How I Turn Myself to Photography
A feeling of disgust we might have on things which others are fond with. Then we might think that they are peculiar in one way or another, but it is undeniable that they might have the same thought on us just as well. Question upon question and yet we couldn't find ourselves to like it as they do. Are we missing a thing here? Or is it they who are missing a thing over there? The subjectivity of this topic is quite epic since it lies in the domain of incorporeal world, something that we are unable to exactly measure with each people holds their very own measurement of what they really consider as beautiful, perhaps a combination of facts and beliefs, or perhaps it is a measurement they are born with. A personal relationship between us and things we are interacting with.
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| Two Milky Storks finishing their nest on top of a roof in Kuala Gula, Perak, Malaysia |
Amidst the differences we are having, there is a thing which all of us might have in common, and that is to share what is beautiful to us with everyone else, especially those who are closer to us, our families and friends. There would be a time when we want to keep a moment to ourselves, as if we want it to be forever with us, something impossible in fact, but there is a thing to do that will keep us to remember it, that is by looking back to seeing what we are seeing back then.
An artist might choose to draw with brushes and paints, but it demands great skill to become a good artist who could fully imitate and recreate things an artist is seeing. Thus, rather than having a brush to imitate things we are seeing, why not having an eye which functions as close as our eyes to imitate things we are seeing, hence the camera we are using today.
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| Watercolour Pens on the desk in my room, Mahallah Tabari |
When I was younger, I was given a phone by my dad, it was Sony Ericsson w700i. To my excitement, it has a camera, and there was nothing peculiar about being proud of having such a camera of VGA quality back then. Surprisingly when I went to Cameron Highland, Pahang, Malaysia, I took about 200 pictures of almost everywhere I went day and night and I uploaded it on facebook. I guess I was too fascinated back then that I took pictures of almost every fruits, vegetables and flowers I saw over there. Looking back at the picture, I don't realise how different my younger brother was compared to how he is today.
Perhaps I wasn't doing it with the purpose of sharing the picture, it was more like I find it fascinating to have a phone with camera that I started to even take pictures of unnecessary things. The thing is, I like taking pictures, but not of my own.
My next camera phone was HTC ELFIN, and then the HTC HD7.
My next camera phone was HTC ELFIN, and then the HTC HD7.
I Enjoy Looking at Pictures
I Enjoy Looking at PicturesMay it be a work of arts, of fine or of digital, or may it be a work of photography, I would find myself enjoying looking through them, as in flickr, 500px or deviantart. This hobby didn't develop over night, it started off with stumbleupon and pinterest. Some from the random sites I got in stumbleupon showed me about art, design, and photography, and I was kinda developing a feeling of liking as I repeatedly clicked the stumble icon.
There are certain uniqueness in every pictures, and some of it could even tell stories out of the still images. I would always try to interpret or recreating the moment. What is he doing? What is it? What is he trying to tell? What is so special? I would ask.
The Way How a Photographer Focuses on The Subject
At first, I don't realise that there is a common way on how photographers try to focus their subject into the picture. I never try to compare their pictures with mine which was taken by phone. Then I realised that one of their way is to make sure that the subject is the sharpest in the picture with the background blurred, the blurred part is known as bokeh (the out of focus part), derived from japanese which linguistically mean 'blur' or 'haze'. This isn't achievable with camera phone before Nokia's Refocus and Google Camera 2.2 which are still unable to bokeh-ise the picture up to the standard of a camera. Bokeh is one of the strongest reason why I choose to photograph with camera instead of phone. It's stylish and pretty, in my opinion.
A Roommate Who Holds for Himself 'The Beast'
A Roommate Who Holds for Himself 'The Beast'
My first ever bokeh-licious (as put by Kai from Digital Rev) picture didn't come from my own camera, it was from my friend's Canon EOS 7D a.k.a. 'The Beast'. It was a picture of a sharpener, it was green and the background was a washed out or blurred image of my bed. Unfortunately, I lost my first ever bokeh picture when my bag along with my laptop was stolen at the end of last April 2014, since I don't own any external storage, I don't have the backup, poor me :(
It was from this point onward that my interest on photography spiked. My roommate was a good tutor, even before I got a hold of my own camera, I got to learn a few tricks and concepts, especially on how to work with the shutter speed, ISO and aperture. I wanted to explore more on photography, I wanted to take beautiful pictures, I don't want to only capture an image, I want to capture a moment with my own camera. Since then, I didn't even think of owning any compact camera, I wanted to own a DSLR, I was so determined to have an EOS 70D but I ended up with a mirrorless, Canon EOS-M.
Having friends who have photography as their hobby would be a great step
What I'm seeking here is to have my picture to be as real as the real one, and thus what I seek is quality produced by a camera, the quality of the literal image itself, since camera doesn't determine the quality of the meaning of a picture.
With internet and the trends it set today, I could say that almost everyone is a photographer, and how important taking picture is. It is evident when we know that camera is an integral part of a smartphone nowadays, and in fact, it keeps on becoming better and better, for example is the Nokia Lumia 1020 with a renown 41 mega pixels mechanical camera attached to its back, camera is now a marketing factor for smartphone.
Significant amount of pictures are uploaded on the net every hours, on flickr, on facebook, on instagram, and even twitter, not to mention several other sites, and that would give us a lifetime to go through every pics we could get on the internet. Everyone is now sharing their moment with their friends, the picture of their pets, their foods, and even their messy bedroom.
But hey, doesn't it mean that I just addressed 'Photographer' to a level lower than what it should be? If photographer are those who take pictures, yes almost everyone is a photographer, it is a kind of practice of capturing light, but the word professional, decent, and hobbyist photographer are there for at least a reason, and there are ways to differentiate a 'good' photographer from the 'bad' one, 'bad' not in a literal way. A better photographer will carefully choose what it will share, something beneficial perhaps, or something that will cause an epiphany. You will know a better photographer from its photographs.
It seems like I've been talking a lot in this entry, and this isn't a good sign, I doubt people would really make it here. I turn myself to photography so that I could capture moment and things I perceived as beautiful, so that I could share with the rest of the people. Being the one who tries to capture a moment, it gives me a better view of this world, it gives me lots of reason to appreciate those things surrounding me. I like the excitement when I finally capture a decent photo, a decent photo which is my own, that sense of ownership.
I try to find the beauty in everything, and beauty I find in every single thing
The universe is truly a grand design, a design like no other.
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This exclamation mark is credited to Gasara from deviantart
Having friends who have photography as their hobby would be a great step
Better Camera Doesn't Make You a Better Photographer
True it is that better camera doesn't make me a better photographer, but I always believe that a good camera equipment is just as important for a photographer as good golf clubs for a golfer. I seek to learn, and I seek to become professional hobbyist, and it's true that I myself tried to get a decent DSLR at first, the EOS 70D well known by it's dual pixel focusing technology which results in faster auto focusing system during live view and video shooting but it doesn't mean that I tried to become better by resorting to a better camera, it was that I didn't want to be limited by my own machine, imagine when you are trying to capture a moment or two but you are unable to do so due to the limitation of your camera, I don't want myself disappointed. Yes you could say that I could overcome the problem if I have the skill, but I just thought that a good camera is there for a reason. After all, it wasn't like I tried to jump immediately to Canon 1D series meant for professional.
What I'm seeking here is to have my picture to be as real as the real one, and thus what I seek is quality produced by a camera, the quality of the literal image itself, since camera doesn't determine the quality of the meaning of a picture.
Everyone is a Photographer
With internet and the trends it set today, I could say that almost everyone is a photographer, and how important taking picture is. It is evident when we know that camera is an integral part of a smartphone nowadays, and in fact, it keeps on becoming better and better, for example is the Nokia Lumia 1020 with a renown 41 mega pixels mechanical camera attached to its back, camera is now a marketing factor for smartphone.
Significant amount of pictures are uploaded on the net every hours, on flickr, on facebook, on instagram, and even twitter, not to mention several other sites, and that would give us a lifetime to go through every pics we could get on the internet. Everyone is now sharing their moment with their friends, the picture of their pets, their foods, and even their messy bedroom.
But hey, doesn't it mean that I just addressed 'Photographer' to a level lower than what it should be? If photographer are those who take pictures, yes almost everyone is a photographer, it is a kind of practice of capturing light, but the word professional, decent, and hobbyist photographer are there for at least a reason, and there are ways to differentiate a 'good' photographer from the 'bad' one, 'bad' not in a literal way. A better photographer will carefully choose what it will share, something beneficial perhaps, or something that will cause an epiphany. You will know a better photographer from its photographs.
In a nutshell
It seems like I've been talking a lot in this entry, and this isn't a good sign, I doubt people would really make it here. I turn myself to photography so that I could capture moment and things I perceived as beautiful, so that I could share with the rest of the people. Being the one who tries to capture a moment, it gives me a better view of this world, it gives me lots of reason to appreciate those things surrounding me. I like the excitement when I finally capture a decent photo, a decent photo which is my own, that sense of ownership.
I try to find the beauty in everything, and beauty I find in every single thing
The universe is truly a grand design, a design like no other.
________________________________
This
exclamation mark is credited to Gasara from deviantart
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