Gokarna workshop and after

[ I am glad I am mentoring 2017-18 landscape photography workshop too. Workshop dates are Dec 15,16,17 – 2017 and details of booking can be found here. ]

Finally I am ready to tell my workshop experience. I wanted some photos to be ready to show in detail that how well the landscape workshop at Gokarna went on.

Darter Photography

A one of kind company headed by Arun Bhat and Sriram M V, offers a unique outdoor photography experience to exciting destinations across India. Their workshops/ photo tours are highly admired and always fast filled . I have to thank them in a bog way before I start for giving me this opportunity to do the “Sky, Earth & Water – Landscape Photography Workshop – Gokarna”

Here is their website for all photography lovers both beginners and professionals .

Little Background

Deciding the dates for the workshop were not easy. We wanted a good sky ,decent weather and a long weekend so that we can really focus on covering all important topics both on field and classroom sessions. After lot of debates on weather, position of sun and moon we decided Jan 24th-26th as our choice.

The team

We wanted the team to be very small so that each one gets personal attention of mentors on the field. And number seven turned out to be perfect for us . Luckily all were enthusiastic, energetic and were nothing short of a perfect nature lovers. The best part was the fun we had and the experiences shared .

The location

I have never come across a place like Gokarna where you get the sun and moon positions very convenient for landscape photography. In addition to this the sea , the mountains and the rivers are in 30 minutes drive thus giving plenty of opportunities for making some lovely photographs . Just checkout the range of photos produced during the workshop!

The Weather

The weather turned out to be a showstopper, something any landscape photographer wish for. One the day one we had clear skies with a little bit of haze which gave us decent colors. This was really required as the day one it would be just experiment or learning . We were successfully showed on the field about long exposures, compositions, scouting, key timings etc on the first day evening. Second day early morning thin altostratus clouds helped us to make our riverscape journey memorable . For next two days , that is until the workshop finished Cirrus and altocumulus clouds brought dramas in the sky!

The sessions

We thought of making the sessions very sharp and to the point by using more pictures than long paragraphs. Everything right from the gears, composition, colors, light , weather , locations ,HDR photography , star trail photography, post processing many more were discussed during the sessions .

Photo-reviews

Photoreviews were happened on the field , in the classrooms and during all the time when the mentors were free! A good guidance given right from selecting the photograph to achieve the end result.

The stay

When you sleep 3 hrs and run around during night and early mornings with your heavy bags and tripods for three days one thing you don’t want is bad food or broken bed. The Om beach resort from the Jungle Lodges group that we stayed offered us a very good service and delicious food . And man! that Cocum juice was just awesome!!

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The Photographs

Now the exciting stuff!

Usually workshops are not easy for any mentors! A mentor has the responsibility to not only tell how to do it but also show how to do it . Now , when a mentor shows how to do it then the resulting photograph must be really good 😉 . But unfortunately for many people the creative thinking process is not something that starts immediately after a press of button! One need to focus , think, envision what he wants to produce .But during the workshops the mentors has to focus on on the participants first , next comes his own art . But luckily since the weather offered some drama I liked some of the photos that I stole here and there during this workshop.

[Click the photos to view in best resolution]

All the photos can be viewed in one shot here

Now I will divide all my photos in to two groups.

First group: The amazing photos

These are the photos you often see nowadays , that are changing definitions of landscape photography in the masses . They feature mind-blowing locations , “amazing” wide spectrum of colors, stunning compositions and are full of drama . They are today’s selling stuff , often get lot of worldwide attentions , win competitions, get published , get likes, get shares. These types of are appreciated by words like “spectacular” , “mind blowing”, “splendid” , “amazing”, “speechless” etc etc . Here are some photos that I shot during the workshop which I think they fall closer to category.

I tried a vertical 16:9 ratio compositions during the workshop just to keep my interests fresh . I don’t know how I am going to fit this in a print or magazine etc but I sure think they are quite attractive when made diptychs and triptychs . Here are some such attempts.

16:9

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Second group: The touching photos

Some photos even with that lack of popular qualities like colors, drama, creativity will succeed in telling stories, igniting questions and more often they touch you straight in the heart! They make you come back and look again and again ! These are the few photos I think come in “the touching”category . Or it is just me who thinks that they intrigue me a lot than the most colorful photos above .

My Co-Mentor : Pratap J Rao

Pratap comes from years and years of experience in photography especially in landscape and travel genre . He traveled across country , captured so many beautiful places . He is one of the rare photographers who keeps blogging about photography related matters such as gear, places, tricks and techniques , dos and don’ts, processing and many more alongside taking lovely photographs. He also conducts lot of workshops which are worth attending.

Believe me I learnt so many things from him during the workshop that I should have known or least bothered to ever learn.

Here is his blog site which is a must visit .

here is one photo I really loved which is captured by Pratap during the workshop.