Shootout at Delhi

A shootout without guns, but with cameras. This was the name of today's photography workshop by Atul Kasbekar, organised by Canon India at The Park hotel. For many of us it was an opportunity to listen to the man who is one of the two brand ambassadors for Canon in India. The other one being Sachin Tendulkar.

Atul Kasbekar is a big name in Indian photography scene. He is the man who shoots the Kingfisher Calender for Vijay Mallaya. The tag Huer campaign with Sahrukh, Airtel campaign with Sachin, Citizen campaign with Kareena, Titan campaign with Aamir Khan, and the list goes on and on. Almost every cover of Cosmopolitan is shot by him.

He enthralled the small audience with insight into some of his editorial and cover works. He also explained some of the shots from the celebrated Kingfisher calender, specially where Photoshop have been used to enhance the images. Commercial photography can not live without photoshop, but according to him one has to be ethical and careful. If someone can point out that you have used photoshop, then you have failed. H also throw insight onto one his favorite technique -- use of fill flash. In one of the shots for Kingfisher calender, he made 11 am in the day looked like night by use of strong fill flash. That was amazing.

He opined that equipment should liberate the photographer. Photographer should not be too worried about the equipment. Well, for someone who shoots with an EOS 1D Mark-II with L lenses can certainly feel liberated. After a sumptuous lunch, a demo shooting session was arranged with a model. It was really amazing to see that almost every shot he took was good. Someone asked him about the lens he is using. The reply was : 85 mm f/1.2L II USM, which to him is one of the finest lenses Canon have ever produced. Sigh!! we can not afford a L lens, forget about a f/1.2

I understood that Canon keep organising such workshops from time to time in Delhi and Mumbai. An invitation was probably not mandatory. One could have hung a Canon DSLR on his neck and can walk into it. But Canon certainly spends a lot of money on such workshops which are normally arranged at 5 star hotels. Obviously, the hole that gets dug in your pocket when you buy Canon from its dealers sponsors such events.