How to better communication skills, 5 ways to create your first impression.

We often hear the statement of why we don't get the response we look forward to and often complain about how difficult is to approach someone than wondering and understanding where we might have gone off track. I have been on both sides of the table and in past many years of being a commercial photographer have had the opportunity to understand and rectify the errors. Over this article myself sharing the secrets to effective communication with someone so that you don't miss out on the opportunities you deserve.

Numerous aspiring artists look forward to various internship programmes and opportunities. Often they face disappointment due to the lack of expected response and truth to be told it has less to do with the work one has to offer and more about the approach and attitude one carries.

I must assure you, I have committed similar mistakes like you and it is very human and hence unavoidable. How you effectively minimize and explore the possibilities beyond it is something we need to learn.

On a side note if you are a millennial like myself and annoyed by how the present generation Z acts out, let's not forget this is how our parents must be feeling about ourselves too, Haha!

Our parents and grandparents had their own unique struggles to be where they are and we had ours but it doesn't mean the present generation Z has anything less to fight for even with the easy accessibility to reach out to someone at the tip of their fingers. To add to their favour, there are far more possibilities and people to compete with.

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Hence Communication manners matters

In the past many years I have often found students dropping a one-liner "Hi, I wish to work with you" or simply "Hello" over my social media accounts. On an honest note, they just failed to gain my attention.

The very second strategy is to drop a Preset mail and if you do the same, let me tell you how bad an impression you just left over the receiver.

To conclude one fails to have the initial attention | conversation and often fails to have any.

Let me share a story with you to better understand what I mean.

A few weeks back I got a call around 10:30 in the morning from an unknown number. I did pick up the call considering it to be a potential work opportunity. On the other side of the Hello!, it was a 21-year-old photography aspirant looking for an internship. Post a simple and literal exchange of "hello!" and her name, she bombarded me with her, educational qualification, her desire to work with me and how it may add value to my venture which will help her to understand the industry better. It was all going well until she mentioned "wedding photography", please don't misunderstand me but I have the least experience in wedding photography, to begin with. When I enquired whom she is looking for, I must say it was the most embarrassing moment in her lifetime. She had no idea whom she is calling as she simply picked up the number from Google to add she had no idea what work I do and the worst she was completely unaware of my gender (yeah it does matter).

If I can be honest with you all, it was quite early as a working day to attend a call like this which often puts me off but instead, I was quite laughing my heart out and just wanted to keep it to that, and guess what, she simply lost my attention and any opportunity she may have.

If you have any lessons to take from the story above are following below:

Photography: Mike Meyers

phone call manners matters

• One should be well aware and know the name of whom you are calling, what they do professionally and where they are based.

• Exercise the act of addressing the person with their name at first to confirm the number and avoid any embarrassment.

• Do try to have a brief conversation and to the point, many often don't have the time and pleasure to know your entire story.

• Create a habit of concluding your conversation over a mail or a personal message as requested or you find it fit to keep it over the record for any future reference.

*Truth to be told, your target person gets numerous calls and mail every day seeking work or offering products and services and they are even topped up with professional and personal business to take care of hence it is not practical to assume that a mere call will suffice your approach.

Personalise...Personalise and Personalise...

Mail or personal messaging manners Matters

Photography: Erica Steeves

Everyone loves that attention and respect and however, it may sound vintage and boring but it works wonders. Remember the following points mentioned below when drafting your next one.

1. Address the person with their name and be careful about their gender.

2. It is a good practice to greet the person " I sincerely hope you are doing well" | " I hope things are great at your side" | " I hope you are doing well". Initiate with a statement that adds warmth.

3. Mention your reference point, it can be a person or simply a social link. To clarify how you got to know the person and be honest. (In case you are sharing a conclusion mail or message do mention the same "as per our last telephonic conversation")

4. State your full name, your location and your agenda.

5. Conclude with your contact details, attach a portfolio brief which mentions more of your work and needed qualifications only.

To note: It is good to have a preset or a pre-written formatted mail but feel free to edit as per the requirement.

Given said the above it may not fast track your success or land you places as and when you fancy. The above will definitely help you to have the very first impression the seeker looks for. The above doesn't guarantee or make you error-proof, be ready to face rejections and challenges as anyone else does. We all had our ways to chase our dreams and passion and we all had and have to learn to design what works for us.

I hope it helped you to understand and wish you the best in the coming venture!

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Hello, I am Shovona Karmakar, a commercial advertising photographer, cinemagraph artist and product stylist based out of Mumbai, India. In the past many years I have found my love for portraits, products and food and have had the opportunity to work with various national and international brands, agencies and publishing houses. It has been a crazy rollercoaster and I am glad to share my knowledge with you all.

For any internship or business query, feel free to connect with me over a mail or simply use the contact form.

Looking forward to hearing from you soon.

#communicationmanners #rejection #firstimpression #portraitphotograher #productstylist #mumbaiphotographer

Tutorial: Cloud 9

• Difficulty: Medium (Basic photoshop 2019 skill required)

• The application used: Photoshop 2019 and Pixaloop

• Time spent: 45 minutes

Visual art has no definite rule to follow and go by as it is very subjective. It entirely depends on person to person how it wishes to see the image and how to go about. After a lot of trial and error, I have come to mine and often I follow the path the reverse way. This very image Cloud 9 (just thought to steal the name) is composed of a landscape image I captured on my way to Goa, India and later added the moving elements in Pixaloop.

If you ask me what is Pixaloop? It is a fun application which let you give a moving or living element in your still photograph. This application comes with fun sky replacement themes, moving elements like clouds, animals to many more and few other gickmicks. The best part with the pro-version is it keeps updating itself with many more elements from time to time.

• Available for both Apple and Andriod users, pro-version against standard fees giving you lifetime access.

• The application doesn't give you rights to use it for professional/commercial purposes.

I have to admit being a commercial photographer I need to go through a lot and lots of work to seek inspiration and Pinterest, Instagram and google have been my best mentor so far. With thousands of talented people to follow and seek understanding from there is nothing much space left for a block to happen in mind yet it does from time to time. My way of going about has been traditional so far and I love re-enacting what others have done yet I keep a few elements true to myself. My advertising venture is not always straight forward and often I am asked to show what I can do and visualize more than the ordinary. Manipulation and surrealism do go by side and I love doing both.

So let's get started!

STEP 1: For the given tutorial I have used a panoramic landscape with a vast grassland and an open sky (merged in photoshop). I have edited the image in terms of colour correction, contrast and eventually thought to remove a few elements like clouds and a tree positioned at the right of the image. Just wanted to remove few distractions. I used a combination of spot healing, a clone stamp tool and content-aware in photoshop.

STEP 2: I found the sky little uneven in terms of the horizon, hence decided to even it out. Using the clone stamp tool with low opacity (10% is my personal preference) gives a smooth gradation. It helps to avoid any kind of patches.

It is indeed a simple concept, a plain canvas for the elements to stand out and give a dimension to the image. Again my composition is pretty straight forward and I love keeping things simple for the viewer to enjoy in most of my cases. I do love layering things and keeping certain conscious and subconscious elements which let people stare a little more and they eventually discover things one by one making it more engaging.

A fun aspect is always a good way to go about when doing surrealism. People love playing games and solving the mystery, it makes them look smart and people love being called smart.

• I edit an image at 16bit at 300dpi. The dimension of the given image is 7645 by 5285 pixels. This part is completely subjective to your end-users and where you are going to publish it. I primarily kept it for my personal website and Instagram. Pixaloop doesn't restrain you with dimension. I love this part of the application!

STEP 3: To fill the empty space of my extended composition, I selected a part of the sky and stretched it to the top. You can feel free to use a clone stamp tool to do the same.

COMPOSITION TIP: I wanted the moving element in the middle of the sky, for the cloud to have enough breathing space around. It is always a good idea to think about the final image you have in mind.

STEP 4: Coming to the fun part and where I start my surreal journey, using a wrapping tool in photoshop I decided to give a convex feel to the grassland, you can very well do the opposite. Just keep it wacky and fun.

STEP 5: Everyone loves filters and the vintage feel. Pixaloop though has a new feature to do the same but I am not exactly convinced as it makes the images pretty pixilated hence I love the manual control photoshop gives. Colour correction, Vibrance and the selective colour is a great tool to add a feel to the image.

I have shared my calculations and feel free to copy it or tweak it as per your need. There is no rule to follow the above in the given direction, it's quite a lot of permutation and combination and it entirely depends what you think looks good, add value and mood to the image.

COMPOSITION TIP: A warm tone like yellow, orange and red is always about happiness and cool tones like blue and grey give a gloomy feeling.

I give a bit of sharpening and export my image suited for web and keep it within a range of 2500 pixels wide or 3mb in file size max, for the mobile processor to work over it without hanging on. Avoid uploading a heavy file to prevent the application from crashing.

STEP 6: As the application is mobile-based you need to transfer the image to your mobile, I own a Pixel2 and I upload my images in Photos (cloud storage). Post that I opened the image in Pixaloop. To start with I go to the sky menu of the app and for the given image I decided to use Dancing Aurora with Horizon: 77 and Opacity: 100. Feel free to tweak as per the image. A smooth transition is all that you should look for.

STEP 7: I just love fooling around with the application. Jokes apart, I knew it has a new element of clouds and it fitted perfectly to my landscape. I always have this love for animals especially the not so usual for many and thought to use a frog for it to be lost in the grassland under the sky with majestic aurora and stars. Placed the frog as per a suitable perspective yet easy to notice. I added the cloud at the centre and made it large enough to dominate the image. To add a little of drama I added some lightning. The steps are pretty much after a lot of combinations from the available list. You should feel free to create your own version. The elements have options like dimension and opacity. Play until you like to your liking.

STEP 8: Gadgets have their own colour profile and it depends on the brand of your phone hence you may find the colour a little off, what you saw on your computer screen. I was happy with the composition, yet found the image a little off in terms of colour gradation. Corrected the needed in the application. See image for calculations.

STEP 9: The application gives enough flexibility regarding the export option and I prefer keeping it at the highest resolution possible for any future needs and record. You can choose to tweak it as per your need. I personally love keeping the dimension intact, Duration around 18 seconds and quality 2k.

Woah! You have it done it so far fantastically and I hope you enjoyed the process. I loved creating this image and sharing the journey with you. There is nothing more that gives me contentment than creating something fresh and learning something new.

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Hii, I am Shovona Karmakar, a freelance commercial photographer, presently based out of Mumbai, India. As an artist, freelancer, and businesswoman, money, and creativity always intrigue me and I am passionate enough to share my knowledge with others too.

To note: My tutorials are mine from my own experience.

I am open for any portrait, corporate, food, product | people photography related queries/services, or just drop a hi! at

shovonakar@gmail.com

#coronaindia #mumbaiphotographer #femalephotographer #portraitphotographer #commercialphotographer #freelancecommercialphotographer #tutorial #pixaloop #cinemagraph #movingimages

Freelance

The word freelance according to google "A Basic Definition. Essentially, a freelance job is one where a person works for themselves, rather than for a company. While freelancers do take on contract work for companies and organizations, they are ultimately self-employed"

Freelancing is a lifestyle, is a life choice that you have as a side hustle or a full-time job. Everything you do is building up for yourself hence it is a selfish act yet it has many benefits.

I have mentioned various articles over my blog regarding freelancing, how to go about it, and what to expect. As a freelancer, I see the world, the people around me a little more critically than many seeking a job may think and see. My life is nothing to do with security and I have to have the social contentment in me every day with a mere line of

Things happens for good!

Everyone has its own journey to be one and it is worth reading and observe everyone possible and learn the things we can as down the line the situations are not newborn yet it recycles from one person to another.

Photography and product styling remain my primary source of income and rest is on the way to an exploration of finding the target audience who will like to hire me and help me pay my bills. Here I do not exactly wish to talk about freelancing and how to go about it rather there are many things I learned a little faster than else.

An adult and growing up to be an adult is a choice and I chose to be a child who is curious as long as possible. I have realized how being an adult is a trap and how being a child leads to a better world. A child, in general, doesn't look for perfection and adapts anyone unless it hurts. A child is more venerable and open to get molded and re-shaped. A child leads to discovery very new to itself.

Then why are we asked to grow up and how well it is important?

There is a difference between growing up and being a child and they are pretty broad lined.

As a grown-up, we are expected to understand things and be careful with our words. We are expected to earn and be compassionate and less venerable to being emotional and anxious. We are more aware of the rights and less aware of the very subconscious mind. Having the content attitude is a sign of being an adult for many and we choose to be choosy with the kind of people we should be with and shape our lives. We find being sad and low as a sign of being weak and less worthy to be with and successful people to be the ones you should look up to.

We complicate ourselves more than ever. We behave as a complicated being yet calling self the simplest and minimalistic of all just because we are not ambitious and we don't let our mind wander madly.

You have to understand if things are crazy in your head and you see it exist then it was always a part of being a human.

A child, on the contrary, is new to the world and everyday it tends to evolve, biologically it goes through a cycle of being a human, being a specie which is advanced and more mobile than anyone else. It discovers everything cause it is new to it, every word it says and everything it sees is new to it and the cycle will continue unless it is forced to be a grownup.

Very recently I have been rejected by someone I potentially saw as one worth to be a partner. I was exploring you see and my past has not been kind enough to me and it floats upon the surface the moment I find someone finally understanding me and giving me time to let them know the best part of me being me but it seems it was too late. The person was looking for a quick fix and he moved on and I eventually kept thinking that he will be back.

I let myself be venerable and I am thankful for it coz I wouldn't have been productive the way I am now just to overcome the feeling of being abandoned all over again. As a child, I rant, I take chances and I let people come into my life and I rest my trust in them easily. I let myself mold the way one wants me to and on the way, I discover the best of me.

Now with everything possible said what is the connection of everything above with being a freelancer, and the answer is simple it all depends on you and just you how you shape your freelancing career. There is the right way to be content and do things that work and keep life as safe as possible. There is another right way to let your child be alive to discover every possibility to raise your bar and aspect of your skill and talent. Be complicated, be difficult, be moody and keep ranting about things but at the end make sure you discover for better tomorrow.

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Hii, I am Shovona, a freelance commercial photographer who resides in the economic hub of India, Mumbai. As an artist, freelancer, and businesswoman, money, and creativity always intrigue me and I am passionate enough to share my knowledge with others too.

Feel free to contact me for any portrait, corporate, food, product photography related queries, or just drop a hi! at

shovonakar@gmail.com

#coronaindia #mumbaiphotographer #femalephotographer #portraitphotographer #commercialphotographer #freelancecommercialphotographer