By : Nikon School Blog | 7 Feb, 2017 |
Nowadays, we are quite used to the sight of groups of youngsters moving around with their DSLRs at different places. While a decade ago, photography was restricted to a few passionate individuals, today the passion has spread to a much wider population.
One of the factors influencing this trend is the presence of Nikon School in India. What started as a humble initiative in 2010, has today grown into a national level activity involving thousands of photography enthusiasts. After six years, Nikon School has successfully achieved its aim of promoting a thriving and growing photography culture in India.
The journey of Nikon School in India started soon after Nikon India started its operations in the country. With the growth of the DSLR market, the Nikon India management realised the need for educating its customers about the use of their equipment, and also to encourage them to go out and put their gear to use.
The initial sessions were held within Nikon India headquarter premises in Gurgaon. Soon, the activities were started in other branch office locations - Mumbai, Kolkata, Bangaluru and Delhi, in that order. Later, dedicated spaces were created for Nikon School activities.
This initial phase created a sizeable participant base who wanted to get involved in more activities. This led to the photo-walks and outdoor workshops. The photo-walks were half day activities organized at interesting photographic locations in and around cities where Nikon India had offices, and were conducted by the technical team members.
As Nikon school activities became immensely popular and visible in social media, demand for them grew in many other cities. In 2012-13, and 2013-14, Nikon School India reached other cities across India, like Pune, Chennai, Kochi, Ahmedabad, Hyderabad, Guwahati, Chandigarh, etc.
This was an immediate success as people from all walks of life poured in to attend these sessions. Initially these sessions were held in classroom environments in public places, but from 2014-15, the format was changed to an indoor (Basic D-SLR workshop) followed by an outdoor photo-walk the next day.
These activities were backed up by an interactive campaign on various social media platforms.
In 2014-15, as Nikon School went to more Indian cities, the Nikon India management decided to bring guest mentors on-board to conduct Nikon School sessions in their respective regions. Noted photographers from all over India were selected through an internal review process and trained by the Nikon India technical team. As a result of these efforts, Nikon School India could organise and conduct 857 workshops across India in that year.
The inclusion of guest mentors made it possible to introduce workshops of advanced nature for those who had already attended the Basic and photo-walk sessions. These included classroom landscape and portrait sessions, wedding photography sessions, wildlife photography sessions, and the recently introduced street photography sessions.
Meanwhile, the Nikon School India team continued to organise outdoor workshops at popular destinations like Ladakh, Pushkar fair, Sikkim, Munnar, and famous wildlife sanctuaries. These workshops allowed participants to learn under the guidance of the Nikon India technical team and get hands on experience of various Nikon equipment, while enjoying these exotic locations.
2016-17 saw the launch of D-SLR video film making workshops, catering to the rising interest in D-SLR film making after the launch of high end Nikon D-SLRs like the D810, D750, and the recently launched 4K video enabled D5 and D500.
The journey of Nikon School in India could never have been possible without the hard working Nikon School team which works closely with the technical team, under the visionary guidance of the Nikon India management.
Of course, the most important support came from the passionate participants across the country. Some of them are regulars at Nikon School workshops, some even attending the sessions repeatedly to learn something new every time.
The exciting journey continues as more and more photography enthusiasts join the journey. Nikon School India will surely keep contributing to the growth of photography culture in India.
