Slow starter
Albert Pedrosa
Photo mania
I NORMALLY consume around four terabytes of storage per year. Until now, there’s still no permanent solution on how we can safely keep our digital image. DVD is an option but it takes a lot of time to burn a disc and there’s always the possibility of the photos getting damaged. As I was transferring my old files to the slower drive, I get to have a run down of all the images that I took the previous year.
It brings you back to that moment and you start to remember the feeling and the mood in the set. What’s surprising is you get to see some shots that didn’t catch your attention at that time. That’s the reason I never delete unselected files. I enjoy looking at the frame by frame development of the shot.
You get to learn a lot from your old photos, and sometimes, this is where you can get the inspiration and drive you need when everything is not falling into place. I’m a slow learner and not many believe me when I talk about it in my workshops. I’ve seen many super talented photographers and some of them are my students.
These photographers have the gift of having an eye for beauty. It’s effortless for them to see the interesting angles and they compose the shots with ease. The results are almost always a winning shot. In my case, I started shooting in my high school years. I have to admit that it was never the art that interests me about photography. It’s the science behind it that caught my attention.
The idea of making magic in the darkroom was just awesome back then. It was fascinating to work with chemicals and making photographs out of light sensitive papers. It was never art. In college, since I wanted to be part of a group, I joined the school publication, and since I don’t write a lot, it was photography that got me in.
Maybe there was a spark of interest in art with the help of my mentor Richard Francisco at the publication, but I don’t think it was an awakening. After a decade of working with graphic arts, exposing myself to different forms of media art, it was only then that I decided I want to go back and pick up the pieces of my interest in photography.
It’s a long journey only to find myself back to where I started. The technical aspect of my work and the art that comes with it filled my imagination as I started back again in photography sometime 2009. I did a lot of shooting. I was hungry for it and I didn’t waste any opportunity for me to take photos.
Every time I make a mistake, I’d go back shooting again and learn as much as I can. I was so engrossed with photography that it was only later I realized I’ve made quite some progress. Whether it’s a paid shoot of just a portfolio shoot, I always prepare for it. I don’t just show myself in the set and expect a good result. I don’t bring my hopes in my project, I prepare for it.
It may look like long hard work getting to where I am, but the truth is, I never felt working in all those years. I like what I was doing and the appreciation of what you do paints your environment with nothing but inspiration. Learning how to take photos can be really quick, but making sense of it runs deeper. Keep on shooting, everyone!
photomania.sunstar@gmail.com
www.grp.ph
