Singing the GPP blues

Well, it's over. The best week I have had photography wise this year. I was privileged to be part of the GPP team this year. 15 instructors, 48 workshops and 7 special events! I assisted David Nightingale (www.chromasia.com) in running three workshops that involved shooting urban landscapes, street photography, digital processing and a two day trip down to the Eastern Coast of UAE. It was a fantastic experience. I did things I never thought I would do - getting up an ungodly hours twice (4 am), scaling a small wall (very ungracefully), scraped my elbows, tottered over some rocks, walked incessantly (my knees hurt) and was generally sleep deprived and incoherent. I jumped over a dog (don't ask, long story), negotiated for the return of a camera confiscated by the border police, generally accosted old arab men asking for permission to photograph them and switched from the Sony Alpha to the Fuji XT (More about the last one in another post soon)

I met some fantastic people who participated in the workshops and all the events and who share a mutual passion for photography. I am sure that some of us will continue to stay in touch and will try to find ways to get together to share views, critique images and discuss gear.

I had the opportunity to meet Gregory Heisler, David Hobby, Joe McNally, David Alan Harvey, Bobbi Lane, Eric Kim, RC Conception, Joel Grimes, Steve Simon and Zack Arias amongst others. How much better could it be?

The festival closed with the photo shootout between Sara Lando and Zack Arias. I am sure it will be posted on youtube soon so I won't spoil it for the reader but what a fantastic experience.  Then I am going collate my images and post them on the blog/social media.

I am so rejuvenated. I was feeling very stale and depressed the week before GPP started. Work was wearing me down and I was constantly surrounded by an atmosphere of negativity. Taking the time off to listen to these very creative and passionate master photographers, listening to their life stories, trying to absorb all the advice they were giving out and the overall atmosphere of optimism and encouragement was a balm to my soul. It came at the right time for me. I am determined to re-apply myself to my photography.

Key Takeaways for me this week:

"First learn all the rules [photographically] and then break them"

"Choose one camera, one lens, one light and one modifier for your next personal project - keep it really simple"  (Zack Arias)

"Think like an artist, not as a photographer" - [Joel Grimes]

• If you define yourself as a “Traditional Photographer”, (which of course is an open ended discussion that nobody seems to agree on) then you cross the realm of the unforgivable.  But as an “Artist”, all is forgiven.  Why, because as an artist you get to fulfill your artistic vision, not a ”representation of reality”. As an “Artist” there are no boundaries, unless you make the decision to set boundaries to best fulfill your vision as artist.  Now that is freedom.  Freedom to explore without preconceived ideas and guidelines established by others.
• "A sandbag has a 1000 more uses than a light meter"

"Build a body of work in series" - {everyone}

"if you are not sure of the shot, take it anyway" {Eric Kim}

"Don't rush, sometimes you need to be deliberative - {David Nightingale}

"Create an inspiration book"

"Tell a story visually"