It Started With v27.7

Photoshop had been running fine. Then an update landed — v27.7 — and that was the end of it.

The splash screen would appear. "Measuring Memory." And then — nothing. No crash dialogue. No error. The application simply ceased to exist. Task Manager showed no trace of it.

I assumed it was the update. Updates break things. It happens.

So I rolled back. Tried v27.6. Same behaviour. Tried a clean reinstall of 27.7. Same. Tried 27.8 when it dropped, hoping Adobe had quietly fixed something. Same again. (The only last working version was 26.11.6 and earlier)

At this point the obvious culprits had been exhausted — reinstalls, driver updates, cache clears. The kind of things that usually work. None of them did. (even the official support gave up and told me to get in touch with adobe)

Photographing toddlers and young children is one of the most rewarding things I do as a photographer — and also the most unpredictable. One moment they're giggling, the next they've decided shoes are optional and they're running in the opposite direction, or crying uncontrollably!

But over the years, I've learned a simple truth:
Young children aren't "misbehaving"… they're discovering independence.

A 2-year-old buckling their own shoe…
A 4-year-old insisting "I'll do it!"…
A 6-year-old choosing which colour shirt to wear…

They're learning new skills every day — and to them, every new ability means "I'm big now. I can decide." This isn't my opinion as a photographer; it's simply where children are, developmentally, between one and seven. The entire job of those years is building a sense of "I can do things myself." A photoshoot that takes that away — sit here, look there, smile now — is working directly against the one thing the child cares most about that day.

If we understand this, we stop trying to control the photoshoot and start designing it so the child feels in charge.

The secret to a successful photoshoot?
Make it feel like the child's idea.

Before the Tips — What Are We Actually Trying to Capture?

One thing before the step-by-step, because it shapes everything that follows.

Every child has expressions that belong to them alone. The particular way one girl scrunches her nose right before she laughs. The exact tilt of a boy's head when he's deciding whether to trust you. The look of fierce concentration a four-year-old wears while "fixing" something. No posing guide produces these — they only appear when a child forgets the camera exists and becomes fully themselves.

And here's why that matters more than anything else in this post: a posed, say-cheese photo shows what your child looked like. An unguarded expression shows who your child was. The first one is nice for a week. The second one is the photograph you'll stop in front of, on your own wall, fifteen years from now — when that nose-scrunch has long grown into something else — and feel the whole of that age come rushing back.

We're not shooting for a social media feed here. Feeds scroll past and disappear. We're shooting for the frame in the living room, the print by a grandparent's bedside — images that will be looked at for years and decades, long after every phone in the house has been replaced. That's the standard every technique below is built to serve.

Here's how we do it — step by step.

1. Involve the Child from the Start

Instead of telling them what to do, involve them right from the planning stage. Invite them into the process with simple choices.

Instead of: "Sit here."
Try: "Do you want to sit on the chair or stand like a superhero?"

Instead of: "Wear this."
Try: "Do you like the blue shirt or the red one?"

Kids love having power. When they choose, they commit.

Why this works: notice that both options lead somewhere I'm happy with — the choice is real to the child, but the frame is safe either way. Psychologists call this offering "bounded choice," and parents use it instinctively at dinner time ("carrots or beans?"). It satisfies the child's hunger for independence without handing over the whole session. A child who has made two or three choices already feels like a partner in this project — and partners cooperate, because it's their project failing if they don't.

Mini story: I once asked a little girl where we should start. She pointed at a random corner and said, "There!" I said, "Great idea!" and walked her there. Two minutes later, I had earned the space to ask, "Will you like this?" (showing her a quick look on my camera). Because I respected her choice first, she happily listened later. In short — you are building a partnership.

2. Turn Posing into Play (No Commands!)

Children don't pose — they pretend, play, copy, and imagine. So instead of rigid instructions, I use playful prompts:

"Can you show me your cute cute smile pleaseee?"
"Oooh! How cute you look sitting like that!"
"Should Teddy sit on your lap or on your head?"
"Can you show me how you hug your toy?"
"Do you want to try this cool jump?"

It feels like a game, not a task. And the expressions? 100% real.

Why this works: play is not a distraction from a child's "real" behaviour — play IS a child's natural language. A command ("smile!") asks a child to manufacture an expression on demand, which even adults do badly. A game produces the expression as a side effect — the child is busy being a superhero or balancing Teddy on their head, and the delight on their face is genuine because the delight is genuine. This is the entire difference between a photo that looks like your child and a photo that IS your child.

Remember to be a kid at this play yourself, and plan your steps ahead — this is what professional photographers learn and master over time: playing along wholeheartedly while quietly staying two moves ahead with framing and light.

3. Use Positive Reinforcement (It Works Like Magic)

When a child feels proud, they'll do anything again. Instead of correcting, I celebrate:

"Wow, you did that all by yourself!"
"That was PERFECT — can we do it again?"
"You're so fast! I almost missed it!"
"That smile is my favourite!"

And immediately… they repeat it with even more excitement.

Why this works: behaviour that gets celebrated gets repeated — that's as close to a law of childhood as anything I know. But there's a photography-specific bonus hiding in "can we do it again?": the repeat of a spontaneous moment is often better than the original. The first jump surprised even the child; the second jump, they're performing proudly for an appreciative audience, chin up, eyes bright. I get multiple chances at the moment, and the child's confidence grows visibly frame by frame. Correcting does the opposite — one "no, not like that" and you can watch a child fold inward. It takes ten celebrations to undo one correction, so I simply never correct.

4. Keep Distractions (Especially Phones) Away

One of the biggest challenges isn't the child — it's the phone in the parent's hand. The moment a parent takes out a mobile or starts recording from the side, the child wants it. Attention is gone.

Before the shoot, I gently ask: "Let's keep mobiles out of sight so your child stays fully engaged. They look at you for cues — if you're involved and smiling, they'll do the same!"

Replace the phone with: laughter, clapping, singing, playing along.

Why this works: young children read the room through their parents — it's called social referencing, and it's how they decide whether a new situation is safe and fun. A parent absorbed in a screen sends the signal "this isn't important," and the child's engagement drains within a minute. A parent laughing and clapping just behind me sends the opposite signal — and gives the child somewhere warm to direct those expressions. Many of the best "looking just past the camera" portraits in my galleries are actually a child beaming at their own mother, three feet to my left. The phone version of that moment simply does not exist.

5. Bring Their Favourite Toy (It's More Than a Prop)

A beloved toy isn't just a cute accessory — it's comfort, identity, and storytelling.

I often ask:
"What do you want to tell Teddy?"
"Can your car go fast or SUPER fast?"
"Should Bunny sit with you or fly in the sky?"
"Can you show me how you play with _____?"

Give time, and allow them to forget about the camera and start being themselves. Those are the moments worth capturing.

Why this works: a familiar toy is what child psychologists call a comfort object — a piece of home the child carries into an unfamiliar studio. It lowers their guard faster than anything I can say. But the deeper value shows up years later: that specific bunny, that particular battered car, was this exact chapter of your child's life. Toys get outgrown and quietly disappear. A photograph of your child mid-conversation with a toy they adored is a double portrait — the child and the era. Parents rarely realise at the shoot how much that detail will mean at year fifteen. I've had parents tear up over the toy in the frame as much as the face.

6. Let Them Show Off Their New Skills

Kids LOVE proving how "big" they are. Let them!

"Can you jump higher than me?"
"Show me your newest dance move!"
"How fast can you run to the tree and back?"
"Can you balance on one foot?"

They beam with pride — and I capture pure joy in motion.

Why this works: this taps the exact developmental engine driving the whole age group — the drive to demonstrate competence. A child showing off a new skill produces an expression that cannot be requested: genuine pride. And here's the long-view reason I chase these frames — the skill itself is a timestamp. The wobbly one-foot balance, the brand-new dance move, the jump that barely clears the ground: these are abilities measured in months. In the print on your wall, that wobble is precisely what says "this was them, at exactly four and a half." A generic smile could be from any year. The wobble could only be from that one.

7. Turn the Shoot into a Mini Adventure

When a session feels like a game, cooperation happens naturally.

Some fun themes: explorer looking for treasure · superhero on a mission · freeze/unfreeze game · "the floor is lava!" · "can you tiptoe like a sneaky cat?"

The more imagination, the better the expressions.

Why this works: a story gives the session a spine. Without one, a shoot is a series of disconnected requests, and every new request is a fresh chance for "no." Inside a story, the next thing simply happens — of course we tiptoe now, we're sneaking past the sleeping dragon. Each child also inhabits the same story completely differently: one explorer is cautious and wide-eyed, another charges in sword-first. The adventure isn't just keeping them busy — it's drawing out their version of brave, careful, mischievous. That individuality is the whole prize.

8. Parents: Cheerleaders, Not Directors

Parents are incredible helpers… when they support rather than instruct.

What works best: stand behind or beside me · laugh, clap, encourage · let me lead with the playful prompts · trust the process.

If a parent says, "Smile! Look here! No, do this!" the child shuts down.
If the parent says, "Wow! You're doing great!" the child lights up.

Why this works: when two adults give a child instructions at once, the child freezes — which voice to obey? And a parent's correcting voice carries far more weight than mine, because the child cares infinitely more about their parent's approval. One sharp "no, not like that" from Mom outweighs twenty of my games. So the division of labour matters: I supply the play, you supply the applause. And I say this with warmth, not criticism — the directing instinct comes from love and from wanting your money's worth from the session. I promise you'll get it. The route there is just your delighted laughter, not your directions.

9. Keep Sessions Short & Flexible

Children have limited attention — and changing energy. That's why I plan several mini activities instead of one long setup. When a child is in the mood, I follow their lead. When they're tired, we pause or change the game.

Flexibility > Perfection.

Why this works: a young child's genuine engagement runs in short bursts — a few strong minutes at a time, not an hour on demand. Fighting that produces exactly one thing: the glazed, done-with-this expression that ruins every frame it appears in. Working with it means treating the session as five or six small windows, with wandering and snacks in between. Some of my favourite frames have come during the "break" — the child relaxed, unwatched, being completely themselves — while I quietly kept shooting. The schedule serves the child; never the reverse.

10. End on a Positive Note

The final feeling shapes the memory.

At the end, I often: show them a photo — "Look! That's YOU!" · give a high-five · let them click a photo with my help · say, "You were amazing today!"

They leave proud and excited — often asking, "Can we do it again?"

Why this works: we don't remember experiences evenly — we remember how they peaked and how they ended. A session that finishes with pride and a high-five gets stored, in the child's memory, as "photoshoots are fun." That's not just a kindness; it's an investment. The next session — a year from now, three years from now — starts with a child who walks in already trusting the process. Families who photograph their children regularly through these years end up with something genuinely rare: an honest, joyful record of a person growing up, made by a child who wanted to be there every time.

Why All of This Matters — The Photo on the Wall

Young children don't resist photoshoots because they're difficult. They resist because they want independence — and we often take it away. But when we invite them to participate, when we use choices, praise, play, imagination, and patience — they don't just cooperate. They shine.

And here is the thing I most want parents to take from this post: the reason for all of this patience is not a smoother session. It's what ends up in the frame.

Every technique above exists to reach the same destination — the moment your child forgets the camera and their real, unrepeatable self surfaces. The expressions that emerge in that moment belong to your child alone. They were never posed, so they can never be reproduced. And that is exactly what makes those images grow more precious with time instead of less: children change so fast that within a couple of years, that laugh, that head-tilt, that fierce little frown of concentration exists nowhere except in the photograph.

A perfectly posed picture gets a compliment and gets scrolled past. But the honest one — the one where it's unmistakably your child being exactly who they were at three, or five, or seven — that's the one that earns a frame on the wall or a place by a bedside, and stays there for decades. Long after phones and feeds have moved on, that print keeps doing its quiet work every single day.

The best kid photos don't come from perfect poses.
They come from letting them be fully, wonderfully themselves.

And that's the magic worth capturing — not for a week of likes, but for a lifetime on the wall.

There are films that entertain, and then there are those that remind — of what we’ve forgotten, or perhaps what we’ve chosen to ignore. Kantara: Chapter 1 belongs to the latter.

Beneath its earthy visuals and mythic intensity lies a meditation on our fading relationship with nature and the dharmic balance that once governed human life. It’s not merely a story of gods and men, but a mirror to how civilisation has drifted — from living with the land to living off it, from reverence to ownership, from justice to exploitation.

"Pricing Photography Services" is a topic little understood by my many new age freelance & even some professional photographers. A consequence of poor financial planning has its effects on deliverables to clients, a reason for non-photographers (Clients) to read this article too.

Photography looks easy, Lots of cameras are available, even phones have over 100MP resolutions these days.

• Then why a photographer?
• Premium pricing for photography?
• Do I lose out on anything when I hire a photographer who charges less?

If there is that one major factor that guarantees your chance of getting noticed online matrimony profile, it is your profile photograph, a well-shot headshot. Your headshot is your first impression and the deciding factor for you to get noticed or ignored. Once a first impression is made, it is very hard to change that perception of you. A good set of profile pictures communicates a lot about your personality and your seriousness in a relationship.

Psychologists say it takes about a tenth of a second to form an impression about the person we meet!

No wonder First Impression is the Best Impression

Most people are put off by poor quality photos that are

• low in resolution
• grainy/noisy and taken in dull light.
• having very old photographs in your profile.
• not having enough variations in your pictures used in your profile
• photos that don’t really represent who you are (your intro text says something which does not match your picture portfolio)

Read on to know more on how to go about creating an online profile that gets you the most responses from people you are most compatible with.

With the dominance of major e-commerce platforms such as Amazon, Flipkart and the ease at which brands can go online with their own website and start selling online there is serious competition for brick & mortar stores in terms of scalability os sales by reaching out to a larger base of potential customers.

The biggest challenge that is seen in this route of building a Brand / Sales through the online route is the "Cost". Many expect e-commerce to work magic but the truth of the matter is "E-commerce does have its costs which match up to/be higher than the cost of a physical store". while the previous statement is true what one needs to realise that at the same price it also allows one to reach out to a larger client base which in turn can be converted to a higher sales volume & better margins.

With the spread of COVID-19 and the subsequent lockdowns across the globe virtual meetings and gatherings have become the new norm, resulting in a huge surge in demand for webcams and prices several times the MRP/MSRP. With the lockdown also brought much of our photography business to a standstill, the biggest pinch we felt was the lack of a webcam (i do remember having a decades-old, low-resolution webcam somewhere with the broken mount - hence the "somewhere bit")

We did manage a while with workarounds using 3rd party software and a screen-capture of onscreen live-view video from my cameras(DSLRs)

All this changed by this awesome announcement by Cannon

Organising and executing your own studio session is affordable!

It is one of the best ways to take your photographic skills to the next level.

The primary advantage of shooting in a studio is the ability to control and shape the quality of light. Outdoors, you work with whatever the sun and the weather give you that hour. In a studio, every ray of light exists because you decided it should — its direction, its softness, its intensity, its colour. Photography is, quite literally, drawing with light; a studio is the one place where you hold the entire pencil.

And here's the part that surprises most people: studio lighting is the great equaliser of camera gear. Under controlled studio light, even entry-level and cropped-sensor cameras render sharp, clean, well-detailed images. Why? Because studio flash removes the two things that force cameras to struggle — low light and movement. With ample flash power you shoot at your camera's base ISO (its cleanest setting), and the flash burst itself is so brief that it freezes motion far better than a fast shutter alone. The technical gap between a beginner's camera and a flagship narrows dramatically the moment both are under the same strobes. What remains is the photographer's eye — which is exactly the skill worth building.

All of this control traditionally meant owning a large space and a serious pile of equipment — a hefty price to buy, and a running cost to maintain. Renting removes that barrier entirely: full studio capability, paid for only on the days you actually use it.

Whether that matters to you depends on who you are — so let's take this by skill level, and then talk to the people on the other side of the camera too.

If You're Just Starting Out: The Fastest Classroom in Photography

A single well-planned studio session will teach you more about light than months of shooting outdoors. That's not an exaggeration — it's about how learning works.

Outdoors, the light changes every few minutes: a cloud moves, the sun drops, you change position. You can never be sure whether a photo improved because of what you did or what the sky did. In a studio, everything holds still except the one thing you change. Move the light closer — see exactly what happens. Add a softbox — see exactly what changes. One variable at a time, instant feedback on a tethered screen or camera back. That tight feedback loop is precisely how skills form, and it's why photographers who spend even a handful of sessions in a studio suddenly start "seeing" light everywhere — including outdoors.

The rental model fits beginners perfectly: you get access to lighting worth several lakhs without buying anything, and you find out what kind of equipment you actually like before spending on your own. Think of early studio rentals as trying on gear as much as making photos.

One tip from years of watching first-timers: look for studios run by photographers who also teach. An assistant who can show you why a light is placed where it is turns a rental hour into a masterclass. (It's something we deliberately offer — an assistant is included with our studio rentals to get you productive in the shortest possible time, and there's no faster way to learn than setting up alongside someone who does this daily.)

If You're Building Skills and a Portfolio: Rent to Grow

You've done a few sessions, you know your way around a softbox, and now you want portfolio work — headshots, portraits, small fashion tests, product experiments. This is the stage where studio rental earns its keep in a different way: consistency and repeatability.

A portfolio shot outdoors is hostage to weather and daylight hours. Studio work can be scheduled any day, any time, and — crucially — reproduced. Nail a lighting setup you love? Write it down, and it's yours forever, identical on every future shoot. Clients and agencies notice this consistency in a portfolio; it reads as professionalism long before anyone asks about your gear.

This is also the stage for testing before investing. Thinking of buying strobes? Rent a studio that runs the brand you're eyeing and put it through a real shoot. A few hundred rupees of rental time has saved many photographers from lakhs of buyer's remorse. Studios can also usually source specialised extra equipment from rental vendors at better prices than you'd get walking in yourself — ask.

If You're a Working Professional: Do the Math Before You Sign a Lease

Every working photographer eventually asks: should I get my own studio? Here's the honest arithmetic — the same cost logic we've written about in our pricing guide.

An owned or leased studio is a fixed cost: rent, electricity, maintenance, equipment upkeep — payable every month whether you shoot thirty days or three. Renting converts all of that into a variable cost: it exists only on the days a paying job exists, and it can be billed directly into that job's quote as a clean line item. Until your studio-based bookings are frequent enough that a month of rentals reliably exceeds a month of lease-plus-overheads, renting is not the compromise option — it's the financially correct one.

Renting also solves problems ownership can't:

• Overflow and scale: your own space is too small for that one campaign with a full crew? Rent the bigger space for that job only.
• Location flexibility: a client on the other side of the city becomes bookable when you can rent near them instead of dragging them across Bangalore traffic.
• Zero maintenance drag: modelling lamps age, backdrops tear, flash tubes fail. In a rented studio, that's someone else's capital expense — you always walk into working equipment.

Tips for Renting a Studio Space

While finding a studio is relatively easy, there are a few things to check before making a booking — each of these exists because someone learned it the expensive way:

• Rates: rates vary greatly from studio to studio — but so does the method of counting time and what's included. Double-check how fractions of a day are charged and exactly which equipment comes with the plan. Two studios quoting the same hourly rate can differ by thousands once setup time and gear add-ons are counted.
• Size: studios come in a range of sizes, and this directly drives cost — but bigger genuinely buys you creative room. Distance between subject and backdrop is what lets you control background falloff and avoid spill; a cramped space forces every light to do two jobs badly.
• Hidden charges: beware of extra charges and taxes — the classic being consumables like backdrop paper, billed per metre used or "damaged." A cheap hourly rate with padded consumables can quietly out-cost an honest all-inclusive one.
• Overtime: most studios charge a premium for overtime, and shoots overrun more often than not. Know the overtime rate before you book, plan your session with a buffer, and look out for studios offering gentler pricing on extended hours.
• Equipment hire: standard equipment is usually included, but many studios charge per additional piece — and no studio has everything. You're always expected to bring your own camera and recording media. For anything specialised, ask the studio to source it; they typically get better vendor prices than a walk-in customer.
• Assistant / tutoring: some studios offer an assistant to help you set up — for beginners this is the single most valuable inclusion on the list, worth more than any gear upgrade. It's the difference between spending your first paid hour fumbling with stands and spending it shooting.

Setting Up the Shoot

So let's assume you've found a studio, the rate looks good, and it's free at a convenient time. What's stopping you from booking?

Probably that healthy fear of failure! But with preparation and planning, there's no reason to delay any longer. Here's how to execute your first session with ease:

Talent: the top item on your list is someone to photograph. A professional model contributes real value — but for a first session, it isn't essential, and honestly isn't ideal. Start with someone interesting whom you're comfortable with: a friend, an upcoming artist, another photographer. Here's why this matters: in your first session, your attention will be consumed by lights, settings, and the unfamiliar space. A friend forgives the fumbling; a paid professional's time ticking away adds pressure you don't need yet. Save booking a model for your second session — by then the basics will be muscle memory, and you'll actually be able to direct.

Working with your model: it's easy to forget your model is a real person. Taking time to get to know them before shoot day makes a huge difference — involve them in planning, include their ideas and requests, and they'll arrive invested in the session rather than just present at it. On the day, keep talking, and whatever you do, avoid hiding behind the camera. A silent photographer reads as a dissatisfied one, and the model's confidence — and expressions — drain accordingly. (This is the same principle we use with camera-shy portrait clients: the conversation is part of the craft.)

Lighting: the most time-consuming part of any shoot is the lighting setup, so walk in with a plan. Prepare two or three setups depending on your booked time — the internet is full of diagrams and tutorials. Pick something simple: a single-light setup, a classic headshot, a plain-backdrop portrait. The reasoning is the same one-variable principle from earlier — a simple setup you understand teaches you more (and photographs better) than an elaborate one you're guessing at. Master one light before adding a second; every additional light multiplies complexity, not quality.

Make it a team event: if possible, share the session with a fellow photographer. Costs get split, setup goes faster, one person can adjust lights while the other shoots, and someone keeps the model engaged between setups. There's also a quieter benefit: watching how another photographer approaches the same subject in the same light is one of the fastest ways to discover your own preferences.

And If You're Not a Photographer at All — Why a Studio Portrait Is Worth It

Most of this post speaks to photographers. But there's another reader we meet in our studio every week: someone who simply wants a genuinely good portrait — of themselves, their parents, their family — and is wondering whether a studio session is worth it when everyone has a phone camera at home.

Here's the honest case, from the client's side of the lens:

Controlled light is the most flattering light there is. Studio lighting is shaped deliberately for the person in front of it — softened, angled, and balanced to flatter the actual structure of your face. This is not vanity or heavy editing; it's the same face, simply lit with intention instead of chance. It's the difference you can't quite name when you see a truly professional portrait — and it cannot be replicated by a phone in a living room.

A studio portrait doesn't date. A photo taken against your sofa is stamped with that sofa, that paint colour, that year's clutter. A clean studio portrait — a classic backdrop, timeless light — belongs to no particular year. That's precisely why formal portraits from decades ago still look dignified today, and it's what makes a studio portrait the right candidate for a print that hangs on a wall for twenty years rather than a file that disappears into a phone's camera roll.

The occasion deserves it. A milestone birthday, grandparents while they're in good health, a family complete for a rare few days when everyone's in the same city — these deserve better than a hurried phone photo. A studio session takes an hour or two; the print outlives every device you currently own. Some of the most treasured photographs in any family are formal studio portraits of earlier generations. Someone made time for those. This is your generation's turn.

If that's you, you don't need to know a softbox from a shoebox — that's entirely our job. Come in for a session, and bring the people who matter.

The Short Version

A studio is where light stops being luck. For a beginner, renting one is the fastest classroom in photography. For a growing photographer, it's consistency, portfolio quality, and a way to test gear before buying it. For a professional, it's the financially sensible alternative to a lease — until the bookings genuinely justify one. And for everyone else, it's where portraits are made that still look right on a wall decades later.

The space and equipment are the affordable part. What you build in them — skill or a family heirloom — is up to you.

Her Highness, Rajmata Pramoda Devi Wadiyar flagged off the run at the iconic Balarama Jayarama Gateway of the Mysuru Palace. Three days, 145 kms, six sighted guides running with six blind runners onward to Bengaluru. This is a historic run and an inspiring for the running community where visually impaired athletes Mala Kolkar, Renuka Rajput, Sunitha N.D, Kavya N, Nandeesha Janardan and Ajay Eranna along with their guide runners Venkatesh N, Bhadresh S, Bhumika Patel, Nandish Kumar, Rajesh N V and Sachin Tiptur ran the 145 kms Spirit of Pinkathon run from Mysuru to Bengaluru, over 3 days from 23rd to 25th of January 2019. It is also a notable fact that most of the guides too were attempting their first Ultra Marathon

This run celebrates the spirit of health and well-being in the face of all obstacles. The idea was suggested by Head Coach of Samarthanam Trust for the Disabled Bhumika Patel after the VI runners made a record of becoming India’s first visually impaired athletes’ team to complete full marathon at a timed event.

I had the wonderful opportunity to cover the whole event (had earlier had the opportunity to