Thought that I should lay down these words before the trip so as to be part of the total blog account of this journey. For the past 3 or 4 years I have become very interested in photography and am still struggling to better understand the intricacies of composition, presentation etc. A couple of years ago, in the course of selling some equipment, I met a young lady, a fourth year student of photography at the local university. She explained that at the commencement of year # 1 that she felt that she would know all there was to know about the art form by Christmas and recalls wondering how she would keep herself occupied for the remaining 3 1/2 years of the programme. In her final year, she stated that she was under great pressure to complete the course in the full allotted 4 years!
I have cast about for the past couple of years trying to determine my own path/style. Tried the landscapes, the flowers, the honey bees etc---all lots of fun and generated the knowledge base so as to be able to switch off the automatic camera setting and shoot in manual---thus opening up a whole world of creative possibilities. My preferences have evolved through the large powerful DSLRs, complete with powerful & heavy lenses to the 'pro-sumer' compact, light to carry and importantly, quite discrete (earlier, with big camera/lens, experienced a couple of unpleasant incidents being at the receiving end of accusations (unfounded) of being an "old weirdo").
In the past year I seem to have settled on street photography ---the black and white genre. Photos taken close-up, without lenses and hopefully without the subject being aware---my "hole in one" is to score direct eye contact before the subject has time to react. Funny, but they often look behind to see who else might I might have been photographing! A quick smile and nod and I am off on my way again. This is a 'Flickr' link to some of my recent work on the streets, for any reader who may have interest: https://www.flickr.com/photos/chris66/sets/72157653664196939
Must say now that I stop everywhere now just to look at shadows, people with interesting wrinkles etc, etc., often to the (slight) annoyance of my wife Jian, as I trail behind trying to work a good angle on some poor, unsuspecting target.
This S.E. Asia junket---is not planned explicitly as a photo trip and I hope to see a lot more than just folk on the streets. If, there is one thing I have learned from photography, it is that as human beings, we are programmed to see everything, but look at nothing. Hopefully I am now better qualified at extracting even more value from what I will see.
I shall have my camera out at all times, three batteries and storage cards at the ready. We shall see if I am successful.
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| He was quietly enjoying his expensive meal... |
In the past year I seem to have settled on street photography ---the black and white genre. Photos taken close-up, without lenses and hopefully without the subject being aware---my "hole in one" is to score direct eye contact before the subject has time to react. Funny, but they often look behind to see who else might I might have been photographing! A quick smile and nod and I am off on my way again. This is a 'Flickr' link to some of my recent work on the streets, for any reader who may have interest: https://www.flickr.com/photos/chris66/sets/72157653664196939
Must say now that I stop everywhere now just to look at shadows, people with interesting wrinkles etc, etc., often to the (slight) annoyance of my wife Jian, as I trail behind trying to work a good angle on some poor, unsuspecting target.
This S.E. Asia junket---is not planned explicitly as a photo trip and I hope to see a lot more than just folk on the streets. If, there is one thing I have learned from photography, it is that as human beings, we are programmed to see everything, but look at nothing. Hopefully I am now better qualified at extracting even more value from what I will see.
I shall have my camera out at all times, three batteries and storage cards at the ready. We shall see if I am successful.
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