a boy and a camera

all pictures by me

visit: areed.deviantart.com

When I was a little boy, I always wanted a camera. I wanted my ‘own’ camera. One day, I told my ayah about my desire to own a camera. He then told me that we are so poor so that we can’t afford to have camera. But I asked him back, “why we need two televisions then, if we are so poor?” but his answers then never satisfied me.

That was it. At that moment, I am disappointed. But, what can I do to change my ayah principle? Nothing much and till now, it never happened and never seems to happen. I have to come to a stage that I almost forget about the passion that I had in photography.

On one sunny day while walking in the park looking at people taking wedding pictures, I remember, as a little boy I always admire to look at advertising and fashion strips in magazines. But I always realized it’s not the model or the fashion that I admire. It’s the work behind all of it. Fashion’s photography is the answer. It is my passion.

Now, after realizing my true passion in photography (and watch several seasons of America’s Next Top Model), I manage to pulled back all the passion in my heart. Whenever I have free time, I always looked for fashion’s photography pictures either on the net or magazines. I also bought some expensive magazines just to have the pictures in it. Magazines like America, Glam, Elle Magazine, Vogue, Mademoiselle and Vanity Fair is the best reference for me to learn more about fashion photography’s techniques. Like the old saying said, if you want the best, learn it from the best.

The website that I always refers to if looking for inspiration in fashion photography is www.deviantart.com (under the keyword fashion photography or fashion portraits). In this website, we can view all the artwork and photos from photographers all over the world either they are amateurs or experts. On this site also we can ask opinion or advise regarding photography from the experts. Besides, we can load our artwork and ask comment from others. Other website that is interesting to explore is www.fotopages.com where we can look at lots of good and interesting pictures.

International names like Gil Ben Simone and Nigel Barker is my idols in fashion photography. Gil Ben Simone is French’s man who discovered Twiggy, the 1^st fashion icon. Besides Twiggy, he also has shot lots of big name such as in the millennium, name like Heidi Klum, Tyra Banks and Kate Moss. Simone, have shot for many magazines and his work always become a hits in the fashion industry. Commercials like Covergirl, Lancome, Christian Dior and Versace have all succeed through Simone’s lenses. He also is so great until he become the prizes for the winner of America’s Next Top Model (ANTM). Every winners of ANTM will get a chance to be shot by Simone that will be a spread in Elle Magazine. This already shows Simone credibility in Fashion’s Photography. While Nigel Barker, besides being one of the judge for ANTM, he actually is a prominent and professional photographer that have shots for many advertising and fashion strips.

Before studying in the Photo Communication subject, I never take a picture using the manual mode. ‘Automatic’ at that time is my best friend. The only thing that I always concerns is the angle and placing in taking pictures. But as I go trough this subject, I found that photography is not just all that. Besides giving messages and tell stories, composition, depth of field and exposure also are very essentials in photography. The combinations of the techniques will pull out the best from the subject that we captured.

One day, I hope that this hidden talent that I have would make senses. I also sometimes have think that maybe photography can be an option of career. Sometime, I gain experience by takings pictures at relatives and friend’s wedding.