Sunny 17ºC
In my conversations with friends, many are closet photography lovers, when our conversation veer towards my love of photography and current photography project...many will say, oh I love taking photos too, would love make it a hobby too but just don't have the time.
It is true, I have no time either but when opportunity rose for me to take it on, I took it without question...and the rewards I have received are enormous. My journey began unknowingly (and probably the way many people picked it up) when my son was born...as with all parents with newborns they go click crazy and take photo album upon photo album full of photos of their new addition...sharing them with relatives and friends regardless whether they wanted to see them, at that time I was using a point and shoot.
Opportunity rose many years later when my two children were more or less not willing participants in front of my camera anymore, I was lucky enough to be given a hand me down SLR camera, that was in 2010. After exploring the world wide web and discovering Flickr and other sites that offer amateur or just people that love taking photos a chance to connect with other like minded people to learn from each other.
My photo taking journey took a turn in 2011 when I decided to take on the challenge of Project 365, a photo taken every day of the year...no theme, no requirements (you can even use an iPhone as one Flickr contact has chose to tackle this project with), anyone can participate. A quarter of the way through I was contacted by a company in France that wanted to purchase a photo I had taken on day three of the project for a cover of a reprint of a botany book...the result is below...
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| Original image requested for book cover |
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| The books I received as a momento |
Things I learned during that year are priceless, taking my photo taking to other levels that I never thought possible...the thing that I learnt and appreciate the most during that year is natural light, what the sensor sees that our eyes don't are amazing...from then on my onboard flash rarely ever got used.
I took a break after 2011, in 2012 I was on take a photo when I wanted to mode, which I kind of enjoyed but did nothing for my creativity, my inspiration and motivation went to an all time low...so this year I embarked on my second 365, crazy as that is, it was something I needed to do. So far this year my new discovery is low light which is exactly the total opposite of what I loved during 2011...shows that new things can always pop up and there are plenty more things I still discovering and learning with photo taking.
This year I also began submitting my photos into the Australian Photography website, they have monthly themed competitions...so far I haven't done too bad, my submissions in three consecutive months have all been shortlisted in each month, out of five hundred or so submissions, so I'm stoked.
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| Shortlisted submission in April 2013 theme: Eyes |
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| Shortlisted submission in May 2013 theme - Lowlight |
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| Shortlisted submission in June 2013 theme - Still Life |
I think my photo taking hobby will stay with me for many more years to come, when everything else is not by my side anymore I will still have this love, no matter where I am. If you are considering this as a hobby and don't have time, I say go for it, make the time...it is an amazing experience.
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