Oddly enough, photography isn't one of those things that I consciously decided to pick up overnight; rather, it was something that grew upon me, slowly, steadily. My first digital camera, a Canon Powershot A5 (an old 0.8 megapixel dumpster), saw me going around snapping random pictures of friends and family--and through that shutter-happy snapping, I realised how much of people I'd frozen in the pictures I'd taken, how much the pictures spoke of the people in them.
That, was my first brush with the power of photography to speak to people.
I got started after that on a fireworks shoot, as I staked out for four hours on the Benjamin Sheares Bridge for the single longest, most expensive fireworks show in Singapore to date--the grand opening of The Esplanade--as the fireworks went on for some twenty-five minutes unabated, with all the hues of purple and gold and orange and red, as I fired off some 2 rolls of film on my primitive point-and-shoot, counting to 6 seconds on bulb mode, and then fired off another 100+ pictures on my Powershot A5, I fell in love with the explosive fireworks, and those ephemeral but stunning moments of beauty, and with the art (craft, and sciecne, too) of capturing the beauty.
My father bought me a Canon Powershot A40 after that, with limited manual control, and that got me started on some serious photography--I'd spend weekends (and weekdays too) going about, recording the places all around me--around my neighbourhood, around the civic centre of Singapore, around town, snapping everything from tall shimmering skyscrapers to glowing colourful sunsets.
My first film SLR came next in late 2003--the rudimentary Canon EOS 66--and I had quite some fun going about--I went on walking photographic with even more gutso, snapping even more.
I've been dabbling about in photography since then, doing everything from street candids (though I've stopped because I find I lack the spirit to stomach unfriendly, sometimes even hostile, approaches by strangers) to event photography, landscapes to cityscapes.
I have picked up some darkroom techniques too, albeit without a darkroom--developing traditional black and white emulsions in daylight-loading tanks--Kodak's Tri-X is my main medium, and I've worked mainly with the HC-110 generic developer. Black and white is quite a different ballgame altogether, the clarity of expression a lot more stark and in-your-face than colour photographs, and I enjoy black and white photography a great deal too.
And then, of course, there's the whole digital revolution too--I picked up a used digital SLR at the end of 2003, and I've been shooting with both film and digital ever since.
Over the months, I guess I've become saddled by too many expectations in my creative process--so much so that the creative process in my brain seems to have fizzled out--every picture that I take seems dull, flawed, uninteresting. But I still head out there and try to make pictures, though the whole buzz and fizz about it has just, dissipated. I'm still trying, and hoping, for the love of the craft to come back again--after all, as they say, it's only when you feel your pictures are lousy, that you're ready to make better ones.
Yet, photography is a lot about fate too--all the elements have to be just right--and every beautifully made picture, is a serendipity in itself.
Perhaps, it is through my photography, that I am vicariously seeking this serendipity in my life. Perhaps.
What's photography without engaging in some gear fetish? ;) Here's what I work with:
· Canon Powershot A75
· Canon EOS D60
· Canon EOS 20D
· Canon EOS 66 (in Singapore)
· Canon EOS 5/A2E
· Sigma 20mm/f1.8 EX DG RF
· Canon EF17-40mm/f4L USM
· Canon EF50mm/f1.8 II (in Singapore)
· Canon EF85mm/f1.8 USM
· Canon EF75-300mm/f4-5.6 III (in Singapore)
· Sigma 70-300mm/f4-5.6 APO Macro Super II
· Canon Speedlite 380EX
· Vivitar 285HV
· Manfrotto 190DB
· Manfrotto 486RC2
· Velbon DF-40
· Sigma 15-30mm/f3.5-4.5 EX DG RF (Sold)
· Tokina ATX-PRO 287 SV 28-70mm/f2.8 (Sold)