Back in the days of film photography, I had a Nikon F2 camera which did not receive much attention from me due to my never-ending workloads. I couldn’t really make out how to work the SLR properly and only managed to shoot off a few rolls of film with it during my brief holidays. Unfortunately, it sits in a cardboard box somewhere in Kuala Lumpur gathering dust and exotic fungi. Perhaps I shall pull it out of retirement when I am visiting the store. A Samsung film P&S camera joined the ranks much later but it broke down very soon and my interest soon waned. But the main reason of the lack of interest during the times of film photography was the lack of guidance and experienced photographers who were willing to coach newcomers or newbies like we are called.
The era of digital photography does offer many advantages because the cost of capturing an image on a digital camera is now very low and photography becomes very accessible. Any photographer worth his/ her salt would also have to learn to edit their own images themselves and that added another critical element to the learning curve. The Internet is also a treasure throve in information and knowledge and allows one to reach out to a bigger library and audience.
I am primarily a self-taught photographer with the blessed benefits to be able to lean heavily from the experiences of seasoned photographers such as Laurin Rinder, whose client list includes the Ford Modeling Agency and David P. Smith, a well-known food photographer and many others.
Laurin and Dave also teach photography, write and publish books related to this field. Laurin is also a painter. Meanwhile, Dave is an excellent chef and constantly gets me into troubles with my dietary gremlins when he starts showing images of his Barbeque Ribs and Apple Pie Ala Mode.
Used with Permission by David P. Smith, All Rights Reserved
I would encourage anyone who is interested in learning and improving their photography skills to visit their website for further information. Their link is as follows:- Rinder-Smith Photography
Used with Permission by David P. Smith, All Rights Reserved
Used with Permission by Laurin Rinder, All Rights Reserved
My interest in photography picked up again when I needed to document flora and fauna specimens as part of my work and soon found out very fast that a 4MP Kodak compact camera could hardly deliver the quality I wanted. An upgrade to a Sony dSLR soon followed and found out almost immediately that I hardly knew anything about photography. I must confessed that I soon developed an inferior complex very fast *ROFL* when I was around “photographers” who had better cameras and bigger lens than I do.
Fortunately, I had discovered MicroStock (MS) after FlickR and decided that I should jump into the deep end of the pond and mingle with professional photographers. Much to their credit and my amazement, many of these talented photographers were more than willing to help, share, support and provide critique where necessary. Many of these commercial photographers also have their own studios and were kind enough to let us peek into their work spaces.
Meanwhile, it has been gratifying to note that increasing numbers of my images have found approval with commercial buyers and advertisers. It had been a steep learning curve (but interesting) with the professional agency houses as they demand very high standards from their pool of photographers. Currently, I have focused mainly on product shoots but with proper studio equipment targeted for delivery within the next weeks to come, I am delighted with this development. It simply means that I can now take on commercial stock work.
As an introduction post in my photography blog, it also serves as a forefront mention of gratitude to my mentors and also expresses my intentions to progress further into the field of commercial photography. A BIG Note of Thanks is extended to this amazing wonderful group of photographers. Cheers and Long Life!
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