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.