"A camera is a tool for learning how to see without a camera" - Dorothea Lange
One of the reasons why I picked up photography when I was younger is because I simply liked to look at pretty things. I liked pretty pictures, pretty people, and even the camera I first bought was pretty; it was a very well preserved Pentax K1000 I got from eBay, off somebody who won an auction for an abandoned storage unit.
I didn't know anything about photography then. It was solely an experiment in good fun, and I made a lot of mistakes along the way as I was trying to figure out what made those pretty shots I saw so special. All I knew was in order to make prettier shots, I just have to keep shooting, and I did that everyday.
Even though I was just fooling around and taking snapshots of my friends as we hung out, I enjoyed every moment of it. And as I learned more and dove deeper into learning about "drawing" with light, I eventually fell in love with it, not ever knowing why I actually love it so much.
Years down the road, as I grew older, I found myself getting caught up in other priorities, as I'm sure everybody does. For me, it's mostly about job responsibilities and trying to earn the next buck in order to survive. Then, without even realising, I simply left photography behind.
I like to imagine that I'm innately creative, and over time, I found myself always itching to create but never actually got the motivation to, mostly due to excuses like working too much, being too tired or needing time for myself. Eventually, I just never got around to reliving my passion for photography for a couple of years.
Until an eventful day, where I found myself picking up the camera again while heading out for groceries. It wasn't even so much of a conscious decision but rather a old habit, triggered as I spotted it at the corner of my eye while I was heading out the door. As I slung the good old apparatus around my neck and stepped out the door, I wasn't really expecting much to come out of that; just another day, filled with work and a cloud of fatigue over me.
I went about my route, intending to take the train to the grocer's, then cursing myself as I was at the gates, realising that I've forgotten to bring my train pass out. Probably a blessing in disguise, but I did not knew it as such, as I grumbled and settled to walk instead.
In my frustration, I had almost forgotten all about the camera around my neck, until it kept bouncing off my gut as I walked, as though it was nudging me for attention. I looked down, picked up the camera, and got busy with trying to remember the various settings I used to toy with. There wasn't anything much to do for the next hour anyways.
After fiddling around for a while, I set it back down and for once, in what seemed like a lifetime ago, started looking up at what's in front of me. It was at that moment, I felt somewhat of a clarity, while admiring how the sunlight can streaked across the streets, the reflections bouncing off the windows of buildings, and the shadows of people twisting around me. Needless to say, I picked up my camera and started shooting away, completely forgetting the initial task I've set out to do.
As I spent the next hour roaming the streets, hunting for beauty, I reflected upon myself on how that moment made me feel and allowed me to see everything in a different light. I had totally forgotten how tired I felt, but instead got even more excited with each press of the shutter.
Eventually I did get my groceries, as a man's still got to eat, but what I felt as I was snapping along the way was something I will never want to forget. With that, I committed to myself, to bring my camera around, to step out of the house or office, at least one hour a day, just to walk around, keeping my head up and look for light, wherever that may be. And if I do need to travel from one place to another, instead of driving, I've made it a habit to commute, just to be able to find more sources of inspiration, more beauty in the world I'm living in.
There shouldn't be a reason not to, really. Even if you do not own a full bodied camera, smart phones have amazing cameras nowadays. And if you do own a dedicated camera, quality of life accessories such as LENSCAPT, makes it easier for you to take a picture whenever you want to.
All you need to do is just look up.
Get LENSCAPT here: https://lenscapt.com
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