A Shot at Fame

“I have taken so many pictures and I wanted to share them with others. Honestly,I never expected to rank anywhere in the competition and that my amateur photographs,clicked using a five mega-pixel Sony Cybershot camera,would be adjudged along side those by professional photographers with sophisticated DSLR cameras,” he says. Among the ones he submitted,there is one photograph of his friends cheering for a soccer match on a beach. Some of his sunset and sunrise shots were the most appreciated. “I love clicking pictures. It’s like capturing life’s special moments forever,” he adds.

Despite lakhs of entries for the contest,this young shutterbug made it to the top 500 and further up to the top 50. “I was amazed when I finally ranked 21 in the competition. It is a big deal for me and my parents,who now appreciate my photographs even more,” he beams.

He describes photography as his passion and inspiration. He is particularly fascinated by colours. “When I take photographs of sunrise or sunset,I get to capture wonderful hues of violet,orange and other beautiful colours. They make the picture so perfect that it sometimes seems like they’ve been edited digitally,” he says.

With no formal lessons in photography,Shirolkar says his father has been his only teacher. “He wanted to pursue photography but never got the chance to do so. Thus he encouraged my passion,” he says. His father gifted him his first camera. “I’m still using it. He didn’t go into technicalities but he did teach me about the elements that a good picture must have and those that should be avoided. The most important thing to keep in mind is a balance of light and dark elements,” he says.

Devavrat believes that one’s photography skills matter more than the camera being used. But he is excited about the SLR camera that his parents have promised to gift him after he graduates from junior college. They are supportive of his ambition of taking up photography as a career. “I never leave home without my camera. You never know when or where you might get the chance to click a cool picture,” he says with a grin.