Friday, December 12, 2008

Klik Klik * I gotcha!





i LOVE photos… digital or printed… especially if a photo has a story to tell.


Since I was small kid, I loved to look at photos very much. Growing up, I’d still be looking at photos of yesteryears and remembering the times they were taken… I dunno, maybe this has helped me in keeping the memories fresh in my head.


In my teenage years, I remember I was always nagged at, by my elder sister, if the photos I took did not have nice angles. Especially when she was in Form 5, I had to take a lot of her self portrait (she wanted to put on friends’ autographs). Her complaints had me on guard everytime I took pictures of people. Center! Balanced! Focused!


I also started to develop love for photos from hi-definition cameras. At that time, manual SLR. Alisa used a SLR since she was 13. Looking at her developed photos, wow… admiration. I thought “hmmm.. bila lah aku leh amik gambaq cun macam ni aaa”. Then, I came across bunch of photos Jessie took, I was mesmerised, which led to, me chasing her for editorial board… hihiihih… I really admire their photography.


For my sis’ matriculation’s graduation, my dad borrowed his collegue’s SLR since our camera was out of order. I was salivating over it, and immediately took control. Hihihi.. konfiden je lebih… But, not all the pictures turned out ok. Malu jek.. hahahaa…

Jump a few years… while I was doing degree, in midst of completing programming assignments and chasing project dues, I found myslef glued to the computer, creating super-imposed photos. Yaa.. talk about spending too much time on computers! :P I nearly got in trouble because of that. After that, I became more sensitive on editing people, because some people may get hurt if we simply brush off or brush in certain things. On the other hand, that gave me a head-start for photo editing.


Then, digital cameras came in the market, but not many owned it yet. I remember Dindi was among the first one having this gadget so we had some digital photos of degree year… thanks to her camera and also bukh’s desa harapan’s camera :P~ Remembering it now… ahaha.. even most of my convocation photos were taken using film-roll camera… hihihi..


After working for about one year… motivated by Alisa’s , I bought a semi-SLR (Sony-H1).










My very own camera… I was sooo excited. Tak henti-henti klik sana klik sini… Never have I planned to do wedding photos. At first, I was only a tag-along photographer, usually providing company to Alisa, who started doing wedding shots using her manual SLR and semi-SLR.


A few months later, Kak Haira gave me her trust to cover her wedding as the official photographer. With my semi-SLR, I took the challenge. From the feedbacks I’ve got, I started to take more challenges, covering weddings even from people who are not in my networks.
At first, I felt stiff, at times a bit shy. I was more gabra than the groom for nikah ceremony… worried if I might missed the most important shot, the akad itself. After some time, I gained more and more confidence. Although, I tend to have gabra-ness every now and then… i’d be recovering fast.


Editing is more tiring than shooting. It involves time and effort… and that can also mean taking away some of the precious times allocated for other things. Perfecting the skills is a must… therefore, I am still learning… As for photography, my Lighting still needs a lot of practise n learning.


Maintanence is also high. Switching to DSLR-Nikon D60 which I currently shoot with, took months of saving. Since I don’t charge as much as professional photographers, I do not earn that much. So maintanence and upgrading has to take months of saving. Yaa.. like many people say, Photography is an expensive hobby… yeahhh.. IT IS! I can buy a big new fridge for my family at the price of a new lense. Hard labour u see… heheheheehe…






But… why I am taking all these trouble… I should say challenge… Trouble sounds so negative lak.

It’s all in the name of Love and Passion :D:D


I quote my sis “Tu la pakwe dia sejati, bawak ke hulu hilir” refering to my camera… hohohoh..oh ya pakwe lama, Sony masih dihatiku… tak sampai hati nak jual balik.