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Fitness on film

Photo: S. Thanthoni

Moment to cherish Photographer Venket Ram with Deepan

A few photos sent in for ‘Fitness Through The Lens’, a contest organised by FitnessOne, were a display of narcissistic indulgence. Self-portraits of the contestants, these photos interested lensman G. Venket Ram. He, however, awarded the top prize to someone who looked outside of himself for ideas.

Deepan Ramachandran, a copy writer, whose photo showed cotton-like clouds that seemed to resemble the biceps of a body builder, was awarded a gift voucher that allows him to choose any fitness equipment worth Rs. 30,000 from FitnessOne’s sales division. A cloud-gazer, there was no way Venket was not going to like this picture. Moreover, it met most of the criteria for good photography.

Deepan, who did not have the heart to walk away with all the praise, confessed that this picture was taken by his photographer-friend Praveen. However, “the idea belongs to me,” he said.

As the small gathering at FitnessOne’s Kilpauk Centre included a bunch of shutterbugs, some of whose photos won prizes, Venket gave a few tips about photography. He explained that great photography has little to do with great cameras. It primarily depends on how aware one is of one’s surroundings. Distance lends a false charm to most things and amateur photographers often travel great distances for great photos. “All of them will get attracted to a deeply wrinkled and heavily bearded old man in Ooty and click away. But they don’t pause to look at their own grandfather or the old men in their locality.”

He asked these amateurs to carry their cameras with them. “In this part of the world, anything expensive goes into the cupboard,” said Venket.

SS Music VJ Craig gave away the prizes along with colleague VJ Pooja.

Vivekanand, managing director, FitnessOne, concluded the programme with a beautiful analogy. He said, “Work is like a rubber ball. If you throw a rubber ball, it bounces back and you can catch it. If you ignore your work, you can catch up with it tomorrow or next week. But health, family and spirituality are like glass balls. If you throw them, they’re gone for good. But we treat these three as if they were rubber balls and treat work as if it were a glass ball.”

PRINCE FREDERICK

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