The camera itself is an art..

Last weekend I met this group of unique people at Helmi’s wedding. One thing that impressed me the most was the passion that they showed through their lenses. Not only that, they also were willing to share what they know with me. (Believe me, not everyone is capable to share his deepest interest with a person without knowing that person’s name)

The most important thing that I had learned was about white balance; about how to achieve the correct white balance and so on. Like before this, I just read the manual and learned about its setting through tutorial online. Nevertheless, I have never really understood the true meaning of white balance and its importance. Personally, I used to think “so what if I don’t get the correct white balance, I could always use Auto function and change the white balance using any software later”. Yet, I was wrong. The product of your picture should be equal to what you see at that particular moment unless you desire for different effect. At first I was lazy to really play around with the white balance (blame the Auto Function), however the result of getting the correct WB thrilled me like a lot! From now on, I need to be less lazy.

One more thing about photography that I never realize is that photographers are actually artists. The camera is the brush and the picture is the canvas. Photographers draw their arts using their cameras and lenses. I guess the reason why I was failed to understand this concept was because everyone could be a photographer but not everyone could be an artist. (Although a photographer is also an artist, and yeah this is quite complex to understand, so just ignore the last sentence if you failed to get what my message is..)

What is the satisfaction that I get through photography? I keep asking myself that same question over and over again. I’ve seen people satisfy by capturing good pictures, making money through photography, and producing artworks that show special effects. Wanted to know the answer, I went online and browsing some of my old collections on Facebook and on this blog. I got my moment when I was looking through series of places that I have been to. The first reason why I bought Rebel XT was because I wanted to capture my moments of travelling and that was 2 years ago. I’d lost that reason of satisfaction along the way but hey.. at least I’ve found it back aite?

One stereotype that the society has is once you have a DSLR, you can always be a freelancer. Ummm.. Yes I agree, it’s good money to make. However, if you don’t have high self-discipline, please do me a favor, just quit doing freelance. You’re not helping the industry to move forward but slowly kill it from inside.

At the same time, I want to grab this opportunity to dare all photographers who read this post to make a difference. Be unique and versatile. Dare to think outside of the box. Dare to be different. It kills me to read some photoblogs written by different authors but they share the same concept and theme. Photographers should be united in one melting pot instead of everyone turns into copy-cat.

Finally, to this group of unique people (you know who you are.. hehe), thanks so much cause not only you guys teach me the theory of photography, but you guys also inspire me to look at the photography from different perspectives.