Singing the GPP blues

Well, it's over. The best week I have had photography wise this year. I was privileged to be part of the GPP team this year. 15 instructors, 48 workshops and 7 special events! I assisted David Nightingale (www.chromasia.com) in running three workshops that involved shooting urban landscapes, street photography, digital processing and a two day trip down to the Eastern Coast of UAE. It was a fantastic experience. I did things I never thought I would do - getting up an ungodly hours twice (4 am), scaling a small wall (very ungracefully), scraped my elbows, tottered over some rocks, walked incessantly (my knees hurt) and was generally sleep deprived and incoherent. I jumped over a dog (don't ask, long story), negotiated for the return of a camera confiscated by the border police, generally accosted old arab men asking for permission to photograph them and switched from the Sony Alpha to the Fuji XT (More about the last one in another post soon)

I met some fantastic people who participated in the workshops and all the events and who share a mutual passion for photography. I am sure that some of us will continue to stay in touch and will try to find ways to get together to share views, critique images and discuss gear.

I had the opportunity to meet Gregory Heisler, David Hobby, Joe McNally, David Alan Harvey, Bobbi Lane, Eric Kim, RC Conception, Joel Grimes, Steve Simon and Zack Arias amongst others. How much better could it be?

The festival closed with the photo shootout between Sara Lando and Zack Arias. I am sure it will be posted on youtube soon so I won't spoil it for the reader but what a fantastic experience.  Then I am going collate my images and post them on the blog/social media.

I am so rejuvenated. I was feeling very stale and depressed the week before GPP started. Work was wearing me down and I was constantly surrounded by an atmosphere of negativity. Taking the time off to listen to these very creative and passionate master photographers, listening to their life stories, trying to absorb all the advice they were giving out and the overall atmosphere of optimism and encouragement was a balm to my soul. It came at the right time for me. I am determined to re-apply myself to my photography.

Key Takeaways for me this week:

"First learn all the rules [photographically] and then break them"

"Choose one camera, one lens, one light and one modifier for your next personal project - keep it really simple"  (Zack Arias)

"Think like an artist, not as a photographer" - [Joel Grimes]

• If you define yourself as a “Traditional Photographer”, (which of course is an open ended discussion that nobody seems to agree on) then you cross the realm of the unforgivable.  But as an “Artist”, all is forgiven.  Why, because as an artist you get to fulfill your artistic vision, not a ”representation of reality”. As an “Artist” there are no boundaries, unless you make the decision to set boundaries to best fulfill your vision as artist.  Now that is freedom.  Freedom to explore without preconceived ideas and guidelines established by others.
• "A sandbag has a 1000 more uses than a light meter"

"Build a body of work in series" - {everyone}

"if you are not sure of the shot, take it anyway" {Eric Kim}

"Don't rush, sometimes you need to be deliberative - {David Nightingale}

"Create an inspiration book"

"Tell a story visually"

Street Photography Workshop with Zack Arias

Zack came down to run some workshops during the Gulf Photo Plus (GPP) Week. Along with his usual one light workshop, he's also added a street photography workshop. Leaving aside the fact that he is a fantastic teacher and absolutely hilarious, I did pick up some good tips. We went down to the souk to try out some of our newly acquired skills. The first hour was really spent watch Zack do his thing. After that, the group split to take shots on their own. He spotted these two baluchi men walking about the souk and asked them if he could take their portrait. Obviously all of us piled on the bandwagon so to speak but this was really his spot.

Walking around the souk during the afternoon was slow going. Most of the shops were closed for the afternoon but I managed to find this young shopkeeper enjoying a cup of tea outside his shop.

A few workers relaxing in a corner of the souk, generally chatting and catching up.

I somehow found myself in a little square inside the souk area. These two men were hanging out on the bench enjoying the afternoon warmth. I asked them if I could take a photo of them and while one of them agreed, the other one made quite a fuss. I still took the photo holding the camera just above waist level and quickly using my screen to frame the shot. This was one of my few "guerrilla" shots of the day and I was quite proud of it!

The group crossed to the other side of the sukuk using one the underground walkways. I took advantage of a lull in activities to shoot this frame.

Finally, at the end of the day, we met up again as a group to share images and get's Zack's viewpoint. It was a good day and I am looking forward to participating in the next GPP event in March 2014.