Fooling around with a camera - Harsh Sanghavi

Several Pixetra Club members write to us asking for critic of their photographs. Recently Harsh Sanghavi of Kochi sent us a link to his flickr website and we were very impressed by this youngster’s (he is certainly one of Pixetra Club’s youngest members) creativity and simplicity of expression. He was thrilled when we asked him to be our featured member and was very forthcoming with his enthusiasm, telling us about his approach to photographing everyday objects with a minimalist approach from technique and equipment point of view.

I am studying in twelfth grade at Choice School in Kochi, doing science, computer and math major. I got into photography exactly a year ago; last year, during Onam holidays, when I went to my friend’s house on Willingdon Island, we were just fooling around with a camera and I discovered that I really liked photography. Since I enjoyed shooting and got good results, I asked my parents to buy me a camera for my birthday which falls around Christmas - and they got me one!

I was thrilled and my new hobby was born. Side-by-side I started tweaking my photos - my dad taught me to use Adobe Photoshop for editing my pictures. I’m not sure I still know how to properly edit images but I just play around and if the result is good I save the image and share it with friends by putting it up on flickr.com

I learnt a lot of photography on flickr – it’s the place my hobby actually thrives! There I have made many new contacts who give me constructive criticism. In March this year I joined Pixetra Club and around the same time entered my photos for the Canon Bigshot Photo Contest. Shortly after, I heard back from Canon that one of my photos stood in the top 20 of the contest. I also joined a flickr group called keralaclicks and participated in their photo exhibition called Drisyam 2009. There too one of my images got selected for an exhibition in Kochi from August 30 to 1 Sept this year.

I use a simple point and shoot camera – the Canon Powershot A470. I have nothing else to help me: no tripod, no accessories, nothing. I am really hard pressed for time with my school work and often find I really don’t have time to go on photo outings; so most of my pictures are taken at home except ones during vacations.

Photography means a lot to me - my parents and everybody in my family encourage me to pursue this hobby. Photography for me is a way to express my emotions, my thoughts, my ideas and more. I choose subjects to shoot pretty randomly depending on my mood. I just pick up my camera and click. What I see is what I get on my camera. It’s really like taking a picture of what my mind wants to see…

Be the next pixetra club member to be featured in the gallery here: please email sethu@pixetra.com or call 09382343437.