A lot of my friends, and acquaintances, have been conducting workshops or consultation outfits (sales training, photography, management sciences, and so on) of various kinds , and one of the dicey problems they face, of course, is: how much to charge? The sad thing is that people who are just getting in, just at present, seem to be charging very high fees, not realizing that the economic scenario has undergone a sea change recently.

I think that six months ago, there was a lot of discretionary income, a lot of people were looking for guidance as they took up various interests. But today, there may not be the money to spare for this kind of learning, and wannabe learners may decide to go the LIYWALH (Learn It Yourself With A Little Help) way, that I took…

Let me take, for example, the way I learnt about digital photography. Yes, indeed I have attended workshops conducted by two of my friends, but in the main, I have been learning from experimentation. The primary aim in both those workshops, for me, was more, the location, the friends who conducted those workshops, the presence of another expert at the workshop, and some other factors, rather than just learning about cameras or photography.

I am so thankful that I have learnt most of the little I know, from essentially playing with both the camera and the photographs, a husband who is a good photographer (and willing to lend his camera and lenses, too!) and having a lot of “geek” friends,and a who have patiently taught me some stuff about posting my photos on the blog and the net (Thank you especially to who must have thought that HE would die of old age before I learnt anything properly!) ...and to the technology that allows me to process my photographs myself, IF required...and more importantly, to delete lousy photos without having stacks of them piling up in my cupboards! :)

And while on this topic, I want to say….I know all the “hardcores” will say, digital photography is not as great as film photography. But I have heard that argument SO often. “Cassettes/CD’s are not as good as the old spool tapes.” “Rubber wood is not as good as Burma teak.” It’s true…but those things aren’t available any more now, or the “hardware” to support them! (I sometimes just imagine people writing on palm leaves, “They have discovered something called paper. It will never be as good as the palm leaves, or have the permanency of stone inscriptions”! :) If my then-boyfriend had tried to give me a love-stone-inscription, I would have dropped it on his foot! I would never have taken up photography if, apart from anything else, I had to wait “for the roll to finish”, and then got back, from the film laboratory, either a set of lousy, fuzzy pictures, or someone else’s holiday snaps….I went to Lalbagh yesterday, and can inflict share my photographs with everyone, and that, too, across the world! If the Asian Paradise Flycatcher struts his tail vainly about, my friend in Massachusetts can see it within hours….well, minutes, if I was truly gadget- and net-savvy and didn’t want to still have a i-Sauropod instead of an i-Pod.

But it is the way of the world that whenever someone wants to do something, there will be someone who will offer to teach that someone how to do that something…for a fee, not for free, and for as fat a fee as possible! :) It’s the old defintion of a consultant: one who teaches you to tell the time on your watch, and charges you half the watch value as a fee!

On the subject of digital photography…this is what I got in the jungles of Kaziranga….

Update: That IS a Hoolock Gibbon, tells me that's the only kind which is found in India..... but it's not a Tamizh Brahmin ape, with a "pattai" of "vibhoothi" or sacred ash smeared on his forehead!

More info on the Hoolock Gibbon here

It’s surprising that there is no mention of Hoolock gibbons in India, but only in Bangladesh!

I am feeling, for some reason, very peaceful and lotus-floating-on the water today….I know I must finish a couple of articles, finish uploading those Assam photos before they move out of my mind, and make a few more posts about my travels, so that I can, later, enjoy my travels again…but I am tapping away happily, contentedly, and I suppose I will get down to actual work in a while, instead of thinking and pontificating about it.

Update: no, I am not thinking and pontificating about work…I am off to see a photo exhibition (I will be writing about the photographer and his work so that’s…er…work! evil grin.)

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