Friday, June 12, 2009

Bangalore Photography Workshops - No dearth of choices!

I wanted to give the hubby something different for a birthday gift this year. For how long can one surprise the man with mobile phones, watches, electronic stuff… and cards? You will agree that it is a daunting task to come up with innovative gift ideas year after year, especially for men (while for women it is the easiest thing - there are so many choices. Now whether the woman will actually like your choice is another matter!). So there I was, wracking my brain a good one month before his birthday searching for bright ideas, when I remembered how he always claims to be a better photographer than me. Voila! My gift idea reared up and stared me in the face.

Why not actually make him better at the art than me? And while at that, learn the tricks of the trade without paying for it (by threatening the man with dire consequences if he doesn’t remember and repeat word for word what he heard at the workshop). Send him to a photography workshop!

The next obvious step was of course to search for such workshops in and around the city. And man, I tell you that’s when I got oh so totally floored. In the last three years while I was sleeping, the photographers in the city seem to have made photography workshops the “in” thing to do. A simple search in Google turns up so many results and choices. And it becomes really difficult to sort the chaff from the wheat. That’s when I decided to make the list below for easy comparison. Exactly like the comparison list I made for buying my two pathetic cameras (in retrospect! But they were the best choices at that time!!).

Being the good samaritan that I am, and to have something to fill the “achievements” space in membership forms, let me share my list of Bangalore based Photography workshops and their details. Before you proceed further, read the disclaimer at the bottom once. And twice. If you still find any of the information listed here to be untrue for this timestamp, just email me. I will get it corrected as soon as I can.

Name

Conducted by

Next/Last scheduled

Where

How much

Duration

More details

Photography workshop

Amoghavarsha

Next one on 13th and 14th June

Usually in a nature camp called Forest trails at Bannerghatta Reserve Forest but this time inside the city

Rs.3500 (inside the city)

2 days

Here

Photography workshop

Kalyan Varma

Next one on 13th and 14th June; Usually conducted every month

Usually in a hotel

Rs.4000

2 days

Here

The Contrarian Photo Workshop

Mahesh Shantaram

Next one on July 11th and 12th

Photographer's house at Murugeshpalya

Rs.3500

2 days

Here

Elephas Photography Workshop

Sudhir Shivram (Elephas)

Last one was on May 23rd and 24th

Usually in a hotel

Rs.3850

2 days

Here

Weekend Workshops in Basics In Still Photography

Bangalore School of Arts and Photography (Anand Sharan)

No information on the last workshop this year; Is not very regular I think

Studio at Koramangala

Rs.4500

Spread over 5 days - roughly 4 hours each day

Here

Introduction to Photography and Camera

Active Canvas

Last one on June 6th, 7th & 13th

Active Canvas, Jayanagar

Rs.750

3 days - 3 hours each day

Here

Photography on the Move

getoff ur ass (Hellmuth Conz)

No information on the last workshop this year

Field

Not revealed

Maybe 2 days

Here

Theme-based photography workshop

Canon/National Institute of Creative Communication (NICC)

Last one was on May 23rd

Canon Image Lounge on Brigade Road

Rs.1000

1 day

Phone: 65337001, 65337002


Some of these photographers also conduct out of town workshop like the interesting Agumbe Rainforest Photography expedition by Amoghavarsha and Anamalai Tiger Reserve/Valaparai Photographic Expedition by Kalyan Varma. There are also more technically focused workshops like the digital Photography workshop by Sudhir Shivaram. And I heard from a friend that Jayanth Sharma of Wildlifetimes.com also conducts workshops – but sadly his Website is down so I don’t have any details. Here is another one I came across very recently i.e. today! – I saw it in the Timeout Bengaluru Magazine - An Online Photography workshop by Mahesh Bhat. Online workshop, isn’t that cool? I am sure there might be more folks offering workshops but these are the reliable ones I know of. If you have heard of any other workshop you want me to include here just leave a comment or email me.

So which workshop did I send my husband to finally, you askth? Wait and Watch. I will hear his experience and maybe blog about it!

Disclaimer: All the information here is collected from the websites, blogs, and forum/groups of the photographers/organizing companies. I did not take the effort to get any of it verified by emailing them. So this information is applicable only for this particular timestamp. The photographers/organizers might update their site any minute and revise the offerings or its price – for which obviously I can’t be held responsible. Did I say this is time stamped? I don’t lie so rest assured this is information you can rely on and of course, I am not associated with any of them. No marketing gimmick, this one.

10 comments:

popsie said...

Informative post, only a lil late. I just saw it today(14th June) and time is up for all except "Mahesh Shantaram's" workshop. Keep at it and hope your husband liked his gift and the experience! :)

Vaijayanthi KM said...

Oh dont worry popsie. These guys conduct the workshops every other month...

Vinuth said...

Not a workshop, but if he is interested in advanced training, I suggest Drishti School of Photography. The course would be around 4-5 months long with 2 classes per week, around 4 hours per class. Goutam Basak, who runs DSP, is a very passionate teacher, who keeps refining himself and adds additional topics from batch to batch. There will be some studio as well as outdoor workshops. Also, the association with the school continues forever, long after the course is complete. Most depends on the batch's enthusiasm though.

I just completed my course there and thought I'll share this option as well.

Maybe you can take this course and return back to being "better" than your hubby :P

Archana said...

hey which one did you finally choose???

Vaijayanthi KM said...

@Archana - I chose Amoghavarsha. He was good - or so my husband said. I have also heard that Kalyan is also amazing.

Ankur Shah said...

ProPix also has a good photography workshop. They call it "making pictures" and I found it very useful because it has helped me with my photography a lot. Their website is having lot of details http://www.propix.in/education.html

Anonymous said...

Check out www.facebook.com/culturetrails if you want to do a half-day interesting nature walk and photography! They also do a lot of other amazing workshops : Pottery, Wine making and wine tasting, Urban gardening workshops, indianized salsa workshops, voice training and music workshops etc.

Anonymous said...

Recently attended an intermediate course at The Academy of Photo Art (Bangalore Branch). They conduct classes at:
# Basic
# Intermediate &
# Advanced levels

Each course includes
# 4 sessions spread over 4 weekends
# hands-on-exercises
# weekly assignments
# Individual attention and evaluation of photos
# certificate of completion
# Small batch size (we had 4 people in a batch)

I found the session very informative and learnt many things that I wasnt expert in! You may find details at www.photo-workshop.in

Is anyone aware of any photography lighting workshop at Bangalore?

Anonymous said...

Any low cost photography classes. all are seems to be costly

Anonymous said...

I think TheAPA's workshop costs are the lowest. All their workshops are of 1 month duration and cost is about 2500 to 3000... I have attended one