Photography

I've always been interested in photography and at one stage seriously contemplated of doing it as a profession but again got talked out of it. Definitely a wrong move.
The first thing I did when I went to uni was to get involved in a photography club and there was a dark room in my hall and I learnt a lot from the guys I met there. I was fortunate to meet with a student (forgot his name) who was a freelance press photographer and learnt a lot of darkroom technique and the use of a camera. Whatever he taught is definitely applicable is applicable today even with Photoshop. Nowadays with a DSLR, you can simply point and shoot and then look at your photo and then make changes but in the past, we really had to plan every single shot by looking at the lighting, composition and even the type of film as every mistake we made means money. I feel that those photographer who played with film definitely benefited more than those who just did digital, at least in the planning part.

The first thing I did when I came over to Perth was to look for a camera club to join. Found Perth Camera Club and it was useful for me to get a footing. They are not really a club in the usual sense in that it is a commercial thing and they specialise in portraits, which is not something that I have a lot of exposure to. I found it pretty good as they do organise model shoots with proper studio set ups and outdoor shoots on a frequent basis although you do have to pay for it. The studio they have is one of the biggest one I've seen so far and it's big enough to actually drive a car in if you want to do a car shoot.

While I was trying to shoot the setting sun over Perth one evening, I met Frank and he introduced me to Workshop Camera Club, which is one of the best thing that could happen. It is a proper club whereby people meet every Wednesday evening to talk about photography and they hold competition evey month with a profesional judge and have workshops almost every week.

I was very happy a few months back when the first photograph I submitted for the club's competition was adwarded a merit. It is a photograph I took when I went to Beijing and I was looking for something that reflected an older scene .

It's definitely good fun and the best thing about it is that the people who meet are not just the professionals but serious amateurs of all levels. The workshops are very good too as they invite professionals in to give talks and like this evening we had Shannon Conway who is an amazing underwater photographer give a talk on the equipment he uses and the technique he employs when doing a shoot. It was fantastic as I learnt a lot and now I understand why my underwater shots look like crap.