Calaidescope World

My Camera is Bigger Than Yours!

You know, I actually wish I could make a living out of "taking Friendster pictures". My friend's boyfriend is a professional photographer in Singapore, and apparently, people there take their Friendster pages seriously. Especially their photographs. I think they use it as a dating service ("Who do you want to meet? Here, take your pick."). Interesting.

I enjoy photography and fancy myself an enthusiast, but I'm not very good at it. I've got my dad's fully manual 1971 (or 1972?) Nikon F2 and it's great. He's had it since before I was born and it survived his stint as a photojournalist during Cory Aquino's presidential campaign and the first EDSA People Power Revolution in 1987. But the light meter's busted. I never really know if my settings are right so I do a lot of guesswork. I'm comfortable with Kodak Max ASA 400 film, but give me something else and I'm screwed! Let me take pictures during the day, especially under bright sunlight. But put me in a dimly lit room or ask me to take pictures at night? Goodbye!

I took a class back in college where we were taught to develop our own black and white film and print pictures. Man, that was tough! But loads of fun. I think I spent more time in the dark room than in my regular classes. I have yet to scan my favorite picture of Alia and post it on my blog. It looks like her face appeared out of nowhere. Beautiful but creepy. I wish I could afford to set up my own dark room.

Right now, I don't exactly feel the need to trade the quality of pictures taken on old school film for digital ones (although I must admit that I am tempted to buy a little digital camera to take around on short trips, nights out and weddings). I'm somewhat jealous of those who have digital SLRs. They can do so much! And if they makes mistakes, they can just delete them. Although...my camera is a good conversation piece. It's great to talk shop sometimes.

On the day before Miggy and Tanya got married in Baguio last January, I had lunch with some friends and their parents at the Baguio Country Club. I shared a table with my best bud Gars, Miggy's dad Tito Godo, and Miggy's brother Diego. Each had an SLR, but Gars' had a Canon Digital Rebel. They're the guys on the left, there. We whipped out our cameras, took pictures of each other, and talked about our "gear". In the words of Tita Merlie, "Palakihan ba ng ano yan?"

I enjoy taking candid photos, and I practice by taking pictures of children and dogs because they move around a lot. They train my eye-hand coordination in "capturing a moment". I'm sure to get loads of practice when my niece arrives. Babies are great subjects. Poor Max. There will be less pictures of him.

I seriously want to improve on how I take pictures with an SLR before I go digital - preferrably with a Nikon D70 (my dream camera). I'm not my father's daughter for nothing. I want people to say I royally earned the right to his F2. I'd also like to learn to do portraits. One day, I hope to cover events. I know I can do a better job if I had more practice...and a working light meter!

posted by Calai @ 10:56 AM