best

...now browsing by tag

How to present your best folio to get most constructive feedback? #day2

Tuesday, April 19th, 2011

Off late I get lots of request from people to see their work and comment on it.

So I thought I should write about some things that should be kept in mind before writing such a mail to anyone, so that you get the best feedback.

1. Introspect

First of all try to criticize your own work. Do you find some faults? How it could have been clicked better? In terms of lighting, composition, situation? If you do not find the solution, then it makes sense to ask someone.

2. Just picked a DSLR

I just picked a DSLR, I started clicking things around me. Do u think I can be a photographer/do u think I click well. The question effectively is “is my camera working fine?”, the answer is yes, so the first impression you will create is little bad.

3. Too many albums

I love all my pictures and there are just 500pics and 50 albums. Nobody in this world has time to look at someone else’s images and critique them, unless they are of awesome quality. And if you have that awesome quality then you don’t need feedback anyways.

4. Love my subject too much

I loved this sunset/bird/flower, so I clicked 10 pics of it. Repetitive images don’t please anyone (moreover it makes you look like more amateurish) , unless they have something unique in terms of composition/lighting or they create a story, if they don’t, sadly you have to remove few of them.

If you want your work to look professional in future, you can not escape right now by saying I am an amateur.

So ideally if you want constructive feedback from anyone, you should present them with about 20images and in case feedback on them is good, then you can ask them if they would like to see more.

Posted in Informative, creative | 3 Responses »
Tags: best, creative, feedback, folio, getting best feedback, portfolio, presentation

IITian who can click!

Sunday, September 12th, 2010

Disclaimer: None of the characters/incidents in this article are inspired by 3 Idiots.

Them: “What was the reaction of your parents?”
Me: “They were speechless, and are still speechless”
Them: “What happens to the knowledge you gained in IIT?”
Me: “IIT teaches you lots of things, not only technical stuff.”

Though I was always inclined towards creative fields, I opted to appear for JEE, which is the best engineering exam in the country. And like every kid from a mid-size town, IIT was a dream. It still is a dream.
When I got through JEE, my heart used to say, if not computer science then I will choose architecture branch. But while filling the options, mind won over heart. And I chose the standard options – Computer science, Electronics and mechanical. There was no architecture in my list.

After getting into IIT, you are treated like a king by your family/friends/city. But once you reach the college, everybody is an IITian. And the race to gain the technical knowledge from the best professors in the country begins. Sometimes the mind just refuses to gain the knowledge. But after surviving an exam like JEE, you get the confidence (confidence rating=75%) that you can pass all the exams. And this confidence actually works (may not get you the best grades though).

I also got a chance to nurture my art skills at IIT. Various competitions related to arts specially the Diwali celebrations more popularly known as ILLU and Rangoli started the creative itch in me. Years passed by. I graduated from IIT with some more knowledge in Arts. Like most of the students, I also got placed into a good MNC. One of my friends had predicted that I will stick to the same MNC all my life. I said “maybe”.

Job security is a prime concern in India. We prefer security. And my job gave me lots of job security. It gave me enough money to enjoy life as well. And I made it a point that I enjoy my life. Most of people in India want to keep earning for everybody else in the family/society. And forget to live for themselves. I hope that changes in the future.

Once I moved to Bangalore, I got more chances to do some creative courses. I started learning animation and I decided to go to US for studying animation. My family was shocked when they heard this. My mom asked me “what happens to your IIT degree?”.

Anyway, after analyzing the financial viability of animation, I dropped the idea of pursuing it. (Confidence rating=70%). At the same time, my bro-in-law had bought a digicam and I started doing photography, people liked my work. I got inspired by two friends of my friends Anupam and Gaurav, who used to maintain a daily photoblog. I also started my photoblog on flickr. I used to write a small interpretation/story associated with each picture. It was well received. And this gave me more motivation. (Confidence rating=90%)

I bought my first camera (DSLR) when I was on a business trip to South Korea in Sept’2007. And then the journey started. I started doing more and more photography. Some people used to comment on my photographs daily. There were many people who silently followed my work, and would tell me once in a while that my photographs made them happy. This would bring me a sense of satisfaction. (Confidence rating=95%)

Arts related jobs are not very highly rated in India, so a decision to move into photography was still a far dream. Many people have the habit of commenting without looking at your work. “You want to move into photography from a software job? Are you mad?” this is something which you might hear often (confidence rating=85%). Anyway I used to compare myself with myself. And I wanted to keep improving on my work. (Confidence rating=95%)

In between I also attended some theater workshops, which gave me some nice friends who supported my creative side. And this gave me more confidence.

Time moves very fast, and it was already 2 years that I maintained my photoblog. The response became better. I had never tried to sell my photographs. (I still haven’t). But there were some people who hired me for some assignments. (confidence rating=100%)
The turning point came when I was selected to cover 2010 Kingfisher Calendar Launch event. My work from the launch event got me some more fans. It increased my confidence to make a career switch. (Confidence rating=150%, confidence threshold exceeded). I decided to take a tough decision. I decided to quit my job.

There is a big difference between “what you can do” and “what you wish to do”.

When an IITian decides to do an MBA just after IIT, nobody really cares that what part of his knowledge from IIT he is going to use. But when the same IITian goes to a non standard path, people start raising eyebrows. But what I feel is if you have the passion, then there will be results, maybe slow maybe fast. But there will be results.

Posted in Uncategorized, creative, photography | 85 Responses »
Tags: bangalore, best, candid, creative, dreams, fashion, following, IIT, IIT JEE fashion, JEE, job, leaving, love, moments, passion, photographer, photography, Photography IITian Journey, top, wedding

Best Photography Business Card Design

Tuesday, January 26th, 2010

Recently my visiting card got selected to be featured on the website http://www.cardonizer.com/ as one of the most creative business cards. I had not submitted the card to them but they themselves asked me if they could feature it. And I was more than happy. They also asked me few questions related to card, like what inspired, material and more designs. I had already planned to blog about the card. But then this thing happened before my plan could be executed. (For the past few months, I have not been allowed to be LAZY)

So what inspired the card. When I started with the idea of the card. I had two things in mind, one it should be SIMPLE, and second it should connect to the heart. My website name had already been decided by then (http://cam-dev.in ), so I decided that my card will be a camera, a simple camera. So the first criteria got fulfilled, now the next task was to make it connect.

My 2year old nephew had a role to play in this, he had this nice toy camera and when I would go to my sisters place, he would relate to me with the camera. Whenever he saw that I was carrying a bag he would say khichik-khichik (click-click, his term for the camera) and try to see me through the viewfinder … so the idea was a simple camera with a viewfinder to see the world. So the front of my card was cam with dev written on it. (which made it relate to my website cam-dev). And while reading the contact information you could see the world through the viewfinder.

I designed the first draft in Adobe Photoshop (A mistake, as I am not really a design expert), then I was asked to convert it to vector format by the PrintXpress people.
My first design had a simple ring to denote the lens. It got reviewed by few of my friends and then I got it printed. It did not look like a lens and the card looked too empty. Also I had chosen 40% black for the contact details, which looked very light after print and it was not legible. So the card design was updated with a lens glare and color change for the contact details. I decided to go for the thickest sheet possible(280gsm ivory) , so that the card was more durable. Also the person at PrintXpress was quite helpful in doing the selection.

In between I had got 200 cards printed in Mumbai, hoping to distribute them when I went to Kingfisher Calendar Launch party. But I just gave 5 cards. So I decided that I will get the rest punched too. When I was collecting the cards from PrintXpress, then one gentleman asked me if he could have one for his collection. And I happily agreed.

**Update:
Its also featured here
Also featured at here

Posted in creative, design | 6 Responses »
Tags: 2010, 2010 best top 10 60 25 business cards, bangalore, best, business, candid, card, creative, creative business card photography photographer design visiting, delhi, fashion, india, moments, mumbai, photographer, photography, portfolio, top, wedding

A Journey Through Glamour with Kingfisher Calendar Launch

Wednesday, December 23rd, 2009

It was all a dream, definitely a dream till it turned a reality. I wonder how it begun though; never fathomed a dinner with a friend who told me about the contest by Kingfisher looking for a photographer to cover the calendar launch event, would be it. Yes, that was it. But I came to know about the contest only on 7th December. I had deadlines at my workplace to take care of before my vacation from 9th December 2009 kicks in. So I had to finish my work before that.

Irrespectively, the journey began. I made my profile on the website (My Contest Profile) and started asking (read begging) for votes. I spammed inboxes of all I knew to vote for me and coaxed my friends to spam their respective friends. It worked. Very next day I reached 10th Rank. And the day after that I was in top 5.

As I was about to travel on 9th and my access to internet would have been limited, I decided that I will carry my 4 years old 4 Kgs laptop to browse. I saw myself spending my travel and time thereafter asking (read again as begging, from an expert beggar by now) for votes. Some people who liked my photography also started getting votes for me. Within no time it was a close contest. I moved to first spot in few days and stayed there for good 2 days. But last three days of contest saw a tough competition and I finished second in the number of votes. Yet, I hoped I will still be selected because of my photography skills. When results were declared on 17th, I was there on the list of winners. It all felt like a dream. As a photographer I had some plans, but this was “THE” opportunity for any photographer.
And a BIG BIG BIG thank you to people who had the confidence in me and made me reach there.

I came to know that the event was in Mumbai at Dr. Vijay Mallya’s house. I was already on vacation and about to roam in Mumbai. COINCIDENCE. Isn’t it?

In the dreams, you are supposed to be well dressed and look as best as you can. But the dream was over and reality was so close; I tried shopping for the dress code Calendar-ish, which was kind of confusing. Help came from a friend Yash in finding the good areas in Mumbai to shop. And we zeroed in on a designer shirt and black trouser and some accessories.

I was all set to attend the party; my friend from Kingfisher side was Sambhav, who had the invites for me(The babe on invite was so hot). He had also arranged for the flight back to Bangalore (thanks to the contest). I woke up early in the morning to get ready on time and reach the venue on time. The event was supposed to start at 1pm, but got delayed a little. I like a kid in candy shop arrive a bit early and was lucky to get the glimpse of the calendar girls; their posters were already put up which were not covered by any photographers by then. Not many people around at that time also made me click the pics peacefully (you see, arriving early at times helps). The pics are there in the end of this blog (READ the blog and then only jump to them ).

On the entrance of the house, there were beautiful babes, who welcomed the guests. It would be a sin to address Dr.Vijay Mallya’s house as house, so from now on I will refer to it as a PALACE. And Dr. Vijay Mallya as the KING. On the entrance there was this big poster which depicted all the Kingfisher hotties over the years, truly Kingfisher and Hot girls are like twins. This followed calendar preview, wherein the models came and posed.

Babes receiving the guests

Mallya, I mean The King and no signs of Booze. That’s Blasphemy, so there was a counter with all UB products or call it drinks adorning it (for free of course).

As I heard from a passer-by, the guests list comprised of all big names of Bollywood, it was quite exciting to speculate who all will arrive. The calendar was brought to the stage at around 1:30pm and it was beautifully wrapped in yellow. It itself made a perfect picture. The King arrived at around 2pm and so did the models from the calendar. I started getting some shots of the models and followed each one of them, and they were sweet enough to pose for me.

And suddenly someone appeared … any guesses …. ???
DEV.D (Abhay Deol)

So this Dev.P was in front of Dev.D or vice-versa, I just started clicking him …click click click … and got some nice shots … and then focused back to the models …

Others to make their presence felt were Madhur Bhandarkar, Mandira Bedi, Simone Singh, Purab Kohli. I was getting all confused by now as to whom to click … hot models around me or the Bollywood celebs … and then Nagesh Kukunoor arrived and I clicked him … one more good shot …

Cyrus started a funny game at around 2:30 and it involved five teams of two guys each, YES GUYS … and partner A had to get a drink from a lady in the audience and partner B had to drink the drink in a milk bottle meant for babies… here there was some cheating from all the teams and Siddharth Mallya was declared the winner, the reason given by Cyrus was that he was the son of the King .

After the event was over I was going to the drinks counter, to get some fruit juice but then I had to stop … why… why … why … because Deepika Padukone was sitting inside the Palace. and I got two candid shots of her… and then later on I mustered the courage to go inside the palace and get a click of her … but then she said I will be back in some time … and then later on I got some more good shots … one with the Prince too …

And then Kunal kapoor made his entry … and I went very close to him and I think he felt I was a stalker … I almost appeared so with my big camera … and click click click … few more good shots … meanwhile Cyrus had started his question answer session for the hot models … questions involved their english accents, about their funny names, height and etc etc … and ya their relationship with Atul …

In the end the Ace photographer Atul and the King gave their speech … and Deepika arrived on the stage … there were just click sounds thereafter … She was looking billion bucks. She unveiled the Calendar. I think I was clicking more of her pics than the Calendar…

Post launch Deepika was posing with the new Calendar and thus started the mad rush. Every photographer was stepping on each other to capture Deepika. Glad that I had got much better candid shots earlier.

I had a morning return flight from Kingfisher. I didn’t sleep at all and was uploading some pics on Facebook/flickr … It was really a life changing experience … and I think it is an experience I will cherish for my lifetime …

And here are some hot pics from the Calendar … You can ask me for the full size images…