This is another portrait I did in the series.
It was a spontaneous smile!
I have been very busy lately. But I thank God I still manage to walk the streets about once a week. Taking time to see what others do on the streets make me less self-focused. Human nature is selfish. Life is always about “I”, “Me”, “What I Want”, “What I Need”… we hardly even mention “We” (our loved ones), and much less “He” or “She” who are strangers to us.
For the ones who are close to us, it seems natural to just take them for granted. In the airline I used to work in, the most fussy complaining passengers are the ones getting the most attention. Our loved ones are often like the quiet passengers who appreciate us silently, or even doing things for us without us knowing. (there were those kind passengers I knew who would just walk into my galley to throw a used plastic cup into the trash bin or get a drink from us without pressing the call button when we were so busy…)
Sometimes, the people in our lives are like passengers. They come and go. There are the nasty ones as well as the kind ones. Our loved ones are our faithful passengers (without much of a choice). No one knows when this flight will end. But we are all called to serve. (with cheer)
It is relaxing for me to walk the streets. I do not have to shoot to enjoy myself. Being there, sometimes chatting with strangers is already enough for me. For these are the strangers who make me realize the world is NOT just about ME.
I thank God for them.
I’m having a super busy 2 weeks lately and thus, the lack of updates. Here’s one of the portrait from my “Portraits of Strangers” series…
I wish to know you more.
One of the greatest miracle in life is to have a baby!
I learn the most from my baby. I learn to love my wife even more when she was pregnant. No books on earth can teach you all these. The above are just some selected shots from the 1st roll I shot. More to come in the near future.
My Baby
I have always been viewed as a “Big Kid” among my friends and families. I have my swinging moods, my endless questions, my annoying curiosity, and I talk more than I listen, and worse, I’m always doing the opposite.
In photography, I have gone through being a truly commercialized wedding photographer, shot dozens and dozens of couples in a year till you literally forget their names, faced fierce back-biting from fellow competitors in the industry and being called names. In those days, I have also earned enough to own many expensive equipments, ran 1 gallery and 1 studio at a time, and spent massively in advertising.
But now, I am telling you, “It’s always good to be like a child once again!”
I ask myself so frequently, “Why am I doing what I am doing?”, “Why did I ever pick up photography?” and “Why did I become a wedding photographer?” As for the last question, my answer is “I like to see people happy!”
Being a child again means, we’ve gotta get back to basics. We have to return to our roots. We have to love what we do and do what we love! We must be pure in our intentions. We have to be honest to ourselves and to the ones we love. We ought to be simple. We also have to be darn curious about everything. We ought to be sensitive to everything around us, our own feelings, others’ feelings. Bottom line – We have to be sincere.
Commercialization in weddings takes away it’s original true meaning. As wedding photographers, we should feel honored that we are chosen to document someone’s once-in-a-lifetime event. We should remain faithful to it’s original intention and meaning – documenting it in it’s happiest form! NOT use it to selfishly win recognition through awards to gain personal fame and glory.
Every wedding is already different by itself. We don’t have to try to make it more different. In trying too hard to make things different, we end up showing off more of the photographer’s gimmicks than the couple’s true joy. Now, before some industry award winners start shooting me, I am not saying awards are bad. Winning awards from established wedding photography organizations can motivate us to learn and improve our skills and give us more confidence to come out with more masterpieces. But I am talking about our intentions.
Don’t sacrifice your wedding couples. If all you are looking out for through your viewfinder on a wedding day is award-winning shots, you sure miss many simple but important and necessary document shots. Believe me, an artistically blurred movement shot of the back of a bride for example, won’t be more important than a F8 sharp smiling posed shot of the bride and her dad. Before you know it, dad won’t be around anymore. People die. We all die.
If I only live to win recognition, I’d rather die.
Don’t you just love babies?
First Passport Photo... haha...
Cute Megan
Little Fingers
Little Feet
Baby Crying
Nice Pose
Crying Loudly... ...
My eyes are open now. That's me. "Hey! Who's this man with beard disturbing me?"
Olympus really does produces excellent skin tones! Babies, babies… … We were all once like this!
A very cute boy
Hope this picture cheer you guys up out there in this gloomy world – Michael Jackson died, swine flu, economy down, Malaysia’s political situation, more-and-more-“photographers” charging cheaper, nasi kandar still so expensive, sucky photographers winning awards(subjective), everything getting more expensive(except for digital SLRs), poor getting poorer, more and more babies being thrown away, homeless not fed and dying, children being sold to prostitution daily, etc, etc… never-ending human rights violations. Let’s all not forget life is not just about ourselves.
My self-portrait during one of my project shoots
Busy, busy, busy… … so sorry for the long gap in updating. My thoughts on this whole blogging trend lately can be found here.