My Adventure in Photography

Never in my life before I ever thought that I will fall in love with the art of photography. All this while, for me taking picture is just taking a picture, printing it out and keeping it nicely in an album for you to recall and reminisce the precious memory. I did not look at it as a powerful art and also an efficient way of conveying certain messages which also brings a lot of emotions.

So how did I encounter with this interesting piece of art? Not so long ago to be honest, it was just last year when my son was about couple of months old. Once, we had a photoshoot session and when I received those pictures, I was so impressed and at the same time it made me thinking, “Sampai bila we want to ask somebody else to take our picture?” Then, I say to myself, why not me myself take the pictures of us because I’m always with my family and I have all the time in the world to take their pictures. So since then, I started some googling works, reading through the reviews, tutorials, tips and anything else related to photography and also picture editing intensively. At the same time I also fortunate to stumble upon a few great photography forums and also photoblogs of some great photographers. When my wife bought me my DSLR as my birthday present, I was really excited to start practicing and photographing both of my wife and my boy until today and I hope for a very very long time to come. If I count it right, up to yesterday I have taken about 11,000 pictures already just in a couple of months. Just guess, dalam byk2 tu berape byk yg betul-betul can be considered at least as acceptable, not good but acceptable? Not that many to be honest, only some of them are really good ones but it never lets me down because I believe that it’s part and parcel towards becoming good at what we want to be. Somebody once told me that, for a National Geographic photographer, they have to take thousands of pictures in order to get one perfect shot to be published in the magazine. At first, I was like, what the heck?!Itu professional tu, kalau aku taktaula..hehehe..But I take it as a challenge and it surely is a great motivation for me.

Ok dalam ramai-ramai photographers that I stumbled upon their photoblog, I really admire this one guy who is now I could consider as my ‘Tok Guru’..hehehe..selamba je claim. He’s the one who told me about the National Geographic photographers taking countless of pictures just to get the perfect one for publishing. I always (everyday!) view his art works and try to get the similar kind of shot but to no avail, not even one, his pictures are one of a kind and brings some special emotions. He takes stunning photos of his family especially his son, Haiqal and also other stuffs. I have yet to have the opportunity to meet him or even attend one of his classes (I will surely do one day). All this while, our communications are only through flickr mail. I could say that he’s a very loving type of family man and very passionate with what he does best, photography. He’s very down to earth kind of guy and sgt tak lokek ilmu. Do check out his flickr here and his blog here and you will be amazed with his photo works. Actually I have put links to his websites at my side bar. Oh one more thing, tak sangka betul rupa-rupanya Wazari ni orang kampong teman. Ape lagi Yeop, moh le kite ye..hehe..

For me to photograph a toddler is the hardest. If you photograph adult, typically when they see you pointing your camera at them they will just give you a pose, paling tak pun they will stay still except those yg pemalu tu, they normally will just tutup muka or turn their face away or worse, they run away..hehe..For babies also relatively easy because they do not move much, just lie around and they will ‘follow’ for whatever type or angle of shots you want to take. For toddler, they just don’t bother. They keep doing their own business no matter what you tell them or sometimes up to an extent where you have to make any kind of weird sounds and faces just to attract their attention and still, some of them, they just do not bother and keep on playing just like my son. Sometimes, when you manage to get their attention, they will become so really excited to come to you quickly, be it by crawling or walking and sometimes jumping off the sofa just to get their hands on your camera, again just like my active son..hehehe..This is when I feel that I can not thank to my wife more for giving me a DSLR for my birthday present, I’m just so grateful. This is what a DSLR camera is capable of, it captures fast and constantly moving objects really really well without compromising the sharpness and quality of the picture which typically experienced by a normal point-and-shoot type of camera i.e normal digital/non-digital camera. So that’s why sometimes with the point-and-shoot type of camera the outcomes tend to be so blurry when we take pictures of moving objects.

Ok, believe it or not, it does come across in my mind once, no no it’s actually all the times..hehehe…that one day I would just quit my job and do what I keen the most, to be a photographer (sebelum ni nak jadi footballer tapi mcm dah terlambat and susah sgt je..hehe). But I’m not sure whether my skills are good enough for us to make a living out of it..hehehe..Actually dpt jadi official photographer for my family is already a great satisfaction for me because photographing my love ones are the most exciting and enjoyable works that I could ever ask for in my life. Ah!You just can not tell the feeling when you manage to take a good picture of your love ones. It’s a pure satisfaction and it makes you feel good and happy after all the hard, tough and boring works in the office..heh..

Hmmm…how I wish…*dreaming* Still long way to go man, a very looooong way =D