Tuesday, February 21, 2012

About me

When I was about 5 years old, I handled my first camera which of course did not belong to me. In fact it belonged to my granddad who was staying with us with my grandma in Saudi when my sister was born. According to my grandma we went down to the park and I took my first picture of her and my granddad sitting on a bench; apparently the photo came out really well but I've never actually seen it. I think from then on I was given a disposable camera, that was available in every supermarket and most shops, to take photos when we were on family holidays. Once that roll of film was used up I immediately wanted those photos to be developed. I was an eager beaver; I wanted to see what how good my photos had turned out, although I have a feeling that those photos were never that good.

For my 16th birthday I got my Panasonic Lumix G1 and every holiday I've had with my family I've taken photos. Some days I was taking 100-200 photos but on one particular day I had taken 500 photos! I suppose you can say that I'm pretty much a happy snapper. With any event I photograph I take about 200 photos minimum; of course a majority of the photos are duplicates or they are rubbished and I discard them.

Since starting at my current school nearly 4 years ago I've taken the job of photographing house dinners, boarding events and school events. Most of the photos go onto Facebook so that those who had taken part have photos of themselves as a memory but some of my photos have made it into the school's Edmundian which is like the English version of an American highschool yearbook. Whenever I get back to my room or an outing I have to go straight to my laptop, import the photos and go through them. As I've mentioned before I'm not a fan of editing photos as the skill is in the capturing and use of what's available at the time but sometimes it is necessary to do a little bit of editing. I usually have this done within a couple of hours of sitting down and I won't stop until it is finished. I'm constantly going back and editing the photos as there is always room for improvement.

Some may saythat photography is a hobby and that anyone can be a 'photographer' if they've got an expensive camera which I know a lot of teenages have; although I am an adult now and nearly have been for a month! What I like about taking photos is that it is evidence that you are able to capture a particular moment in time; a moment when someone is in mid-laugh and genuinely happy or a way to create a visual memory of a day out that you thought was absolutely brilliant. Its a snapshot of time which can lasts for many, many years. I personally have a terrible memory therefore need something to jog my mind and with photos of my summer holidays I am able to see a photo, smile and then go back to that day and remember what had happened and why I enjoyed it.

I've always wanted to develop my own photos in a dark room. I've seen dark rooms on the TV from various shows. Being able to slowly see the photos revealing themselves on the glossy photo paper before your eyes is what I want to be able to experience. Nowadays you have machines and computers that'll do all that for you; people can even print their own photos at home. Now where is the fun in waiting for your photos to be developed? It seems to be out of fashion in this day and age to tak photos with cameras that require film, such a shame.

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