Photography And Me!

"A picture worth more than a thousand words!" and "The picture tells you all!" are two famous saying that attracted me into photography. I also find a picture (photograph) is more attractive and illustrative than a long narrative chapter and definitely more interesting to watch. To start with, I treasured news reporting photography, i.e. those photographs which go along side the news reports, and later on, we are so used to TV news reporting that basically we are watching as the news developing (and it's not a static photograph any more).

Then, when I was 14 years of age, I started to learn the basic skills of photography from various teachers and also joined a few competition. In those years, learning photography was a very expensive hobby. The camera, the lens, the ancillary tools, the film, the developing solutions (used inside the dark room) and the photographic papers, etc. As a poor family's child, I could not afford this expensive hobby and needed to take in more part-time jobs and cut some spending. I borrowed the camera and tools from other classmates and consumed mostly the "bulk pack" film and photographic papers (they came in larger quantity and then we re-packed them into smaller unit, the saving is significant). Some of the part-time jobs were related to photography. For example, we worked in weddings and special events, I also worked as "assistant photographer" in some production house, what this meant is to hold "reflective board" the whole day, and if you have tried to hold something up in the air, say as light as 1 kg in weight, for 1 hour non-stop, it is not hard for you to notice that the blood circulation usually stop after a few minutes and when you put your hands down, you would have no feelings of them still belonging to you. Some of the teachers are very good and famous (and humble), some of the teachers had their own special characters. Bits and pieces, I learned different things from them.

Unfortunately, I cannot afford to continue enjoying photography after working. It's a very time consuming hobby and expensive. Thanks to the digital technology, in the last 10 years, I start to pick up and enjoy photography again as now both time and money can be more affordable. The dark room is totally gone and simple photograph fixing can be done by a few easy clicks. There are no need to buy films and photographic papers (as we now use memory cards and we seldom develop photographs). Even one did not take a good picture at the spot, it can still be fixed (though I am still against the idea of re-touching the photographs). There are so many things to learn in this digital age, and therefore we need to keep upgrading ourselves by attending lectures and seminars.

Last evening, I attended the Friday lecture organized by the local photographic club. It discussed the skill of using high ISO, the mix of flash light with stage light and offered some very practical advices in getting the job done. Using this picture above as an example, the camera were set with the highest ISO value (1250), and maximized the white-balance (+2) and the shutter speed was high. Then, even when all the curtains were closed, only a slide projector was on, and when the outdoor light was dim (at 9:00pm), the picture was still filled with natural lights and no flash is required. Keep in mind that now the camera's ISO can go easily to 6400 or even 12800, we can basically take any kind of photographs in any environment. The "noise" after boosting up the ISO is actually not bad as you can see in this photo. 

The latest technology really makes the life more interesting. Especially in photography, the more I learned, the more joy it brings to my life! More, I enjoyed returning and meeting old friends since last Christmas. Thank you guys and thank you for all your prayers, love and care!