Great Expectations

I know I may have over-reacted a little in my previous entry on “his photography skills sucks”. I did mean what I have said, but in reality it was a lot less harsh.

The stark truth is, I have received quite a handful of positive remarks about my work being displayed here, both on blog, and off-blog (in person). I only have you beautiful readers out there to thank for such undeservingly encouraging and flattering feedbacks. Do take note that I have not brushed aside any of your generous comments. There are times when I come home from a terribly bad day, and reading one of such thoughtful and brilliant responses just somehow killed of the headaches and traumas. You can say that it made my day. It made me feel that of all the things I have done wrong, at least I managed to get something right.

A little encouraging word can go a long way. I really can’t thank you guys enough for staying with me all this time. I guess I ought to show more appreciation to my fellow readers/friends from time to time. I must remind myself that you guys are real, and you guys make my blog real.

On a separate note, recent chain of events has mysteriously uncovered my memories of past experiences. I did not recall those memories on purpose; they just dug their way to the surface. And I shall share one of those encounters in this entry.

A friend (this one is not useless, fortunately) came along with his newly purchased bridge camera and asked me several questions about photo-taking. He showed me this picture he has stumbled upon while internet-surfing.

Friend: Eh eh, see this picture, it is so sharp, so clear, the colour is so vivid. And the blur background (bokeh) looks awesome. How can I do that with my camera?

Photo note: No this photo above is not the photo my friend was talking about. It was so long ago I could not trace where that picture was. This was just some random shots I have captured recently.

The moment I saw that picture I instantly suspected that it must have been taken with a DSLR. Now the question was, which one. An easy way to find that out was to check the EXIF data, and sure enough, I was able to gather a few metadata on the camera and lens used. It was a Canon 5D Mark 1. The aperture value adopted was f1.2 but I could not recall the focal length used. The pricing for a Canon 5D Mark 1 that time (2 years or so ago) was RM12,000 and the lens itself (I suspect 50mm F1.2 L) costed no less than RM5,000. I highlighted those information to my friend, and this was his response:

Friend: But it was the skill that matters right, not the camera? My camera is also very good one wor.

Sometimes it is really hard to hold up a conversation without stabbing someone in the eye.

Yes, I believe in stretching the abilities of the camera to the maximum, but there is a clear and definitive limit to what a compact camera can do. I also believe that the skills matter more than the equipments used, but you cannot honestly tell me that you can do what you can on a RM17,000 equipment with your RM1,400 compact camera. The comparison was a tad far-fetched, as if racing a Ferrari with a cute Kancil !!

Ultimately, I believe in doing what you can, with what you have. There is no harm in looking up pictures all over the web and plagiarise them for inspirations and to learn some techniques, especially in lighting and composition. Seeing the works of greater artists can really open up the mind to creativity and art. However, expecting yourself to be on par with such limited equipment and obviously, restricted knowledge and experience would be unrealistic.

Weekend is almost here. I should really do something else besides macro this time. But I just could not let go of the lens just yet !!