, you have to present art concepts. So they said that you should know some basic photography wherein you could click some photos and, you know, make a stronger pitch for your design. So it was during those four weeks that, you know, when I started looking more into photography and when the camera came in my hand and then, you know, I got more exposed to what was happening in the school dark room and the school dark room was massive. I think it had like a 45th ceiling and you could drive a car in and you could shoot automobiles in there. So it was pretty massive setup and just kind of just being around there and seeing all those things, I became very fascinating. So that's how I kind of got involved with photography. And then when did you realize or when did you decide to take it up professionally? Like when did it convert from being a passion to a profession? So, see, there are a couple of things that happened, I think, in sequence that made it very exciting for me. First thing that I think all of you should know is that I am a traditionally trained photographer. I learned on film back in the day when there was no digital. I mean owning a digital camera was like, it was a dream. You couldn't even think of it. It was so expensive. So I learned on film and how it got to me was that while helping in the studio, you know, the teacher or the professor would say, you know, why don't you help us in the dark room also? So, you know, the whole process of loading the camera to clicking images and then the process of getting in the dark room with the chemicals and you know, I think it takes a lot of time. It was a very organic process which I really got excited about. So I started looking more and more in the subject. And prior to that, till class 12, I had a background in IT. I used to code quite a lot. So, you know, that that bent of the brain was there and then suddenly there was this organic art kind of a brain that was working on the side. And then suddenly within a span of one and a half years, everything shifted to digital. So, you know, when that happened, this organic entity just morphed into an online on computer thing and I already knew my way in and out of computer. So that made even more exciting, like, you know, wow, you know, we went from here to here. And that interim phase was so chaotic that people who were on film, they were struggling to get on the computer. So they needed the transition phase. They needed someone to handhold them. And just came very easily to me. And to top it all off, on the top, what I'd say the cherry is the degree in graphic design because we were being taught how to handle images. So then I knew the organic, I knew how to handle the images and I knew the end goal. So it all fell in place for me. And that's how I just got deeper and deeper in the subject. Wow. Considering your decision to like pursue photography professionally had so much to do with the equipment. What do you think about phone photography nowadays that everybody seems to be practicing and experimenting with? I think phone photography is true democratization of her subject. If you look at it 25 years ago, 40 years ago photography was only practiced by people who could afford it. Then came the era of, you know, people wanted to get into photography. So it was like, okay, you know, it's a very shady subject. You really don't know what the future is. So very few photographers were around. But I think with phone photography, it's true democratization, you know, democracy in terms of even the auto rickshaw guy has a, you know, 12 megapixels cell phone. So, you know, they have an access and the ability to express themselves creatively. So I think that's really fantastic. Yeah, I think it's a big boon, especially now when we're all quarantined and one thing we do have access to is our phones. And so that makes it possible for us to engage in photography. So how do you recommend students can practice photography while they're like locking down and in quarantine? It's a tough one because now with so many people clicking, you know, so many, so much content. I always now call it content. I don't call it photos anymore. It's just, I think it's similar to call it content. Is this too much of noise? And you just need to keep figuring out, you know, keep clicking some photo here and there until you figure out that you really enjoy the subject. And once that goes in, you know, you just go slow with it. It's not going to happen overnight. It takes years and years of practice. And that's how it has to be. So there's, you have to find out the difference between clicking and actually creating. So creating is when you're actually putting in the effort, framing it properly, the light and you're, you know, focusing on everything and then making a conscious effort of creating an image. Clicking would be what you do with your phone and with your friends and whatnot. Understood. I remember when I was doing my class with you, you had asked me to like find letters in my house like just letter S in something that was naturally. So that helped me be so much more observant and like click, like click all day long. So any such like techniques or assignments, quick, quick tips you might have for students to, you know, just keep an eye out for things they can photograph in and around the house. So there are two assignments which I love to give to my students and kind of they hate me for it. The first one is when you're looking for the alphabet A through Z occurring in shapes around you. So they need not necessarily be text, like you can't just go and find alphabet painted on a wall or wherever and say, oh, this is what it know. The shape is what you're looking for, right? And the more refined the shape you can find and frame the better it comes across. So that's, you know, training your eye to look for things. So here you're forcing to look for things. And the other assignment is the hundred thumbnails where you take an object of your choice, preferably something small enough that you can move around very easily. So I would say something that fits in your hand and you can move around and show me a hundred different ways of looking at that object. So you can't have, you know, each, each photo should be different. But if I look at the photo, I should know, oh, yeah, okay, this is a, you know, like a laptop or this is like a toothbrush or whatever it is. So that forces you to look at a subject again with different ways. No, because everybody. These exercises and How important is post-processing a photograph to you? It's a topic that so I think it's a pattern. We all use so many filters. So let's not, let's not kid ourselves and let's not try to be too purist. I should also not be too preachy about it because I do a lot of post-processing on my images because that is what is required. But what I always say is there is a amount of time that you need to put in a project. Okay. And, and, and you're being, and I'm talking completely from a commercial point of view because I think wherever you involve money, it makes sense very quickly. So if, if say for example, if my project is supposed to be finished off in five hours, okay, that's the amount of time I should be taking to finish off a project and that's when I make profit in the project. If I don't shoot properly, I'll spend hours and hours and hours trying to fix that mistake. So you go beyond five hours and now you're making a loss in your project. So I always say shoot strong and the minor hiccups you clean off in post-processing. So even today for the commercial work I do for portraits and everything, whatever is being fixed on the camera or sorry on the computer is intentional. It is known that these are the things I have to fix. Anything else that need can be fixed during the shoot should be fixed there. And you should know what your end goal is. Then you, you know, then you justify post-processing. Otherwise you can be hours at ends filter after filter and never be happy. True. So what is the one thing you wish you knew when you started taking photographs as an amateur photographer before you know you decided to take it up professionally? I don't know. I think the entire journey has been so amusing and so amazing and so exciting for me that I wouldn't want to go back and change anything. However, I would say that I wish I understood depth of field sooner because it took me six months just to understand what it did. So for six months I would struggle on and on and my teachers would explain it again and again. It just, I don't know, I just couldn't see it. And then one fine day I was like, oh, okay, that's it. So those are the six months that I, you know, I was just, I don't know, I just didn't get the concept, but it is what it is. Do you think you could explain depth of field in like a sentence or two? Well, now I figured out how to explain it easier. Like I figured out, oh, if this was short to me, then I would do it. So you remember I do the thumb exercise where you know, if you guys put your thumb out like this and if you bring your thumb closer to your eye, it's about 72 centimeters or something of that where your, you know, your nearest vision is going to be. So now what I can do is I can shift focus on my thumb completely and I see everything on my thumb, but you see everything behind gets blurred out and that's depth of field being able to control where the blur comes. That's depth of field. Thank you for that. That was very helpful. Wow, I know that that was really super. So like I said, you know, I'm just trying to figure it out how though. It's like your eye becomes the camera and then you just try to, yeah. Your iris contracts and the focus kind of comes in front. So that's how it works. I'll try it offline I think. So yes, any particular magazine's books or videos or any like freely available resources on the internet, you think you recommend students to like go through to hone their photography skills. Yeah, YouTube. Okay. You know, I mean, that's the best and the worst place to be on because you find everything in there. Definitely look for the right people, look for the right content creator and why I say YouTube because you get everything. You know, if you're lazy like me, I can't read. I mean, for the love of God, I really can't read. But if it's content, if it's audio and visual, it's easy for me to, you know, grasp it. Any specific creators you recommend? See, it depends what level you're at. So if you're at the basic foundation, then look for people who are right there. So I wouldn't know the basic guys. But the kind of stuff, the kind of people I follow are doing high end retouching or, you know, they are mostly discussing photography. One very good channel though, I would say is the art of photography. And another person who you could look for retouching and all that kind of stuff is Pratik Nayak. He's one of the best in the world and it's very nice to look at his content. Thank you, thank you. I'm making a note of that myself. Okay, and I think just a couple more questions and then we can move on to like the results which everybody's eagerly awaiting. Which would be your favorite lens? I'm just curious. So it's evolved over a period of time. Currently, I think I'm in love with the 35 millimeter lens because the 35 millimeter lens is absolute field of view for the human eye is. So when you end up photography, you know, when you end up making content with it, it is exactly the way a human eye would see it. So the width and the height and the distortion, whatever it is there is there. And I love using prime lenses because you can't zoom in and zoom out standing in one place. So what happens is you're forced. So if you want to zoom in, you have to move closer. If you have to zoom out, you have to move away. So that forces you to move around. And I think that is what is very important photography. Very true. I've used that lens before and yes, I've enjoyed myself. Okay. And now just before we go into the results, what are some key pointers that you think make a good photograph? Like when you look at a photograph, what makes you think, okay, this is a good one. What about it makes it stand out? So see there's one very simple answer for it. The simplest answer and the most, you know, I think accurate answer in my opinion is the fact that art is subjective. Photography is a means of art and it's a perfect unison of mechanical and art. So art is subjective. So as the sooner all of us accept that fact, it becomes easy to accept the result because what you like on Instagram, I may not like it. And what the students are currently hashtagging and, you know, hitting like on, we might not, you know, see eye to eye with it. So find out, you know, what you enjoy and that kind of works that way. But I think at the same time, you have to be very aware of who you're creating the content for. If you're creating it for a larger audience, then please get to do what they want. The kind of portraits I do. I enjoy it. I find it very, you know, I find it very nice, but it doesn't really do well with a lot of people at large. I see what I see in it and therefore that kind of work is not as appreciated as the kind of work that, you know, consumers want. So they want something, I do it for them because they want it, they need it. Would I do it if I had the choice, like would you, if you told me, you know, choose between A and B would I give you a I would not because I prefer this. You know, who you create content for and it should meet their needs. That's the best way to explain it. Thank you. I just have one question to actually firstly, you know, more technical. So what do you think about this new thing, you know, this drone photography? I mean, you know, that's is do you think that is actually human intervention where we see the, you know, what's capturing. And do you think it's just one of the technology used for aerial shots? What do you, what do you feel about this entire concept of drone photography? See, drone photography drone is just a tool. Okay, it's just a tool of getting a shot from an angle or from a perspective that humanly is either difficult or impossible to do it. Right. That said, you know, to answer your first part of the question, you know, the human intervention. Of course. So I have worked with a drone photographer of two categories. One is a drone operator. And one is a drone operator who knows photography. So drone operator will just fly the drone this way, this way, wherever you want them to fly, they'll fire fly and they'll keep the drone there and that's it. Beyond that, the cameras is pointing down really not much is happening. But a cinematographer or a drone photographer who knows something about photography. They fly with the intention of creating the shot in a certain way. And that is where the creativity comes. So if you see, you know, the drone footage that just makes you look good, like, wow. That's because the person either operating the drone or operating the camera knows what is going on. So yeah, there is a huge difference in operating it and actually photographs with it. So even I know how to drive a car and so does Michael Schumacher and who belongs on the track. True, true. Another question, Rahul. You know, I mean, what like you did photography on films and, you know, even when I was younger, we always. So you know the picnic that we went to and we would take pictures and then we would wait for weeks before the films got developed and come back to us. So that excitement was kind of there. I would wait for my birthday pictures because, you know, it's not immediate gratification. It's not, okay, let's delete this and look for a better shot. So do you think that, you know, the generation today is missing out on that excitement? Or do you feel that, you know, way to go technology and that's the better way? How do you compare the two? I think you said that you used a very important keyword while you were asking this question. You said gratification and today's generation is all about instant gratification. You know, you want it now. And the gratification bit of it is actually in all the areas, you know, all of us are locked down at home and all of us are ordering food through Swiggy. You know, you press a button and the food is there now. Yeah. So that said, this is how things are trending. This is how things are moving. Yes, this generation does miss out. They don't know what it means of, you know, having made some images and waiting maybe a week before it comes back. And, you know, the excitement of seeing and reliving those moments. And because it was so small in number when I say small because you could shoot only so much. And the reason was because there was a financial aspect to it. Every role of film would cost you money. Yes. You would only shoot what you were sure of. You wouldn't waste. Yeah. But in digital, it doesn't really matter. And I use film as an example of telling people who come to me and tell me, you know, I just want to learn, you know, I just want to learn and I'll give whatever it takes to be good at it. And, you know, I tell them if you the best way and the fastest way to learn photography is shoot film. You learn in three months because the cost is so much, you know, the mechanics, the processing, the time consumed and you make a mistake once, like I used to make a mistake. It's out of focus. I made a mistake that happened in two roles of film. After that, I never made a mistake because that was, you know, almost $50 down the drain. So after that, every frame, I would check and double check and triple check to make sure the focus was correct before I click. Yeah. So that's how it works out. That's it to be a little bit more cautious and responsible. Yeah. A little more involved. I think a little more involved is involved is the right word for it. You're quite involved in the process and, you know, your brain is in the process. It's not thinking of food and clicking away to glory. So Do you think that, you know, because like you said, we are it's just digital easily available to us somewhere, you know, the aesthetics behind a good photograph. Do they get compromised when we because it is possible. I mean, I just go with my phone click, click, click. Even major photography, for example, I mean, you know, some days the sky is so beautiful and I really want to capture a nice shot. But then again, because it's so easily available to me, I might just go, you know, five clicks randomly. So aesthetics in photography. How do you rate that? It's very important. And there's a very good movie, the Secret Life of Walter Mitty or Mitty or whatever it I think that movie is called. And the ending is phenomenal. You know, the last, I think five, 10 minutes where he finds the person he's looking for. And this guy's hunting for a snow leopard in the Himalayas for, I don't know, for ages. And then he eventually sees the snow leopard and he didn't doesn't click. And then he gives an explanation for it. And, you know, that explanation I think is gold. So if students can get a hand of the movie, they should look it up. And basically, you know, you have to stop to enjoy. So what people in my family expect me to do is since I have my camera with me wherever we go, they expect me to be clicking like a magnet. But that was when I was a student. That was when, you know, I was at all high of clicking creating content. But, you know, I think it's with age and wisdom, not that I'm very wise, but what I'm trying to say is that I'm wiser than what I was with wisdom. What happens is you come to a point where, you know, if I see a beautiful sunset, I probably will not click. I'll just kind of put the camera down and I'll stand and I'll, you know, breathe and I'll enjoy the moment. And then if I'm happy with living that moment, then I'll click. So once you start doing that, you appreciate things more and you find value in the new things. Sure. Wow. I think, yeah, that's, that's a beautiful thought. Yeah. So yes, I think it's very important to live the moments everybody and, you know, all of you budding photographers like Mr. Mahesh really said, you know, we need to first absorb the moment and then you all go click, click, click and put up those pictures on your Instagrams and your Facebook. One thing I just like to add to that, I just remembered when I was at the National Geographic Expedition, you know, when I was being trained by these photographers at the National Geographic, I was just a college student. So, you know, keeping that in perspective, I had no clue what was going on. They just called me and I never saw what they saw in my work then, but now if I look back at my old work, I understand why they, you know, handpicked. So when you talk about it, it was a nine day bootcamp and we talk about it and they would say things like, you know, don't just land up in a place and jump around and start clicking like a madman, you know, just sit for some time, observe, see what is going on, you know. Some of them even said things which I laughed at before they said, you know, smell the air, you know, hear the sounds, close your eyes and, you know, let that, you know, get immersed in the situation is what they would say. And that makes more sense now than it made sense then. So, you know, wherever you go, just pause and observe what's going on because you might be chasing something which is no story at all, where the real story would be somewhere else. So that's what I think is critical to learn. Wonderful, wonderful. Alright, so Rahul, do you think we can move on to the results and then have a Q&A with the students? I'm sure they have questions to ask you. Yeah, yeah, absolutely. Let's do that. Let's go with the, I think if you can go with the special mentions from top down and then the winner in the end. Yes. So, students, we actually have a winner and we have a couple of special mentions and that feedback is going to be given to us by Mr. Mahesh Ria. Let me just quickly share my screen so that we can just take you all through the selected pictures. Okay, can everybody see my screen? Give me a thumbs up. Yes, ma'am. Okay, brilliant. So, Rahul, we move on to the first special mention. Yeah. Alright. I like Shamisha's image quite a lot and so I'm going to say a couple of things. Please understand. I mentioned that, you know, it's very subjective. So all the decisions are based on my understanding and my opinions. That doesn't mean that those who have not on the list have lost out or they don't know photography is just that at that moment, at that brief, whichever did better is the one that is here. I like Shamisha's image because I personally believe that, you know, what is very important with the image is an appropriate caption and the caption is what becomes very powerful. So it gets the photographer's message across very easily. So her explanation of, you know, what the concept behind the photo is, I really like that. And I think that for me sums up a complete image, you know, a good visual with a good explanation, which is not too long and not too short either. Wonderful. Congratulations, Shamisha. Moving on to the other one, Meel Saxena. Alright. So by the very first look, I just, you know, glance through this image. When I was going through it, I just browsed through it a couple of times through the presentation. And this one always I just kind of, okay, next, next, next. And then when I came back to it, I realized that, you know, what is actually a portrait? So I shoot a lot of portraits and it's the face, which is the identity of the person. And that tells you a lot more about the human being than anything ever will. But given the way that the pandemic is going right now, this is what the identity has become for everyone that you see walking on the street. You don't know if they're smiling or if they're frowning, you know, if they're smiling or they're sad or whatever it is. And this is the status quo, you know, I think globally. So I thought that this was a very unique and a very, you know, appropriate portrait for the current time. Rahul, I couldn't have noticed that this picture has, you know, a sort of, I mean, there's some texture to the, you know, to the head. And so it's like a shadow effect or something. Yeah, it looks like two shadows or like three layers. So some kind of post-processing glitch or whatever. I couldn't figure it out what it was or it's been cut out from some background or something. I figured it happened, but I didn't think too much about it. Okay. All right, next. Suhani's image was, this one made me smile because I'm a very firm believer of the fact that, you know, there's a child in every one of us. It's just that as you grow older, you ask the child to shut up more often. You don't let the child do what the child does. And this seemed like, you know, a mirror image, like kind of looking inside, outside, and she calls it soulmates. So for me, it felt like, you know, being in touch with your inner self. And it also kind of made me think about, you know, my favorite cartoon character, Bill Waterson, Calvin and Hobbes, where Hobbes is just a fragment of his imagination. And this feels like here's a real person and here's a imagination of hers, which is her soulmate. So that's how I interpret this. Wonderful. Rhea's image, this is the, I think this is the only image in the entire selection, which, you know, artificial light has been used. And in terms of artificial light has been used to light up the entire portrait. There is no other light. It's just the rice lights that are creating the light. And without light, you can't have photography. So I found this unique, this kind of stuck out. And that's why I went with this one. Awesome. Tenzin. So this is a very interesting observation that Tenzin makes about portrait. She says that the concept behind the portrait is sightless. Its main objective is to explore self-expression through movement without sight. This is, you know, I don't know. It's a topic of very long discussions and it made me think. And then the visual kind of, you know, plays along with that whole sightless factor. So interesting, because if you see how our hands are sticking out, it almost seems like she's trying to explore what is around while being sightless. So it kind of played very well. I agree. I think it's a very interesting image, beautifully captured. So that's Shuyash. And this was, I think, a very wonderful point of view for him to get this photo clicked. Yeah. And eye view. And I think there's a lot of balance in the photograph, you know, on the left on the right, almost looks like a mirror image. Yes. Same with Moskan, you know, the way, this is a perspective that, which I think matches along with Shuyash's, you know, this is a kind of view that none of the students have shown. And, you know, just kind of arching back completely and, you know, looking into the camera. So it's just the perspective and the point of view which made it stick out. And I thought it should be a special mention because nobody else has done it. Wonderful. Okay. So I think there are two or three of these in line. There's Anika and Shweta. That's right. Anika and Shweta. And I have to give it to these ladies. You know, it takes a lot of effort to dress up and get clicked, you know, being given a theme and then actually taking the time and effort to, you know, what we call in our language, you know, wardrobe up, you know, going out of the way, choosing your wardrobe and, you know, putting in the effort, you know, like if you see Shweta's, there's a lot of props, the thali with the dia, you know, the flame being lit on it, the flowers, you know, these little minor details, the hair, the flower on her hair, you know, these minor details that she's taken care of to, you know, get there. This, I think it's really interesting that at this age, you're putting in that effort to, you know, participate in a school competition. That's very nice. That's really nice. I mean, this is really enjoyable. Awesome. So then we have Pratyush and after Pratyush, we have, I think, Shruti. So for both of them, what I'd say is that your photos actually tell me a lot more than you will ever tell me about yourself. And by looking at your photographs, I can make a fair guess about what your immediate future plans are and what are the things that influence you in your life. These are very evident by the books that are lying in front of you or the books you've used as props, you know. Here's someone who's, you know, inclined towards a stem, but at the same time is, you know, being influenced by our past precedent or I forget the name of the author on the extreme right-hand side, but I know he's a spiritual guide. And then there are books that suggest that she might be taking a JEE exam, but then there's also Sherlock Holmes involved in it. So quite a fascinating insight in this young mind is what I get from this picture. I hope this is true and this is not a make-believe. And Pratish also, if you see, you know, there's chairs, there's Nesha Mandela and Jadaka Tails are there, which I fondly remember from my childhood. Yeah. So, you know, these are things which when you look at a photograph, you can tell a lot more by the surroundings. And once you start doing this, once you start picking up on a photograph and seeing things and, you know, you can tell a lot more about the person. These two in particular, you know, there's so much information, the images that I actually stopped and I actually went through it in details to, you know, amuse myself and I'm like, oh, okay, this is interesting. Oh, very fascinating. So these two were what really stuck out. Awesome. Okay. And now we have the winner. So all you guys excited? All right. So Rahul, I am going to be announcing the winner and then we'll think to hear from you. Why is this particular entry the winner? So here I go. All right. Congratulations, Aastha. Congratulations. A huge round of applause, everybody. Come on. Is Aastha here? Is she a part of this session? Aastha? All right. All right, Rahul, waiting to hear from you. Okay. So, you know, the theme is fighting my inner demons. And I saw this image maybe twice or three eyes and then I, you know, what I do is I usually walk away from the image and you know, I'll go take a walk or whatever I do my stuff and then I come back again and I look at it again because you don't want, you know, that instant, oh, wow, you know, just jump the gun and kind of do it. And I kept coming back in this image and what this works, it works on so many levels. And it's just a beautiful image because first of all, there's a wonderful play of the light over here. Okay. The light and shadow, they go hand in hand to build the image without the shadow. If you remove the complete shadow, it's a useless image. If you remove the light on Aastha's face, it is an absolute useless image. It's just going to be looking like a blob of either white or either black. So without each, the photo is absolutely not working. And you know, whatever prop she's used, it just works wonderfully well and it fits in with the message which she says, fighting my inner demons. Because I think in day-to-day life, the scale of good versus bad is always, the balance is always on the pill. And more often than not, we find that the bad is winning over the good or there's more bad influences out there. So the shadow is bigger than what the white area is. White being good and shadow being dark and bad. And kind of if you see the shadow on top, it looks like the head has got like kind of a crown or like kind of a, you know, horns of that sort. Because those two circular elements, however she's got it there, they kind of gave it that shape of the horn. So it just kind of, I thought this worked very well. The whole coming together of the drama and that's why I kind of went for this image. It's a beautiful photograph. Each and every one of the ones that we have presented have been beautiful. And not to say, you know, the other students, they haven't put in their effort. Yes, you have and you know, but at the end of the day, there's got to be, you know, one winner. Yeah, I agree. I think all the students who ever sent their entries, they had some really good pictures. And yes, like Rahul said, at the end of the day, there's one winner, but I'm so glad that Rahul has actually given us special mentions. So I'll be very happy to send you out your certificates and your goodies and you know, whatever we can do to just encourage you to keep, you know, practicing this art. It's a beautiful art and thank you Rahul for picking out these special mentions and winners for that. I would now like to open the floor for Q&A with the students. Yeah, please, that'd be great. So students, I mean, if you all have any questions, you all can raise your hand on Zoom and I'm sure Rahul would be very happy to answer them. Please don't be shy and you all can ask questions if you all want to. Yeah, I mean, if you guys have another discord going on, I'm happy to join that also. So discussion there. So I have a question on chat, one of the students who says that can we organize a landscape photography competition? So Rahul, do you want to talk about landscape photography and how do you think, you know, if you're in what sort of photographs and how can children just give them a little inputs and how they can do it? See, landscape photography is, it's, I think for me, it is just, you know, the urban, so the question right now, what kind of landscape are you talking about? Urban landscape or a natural landscape? So I put these two main classification, excuse me, natural would be the natural world, where you try to find beauty and awe in the natural world without going there and fixing anything. And urban would be what you see that humans have created and what is left over mostly. So you pick and choose which one works for you and then you go from that point of view and you click. And what, I think what works, what doesn't work is very difficult to say because for the longest time, I don't know if you guys remember, Windows had this landscape, wallpaper, I think it was a couple of years ago. And for the longest time, I thought it was a computer generated or a fixed photograph, but it turns out it was a photograph by an amateur photographer which Microsoft saw somewhere and they liked it so much that they bought the rights or perpetual right to photograph from that person. So anybody can do it and there are people who create phenomenal landscape photographs, you know, it can happen only in one way and you know, this is going to come back again to what Sugandha and I were talking about a little while back. You have to stop and observe first. So landscape photography I think is for people who can, you know, in the chaotic thing happening around you, you can stop and pause and you can identify that one particular small chunk of area in your field of view and then, you know, close in and frame properly with the lens and then figure out the appropriate time for the light or whatever it is and then click it in a way where, you know, no one has ever seen before. So landscape is tough. I think it's one of the toughest because you're out there alone. So if you like being alone, great. Okay. There is another question on chat. Students, y'all can ask the questions directly to sir rather than- Yeah, actually please. I'd prefer if you speak out that makes it a little better. Right now what I see is just four faces and a lot of things. Yeah, I think why don't you all just switch on your videos. Aaron, you have questions. Switch on your video. Manan, do you have a question? Switch on your video. Just switch on your videos, everybody. Yes, please ask questions rather than putting it on chat. Though there is one student who's asked Oh, that's Aaron only. He gets scared, you know. He gets worried that if he's doing photography and, you know, he's taking a picture of a bird and that will fly away. So is fear an anxiety a part of photography? So what's your question, Aaron? Oh, like how you had talked to our before about the focus. So like if how you give an example of using a film. So when the focus goes a bit aside and then your hard work is gone. So it same happens with me when I'm using my DSLR camera. Like you certainly find a unique bird and you want to click a photo. And when you actually review the photo, it's like a blur or the focus is gone somewhere else. So the problem is like you said, Yeah, I tried so much but still I didn't get. And then when you actually go and take another photo the bird is like gone. You don't have anything left. So that is one problem which I face. Okay, so two issues you're having. One is stop reviewing your photos in between clicks. You know, you said you click, you find it out of focus and you go back and the bird is gone. That happens because you stop to review your images while you're clicking. Don't do that. Certain movements, birds get afraid, you know, animals get afraid they run away. It's not in focus. Would you believe that I still shoot and I still get shots out of focus. It's a button-passing of the game. One quick tip that I can give you for bird photography is if you look at the body of the bird, if the bird is completely relaxed, you'll find that they are fluffed up and the feathers be flying or loose. That bird you can approach. If you approach slowly, I'm not saying you rush towards it. If you approach carefully and slowly, that bird will give you a chance to come pretty close. But if the body is streamlined and the feathers are absolutely streamlined, that means it's tensed, it's going to fly off any moment. So with birding, you really have to go slow, like snails face to reach up. So that should, I think that should help you a little bit. And also I had another question. So you must have used a lot of cameras throughout your journey. So which is your favorite camera to use? My favorite camera is the Mamiya. It's a medium format film camera. It's a Mamiya RD67. It's about this big. It weighs about four and a half kgs. It's only film. And you can shoot only 10 shots per roll. So I like it because so much is involved in creating the image. It takes you an effort to frame it. Once you're done framing, you have to remove a door at the back before you can click it because if you don't remove the door, you can't take the shot. And it's four kgs, so you can't sling it around your shoulder and like run around. So you have to like stand it, you have to prepare it. That whole process, I think it makes it very important that you know what you're shooting. So I had another question. Yes, Manan. So what would be the appropriate age for the photography, like for starting a career in photography? You know, publication of content is super easy in today's day and age. Anybody can create content. And I'm sure you have on Instagram page, right? Yeah. Okay. So you're already publishing. So that hurdle is gone. That means you can put your content out there and people can notice you. So just put content out there. There is no age for putting content out. As far as a professional career is concerned, I feel that you should have some sort of a degree or the other because that little bit of formal training saves you from making a lot of mistake in the early stages. And I think it's better that you learn to make the mistakes in school rather than do it in real life. So that's there. And you can start whenever you want. I don't see that age is a factor for anything in today's day and age. So you have worked so many places and you know, with so many people, I just wanted to ask in the photography institutions, what is the right age at which they take your entries or they take your admission input? So I think every college, depending on which part of the world you apply in, they have a minimum requirement. Plus 12 degree or whatever the basic degrees are, that is a requirement. Though, however, I would like to point out before you think about you're in the 90s. So you've got three more years to go before you can worry about getting into a college. And in three years, the photography industry could go anywhere. I've seen a change in the last 15 years and every time there has been a change, that change has been in quicker succession. Last change happened about three years ago when all DSLRs went obsolete and everyone went to mirrorless. So I wanted to ask a question. Yes, Manmi. Yeah, so what kind of photos do you click? I mean, do you click landscapes? Do you click photos of people? Click, you know, about photos of birds or something like that? Which kind of photo do you click? Personally, or for my bread and butter. Okay. Why I ask the question is if you're asking me, what do I do for a living? I'm a photographer for a living. So I classify photography in two broad classifications. One is bread and butter and one is milk and honey. Bread and butter is what I have to shoot to keep the clients happy and they pay me so I can, you know, have a comfortable life. And milk and honey is the subjects and the projects I thoroughly enjoy and I put, you know, extra effort and extra heart and soul in it. And the output is what makes me happy. And I necessarily make all the clients happy. Okay, so Honey, I think is what I would like to know. Manvi, please go on. Yeah. So are you on Instagram, Facebook or something so that like, you know, we can follow you and we can see your photography content. I mean, do you post pictures of your photography on So, Rahul who what you see in my ID right now, you know at Rahul who anywhere facebook.com slash Rahul LinkedIn.com slash Rahul who Rahul who dot com Instagram Rahul who Twitter Rahul who everywhere Rahul who is going to be me. That's my branding that I've done and I don't post as much as most people do because like I said, you know, I think is just that the way I've been trained I've been trained on film. So for me I can't I don't think every image which I've created every day is worth putting up on Instagram. It is, you know, after so many shots you take one photo which is the final photo then you clean it up and you prep it and that is the one photo which you should put up. So I post photos but not as often as everyone would think I do but yeah, I do put up photos I do put up content and I do interact with people online. Thank you. Thank you so you have a question I have a question Pick up one Yes, so I wanted to ask you that how was your experience at National Geographic as you said you worked at National Geographic how was your experience? I didn't work with National Geographic it was an on expedition series which is where the National Geographic folks they handpick who they think is, you know, good or promising for the for the photography journey and for the experience was it was a nine day boot camp a boot camp is like you wake up photography and you go to sleep photography and in between everything is photography it was the first three days was very painful because I was literally sitting in the hotel room and crying and like where have I landed up like why am I even here because you have to understand the expectations of the folks of National Geographic they're the best in the world so the expectation is nothing less than the best in the world and you can't go and say oh I didn't shoot because I didn't get a shot that's like I think the stupidest excuse that I was trying to sell them that I went out but I couldn't get any you can't tell those people that there's nothing out there because they know better than anyone else so it was iron fist and iron glove that is what it was but now I really value that whole experience because what I've learned there I don't think anywhere I could have learned that and one more were you intimidated by senior photographers yeah you do feel scared I mean it's natural you know because you're some photographers you're in awe of you're like oh my god like you know just I've been around a couple of photographers but I just couldn't speak because I was just in so awe of being in the same room with them I was just like wow you know here is this person who you know I really like and he's standing right and you're just like so shell shocked and some photographers you're intimidated because just I think it's a personal I don't know I mean whether it's right or wrong I think it's that the way a individual behaves or projects themselves is either you feel scared enough that okay you're so scared you don't want to go and talk to them or they are very warm and very easy to talk to those kind of people you can walk up and talk to so you meet all kinds of people out there and one last question what was your biggest challenge that you faced while working there working with the folks at National Geographic or yeah we're working with other people which are seniors so the oh my god they look I'll tell you what they just cannot talk some of I'd say most of the people who I really enjoyed working with and where I've really learned a lot they just cannot talk about anything else it's just it's not in them they're not it's I don't know their brain has only one thing it's photography everything connects to photography you just cannot have any other conversation with them and they could wake up at five in the morning and they could be at it till one at night and then next morning again they could wake up at five in the morning and again you know do the same routine so you have to have that energy to you know step up to them and it's only then do you start getting the real input from them yeah okay thank you sir you're welcome I think there was one more question or someone else was saying yes sir yeah any cut I had a question so is there like a particular thing or object that you that is your favorite that you like to click pictures of people I click photos of people and and I really enjoyed because you know I get to interact with so many people everywhere I go and it just it's it's very interesting so do you click pictures of random people yeah random people so you know just to share with you you know it's very difficult to click people it seems very easy but I think it's far more difficult because when I walk around the city or wherever if I my intention is that that day I'm going to click photos I have nothing on me but just my camera and maybe you know a hand or something and I don't carry anything with me I am very very average dressed I'd probably be wearing slippers or sandals and I try to fit in with the crowd and I can assure you there's definitely no Dior perfume going on that day because when you approach people and when you want to talk to them and my goal is very simple I would make friends with someone break ice convince them to let me click the photograph and once I get the photograph I want I'm just going to walk away walk away in terms of like thanks and I'm done that's my job is my purpose is served so to do that you can't be you know smelling of Dior and you know dressed all fancy they'll see you from a mile away and they're like of course I'm not going to talk to this guy so you really got to get down to their level and break ice with them some people are very kind you know they offer you food they're eating and obviously you don't want to say no because once that offering starts that means you're going to get a lot more things so a lot more things in terms of not food but thank you for that who is this Chad disabled just stop your screen sharing Shubham hello sir yes so sir can you tell me about selective color photography oh when you isolate a photograph and do photographs on it what do you want to ask so I have an icon d5 to double zero so you select from there it has a selective color but whenever I click it's in a grayscale only and look I don't know how to use that particular model what I would say is the camera manual that comes with it if you go through it you'll get everything and if you feel that it's still not answering a question just do a youtube search and I'm sure you'll find somebody who's created a content on how to do it and it'll answer all your questions okay cool thank you sir thank for all those answers I learned a lot sir exactly what is it you want to say with your photographs and how do you actually get your photographs to do that what do I want to say so see I don't think I am a journalist so my photos are not going to highlight a particular topic or a story I'm very clear what I want to do I like to do headshots and you know all the other work that come along with it however with the ongoing trend I do get asked to shoot some weddings and what me and my team do is we kind of limit to a small wedding we don't go for a very large scale wedding primarily because our approach to the wedding photography is very different we kind of do a narrative where you know it's a go with the flow and the story as it is there are no post shots in situations like that I just try to do a very narrative kind of thing where every frame is telling a story of what is going to happen or what just happened and I think that is the way I would put my work at and what motivates you know motivates you to continually taking pictures like is it economically politically intellectually or emotionally you know attached to subject it's intellectually emotional there's no financial element to there's no political element to it because the moment you add a political element to it then you're biased the moment you add a financial element to it then again you're not being true to yourself you're going to end up clicking just because there's a financial angle to it from a knowledge perspective and for a from an intellectual perspective that is what keeps me going so I have more questions is that Brian if I ask you yeah yeah go for it I mean I have all the time I can't go out Sir if you could just suggest a few major points or elements that you would include to make your photography a little more look professional and beautiful Manan right? yeah okay so it's very easy Manan are you sure you want to do this because I'm going to tell you a way to do it are you sure you want to do this because it'll make you a better photographer just you have to do it if you want to do it apart from editing how do you get the perfect shot that you need yeah that's what I'm telling you I'm asking you I'll tell you a way are you sure you want to do it you're sure you can share the points because you and I have had the same question in my mind okay the best way to get good at your photography is keep shooting what you guys need to do is for the next say 100 days just create 10 photos every day 10 unique different photos every day and once you're done with those 1000 photos delete all of them and then start shooting and see what happens thank you sir you're welcome sir so like I want to ask that how did you like get started in your career like how do you know that you wanted to be a photographer I was just you know being at the workshop where I when I came back I met people at the workshop they asked me what I do I told them this is what I do you know I'm going to design school I understand this my background is scoring and then Steve said why don't you come and work with me in my studio because I need someone like you who understands you know digital and can take my assets and make it digitize it so when I started working with him when I started meeting all these photographers in New York I was you know going through the same problem that you know struggling to go from photography to digital and that got me more interested in the subject and over a period of time you know you have to choose what you want to do what you really enjoy so it was either graphic design or photography and I found myself you know sleeping better if I was doing photography so I could sleep well so I chose photography so I have a last question if I can ask because time matters a lot go for it so we say that every picture has a story behind it so do you believe in this and if yes what is your experience in life that okay I have a story behind this picture and I remember you have remembered that photo forever every picture has a story behind it if it is story well and the only way you can tell story with the photograph is if your frame is appropriate so if you as a photographer if you put in the effort to capture the image properly and you know help you know project the message it works like for example there's one photograph in the competition I think it's the last slide of this student playing the tabla and I wish that there was more motion blur in that image there is motion blur on his head when he's bringing his head to the over his right shoulder there is a little motion blur on this side and I really wish that there was more motion blur either in his hands or in his body and that would really project the image that he's completely immersed in playing the tabla so while it does send the image across that yes this particular person is playing the tabla but a frozen motion is not doing it for me that's where I think is the one of the nice examples I could give you that you all could relate to you just needed that little motion that just a little more to convince me that he was actually involved in the whole project though he I'm sure he was it's just that wrong shutter speed so that decision these little things that help you send your message across to everyone Sir I had another question like nowadays cutting down of trees is a more issue so like if you want to take pictures of trees and show them how trees look so wonderful and all so like but you don't get the right picture at the right moment like suppose it's raining and then there's a dew drop on the leaf but then I'm not able to get the right picture at the right moment so like it just falls down due to the way so like how do you get the picture so you want particularly photo for dew drop on leaves or a plant or something of that sort yeah like even birds sitting on trees or like mainly my main thing is trees because two different two different subjects or two different lenses so I'm not going to get too in depth in it but for the dew drop you need a macro lens so you can physically get closer and you know magnify the subject you need a macro lens and that will solve your purpose if the wind is blowing try to find a place where there's less wind and you'll get the shot so you have to keep at it it's not easy you know that together one image you have to keep at it the right time the right moment the right whatever and as far as trees is concerned I think there are ample nature photographers out there who are doing this you know so you need a wide angle lens and kind of dwell on the landscape I had another question yes have you ever clicked pictures of animals and if you have are clicking pictures of animals hard exceptionally and extremely hard yes I have clicked photos of wildlife I tried and I was helped by one of the finest wildlife photographers in India Dhritiman Mukherjee and this was in the runoff where he helped photograph four day old wild foxes we reached at 9 in the morning outside the fox hole and it was till 3 o'clock till the mother fox was confident enough that we were not going to do anything and the pub started coming out and that's when Dhritiman said now you can start crawling like a snake towards the hole and while doing that I called over and so you know what the story is all right make on or a cannon okay students this is the last question please hammer is a hammer you just need to know how to use it can I ask something I have a few points which I'd like to just point out absolutely I was looking forward to some closing remarks from your end okay so guys this question if it was not going to come the last question I was anyways going to say that the question will always be there which is a better camera which is a better equipment I'm going to give you the same answer my professor gave me a hammer is a hammer you need to know how to use it so whichever camera you just should know how to work the camera and get the shot owning the wrong equipment or a 40 equipment that's not a work please understand that like I said before it's a very subjective art is very subjective so it entirely depends on you know who are the people who are consuming your content and how they react to it just because someone says your work is not good or it's bad doesn't mean it is bad just because you don't get enough likes sorry nowadays it's all about my things if you don't get enough likes on Facebook or Instagram doesn't mean your work is not good your work is terribly of that sort it's just that whatever it is there for the it's a part and parcel of the game I think publication of content is super easy so for you guys at this day and age it's super easy to put your work out there and get noticed which was not there 10-15 years back it was the real struggle then as is the access to information and knowledge YouTube is there, Udemy is there a lot of these free courses in photography and media definitely jump on it access to decent equipment like cell phones having 20-30 megapixels that's very easy and every 3 months there's a new cell phone which comes up with something more fancy in terms of the camera so you always will get cutting edge and what I think is more fascinating in the coming times is that what we call a computational photography where the AI is going to get better results with the photos I can't even fathom what they are going to do with it so it's just phenomenal kind of stuff which we are looking forward to what I would say is passion definitely plays a very important goal in this if you're not going to be passionate about a subject anything you know art, mad science, whatever it is that you work on if you don't enjoy it it's absolutely no point in wasting your time on it please take risks just because you fail once doesn't mean it's the end of the world that's the beauty about the whole thing is taking risks and that is I think what makes it very exciting so for me I kind of dwell on the fact that it's challenging for me if it's challenging then it gets more exciting you know if it's just something that just oh yeah you just go in there and you finish up and your job is done and it's like that's kind of boring I graduated, I left school I wouldn't say graduated, graduating is the wrong word I tell you why I left school in 2005 it's been 15 years I'm still studying I'm still doing courses online so I don't think I've graduated every once in a while I feel photography I need to learn this I need to learn that so I'm always learning and the learning is not limited to books or university it could be you know doing workshops online or listening to people or interacting with them or going and kind of doing a hands-on workshop and the intention is very simple I need to go and learn something I'll go and learn something I really don't care what they think of me or whether I know more than the person or not it's just that I don't know what they're teaching and I need to learn that so always please extend your brain muscle always keep upgrading yourself self-belief is something that we can talk a lot about but have a little faith in yourself you've reached so far and with whatever knowledge and whatever your abilities are you've reached so far and celebrate where you are because that's a success in itself I think one of the biggest takeaways that is there with everybody else and I think this is a conundrum which all of us face and when I say all of us I'm talking about me you I'm talking about you know even your parents or whoever you know I'm just giving you a very broad summation of what I think is the underlying that one underlying factor to everything I think in every situation we have two choices and there are only two choices the choices between looking good and doing the right thing that is your choice at all decision making your choice is either to look good or to do the right thing so let's assume for a moment that right now in this discussion I see there are 48 people including myself so 47 I can assure you that there are there have been some questions that the students have thought about asking me but they did not because they were like what if everybody laughs at me or what are other people going to think about me they might have even thought that I would laugh or what would I think about that question or the fact of the matter is that if you'd ask the question you would have been whiter and there is never a stupid question so you know the choice is always doing the right thing and looking good you know that's how I always keep it for myself I mean I live by that and that's what I always tell people and lastly I'll say there's a very fine line between bravery and foolishness so with photography you see a lot of people creating content online and you get very swayed by someone who's climbed the tall building or at the edge of some cave and you know hanging out of the weird stuff you see on the internet hanging out from the car I don't even want to talk about all the stuff I'm sure you guys know diving in the water without any equipment in front of sharks and what not there's a fine line between foolishness and bravery so don't push it because it just takes the fine line to cross over it takes very quickly and then the results are really really horrific so I mean be safe yes you know be brave about how you do it but let's not push our luck you know it's just not worth it it's not worth it so that's all I think I have pretty much in terms of you know the pointers that I share other than that I mean you're welcome to reach out to me and help you with the best I can so thank you students for your questions and thank you Rahul some very well made points I must say I particularly thought that you know that thin line between bravery and foolishness I think it's very important that young students realize that so yes thank you so much for taking out time