June Weekend Workshops

Weekend Photography Workshops for June

Hello Friends,

June is coming with cool evenings and monsoon rains. Studio Kriti has lined up a few photography workshops you might enjoy over the weekends. Workshops will be held at Studio Kriti, 23 Waterwoods, Varthur Road, Whitefield. Here are the details.

1.  Basic Camera Techniques and Concepts

    June 5th. 9am - 2pm

• Know your Camera
• Understand Exposure, Aperture, Speed, Depth of Field
• Understand Lenses
• Quality of Camera, Lens
• Hands on follow up next day

     The fee for this workshop is Rs 1500.

2.  Basic Compositional Guidelines

    June 12th. 9am - 2pm

• Know the basics of Compositional Strategies and why and how they work
• Hands on follow up next day including critique

    The fee for this workshop is Rs 1500.

3.  Basic Digital Concepts and Finishing

    June 19th. 9am - 12pm

• Understand the digital concepts of File size, Print size, Resolution etc
• Basic Photo Finishing with softwares
• Hands on with your photos

     The fee for this workshop is Rs 800.

4.  Towards Better Photographs

    June 26th. 9am - 12pm

• Elements of a Photograph
• Visual Vocabulary
• Judging a Photograph
• Planning for Improved Results
• Steps for Next Level

     The fee for this workshop is Rs 800.

Feel free to contact me if you are interested in any of the workshops or for any further details - studiokriti@gmail.com or 9663310941.

images from rural india

this is the project i am currently working on. my objective for this series is to bring the beauty and simplicity of village life as it exists today. this is not a journalistic or documentative project but the idea is to create images that capture the calmness and austerity framed in aesthetic compositions.


many years back as a young child i used to spend summers in my grandmother’s village near Itawa, UP, with my close cousin. those fond memories come to me once in a while, although i cant go back to find them again now. firstly my family doesnt live there anymore, secondly, the village doesnt look like how i remember it, im told. that created a craving to find those images, as held in my memory. in current times, the general impression is “villages are no longer the way they used to be”. well, it might be true in many ways, but i can say they are still like before in many ways, at least relative to the current day cities. one clear difference is that only the very poor in villages now live the way any one would live 20 years back in a village. that makes
the beauty in simplicity more elusive, as now it is tainted with extreme poverty. for this series i have tried hard to refrain from capturing the sadness of poor or dirty, and have put a deliberate effort in focusing on the positives of village life. i want to share the joy and not the drama or shock.

the images in this series have been made in villages of MP, Rajasthan, Punjab, Tamilnadu, Kashmir and Karnataka, over a period of last 4 years.

here are the reasons i chose to photograph rural india

* simplicity

* beauty and joy of nature

* living close to nature, nature at a larger scale than human

* my fascination with ancient and human past. villages provide a glimpse of how our ancestors would have lived

* art is not a possession of urban, rich, educated or fashionable. village people live with art day to day with their meager means

* for the sake of art. to focus on beauty, order and grace in places that are written off as poverty stricken, dirty and mundane

* there is such a big chasm between urban and rural life, its like a different world. images provide a glimpse to those who never have had any exposure to rural life, or to those who remember it with nostalgia

* the scarcity in villages give a perspective on human life in general with respect to our lives of abundance in cities. bringing the images from rural life to our lives in cities, creates a juxtaposition which can keep the viewer a bit grounded, may be.

* images from the villages have a slowing down effect on mind which is otherwise in a constant state of “go-get-whats-next”

Photography Classes, April 2011

Hi :)

I am starting a new batch for my "Photography - Level 1" course, the timings of which is especially targeted for working people. This will be an 8 session course, twice a week, with each session of about 2 hours. Classes will start on second Saturday of April,  that is 9th, and will be held at 

*  Studio Kriti, 23 Waterwoods, Varthur Road, Bangalore. 

Here is a summary of the course,

This is an 8 session course designed to cover the technical as well as creative aspects of photography with an emphasis on hands on exercises, on going reviews and critiques of work done during the course to ensure better learning. Since it is spread over a duration of 8 sessions, participants get more time to practice and experiment.

Main topics:

*   Technical concepts of camera like aperture, speed, metering, lenses etc

*   Creative aspects like composition of visual elements, exposure, perspective, depth of field etc

*   Other aspects like basics of enhancement/finishing the photographs using software, presentation skills etc.

You can bring any camera. The 8 sessions will be spread over 4 weekends, Saturday amd Sunday mornings. The exact time can be decided  based on group’s convenience. Batch size is restricted to max 10 persons for better one-on-one interaction. The cost for this course is Rs.4000/-

Feel free to contact me for any other details, email rachna@studiokriti.com or phone 9663310941.  Some more of my work can be seen at my website www.studiokriti.com.

cheers,

Rachna.    

Stones, Moss and Twisted Branches (Compositions In)

hope you liked...

Steps Away From Real

images from nekchand's rock garden, chandigarh.

starting of a new dastkar ranthambore center

i was in a ranthambore village last month where ujwala and devika started the second center for "dastkar ranthambore". the village name is kundera. ujwala and devika had already done the ground work on deciding on that village for the center, have found a good house to run the center, and other things which would have needed to be taken care of. what i witnessed was the fun part - the first day of women coming to a brand new center, learning to make their first product. the product they learnt was charming little hair clips made out of waste "chindi" from the main center ("kendra" at kutalpura).

here are a few pictures from that first day. enjoy. :)

colorful threads and other little things which will be used to make thread based patterns on the clips.

devika showing the technique the very first time to them. i will try to find out the names of these characters of my stories from devika.

teaching them to make cute dragonflies using thick colorful twisted threads.

another beautiful young woman watches.

she now wants to try it herself with ujwala's help

she is slowly getting the hang of it

another woman coming close to see 

by now she feels confident to show how to do, to her shy friend. and she is happy to see it taking shape. and we are happy too.

more women get interested. they think its doable after all.

devika teaching more women, different patterns

by now she is cruising happy. :)

those who were watching till now want to learn too. ujwala helping.

at the end of session devika gave all of them some threads and trinklets to make clip patterns with their own ideas. next day they came up with pretty neat designs. she also would let them choose their own color combinations to see if they come up with something interesting, which most of the times they would.

outside, some men decided to put their time to good use.

while the first day saw about 6 or so women, the second day was more full.

related posts:

ranthambore - artisans from kendra and people from kutalpura