I Am a Photographer

The infamous Jason Lioh wrote an article on me in the Star paper yesterday, talking on street photography.

It was my first appearance on a national paper, and I was really excited about it. It was really awkward reading about myself on the paper, but at the same time there was that warm and tingling sensation of finally feeling a little more worthy to present myself out there in the open, and ready for the world to see who I am and what I do, in photography.

Look Ma, its me on paper !!

Unexpected Encounter

As I was shooting merrily down the streets of Chow Kit, my favourite street hunting ground, someone called out to me from inside his car. He said "Hi, you are from Kuching right?" I immediately replied yes, but still puzzled, I moved closer to the car, being careful because snatch theft and robbery are common crimes in such dangerous districts of Kuala Lumpur.

The next question I received from the stranger was "Were you a Thomian?"

And then it hit me, this must be my fellow ex-schoolmate from my hometown Kuching. It turned out that this dude, Mohd Rashdan was my junior by one year in secondary school, SMB St Thomas, and we were both in the prefectorial board when we were in Form 1 and Form 2. It was amazing that he could still recognize me after all these while since we were not exactly swimming in the same circles. I could barely remember him after more than ten years since I left school in 2001. I think I must have a face that is really, really easy to remember. That, or I could have had a reputation that lasted me this long, and lets hope it was not a bad one.

I do admire his balls for coming up to me and dared to asked if I was the person he thought he knew. We were both surprised, and I was even more surprised to find out that he had just married !! He seems to be doing really great with life, having his own business that gets him to travel around the world, and I looked at myself and wonder, gosh, why am I still stuck here in a place where I don't seem to be going anywhere?

Before we part ways, I managed to grab a quick shot of Rashdan. It was not perfectly executed, I could not find a plain, clean background, and the lighting was a mid-day sun, and I shot him with my 40-150mm zoomed in, standing from a far distance. Yet again, I wish I have put in more effort, and time to make the portrait photograph work. I seriously MUST work on this area.

Mohd Rashdan. So nice to see you again after 10 years !!

It was a brief encounter, but a very pleasant one that left a smile on my face as I continued walking the street that afternoon. Past memories are starting to haunt me, is this a good, or bad sign?

Shutter Therapy Resumes

It has been rough couple of weeks for me, and busy times only meant lack of shutter therapy sessions. Having some time to breathe again is really something I appreciate so much these days, and the first thing I did was to grab the camera and attack the streets. I felt really guilty not spending enough time out there making photographs happen. The guilt resulted in today's spontaneous street shooting session, yet again at Chow Kit. Man, I think this is probably a single blog/website in the world that has mentioned Chow Kit so many freaking times.

My 50mm F2 Macro, a staple lens for my usual street shooting use is still away from me, and not having the lens really did cripple me to a certain extent. Nevertheless, this allowed me to use back my older lenses such as the 40-150mm F3.5-4.5, a superbly brilliant budget tele-zoom lens which sadly has been discontinued by Olympus. This lens still remains my favourite, the signs of over usage on my copy are obvious.

A Weathered and Torn Nation.

On CUBE, NTV7

Much thanks to dear friend Cyril Dason who referred me to Grace Ng, the Host and Assitant Producer of CUBE, an English Talk Show on channel NTV7 focusing on youth, I have just got myself a chance to appear on the show !! The recording session was done earlier this evening, and I was accompanied by two other Sarawakians, Silas and Priscilla. In this particular session the main topic centers on issues of youth from Sarawak, and what we can do to assist in the current development of the new generation youth to earn higher income, and achieve better living status. The discussion branched out a lot further than just that, and I shall not bore you guys with too much details in this entry.

Me with Grace Ng (Host and Assistant Producer of CUBE on NTV7) and Adrian Jalaludin (Co-Host of CUBE).

Before heading off, I managed to grab a few photos. None the the photographs turned out like how I wanted them to be. My mind was not exactly in focus and I was overly exhausted from a long week of heavy work and lack of sleep. I used a single bounce flash off the ceiling. Not my best people shot, I should have put in more effort and energy in making better people shots next time.

This episode of Cube with me appearing for a brief session will be aired on 7th April, 8.00pm.

Silas (lead singer from Evenstarr), Adrian, Grace, Priscilla and Me

It was my first time being recorded for a TV show, and boy was I nervous !! It was indeed a great experience, and both Grace Ng and Adrian Jalaludin were great hosts for the evening. It was fun and exciting, encouraging open discussion, and this was a place where our voices will be heard, nationwide. I truly appreciate this opportunity.

Thanks to both Grace and Adrian for having us on the show.

Sarawakians, lets fight for our future !!