I'm not some Mahaguru or Ken Rockwell (he's almost there..) in photography, in fact still one of the ones with minimal gadget considering the years since I've started. So basically the topic here will revolve around what photography did to me these years instead of tips & contributions & strong arguments on what's the best stuff to own - betcha can find much experienced, much knowledgeable si-fus out there. I didn't own a point 'n shoot before I got my 1st SLR. Now what kind of an idiot who didn't have much experience snapping pictures in her life would plunge into buying a camera she'll need to read the manual like a textbook to operate? Well, at least it's the road less traveled (not a bad reason considering I'm slightly weird at times)
Anyway, it was my 2 running buddies in uni who introduced me to this hobby. One of them owned a manual (non-automatic) SLR. Imagine that he had to roll the film everytime he snapped. Not a big scorer on continuous shots, nevertheless, he actually learnt photography from square 1. Anyway, they managed to take very good pictures and I find that looking at the pictures and reviewing them after developing the negatives is quite interesting. Hence I started my 1st step into this "journey of light".
It was to my disappointment that recently, one of my si-fus, after all these years of exchanging views on photography, told me that videography is more interesting.
Pause....
More pause...
OK la, don't waste blog space... imagine my disappointment, I actually went silent (a-ha...this actually surprised you leh) for some time before I can speak up. Look, I have nothing against videography nor people who owns videocam, my BFF actually owns 1 and I happily "acted" in her videos when we travel.
It's also not because he 'alleged' that videography is better than photography (Personally, I don't agree with this though). This is really up to individual's opinion and I would not argue with this fella coz he's one of the best debaters around, and with piercing sarcasm.
The biggest disappointment is that the very same person who introduced me to photography actually lost grip of the whole idea of photography. That it's a snapshot frozen in time, that it's a painting with light, that a good picture tells a thousand words, that a good picture creates curiosity, explores our imagination, provoke our emotions, provide that moment of time to evaluate what we don't see when we are too absorbed with other "main" interests. The realization that no matter what gadget or tool human can make, no lens no camera can capture a picture a good as our eyes.
Videography in my opinion is a totally different playing field, as I'm not familiar I will not elaborate but I'm sure it has its own purpose and charms. But as a photographer professional or novice, never, ever, ever, never, eva, ever doubt the existence of taking that snapshot in a fraction of a second, is in any way inferior to any other ways of capturing light. Never....because when you start doubting, then your heart has never been there before. Which is why National Geographic photogs are still around and that camera shops are not fully replaced by the videocam shop, though videocams are getting cheaper and cheaper.
For me, I've had my share of getting my body positioned in an awkward angle just to capture a snapshot that I've envisioned the result to be. The times when I tried to protect the camera from cold, water, dirt, etc. The times when I was left behind on trips because I can't resist stopping and snapping something that caught my fancy. Then struggled to look for my friends and family who went way ahead... The times my models made funny faces for me to shoot. The times I had to get shoulder massage or rubs due to the friction inflicted by camera strap, weighed down by the camera. The times the camera freezes the motion and expressions on my models when they were eating, looking silly, serious, etc. Each time unique, each time memorable, each time enhances my life as I moved on.
Perfection
It helps that photography brings me towards achieving perfection (I still delete pictures that look blah..). E.g. cropping out bad distractions in pictures, adjusting exposure to meet the mood we want to set in the picture, framing subjects to make them stand out, learning to identify what we expect out of the picture before snapping. There's a sense of focus and the reward? Can look through the pictures again and again and have that silly lunatic grin on my face looking at the pictures.
Relaxation
If you are working middle class like me, our lives are basically entangled in the rat race (if you are ambitious). Politics, stress, guilt, dissatisfaction, envy - all part of our daily lives. But when it's just me looking though the lens, it's a different world. Eat your heart out Body Shop...about time to have more sales on those Ylang Ylang aroma oil eh?
Compassion
Children usually provides the strongest display of emotion or rather tug at our emotions. When I snapped the kids in Cambodia, it made me feel ashamed of complaining about work, or on having not enough pair of shoes to look like Carrie Bradshaw wannabe in office. These are kids and they are happily showing "peace" signs for tourists, no shoes, torn clothes, probably not having a proper bath since birth. My favourite picture of all time, is a snapshot of 3 Flower Hmong girls walking back from school with their bags (donated by a charity organization) facing us and greeted by one of the girls' brother along the red muddy track. When we approached them, all they asked for were, "do you have pens for us?"
Adventure
The toilet on Fansipan mountain, the mud track on Bach Ha market, the butt push in Railay, Krabi, the 007 pose in Phi Leh Lagoon, the cute pelicans in Bali Bird Park, the UFO looking lightning protectors of Shanghai, the rocks on Mt Kinabalu, the overloaded bikes of Vietnam, the temple palace of Bangkok, the volcanoes of Manado, the ruins of Angkor, skybridge of Langkawi, the darkness of Earth Hour, the food of south east asia, the monkeys of..err.. too many monkeys..
I think i'll just stop here for now..surely this topic will be continued...
Blabs from a light activist...
