The English Press Club approached Hamayal Sharma, the coordinator of Photography Club, for a quick chat regarding the primary duties of the Club. For a week leading up to the fest, they click photographs of various teams’ captains along with the torch, which is made by CrAC. During BOSM, they try to cover as many matches as they can, primarily focusing on the BITS matches. Uploading them on multiple channels, including the BITS’ main handle helps them increase their outreach. She also stated that they organize a Photography Talk. This time around, their theme is  Mobile Photography and they have invited an expert to walk the audience through this art.

This BOSM, a lot of emphasis has been laid on the quality of their ‘Days To Go’ shots, which start a few weeks before the fest. They have also started to shift focus from DSLR photography to mobile photography, as the latter is more widely used nowadays. She feels that the Club has evolved a lot in terms of the quality of the shots that they deliver. 

Being a coordinator of Photog surely hasn’t been an easy task for Hamayal. She accepts that work has been getting stressful off-late, but she is sure that the feeling after successfully finishing the fest will be worth all the efforts. The confidence of the team she is supported by is something she cherishes. Nevertheless, it is a tough task to manage time between academics and coordinator responsibilities, which are both taking place in full swing.

When asked about aspects of Photog that BITSians are unaware about, she reckons that it is their major goal. The Club aims to capture emotions and not just photographs. They hope to convey the feelings of a story with each picture that they publish. Due to this, they have changed their recruitment criteria this time around. They realized that skill is something that can be taught, but creativity isn’t. Thus, instead of looking for pre-requisites, they focussed more on innovation amongst the candidates. She mentions that the new recruits have shown a lot of potential, gelling in very well with one another.

Hamayal mentions that according to her, the best part of the Club is the bond that she shares with her teammates. The community that they have formed makes any stressful workload seem light.