Frozen moments

Dont you miss the feel of real photos? Not printed digital photos, but photos printed from an actual roll of film. I miss looking at those photos and laughing at some of the candid photos, for example my mom’s photos are always of her closing her eyes (due to the flash i think) or a shot at bad timing where everyone wasn’t ready yet.

Remember the glossy finishes and slightly sticky feel? When I was younger, that I was taught to keep the photos properly, not facing each other because the photos may stick to each other and spoil them. When I was at Mel’s house a few years back, I saw that she arranged her photos in a very interesting way called scrapbooking. This is where photos are arranged and decorated with colourful backgrounds, cutouts, stickers and designs. Go to this website to find many scrapbook page ideas.

Now with the popularity of digital photography and Photoshop, we can recreate that on our computer by editing and copy pasting far more intricate designs than before. However the best thing about digital photography is that you can snap an unlimited number of photos, look at them thru the display and delete or I love snapping photos because I find that it’s a way to freeze that moment in time. Taking pictures of life that passes around me is a favourite pastime, especially when I’m bored.

Sometimes I even submit photos to some websites but I’ll usually think twice or three times before submitting. Why? Coz I dont feel that im good enough, with all the photography enthusiasts with their tripods, advanced digital cameras, DSLRs and lenses combined with their eye for detail, angles, lighting and what nots. And here I am with my trusty SE k800i Cybershot with a 3.2 megapixel camera which shoots nice (but not fantastic) photos. So whenever I submit a photo i worry with questions such as – will it get rejected? Will people shoot it down? Isnt it too simple? I dont think it looks as nice as the rest. :(

The photos I take and submit – this also applies to the writings in my blog – are something very personal to me, which is why I dont handle critisism very well. Constructive critism I can take, but there’s a fine line before it turns to be critical rather than constructive. Yes, perhaps someone else has taken a similar picture, perhaps the angles are similar to previous photos, but what I take is *my* interpretion of it, not just a blatant copying. Perhaps its not 100% original, but at least im working on it and submitting what I think is a nice photo. Yes I saw that comment before it was deleted.

However, that doesn’t deter me to keep enjoying taking photos because I feel that photography for me is a way I record my surroundings, a way to freeze a moment in time in our ever changing surroundings. A way that I can capture the feel and essence of that moment so that later, I can look back at a particular photo and millions of memories will come flooding back about how i felt at that time – love, laughter, fun, sadness, friends – and that, for me, is the function of photos.

**This post is brought to you by RitzCamera.com**