Comparing your work from last year’s

Albert Pedrosa
Photo Mania

AFTER a marathon of shooting during the Sinulog festivities, one would wonder if you’d ever get over shooting the same event year after year, facing the same challenges and similar subjects and shooting in the same playing field every time.

If there’s one thing I realized shooting the Sinulog this year, it’s the realization that given the same meat and spices, a chef can make a variant of dishes out from it. While shooting the Sinulog this year, I tried comparing my shots last year and saw a different photographer last year.

It looks like my shot but a bit different. In my photography workshop, part of the places we visit is the park just below Marcelo Fernan Bridge. Every time I go there, I’m always presented with a different sunset – even though having the same elements in the scene, it looks different every time. Imagine this is happening even if you’re not there.

When you get to see the same things over and over again, you either get bored and miss the details, or you get to see things that aren’t there before. The secret behind every successful photographer is experience. The more you shoot the more you gain experience.

You’ll face a variety of people working for you or probably you’re working for as you traverse the journey of photography. All of them will influence you one way or another. However, not all experiences can be converted into expertise. One needs to face the challenges of photography with thirst in their eyes and the desire to produce engaging images in order to gain from them.

We not only grow as a photographer; our artistic taste is also refined, and we become better, or in some cases, worse than before. What I’m trying to say is we can never shoot the same subject with the same result, may it better or worse.

Photographers are like wine aging in an oak barrel, absorbing the elements in its environment through time. And in time, imaginations are realized in photos using your camera as a tool. Like breathing, you don’t think about it, you just react through your reflexes.

Good luck to all photographers who joined the Sinulog Contest. Keep on shooting, everyone!

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