Archive for the ‘Michigan’ Category
I Heart Photography #2 – My history of photography
One thing I can tell you is that I never thought I’d be so interested in photography. I didn’t know way back then that of all the hobbies I’ve tried – stamp and/or sticker collecting, model making, buffet eating, etc. – photography would be the most enjoyable and fulfilling. I didn’t have the passion for this hobby until recently. It used to be that I like having pictures taken, then it evolved into enjoying taking other people’s pictures, and consequently just random stuff around that people tend not to notice (which paved the way to my increasing interest in closeup, macro and still life).
I procured my first camera when I was 16, in 1999. I won the camera in the National Space Science Quiz competition held at the National Planetarium, Kuala Lumpur. It was an APS film camera, the Minolta Vectis GX-2.
It was touted to be splashproof and durable, and I used it several times for my family excursions to the beach. The APS film format was supposedly next-gen towards the end of the nineties, but by early 2000s the format slowly dies out; phased out by the emerging market of digital photography.
The first camera that I bought by myself using my own money was a Sony Cybershot DSC-P71. It was large, heavy, noisy, and consumes battery power like a thirsty camel. I bought it sometime summer 2003, a few months after I got to the States for college.
For a 3.2 megapixel camera with limited features, it served me well for all my 4.5 years in the United States. Most of the pictures I took while I was in Michigan came from this trusty old camera. In fact, I used to be the pseudo-official photographer for the Muslim Students Association in the University of Michigan Ann Arbor, and all of the photos were from this camera. You can see the photos I took by going to this site:
http://www.muslims.studentorgs.umich.edu/
Go to About MSA > Gallery and it will take you to a Picasa web album site. The lower 50% of all the albums on the site (basically oldest photos on the site) were taken by me, between 2005 – 2006, using the clunky old P71.
Alas, the old camera served me for a full five years before it died its slow death, finally one day refusing to turn on even after I served it with a set of fully charged double-As. The day it died, I felt a small pang of sadness, for I have had and made tons of memories with this camera, and the fact that I may never use it again for taking photos brought an end to a very meaningful and fulfilling run.
The death of the Sony DSC-P71 came shortly after I procured from a friend the Panasonic Lumix DMC-FX12.
I took quite a number of pictures using this very compact and easy to use camera. I used it especially to explore my growing interest in closeup and macrophotography (of bugs, especially), as evidenced by the photos below.
The Lumix was stolen at a McDonald’s restaurant in Shah Alam, which to me was a devastating blow. During its short service it had helped me explore and produce some of my favorite closeups of bugs and insects, of which are all amateur-ish but passable in my book. Losing the camera meant I was without my shooting gear for a few months, until I procured my latest camera.
The Nikon D60. My first and only DSLR. I bought it a few days before leaving for a family vacation to Sabah in December 2008. For those who have been around my site, you have seen most of the photos I took using this camera, so there’s no need to provide sample photos here. You know where to look. Most of the latest photos, in fact, most of my posts here feature at least one photo taken using this camera.
I guess that’s a brief history of my involvement in photography as a hobby. It’s a short insight into all the cameras I used to own and use and maybe a little bit of what I used to shoot back in the days before the D60.
For all my posts concerning photography, you can go here or click the label ‘photography’ found in the sidebar.
Before I go, I’d like to invite you, especially the photography hobbyists / amateurs / professionals, to give us an insight into your history of photography. I’m sure it would be enjoyable to share and learn each other’s passions and inspirations as well as journey in preserving memories onto film / digital images.
The Kinds of Photos That I Miss Taking (Pt. 2)
Part 2 of the kinds of photos that I miss taking. These were also captured on my old Sony Cybershot DSC-P71, also around the North Campus of the University of Michigan, Ann Arbor. Part 1 is here if you haven’t seen it. Single leaflet on a twig Snowcapped winterbush Yellow plant life Dried leaf in the snow Snowfootprint Kroger cart wheel Frozen – not quite there yet Mysterious furball Don’t ask me what that is, I do not even know if it’s an animal or a plant. 
The Kinds of Photos That I Miss Taking (Pt. 2)
Part 2 of the kinds of photos that I miss taking. These were also captured on my old Sony Cybershot DSC-P71, also around the North Campus of the University of Michigan, Ann Arbor. Part 1 is here if you haven’t seen it. Single leaflet on a twig Snowcapped winterbush Yellow plant life Dried leaf in the snow Snowfootprint Kroger cart wheel Frozen – not quite there yet Mysterious furball Don’t ask me what that is, I do not even know if it’s an animal or a plant.
A Memory of a Walk in the Fall
I remember back a few years ago when I was still living in Ann Arbor, Michigan… the fall season was so beautiful with the trees all turning crimson red orange and yellow and the weather being a mix of warm and chill, and we could go out wearing anything we want and not be too cold or too hot.
I remember taking a walk with my dear friend Kristen in the Forest Hill Cemetery, where we could see lots of monuments and tombstones decades and some hundreds of years old… and they were all so beautifully made, sitting there as testaments to some people who used to live and walk the same earth and have been to where we’ve been at some distant time and era. Walking in the cemetery in the fall was in some ways refreshing; the sheer quietness and tranquility of the graveyard truly lived up to the saying “Silent as the grave”. But the silence wasn’t at all eerie; the beauty of the golden trees and the sight of scurrying squirrels and prancing deer took me to a different, more pleasantly distant world, away from the hectic life of a foreign college student and worker of two part-time jobs; away from books and annoying customers, away from wires, cables and computer peripherals. This was peace, both outer and inner, represented by the beautiful scenery, the quiet tombstones, and the peoples of the past resting peacefully in their silent graves.
Kristen took a photo of me at this monument to Johnson W. Knight who died in Fall of 1905. Coincidentally this photo was taken in 2005, a hundred years after his death. At that moment we did not know who the person was, when he died, and why he was honored with such a prominent obelisk in the south area of the graveyard. I just thought that the tower looked commanding and important, and the name ‘Knight’ kind of embodied the same spirit, and with this interest in mind I requested my friend to to snap this memorable photo of me sitting on this century-old monument, with an awkward smile on my face that tells everyone how unphotogenic and inexperienced I am in front of the lens instead of behind it.
Now, more than three years later I still remember that walk with Kristen as one of my fondest memory with a dear friend whom I may never see again, as we both were foreigners from distant lands.
To Kristen I say thank you for the memories and this particular photo, both of which I hope will live on forever as a small chapter of my (or rather, our) story, which I will tell my future grandkids one day.
A Memory of a Walk in the Fall
I remember back a few years ago when I was still living in Ann Arbor, Michigan… the fall season was so beautiful with the trees all turning crimson red orange and yellow and the weather being a mix of warm and chill, and we could go out wearing anything we want and not be too cold or too hot.
I remember taking a walk with my dear friend Kristen in the Forest Hill Cemetery, where we could see lots of monuments and tombstones decades and some hundreds of years old… and they were all so beautifully made, sitting there as testaments to some people who used to live and walk the same earth and have been to where we’ve been at some distant time and era. Walking in the cemetery in the fall was in some ways refreshing; the sheer quietness and tranquility of the graveyard truly lived up to the saying “Silent as the grave”. But the silence wasn’t at all eerie; the beauty of the golden trees and the sight of scurrying squirrels and prancing deer took me to a different, more pleasantly distant world, away from the hectic life of a foreign college student and worker of two part-time jobs; away from books and annoying customers, away from wires, cables and computer peripherals. This was peace, both outer and inner, represented by the beautiful scenery, the quiet tombstones, and the peoples of the past resting peacefully in their silent graves.
Kristen took a photo of me at this monument to Johnson W. Knight who died in Fall of 1905. Coincidentally this photo was taken in 2005, a hundred years after his death. At that moment we did not know who the person was, when he died, and why he was honored with such a prominent obelisk in the south area of the graveyard. I just thought that the tower looked commanding and important, and the name ‘Knight’ kind of embodied the same spirit, and with this interest in mind I requested my friend to to snap this memorable photo of me sitting on this century-old monument, with an awkward smile on my face that tells everyone how unphotogenic and inexperienced I am in front of the lens instead of behind it.
Now, more than three years later I still remember that walk with Kristen as one of my fondest memory with a dear friend whom I may never see again, as we both were foreigners from distant lands.
To Kristen I say thank you for the memories and this particular photo, both of which I hope will live on forever as a small chapter of my (or rather, our) story, which I will tell my future grandkids one day.
