SMS message, cryptic clue, a cliche, bad english…you might be wondering what the title means. More so when on this blog. 

Well it’s all about unusual shots. Capturing rare, not often seen images from everyday life. All it might take sometimes is a different viewing angle to make a photograph unusual. 

Check out these photographs at the Reuters site here. This is what really set off this train of thought. 

What does it take? Being in that place, being in that moment, being ready to “see” rather than just observe, being ready with your equipment, having the right equipment (we can help in this dept, click here)?

I am sure you can add on lots more. So write in with your views. Send in your ‘unusual’ photographs to us at club@pixetra.com or just upload it and send us the link.

The best will get 5 FREE 8 X 10 prints from pixetra. Some of the best photographs will get displayed here and on our Facebook page.

HuRrY! (unusual writing ain’t it?)

We just can’t seem to stop it. Due to lots of requests from pixetra club members, we are organizing another Basics of lighting and portraiture class. This time at Kochi.

Want to know when? Want to know where? Want to know how much?

Well, for the when and where go to our Facebook page and check out the event details here.

How much? pixetra club members: Rs. 2500/-  Non-Members: Rs. 3300/- (this includes a Rs.500/- GIFT COUPON for purchase of lighting/ accessories from our partner www.harisonphoto.com)

Early bird offer - Rs 250.00 off for registrations before November 10th.

So go on and catch the worm (this lighting worm is worth Rs 250/-).

Till next time, keep it rollin’

Well it was Diwali with a difference at Lounge Habitats, Hyderabad. Foto Guru lit up the premises (literally) for the class on Intro to lighting. Our partners in this class were Harisingh and Sons, an Amritsar based company that makes high quality studio-type strobe and fluorescent lighting gear. They kindly loaned us some cool equipment so that the class rocked. The class re-capped the basics of photography and covered fundamental theory. On day one itself participants were ready to put their lessons in to practice, so the

Foto Guru class on lighting at Hyderabad on Nov 1 & 2

What else? Oh I nearly forgot the contribution made by the local hyderabad office of pixetra. They arranged for a professional model. That really lit up everyones face at the class without the aid of Harisingh and Sons
All in all a good outing as always. But you know what? I am sure that with inputs from you, who are reading this, we can come up with many more innovative and informative classes with Foto Guru. So write in and lets get clickin’

Till next time.

gift coupon from Harison Photo for purchase of lighting/accessories from them. Light up your life with pixetra this festive season!!

For more information on this workshop, check it out at pixetra@Facebook here.

To cut a long story short and to stop (at least for the present) these silly puns, let me lay it out for you.

We now have a Facebook presence or a page as it were!  It still in early stages of construction but we hope to do more as we go along. We plan to chronicle events, happenings, happy endings, reviews, start off discussions, etc etc etc.

All you FB members out there, go ahead and become a fan. Those not on FB, use this as an excuse to start off with social networking.

You can view the pixetra Facebook page by clicking here.

As always we are eager to hear from all. Keep clicking, keep networking and keep on being a fan of pixetra!

The Photoshop Jedis assembled across the past 2 weekends and got cosy with Adobe. They played around with color palettes,red eye reduction, brightness, contrast etc etc. Participants were very enthusiastic and
gave very good reviews to Sethu. We hope to assemble the Adobe clan again for more such Jedi workshops at many more locations across the country.

Here is a shot of them delving deep into making their ’shots’ richer.

May the force be with you!

Well, as strange as it might sound, we have come to realize that our Foto Guru classes are addictive. I mean what else can you call something that people have experienced a dozen or more times, across 18 months, but still want more of?

We have been seeing a lot of interest in our Foto Guru - Basics of photography classes from across the country. pixetra club members have been writing in to us to know when the next session is going to be. This time around it was Kochi that got lucky. Resident lens ace Sethu was in town during the last week of September. 8 amateur photographers honed their skills under his eagle eyes. 2 days filled with the click of shutters, the flash of (well) flashes (there are times when you tend to run out of words in the English language) and expert advice from Sethu. This time the venue was the pixetra store at Kadavanthara.

Fort Kochi with it’s excellent photo ops is becoming the destination of choice for Day 2. Day 2 consists of outdoor practical classes. Click on these links to see a couple of photographs - Collage & the Foto Guru army.

Watch this space for the next Foto Guru announcement. 

Go on get addicted!! - signing off with a classic, real world advertising line

For all us budding, amateur photo enthusiasts, there cannot be a greater truth than these 5 words. What it is about then, is the person behind the viewfinder. It’s about composition, knowing your equipment, following the tenets of lighting, learning to recognize a good photo op and the right moment to capture an image. It is also about luck to a certain extent (being at the right place, at the right time). 

I posted about the Foto Guru classes sometime back. Well, the class went off successfully (i’ll post with some pictures later). But our lens ace Sethu sent me some photos he clicked with a friends point and shoot. Not his own familiar camera, not a DSLR and most importantly not one with every bell and whistle conceivable. You will understand what I mean when you see the results. Click here to view some of the pics Sethu captured when the group went to Fort Kochi.

Btw, Sethu has also started a message thread about this at the pixetra forum that you can access here.

Now do you believe in those 5 words of mine? May the guardian angels of digital photography keep your lenses clear forever. Till next time…

What set this off? Let me see…. Driving around the insane roads of Kochi in preparation for Sethu’s class on basics of photography (refer my earlier post about 2 Onams), I chanced upon a hoarding that was interesting to us camera jockeys. There was this model holding an antique camera (Hasselblad? Yashica Mamiya? or just a prop? - couldn’t figure out which) and looking like half a million bucks (pretty but not quite and hence the half a mil).

Now that set us all thinking. The camera in the hoarding had something to do with a bunch of sarees called the Studio collection or some such. But hey, there is a deeper thought here. Is there a connection between cameras and lifestyle (you know like Ferraris, Ferragamos and the jet set)? Do the affluent buy cameras that suit their station in life, is a camera a symbol of having arrived, do you use your camera to signal growth aspirations and so on and so forth if you get the picture (pun intended).

While we debate this internally and arrive at our own conclusions, I would like people reading this to respond and tell us how they feel. I mean seriously, we need the complete picture so keep those words coming. After all a picture is worth a 1000 words and so to get a complete picture we need at least that many words from you guys…… OMG! - this is not making sense.

In short and in conclusion, we would like to hear from you.

Till next time then!  Keep those shutters busy

Greetings and salutations to all wannabe Photoshop Jedis. We have dates, costs and online registration details for the Foto Guru Basics of Photoshop at Kochi.

Get your light sabres ready to rumble on 2 Saturdays namely the 4th and 11th of October. Now the costs - 2400 inter galactic credits (read Indian Rupees) for other Jedis and a mere 1950 inter galactic credits for pixetra club jedis. We always told you it is better to have pixetraed than never to have pixetraed at all (hey did i just invent a new verb? or is that an adjective/pronoun??!!). Want to enroll with our club? Do so right here.

And for online registration for the Photoshop classes, click here!

If you want to talk to us, please call Jedi Judy at 0-93873-17792.

What is missing? The arena where we can all unleash our light sabres. Well, we are in the final stages of finalising and will post soon about the venue.

So keep the force around you at all times and see you next post.