See the world differently

I have developed a strong love for photography recently. The passion for this art form had always been long dormant, but recently awaken.

I was never a professional photographer. My first strong contact with cameras came about from the manual Minolta my dad had for many years, which I used to carry to special events in secondary school to take pictures (and looking like a pro). That used to be quite tedious as you really need to turn and twist to focus, but the rewards was always good.

Then came the automatic camera. I had a nikon pass me down from my brother in university. Again, it was one of the things I brought to every event or function, and all my uni days were captured in the nikon.

That was later superceded by the first generation digital camera. I bought a Kodak 1 Megapixel camera in my assignment in Taiwan, about 6 years ago because I was bored, and I wanted to capture some moments out of town. The Kodak was superceded so quickly, in the blink of an eye, within two years, 4 megapixel cameras were the new things and I felt the camera did not have enough resolution.

I bought the Minolta dimage XD 3 Megapixel in 2002, thinking it was sufficient and would last me long. Then came the final itch, when I saw photos taken with digital SLRs and I fell in love with the sharpness, the contrasts and depth of field impressions of a dSLR. I succumbed to the Nikon in January 2006, a few months ago.

Thinking back now, it seem a full circle - Minolta, Nikon, Kodak, Minolta, Nikon. And mum's grew up in early years in a photo studio until the family sold it off. Back then, she told me women never take photos. Customers would always ask for the male photographer. Back then, the color of the photos were black and white, and they painted the colors to key areas like the face, lips, etc.

Now, we have online preview, load to PC and enhance, and the chance to take many shots before agreeing to one.

Photography has allowed me to see the world differently. Now, everytime I look at things, when I see new environment, I look for angles, I see details which escaped me before, I see people in action as I've never seen before.

As I indicated in a earlier post, a friend humbled me and called me a amateur photographer. If it means I have a lot to learn about photography, I am really excited. Because photography opens up a whole new world and I cannot wait to see and learn more.