Thai photographer Dacho Buranabunpot during his workshop on digital photography at the Myanmar Photographic Society on December 29.

THE Myanmar Photographic Society held a workshop hosted by renowned Thai photographer Dacho Buranabunpot for amateur and professional photographers on December 29.

Dacho Buranabunpot, 52, is the personal photographer of Her Majesty the Queen of Thailand.

In 1990, he was ranked tenth in the PSA’s Top 10 list of photographers worldwide. The same year he came third in the World Top 10 travel photo slide show.

“We heard he was visiting Myanmar to take photographs so we seized on the opportunity to have him come a few days in advance to hold the workshop,” U Pe Myint Oo, president of the Myanmar Photographic Society told the Myanmar Times.

The four-hour workshop attended by about 100 local photographers, focused on the practice of digital photography.

The Myanmar Photographic Society has been holding monthly workshops with tips for photographers since October but this is the first time a foreign expert has lead a workshop at the society U Pe Myint Oo said.

“Here, digital photography is booming, and it is now of major interest to photographers. Dacho Buranabunpot has a lot of international experience and exposure. It gave us the opportunity to learn from his ideas, techniques, and experiences,” U Pe Myint Oo said.

U Myint Aung, a photographer who attended the workshop said he learnt a lot about the new technology now available and how to use it.

“He explained the basics of digital photography and we learnt things we did not know before. Myanmar photographers are weak in using newer technologies such as Photoshop software, editing photos using the latest software, or the functions that computers can be used for in post-shoot editing. He showed us the different techniques and ways we can use these new technologies and gave practical examples on his laptop,” U Myint Aung said enthusiastically.

“I think Myanmar photographers want to learn new technologies and ideas. At the previous workshops, there were only about twenty attendees, but at this workshop there were one hundred,” he added.

U Moe Min, a famous Myanmar professional photographer, also attended the workshop.

“It was great,” he said.

“Dacho Buranabunpot said he had aimed the workshop at amateur photographers. But, even us, professional photographers, are able to learn from him, especially when it comes to the new technologies being increasingly used now in the photographic industry.”

All the photographers the Myanmar Times spoke to, agreed that local photographers have a lot to learn when it comes to using the latest technologies, especially computers, for photo editing.

“We need to learn a lot. I wish the association could host these sorts of workshops with foreign professionals more often so that locals can get foreign exposure,” U Myint Aung said.