Blog Feature | World Photography Day … the Google+ Way {August 19, 2013, Mumbai}

“Skills are never taught, they are acquired. I can give you a camera, but can’t feed your vision.”
Raghu Rai

It was Aug 19th, 2013. I landed in Mumbai early that morning armed with my camera. Shot the above as I was driven to the hotel. Google was celebrating World Photography Day in Mumbai, the city of dreams. Shantaram’s Mumbai for me, the book that brought the city virtually alive for me. It played out like a film in my head as I read the book. Then came Slumdog Millionaire. It offered the world this bustling city frame by frame, captured to take your breath away! The Mumbaikers, the colours, the light, the smells of Mumbai … all fascinating! All this has one common thread. IMAGES.

My world is dominated by the moments that I capture. I have a million pictures that I love to look at, share, tag, and use on the blog. I’m no different from most of us. Cameras and mobiles have resulted in photography enthusiasts like never before. An active social networking community means that we like to share the pictures we capture. We need to curate too, organise them. That’s just where is where Google steps in.

Google celebrated World Photography Day in Mumbai with an event at the Race Course at Mahaluxmi. It was  a day when professional photographers and photo enthusiasts were invited to  step into Googles dynamic world of photo sharing. Google invited photographers to embrace technology with its easy to use features.

“Google+ offers plethora of advanced features for budding and professional photographers to add effects, edit, and improve the quality of their photos. It provides a powerful platform for photographers to showcase their work, receive suggestions, and network with other photographers with similar interests.”

I have been using Google images in my G+ account for a while. My first real insight into Google’s world was when I was invited for Google Day in September last year. AMAZING GOOGLE were my thoughts that day. I hadn’t realised how dynamic, how responsive, how brilliant Google was. There are subtle changes that I notice as I use this platform increasingly. Non invasive, good helpful features that attempt to make life easier.

For a world now obsessed with images and social networking, cameras and mobiles rule the world. The whole worlds clicking, and Google’s here to simplify things! Being the dynamic and proactive company that it is, Google has worked tirelessly behind the scenes to make G+ image friendly.

They chose to celebrate World Photography Day in a big way. I was privileged to be invited. They flew me down, hosted me at the beautiful ITC Grand Central, assigned me a chauffeur driven car for the day … everything taken care of like magic. {Photography is everywhere; above adorning the walls of the hotel room}.

The event was hosted at the beautiful Tote on the Turf. An inspiring array of photo exhibits was on display, each celebrating India and photography…. with G+ of course. After a brief welcome, the stage was handed over to one of India’s best known photographers and photojournalists, the celebrated Padma Shri Raghu Rai, for the keynote session. {I have included some of his stunning B & W photographs below}Raghu Rai’s India is inspirational. Full of character. No one has shot India like he has; extensively and evocatively. At the event, Raghu Rai spoke about the evolution of photography over the decades. Also about how creativity is pushing new boundaries with the easy to use technology available on hand. {The shots below are ones I took on a recent visit to Lucknow. I love the emotional connect and vibrancy that India offers}

“If your mind is not connected to what you are shooting then you are not a good photographer” Raghu Rai went on to explain. You need to connect with your inner self, your maker to try and ‘capture the moment’. Of that moment he says ” A photograph has picked up a fact of life, and that fact will live forever‘. He held the audience captivatedwith his stories, ending with how dangerously fascinating Google was for him.

From there, Sandeep Menon, Director, Marketing, Google India took over. “The advent of technology has brought easy-to-use, advanced photography tools within reach of all photography enthusiasts. Recognizing the evolving needs of photographers, Google is focused on providing useful photo-editing tools and services to help people share the special moments that matter.“

Sandeep Menon went on to demonstrate salient features that Google has silently built into it’s photo sharing sites. With features like auto back up, auto-enhance, auto highlight and auto awesome, g+ promises to make your picture better automagically!

As Raghu Rai said,  “The world of photography has seen a paradigm shift over the past decade. It has moved away from isolated dark rooms to highly interactive social platforms.” With increased awareness and interest in photography, travel etc, and the growing popularity of such platforms, g+ fits in easily.

It leverages the power of technology to capture and curate photographs, helps address common bottlenecks like skin tone enhancing, denoising, local contrast. In a nutshell, Google offers intelligent photo editing on the go! These are all available free at g+.

Also interesting was the animated gif composition where image series can be merged to make an animation. Auto awesome! Take a look at my gif below; it’s quite animated yet could have been better!! This is my first attempt to stitch a strip!

The event wrapped up with an interactive panel discussion with celebrated photojournalists and photographers which included Sooni Taraporevala, Sumit Sen, Mulchand Dedhia and Ketaki Sheth. Thank you Google for having me over! 

Don’t miss a post
Also find me on The Rabid Baker, The Times of India