Jakarta Gathering-Workshop: From EOS 5D Mark II Prize to Learning to Be Creative

Photo by Farano Gunawan

Hundreds of photography enthusiasts have attended two programs organized by Fotografer.net — the biggest online photography community in Southeast Asia — in Jakarta fot two days. The Canon & Fotografer.net Gathering Series 2011 was held on Saturday (8/13) and the Canon & Photografer.net Workshop Series on Sunday (8/14).

Taking place at Galeri Café & Resto, the gathering could be a little bit different from the previous ones carried out in other cities. An awarding ceremony for winners of the monthly photo competition called “Canon & Fotografer.net Lomba Foto Bulanan 2010” might be the most awaited program at that evening.

The grand prize, Canon EOS 5D Mark II, went to Adithya Zen as the first winner with his photo entitled “Airis.” The second winner was a  photo entitled “Mereka Bukan Keluargaku” by Ardy SH fetching the second prize, Canon EOS 7D; and the third prize, Canon EOS 550D, was achieved by Reinhart Sianturi with his photo entitled “Tiga Generasi.”

The 1st Winner: Adithya Zen

The 2nd Winner: Ardy SH

The 3rd Winner: Reinhart Sianturi

According to the competition committee, the 10 photos contested were not taken from the monthly winning photos. However, an assignment was given to 10 winning photographers to make new photos. These new photos were then submitted and contested, and three of them were decided to be the first, second and third winners.

The gathering was held in coincidence with the month of Ramadhan, a fasting month for Moslems. Prior to the awarding ceremony, the participants joined a model shooting session running an hour before breaking the fast in the evening. Three female models posed in front of some photography lovers attending the gathering.

Photo by Farano Gunawan

Three photo sharing sessions were carried out consecutively by three feloow photographers (Salim Dawila, Henry C. Widjaja and Andiyan Luthfi) presenting strobist photography, photo-poem and macro photography respectively. A book on photo-poem by Henry C. Widjaja was signed by himself and Kristupa Saragih – founder of Fotografer.net, and the autographed book was then auctioned. The fund derived from it was donated to a photography community.

Photo by Farano Gunawan

Yesterday the workshop started in the afternoon at Gedung Datascrip which was attended by 100 participants. Presenting Kristupa Saragih and Arbain Rambey – senior photographer from Kompas Daily, a leading newspaper in Indonesia – as speakers, the workshop was themed “Retracing the Significance of Creativity in Photography.”

Photo by Farano Gunawan

Kristupa opened his discussion by elaborating the issue of how to be creative. “For me, to be creative is to be distinctive,” he said. He put forward some of his photos as examples which were taken distinctively in angle, composition and so on.

“It is not the gears that make them different, it is your ideas, your imagination,” Kristupa said by adding, “It is creative if it sells.”

Arbain Rambey, speaking after Kristupa, presented more photos of his and other photographers’, mostly journalistic photos. He showed similar patterns of photographs taken by different photographers in different places. To him, “there is nothing new under the sun.”

“To be creative is combining a number of ideas to make them a new idea,” Arbain said. The most important thing, don’s ever stop shooting.”

Photo by Farano Gunawan

The workshop in Jakarta was the fourth after Yogyakarta, Balikpapan and Bali. The gathering was also the fourth after Makassar, Balikpapan and Bali.