An expensive camera alone will not make you capture good pictures

Buying an expensive camera will not make you a better photographer. Similarly, buying expensive management tools and gadgets will not make you a better manager. Here is a good photograph of mine, captured using the least expensive and the oldest camera I have, a Nikon coolpix compact. I love this photograph. Remember this, buying MS project or Primavera or Scrumworks or Raleigh or Mingle or Jingle…..will not make you a better project manager. Buying a very expensive camera also will not make you capture good pictures. The art of excellence is in leveraging what you have to the fullest, and the knowledge of photography / management. Without the knowledge, tools will not help much.

Enjoy this photograph…

Plan A + Plan B + Plan C = lost opportunities

As part of risk management, my DSLR have two batteries, and I carry a bridge camera as a back up, and sometimes a compact camera as well. I captured this photograph using my lumix fz200 camera.

A quite satisfying shot. Then I tried it in the sepia mode. The composition was excellent, I was about to click…and exactly at that moment the batteries ran out. I lost that great opportunity. The stand by plans are fine, provided the opportunity exists for a while. During the demonstration of a product, if it malfunctions, the demo may continue with the back ups, but the opinion about the product is already formed in the prospective customer’s mind. During another occasion when was capturing a beautiful sunset in the slow shutter, the battery ran out of charge. I tried the second battery to realise that I did not charge it before the trip. In photography, a lost opportunity is an opportunity lost forever. It will not come back again. This is very much true in many management and life situations as well. So plan not to fail….very often, there is no second chance.

Leave your mark on it…

During the early days of my photography, I used to to give maximum attention to the main subject in focus. But these days, I give equal weightage for the main subject and the background. Before uploading a photo for the public to view, I remove all the dirt from the photograph. This has considerably improved my photographs, and now I release my photograph with my signature on it. Yes, I started taking pride in my photographs. Is this not same with whatever we do?. One of the key agile values is commitment to work, and when we say something is done, it is of shippable quality. Only someone who takes pride in what he does, can apply his signature to his work. Here is my first photograph with a copy right mark. I own it. It may not be the ultimate. I will definitely capture better photographs in the future, and at the same time, I take pride in this photograph, hence it carries my name along with it, to all the viewers who may see and enjoy it, in the coming days…. Start taking tremendous pride in what you do. Love your work. Leave your mark on it.

Making it dramatic

Who will not like to work on a dramatic project?. The corollary to this is, who will want to work on a monotonous project?. Similarly, who would like to see a very monotonous photograph, without any drama in it?, and it is not always possible to find dramatic scenes to shoot every time one venture out with a camera. In those situations, the only option is to create some drama around frames, which are originally dull and depressing. It is not about adding too much colour through an editor, which anyone will be able to make out these days. Very often, drama can be created by suppressing the depressing stuff. In those situations, I always opt for black and white photography. There is a beauty and drama in simplicity and colourlessness. Similarly, there is beauty in uncluttered work. It is the photographer’s alias manager’s ability to dramatise ordinary stuff into interesting stuff. Only a very committed and passionate person can seek beauty in ordinary. Good luck.

http://www.stillsofindia.com/2013/08/black-and-white-boat.html

English language skills for business communication

Today someone asked me for guidance to improve his English language skills. My piece of advise was to get passionate about this foreign language, and experiment with it. There is a facebook message going round in circles which says that in my home town, majority speaks the local language till 8 p.m and after that the majority speaks English, because they are in high spirits. So it is all about getting out of one’s own inhibitions and experimenting. One must be willing to experiment. The easiest way is to get passionate about it.

Buying an expensive camera will not make you a better photographer. I have come across many, who clicks around in the auto mode, using a DSLR. Similarly, just buying an expensive dictionary or enrolling for an expensive English speaking course will not help. Get excited about the prospects of learning something new and experiment. It took me almost two years of experimentation with my DSLR to start taking reasonably good photographs, still some of the great photos of mine happened with the Canon coolpix compact camera, which is cheaper when compared to the DSLR.

Experimentation is the key to expertise.

Here is a photograph with my Nikon coolpix

What type of photographer are you?

Yesterday, during the golden hour, I was busy capturing a sunset after a gap of almost two months of heavy rains. A youngster wielding a Nikon DSLR camera appeared from nowhere and we struck a conversation about photography. At some point, he asked me this question ‘Sir, what type of photographer are you?’. Are you a nature photographer, or a wild life photographer, or a sports photographer, or a travel photographer, or a portrait photographer?…I was awe struck with this question, because I never thought about it before. Thanks to this gentle man for opening my eyes at a crucial juncture of my photography interest. After a couple of years of casual photography, with some decent photography to my track record, this is the time to seek for some meaning from this hobby. Why am I taking photographs?. Is it just for the heck of it?. Is it to kill my own time?. Is it just to make others happy?. Is it to make an impact on society?. Vision, Purpose, How?, Scope, Time frame, Budget, Resources, Risks, Communication, Stakeholders, Environmental factors, Process assets, Communication…all these management terms make sense to me at this juncture in my photography as well. That is where photography meets management.

My answer to him was ‘Boss, I am an easy chair photographer, who does not want to take any great pains to photograph something. Whatever happens around and on my way, I photograph. I do not climb mount himalayas for a great shot. Here the problem is, unless one climbs the mount Himalayas, he will never see the peak of Everest in it’s great glory. So far my photography was to master the art of photography. Now that I have reached a stage where I am able to capture some presentable photographs, it is time to do more focused photographic projects. I am going to mix up my photography with my project management knowledge to provide better direction to my photography.

Here is one photograph I captured yesterday evening, at Marine drive, Kochi, using my Canon 550D, Tokina wide angle lens, Hoya ND filter, tripod at f22, s 4 minutes, iso 100.