I remember the time when I just first stepped into the world of photography, where everything was new, tempting and exciting. From the gear point of perspective, there were so many lenses to lust for, that ultra wide angle, that super long gigantic lens, or that macro lens, all seem like they can make my life so much better. Then there were endless list of shooting techniques to explore: HDR photography, long shutter speed exposure, etc and of course. being overly adventurous when it comes to post-processing, spending heaps of time trying to make the photograph look better by sliding the adjustment bars here and there and clicking a few more magic buttons to add that "creative" effect. The burning sensation, and the stamina to go on and on were abundant. However, as I went along the journey, little by little, the processes that used to entice me got stripped away. After countless hours of shooting session, only I came to realize photography is a lot more about seeing, conveying my personal vision and inner voice, and imprinting parts and pieces of my own characteristics and personality into my pictures.
Gone were the days of "I wish I had that lens", or exploring funky techniques, or copy some unorthodox shooting methods done by popular photographers. Now, when I am out there shooting, I am happy with an obsolete Sony A350 (the camera is.... 6 years old?), and just one or two of the cheapest prime lenses in the Sony lens line-up: 35mm F1.8 or 50mm F1.8, and I never wished for anything more. Instead of trying to process my images to make them "pop", now I am more inclined to just convert my files to black and white, and actually I found myself loving black and white more often than I originally thought I would. Everything has been simplified, and the main focus was shifted heavily on finding my subject, creating a vision and making that happen in photographs. I still find myself struggling in this area: translating my visual thoughts into physical images (well... I consider pixels as physical quantifiable entities), but I have noticed my lack of strength in this area, and I am pushing myself to see better, and really shoot more than just technically accurate photograph. I believe photography is a lot more than just properly focused, accurately exposed images.
All images in this entry were taken with Sony Alpha A350 and 50mm F1.8 or 35mm F1.8 lens
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