Stories

MAMPU Photography Training

A picture worth a thousand words. It is a proverb saying that a complex idea can be conveyed with just a single still image. In other words, an image conveys essence more effectively than a description does.

MAMPU understood that development programs could be very complex. Although complex, it is essential to show our program’s progress to public. MAMPU believe that documenting programs through pictures is one the ways to simplify development programs like MAMPU.

Therefore, to ensure that our implementing partners and staff have the proper skill in documenting their activities, MAMPU with the help of Pannafoto Institute delivered a Photography Training, Wednesday 2^nd December 2015 in MAMPU Office, Jakarta. There were 27 participants consist of MAMPU partners, staff and DFAT staff.

The four hours training started with a session called Photo Story, Ng Swan Ti and Edy Purnomo from Pannafoto Institute showed series of pictures and asked participants to give comments on the pictures. From the small test, it suggested that with series of pictures, the viewers could see a story behind them. Although the pictures were without captions, Swan Ti reminded participants that captions are important to limit misinterpretations by the viewers.

Following the session, Swan Ti showed pictures of more than 10 MAMPU partners’ activities that she took during her visits from June to July 2015. From the examples, participants could see variations of angles, compositions, point of view and messages that she was trying to say through her pictures.

After that Swan Ti shared a session called The Art of Seeing. She kept reminding the participants that the way we see through our lens is more important than how sophisticated our camera is. To support that, Edy Purnomo then shared about basic photography technics. He shared that there are 3 aspects in a camera that a person should know which are ISO, aperture and shutter speed.

However, he kept reminding participants to always have a full sentence in our mind before taking pictures. We should ensure that the pictures correctly communicate the sentences that we are trying to say to the viewers.

Steps before taking a picture:

• Before taking pictures for an activity, a photographer should read about the activities.
• Take a minute to sweep the room and see details of the room.
• Take notes on what we want to say in sentences.
• Once we have the list of sentences in our mind, we could start taking pictures that will convey the sentences that we have planned in our minds.

After giving out the tips, Swan Ti and Edy asked the participants to practice with their camera. Participants were divided into two groups. Group A acted as photographers, Group B acted as training participants and vice versa. Once it was done, Swan Ti and Edy together with all participants reviewed the pictures from each group and gave insights on how to improve the pictures.

Seeing the positive comments, MAMPU might have similar practical-skills trainings in the future.