Choose your camera

Every event is great and the only way to capture them and relive them is by registering them in your memory. Unfortunately, all things cannot be registered in the memory. Or, maybe the brain is capable of registering everything but you cannot retrieve it when you want.....in other word you forget.

Then came the technology to help you to remember these great moments. Photographs ! Yes, photographs helps you to remember back that great moment. A simple glance at the photo and your entire life brightens up. Your memory travels back to that moment and you re-live that moment again.

That is the greatness of a photo and all these can happen because there is a device called camera. You want to choose a good camera, you can refer to the great cameraman for their advise, but usually they don't have time to advise you. That leaves you with the next best method - check the kind of camera these professional cameraman use.

Attached herewith is a photo of great cameramen. Currently they are on a critical assignment, They have no time to talk to you but you can see the types of cameras they are using. You can see the type of lens they have and also the colour of the cameras; seldom see white colours on big cameras.

* Note how they use big zooms to take a picture of person standing so near to them.

Please choose your camera.


you can visit the below mentioned site to read about a photographer who is covering the Beijing 2008 Swimming event. Quite interesting.

http://www.freep.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20080817/BLOG26/80817011/1236

Red, green, yellow and white - my garden

One recent Sunday, I woke up quite early (7am), since I was up early, my wife asked me to send my daughter to her extra class at 8am. (Lesson learnt - do not wake up early on Sunday morning).

After dropping my daughter in her class, I was at home wondering what to do. I saw my camera bag and decided to do some house-keeping like charging the batteries, downloading the pictures, clearing up the memory card and so on. Suddenly it crossed my mind on why not shoot some pictures of the flowers and greenery around my house. There goes the "house-keeping" idea and started a new mess in the house. All the items inside my camera bag were out and scattered around the living hall.

Apart from the mess inside the house, things outside my house started to get messy. You know, we have to believe that we are "professional" photographers in order to get good pictures. This requires changing of the flower pot locations, the direction of the flowers, putting some boxes to raise the height of the plants, chairs to give the so called professional photographer some height to get super pictures and so on. Please remember, my wife was not around the house when this was happening.

The photography fiesta started and my God, it was really great. I really enjoyed the session and admired the greatness of my camera (note this point: admired the camera, not the so called professional photographer).

Although I tried some manual changes in the settings, I still liked the auto mode. I was happy with the pictures and felt good. Like what I said in my earlier writing, the "feel good" that I get from this camera is the return of my investment.

When I looked at the pictures, I noticed that I have a very distinguished colour compilation, and this represents my garden.

Red, green, yellow and white - my garden.

Subra

The pictures can be viewed at

http://www.flickr.com/photos/28612905@N03/

Interest, Investment and Result

The title may be confusing. Before we let the imagination go wild, let me narrow it a little. The topic is about my interest in photography, the investment I put in and what is the result I am suppose to get.

Simple enough.

Again, don't let you imagination off the hook. When I say that I have a lot of interest in photography and I invested in it, it actually means, that I like seeing nice photos, admire the kind of technologies it uses in today's world to produce such a result; that is the "interest" part. On the "investment" part, I have a Nikon DSLR D40X with 18-55 and 55-200mm lenses with SB400 flash. Total investment is around around RM3,500 (USD1,100), nothing great. So, by now you should know where I stand as a person with interest in photography and the affordability to invest.

Photography in the "Digital" world is totally different. You really don't have to worry about how the shot will come out. You get to see the result immediately. You make necessary changes on the setting according to the result. Not like the times when we use films; you have to set using your indepth knowledge and vast experiences from the past results. Also, the process of making small notes (regarding the settings used) at the back of the photographs are gone.

DSLR comes with all information at the click of a button. Even when you upload to a shared website like Picasa or Flickr, all the information about the picture settings are loaded together.

OK. Now, we understand what is interest and investment. Let's see how we should read the "result".

In business world, we term the word "result" as "ROI" - return of investment. Another word that relates to ROI is the "pay back" period. Let's see whether these 2 words can be related to the "photography".

Put it in a direct translation, I must sell the pictures I take using the camera in order to make my investment make a return. The profit I get from the sales, I can derive the payback period and classify the investment as profitable or loss.

In reality, since I am not a professional photographer, I can't really make money out of it. There could be 1 or 2 shots which can claim a million dollar but let's not dream. Therefore how can my interest and investment give me a return?

A person is productive and effective when he is either "dedicated" or "pleased". Let's omit the "dedication" part in this topic. "Pleased" is a very interesting part. A man (I mean man and woman) can be pleased in many ways (don't get into wrong aspects). When a man's mind is at ease (also carries the meaning "pleased"), he moves a mountain, stops a river and touches the sky.

Hope you are getting what I am trying to tell.

Look at the 2 pictures I have attached here.

It is a picture of Butterworth Amman Temple's Silver Chariot. The pictures were taken during the local festival. One is taken with the flash fired and the other without the flash. Both taken at almost the same moment.

I liked the pictures and I do admire them.....not for my ability to take pictures but to the technology that made this possible. Due to my interest and my willingness to invest, I got these pictures and seeing them makes me feel good. And when I feel good, I do really achieve something, which indrectly benefits me (monetary and emotionally - tangible and intangible).

Relate this to all your interests and investments. Everything will bring a result and that result is from yourself. The interest and investments acts as catalyst to enhance a bigger firework.

Make sure all your interest and investment brings results.