September 2, 2010 03:36

WPPI Recap – See you again soon Seattle! .. Back in Vancouver…

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by Sachin    in Creative Live experience,Photoshop,Social Media,The Photographer
Hello folks,
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Hope you are all well and recovering and resting after an awesome week with Creative Live . I took a couple of days to just chill and digest the information from the 5 days. Its great to be back in Vancouver and I feel refreshed, ready to take on the new challenges I have set myself.

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The day after Creative Live ended, I stayed in town and I headed to the Seattle WPPI Roadtrip and I learnt a lot from the speakers from there. Here are a few of the things that definitely rung out for me..

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Rick Miller of Adobe spoke about accelerating your workflow with Lightroom 3 and Photoshop CS5.
- The only 3 things that effect your RAW files are ISO, Aperture Priority (Av) and Shutter Speed (Tv)
- Adobe GPS – This can remember exactly where in the world you captured your image and is available within Lightroom (I definitely want to try and get this at some point when I travel the world )
He also spoke about Auto Mask tools, creating virtual copies of files, synchronized spot removal in LR and noise reduction and a whole bunch of other insightful things.

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Then came on Kirk Voclain. I have to be honest, I thought his high senior portraits was going to be about shooting seniors against a backdrop at University. Little did I know how creative, inspiring and hilarious his session would be.
Kirk ran around the room, screamed into the mic, shared knowledge about lighting, meeting clients, office space and how each photographer should think about how their studios/work spaces/ meeting spaces excite the senses of their customers.

Kirk also had an interesting session and take on ‘Surviving the economy’

- Are you making a profit?
- Are you aware of your costs?
- What are your needs and your wants in your business?

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He then discussed normal vs. aggressive pricing and the advantages and disadvantages of pricing and packaging, his work flow and how he only takes a shot/pulls the trigger unless its absoplutely right. Wow! You really have to know your lighting, settings, composition and camera to do this accurately. Kirk definitely does.. I’d love to be able to get
to this level of photography.

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Kirk is a very knowledgeable speaker. I love his enthusiasm and energy for the business. If you get to hear him speak, I highly recommend you check him out. You can also check out his work here

Here’s an image of The Seattle Space Needle that I took just before I boarded my bus to go back to Vancouver

Rewind back a few days to Creative live…

Nate Perkes and I were talking on the day before Creative Live about photography. He said something interesting that I think he had heard another speaker say which was ”If you want to be a better photographer, become a more interesting person.” I think this is quite true too. So get out there, meet your peers in the photography industry and get
networking.

When I first moved to Vancouver, I had about 2 friends. I wanted to meet other photographers and wasn’t aware of any active meet up groups on FlickR. So I created my own one called VanCity Photography Meetup through flickr. I set up meetups, critiques and met other photographers and was out shooting a lot more.. I highly recommend it and its great fun too!


So back to WPPI…

At the WPPI RoadTrip I was lucky enough to win a 1 year subscription to a Pro Smug Mug account ! This is something I’ve really wanted for a while so will help me a lot in uploading images for clients to review, protect my images via their storage facilities and marketing my work.

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Nate and I were warmly greeted by so many people throughout the day. THANK YOU, THANK YOU, THANK YOU… I can’t remember everyone’s name but Fred, Lelana, Jeff Heinz, Steven Fielding, Courtney, Dave Block .. Thanks for saying hi!!

Jasmine Star

I wondered what else I could learn from Jasmine Star after having spent 5 days with the team at Creative live. Well one quote that I tweeted after the event was ”Out shoot, Out do, Out Hustle.. ..Take it,… Use it,.. Own it!”

What a great mantra!

Overall, J* gave an awesome recap of the live workshop, reiterated the importance of differentiating yourself in the industry, being yourself, creating your own game and how getting involved within the photography community is vital!
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JD (JD Star)

After the Roadshow, I was able to mingle a bit more and chill out with JD. We had a glass of wine together as J* met and greeted those who had questions for her after her session at WPPI. JD, thank you for your little gems on insight into the business, being great support and  looking after my bags after the workshop. You’re a great role model for me.. I hope we can catch up again soon!! Stay in touch brother.

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I got to hang out and catch up with Kate Ford (owner of awesome window panes at Laura and Billy’s wedding!) after the event too..
Thanks WPPI!
I hope you found this blog useful.
Stay in touch…
Sachin
[SK]
Tonights sunset in Vancouver…

By the way … Speaking of networking with photographers in the community, Ill be updating my site with new head shots soon as I’m teaming up with awesome wedding photographer Michael Wachniak of Vancouver as he needs some too. Great trade right?

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I’ll upload them soon hopefully and also present my new website too…
BIG THINGS!

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August 30, 2010 09:02

The last day – Creative Live day 5 with Jasmine Star

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by Sachin    in Creative Live experience,Social Media,The Photographer

Today was a pretty emotional day.
The last 5 days have been, quite frankly, incredible. Sometimes, I wonder where my life will take me and if my photography career will ever launch or when I’ll book my first wedding as the prime shooter. Days like today ground me, and make me realise there are lots of photographers out there with the same insecurities as I have. But we will make it work. Together.

Jasmine told me off air to just start running. Once I can make Canada my new home, I certainly will.. I just have to be patient a little while longer.

[After the wedding, I was outside with JD & Jasmine Star as they shared a moment to take in the fact they had just completed this mammoth task]

You did it Jasmine & JD!

I’m a firm believer that everything happens for a reason. For some crazy reason, the stars aligned perfectly and it allowed Nate, Audrey, Victoria, Stephanie and I to connect with Jasmine for this live workshop to the world. I don’t think it has settled in yet that I was even a part of it, that it was live to the world, that everyone was watching, listening and scribbling down notes.

Its so important to have a community within the photography industry. Different countries have different cultures and views on this, but I’m a firm believer that we will grow together. I have grown a lot these last few days and I hope I continue to.

It’s important that we seek inspiration but then take action on our ideas. I had conversations separately with various people about inspiration. With Nate Perkes on the night before Day 1 about Chase Jarvis’ post on inspiration, then with Michal Garcia the second day and again today with Craig of Creative Live during lunch.

Its important to be inspired, but its more important to be inspired and take action. I have a to-do list the size of .. well, its pretty big..  But I’m going to make an active decision to revisit that list as often as I can to make sure I’m achieving my goals.

I’ve worked hard to get to where I am, and there is still a long, long way to go. I like the challenge and embrace it.
Jasmine this last week has been like a mother in some ways to a child learning to ride a bike. This is now the bit where she lets go and we see if we can stay balanced and ride the rest of the journey, turn around and say ”hey, I did it!”

I wish you the best in your journey.

Sachin
[SK]

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August 29, 2010 11:00

Shooting for the Stars… Creative Live Day 4

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by Sachin    in Creative Live experience,The Photographer

Wow! How Amazing was yesterdays wedding?

Jasmine and JD share a moment during the viewing of the Creative Live audition tapes…

I just wanted to congratulate Jasmine and JD for doing an amazing job at the wedding yesterday. Jasmine, you are a Super Woman… You are ready for your cape! You did an awesome job of shooting the wedding, the slide show was fantastic and somewhere in between you managed to teach the rest of the world how to shoot a wedding too.. Bravo!

I really enjoyed third shooting yesterday and so did the other students (The Creative Live Five!)

Props to JD for shooting this picture of me at the wedding!

I cant wait to relive the whole experience again on the downloads…

Today was a much more chilled out atmosphere after the craziness of yesterday and the wedding.

It was great to get some questions from the audience watching at home and all over the world today. I wish I could have had some more!! Send me messages/questions via twitter for Jasmine and ill try my best to air them to. I have so many I wanna ask again tomorrow too! I want to understand the business more, and as I’m setting up a new company myself, this knowledge will be invaluable to me.

After we cut the air, all the students were able to ask Jasmine some more questions after she debriefed us on what we needed to do for tomorrows class (bring 250 images from the wedding untouched, edit 2 images to show the class from yesterdays wedding or the first look).

I was able to have some one-on-one time with Jasmine too and it was great information on my website, business and other things regarding my own situation I didn’t really want to air on camera… A side note to Jasmine: I truly appreciate this time. I wanted to speak to you about things on my mind from the start about running my company and you giving me this advice will steer me in a great direction. THANK YOU!

The drive home after with Audrey and Victoria was great too. I love these moments. We are just buzzin’ off air and I wish you guys could see this. We’re full of ideas and its great to see that we’re ready to take action to make sure our business grows with our ideas.
The sunset during this time was spectacular. Here are a few images I was able to capture from inside Victoria’s car.

I just love this shot… I’m so pleased with it.. I haven’t even touched it in processing…

Again, thank you for all our support. I get some really touching messages and emails on my blog and on twitter and I cant believe how lucky and fortunate I am.

Someone cyber pinch me!

I hope you have a great night.. I’ll see you in the morning/afternoon/evening/night – whatever your timezone may be…

I got a great post from yesterdays wedding but due to timings etc I wont be able to post the experience later… hope you can check back in soon to my blog to read it…

Hope you can tune in again tomorrow when we showcase our images… Last time live to the world!!

Good night ;)

Sachin

[SK]

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August 27, 2010 11:22

Creative Live – Day 2 with Jasmine Star

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by Sachin    in Creative Live experience,Social Media,wedding
Another fantastic day with Jasmine Star and the Creative Live team.
Today we were tested, put on the spot and it was fun!
I’m getting tired of saying awesome now… I never thought that would happen?.. but today was AWESOME.. The highlight for me was watching Jasmine Star rock the show during the first look and for the poses after. WOW!

I remember standing there and pausing, thinking, how is she doing that? She was juggling like 6 things at once..

Looking for location/light, Composition, Posing, Shooting, Teaching, Tactically thinking about her next pose/move/lesson and I think somewhere in between she managed to breathe.. Incredible.

I love strobist work and a big fan of Zack Arias.  Zack (with the Sagely beard) too has a great ability to command light, explain thoroughly to a class, whilst shooting, his strobist set up, his own thoughts, style of his shots and he can shoot inspiring shots simultaneously. If you’re loving Jasmine’s workshop and you missed Zack’s workshop on CreativeLive, then I urge you to check it out. I fell in love with his One Light DVD and hope I can implement some of that strobist work into my wedding shoots too.

The morning

When we enter the venue in the morning, the scene is usually this:

The team work really hard off camera to make sure everything runs smoothly! Big shout out to Craig, Sara, Michael and the rest of the gang at Creative Live!

So back todays class..

In the morning, the group and I were outside having a bit of fun, talking about our cameras, argued over Canon vs Nikon and which one is better (again!) and I got to take a few portraits a la Becker ”The Becker pose”. I’m part of the [B] School and its been a great resource for me and my learning.  The light was nice and soft as it was cloudy at around 1030am so they acted as a huge softbox.

Nate Perkes:

Victoria de Martigny:

Audrey Smit:

Stephanie Miller:

And a few shots of the Creative Live team:

Chase Jarvis starts the second segment and introduces Billy before the first look…

In class, Jasmine broke down further areas and in particular Marketing her business and really thinking about whether or not paying for certain marketing plays to your advantage or not.

Other key points from today were:

- Finding new clients and brides

- Using model releases and contracts

- Communicating and getting input from the bride and groom leading up to the wedding

- Staying true to how you shoot ”Don’t fake the funk!”

- Using natural reflectors e.g. walls, floors

- Posing in a 10 by 10 ft space – demonstration

- How to make clients relax in front of the camera – making brides feel beautiful

- Inspirational photographers Jasmine is inspired by

And a whole bunch more…

For a significant part, we were inside shooting the first look, (described here by Jasmine on her blog)  so I’ll be rewatching the show on the downloads to make sure I can get proper notes on that too!

Jasmine asked me to name 3 words that I would want to define my brand with. I said Soulful, Romantic and Gorgeous. I hope I can develop my style more but I’m liking those 3 words right to describe my business right now. I’m glad its helping me focus more to think in different ways in which I can develop my style.

After the first look, we went down some alley ways nearby…

We then went back inside the classroom and had a few more Q&A bits from Jasmine on lighting, outsourcing, the importance of wedding albums, slide shows and marketing your work to clients.

A team talk after the cameras and sound are off.. back to planning.

I’m looking forward to seeing the venue tomorrow transformed. The lights look great.. every chandelier is different … Very cool!

After class broke out, a few of us went to grab some much needed food and a pint of Seattle’s finest beer in my case.

Tonight, its been busy back at the hotel, backing up files, reviewing today’s shots, editing them and drafting this blog. Most of us are still up at 2am but we start later tomorrow in the afternoon at staggered times (me at 3pm!), so its all good!

I hope you get to tune in again. Tomorrow shooting Billy and Laura’s wedding will be special. The whole team is very respectful that this is their day and are going to make best efforts to make sure that it stays that way.

Break a leg Jasmine!! It’s going to be great working with you tomorrow..

Billy and Laura. I cant express how thankful I am and I’m sure everyone else is, that you have allowed us to be a part of your special day. I wish you both the best for tomorrow and for the future! It’s your time tomorrow.. Enjoy it!

For me, 4 other photographers and I get to shoot with Jasmine Star & JD.. Life is sweet

I can’t wait!! Best of luck to everyone out there tomorrow, in front of the camera and behind the scenes…

See you soon folks!

[SK]

By the way… I was going to blog more today but its getting kinda late, so tomorrow I thought I’d blog more about what was in my bag for the wedding, how I found shooting it and also who I look up to as photographers in the wedding industry and outside the industry…
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August 26, 2010 09:45

Creative Live – Day 1 with Jasmine Star

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by Sachin    in Creative Live experience,Social Media,The Photographer
I wrote a ton of notes today.. did you? .. So much information!! Must.. digest… information…

And more importantly… must digest information and get to work!!

The other photographers and I meet in Seattle the night before CreativeLive:

To be picked as part of the live audience is amazing, I’m so blessed to be in this position and loving every minute of it.
Today was fantastic, to meet Jasmine Star, Chase Jarvis, the CreativeLive team and the other photographers who I’ll be with over the next few days…

I’ll jump right into it..
Here are some key bites of things that rung out for me from today:
- Create your own game!
- Know Your Client (KYC) – how are they connecting with you?

- Let your website be your handshake, and your blog your voice

- Be personal

- ”Under promise and Over deliver”

- Shoot outside what you’re comfortable with and be comfortable with a myriad of situations

and in the words of Jasmine Star..

- ”Keep it real!”

What were your key points?

Jasmine is very determined

Weddings are incredibly hard… I think Jasmine showed in the last hour how organised one needs to be, there is a lot to shoot, a lot of pressure to get things right and how much we as photographers, and indeed wedding photographers, need to invest our time and efforts in improving ourselves in our business and in shooting to make sure we are pleasing our clients.

Jasmine is able to charge the amount she does for weddings because she has a style of shooting that the couple know are going to get a great experience from getting Jasmine as their photographer and high quality images too. To a bride, she’s a great photographer and an instant friend…

I’ve been a second shooter for about 4 different photographers and I’ve learnt so much from each of them.

If you’re just starting out, then definitely try and second shoot! Learn, Learn, Learn! That’s what I’m doing right now and really enjoying the experience.

From today’s broadcast, you can tell Jasmine doesn’t hold anything back and I hope that from today on, you and I can start being more open with our dreams and experiences, share knowledge and learn from each other to improve our craft and our livelihoods…

I really love photography and shooting.. I can’t think of a better way to spend my time, and I’m honoured to shoot weddings.. If you’re a bride.. hopefully one day I can be a part of yours, if not, I hope you really think about who your photographer is and how much they put in to their business… It’s a competitive industry out there but one I’m excited to be a part of …I think the biggest lesson I learnt today from Jasmine is to be yourself… I hope you get to know me more over the next few blog posts.. and even my past ones.

I made notes for this blog post while sitting in the middle of University Village in Seattle. The others and I were buzzing from today, and we have so many things I know we want to blog and write about as a result…
Ill try my best to blog throughout the next few days, but you can also catch me throughout the day on Twitter:@sachinkhona

I’m best at blogging when I feel it, when I can just say what’s on my mind and it makes it so much easier to write.. I hope that I can do this more often.. I’m definitely going to try.

I’m interested to find out more about her style, being there in person and being a second/third shooter for her and JD for the Wedding on Friday with Laura & Billy. Tomorrow is going to be exciting…

I’m going to take Jasmines advice and encourage you to write more about yourselves too.. It’s not an easy thing to do but give it a shot.. I sure will be..

I hope you get to log in again tomorrow to Creative Live or watch the re-runs of the broadcasts.. wherever you are in the world…

Have a great night.. I’m super tired so looking forward to recharging my batteries (camera, itouch, and my body) and doing it all again tomorrow..

Stay healthy,

[SK]

Sachin Khona

By the way … If you do a fresh post that tells me about you, please post a link to it below.. I’d love to know more about you too .. best of luck!

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August 23, 2010 23:13

Anisha’s Mehendi Party – Asian Wedding Photographer [SK]

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by Sachin    in Asian Wedding,wedding

Last month, I met Anisha & Jay and was able to shoot Anisha’s Mehendi party, a few days before their wedding.

The night was a lot of fun for the guests and especially Anisha and Jay who, only days away from their wedding, were relaxed and enjoying the occasion with close family and friends. Performances, singing, games, great food and drinks… It was a really entertaining night!

The artist applied mehendi throughout the night…

Anisha with her close friends during the night..

Everyone loved the games that were played as the the hosts made fun of the couple asking them intimate questions about themselves as a couple and individually…

Time for some singing from each of the families.. the men vs. the women!

As the night went on, I was able to sneak the couple out to get some portraits in.. They both looked great and I wish them all the best for their futures together…

Anisha & Jay …

By the way.. I’ll be off the radar for the next week as Ill be in Seattle at the Creative Live Workshop with Jasmine Star and Chase Jarvis but you can follow me on twitter the whole way through and will blog about this amazing experience over the coming week..

Stay healthy!

[SK]

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18:36

Vancouver Model shoot – Natural light

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by Sachin    in Fashion

Here are  a few extra shots from the model shoot from 2 weeks ago.

The meet up I organised was a strobist meetup, so we were using flash throughout, but the natural light that day was great too.

It was cloudy after having rained for the whole morning, and so the clouds were like a giant ”softbox”, giving great soft light on the models. Only in a few shots I used a reflector to get better catch lights in the eyes of the models.

Here are the results..

Chad:

Kyla:

Chad:

Kyla:

Nearer the end of the session, we were able to shoot near a park nearby and used the Octa softbox with an Orange gel, while setting the white balance to tungsten to get this cool blue effect.

[SK]

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August 17, 2010 05:18

Model Shoot in Vancouver, Canada

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by Sachin    in Fashion,Portrait

It’s great to be back in Canada!

Whilst visiting here, I planned on doing a model shoot with the guys from Vancouver Strobists on flickr and glad to get this one organised last Sunday. The day felt like a breeze as the make up artists were awesome and the models lively and professional.

Big thanks to Suchy for letting me use his Octa Softbox which gave beautiful light throughout.

I started off with a few headshots from each model at the Roundhouse, Yaletown area in Vancouver…

Models:

Kyla Lee

Chad McRae

Shawn Bruneau

Then I was able to work on some poses …

Make up Aristry provided by:

Shawnna Downing & Bre Teranishi

[SK]

By the way… I’ll be doing more model shoots in Vancouver over the next few weeks, so if you’re interested in working with me, please get in touch ;)

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August 16, 2010 19:06

Osoyoos – Star gazing in British Columbia

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by Sachin    in Photoshop,The Photographer

This weekend I took a little road trip to Osoyoos in B.C, Canada. Little did I know that there would also be Meteor Shower during this time…

I was able to capture the stars using my camera ( f/1.8 for 30 seconds, self timer, iso 800) and pleased with the results. I used a layer in Photoshop called Pin Light to help with the visibility of the smaller stars.

I haven’t started to research the constellations here yet but if you spot any, I’d love to know what you see!!

Here’s a smaller image of an actual Meteor  in Osoyoos!! You can see one streaking in the  bottom left of this shot … ;)

[SK]

By the way … It’s less than 2 weeks until Creative live with Jasmine Star… I’m getting prepared for it and hope to maximise my time at the workshop!!  More info here: http://bit.ly/JasmineStar

Stay tuned…

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August 4, 2010 00:03

I’m going to Seattle! Creative Live with Jasmine Star!!

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by Sachin    in Creative Live experience,The Photographer,wedding

Yesterday morning I got a text from my cousin, Hetal:

”DUDE! You got into creative live man!!!! Awesome!! Sick!! Congratulations!! Well done bro!!!”

My initial reaction was ”huh?” ..

Haha. I know.. kinda lame right?

I’m in Canada right now and his number or name didnt appear on my cell phone in Canada, but I just turned on my computer and went online and straight onto Tweetdeck.

There it was! Straight from @CreativeLive:

”The @JasmineStar picks pt2: @nateperkes, @visionst, and @sachinkhona. Congratulations! /via http://bit.ly/bnUYTV”

I couldn’t believe it!!  I was jumping up and down!!

WOW!

The only thing I could think of was how my life is now definitely going to change…

I trained as an Accountant with one of the big four firms but my passion and creativity lies in photography. This is the life I want to live, doing something I really, really love doing…

I have always been passionate about photography, since I was a kid. I travel a lot and I’m always shooting but over the last few years I’ve been taking it more seriously, assisting in some weddings and doing some portrait & fashion shoots on the side. I love shooting people and in particular weddings!

I heard online that Creative Live were going to team up with Jasmine Star and host an online wedding photography course. They were looking for 6 photographers to join them in Seattle for the August 25-29th.

I’m moving to Vancouver, Canada and this was the perfect opportunity for me to learn more about wedding photography, and with Seattle right around the corner, I had to apply!

I started thinking of the concept and teamed up with my friend Dr Rave and we brainstormed a few ideas. The resulting video is here.

THANK YOU to those who sent me emails, messages and texts! I really appreciate your kind words…

Thanks to Chase Jervis and the Creative Live team for organising it, and to Jasmine Star for being an awesome photographer and showing 5 photographers and I, plus the whole world on the internet, the ins and outs of Wedding Photography.

I’m going to steal the next bit from my About me section which I find very fitting right now:

I really do love this. I’m proud to be a part of the photography community. So many out there inspire me and teach me in different ways. I love the nature of the industry – constantly changing and moving. I love change.

I’m so happy to be a photographer. I owe a big thanks to my uncles and cousins who’s photography blood has filtered into my own. You taught me little tricks as a kid that I still use today. And to all the current ‘togs’ out there who are my peers and colleagues. Thanks for giving me great reasons to always pick up my camera and try something new…

I look forward to meeting you all soon!

Thanks again for this unbelievable opportunity …

Sachin

[SK]

By the way… you gotta check out the other videos here: They are excellent! This is going to be so much fun…

I’m going to blog about the whole experience, so stay tuned :)


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