akumach's photostream  

I really don't have any talent in the graphic arts. With the lead of my very talented brother and room mate, I tried oil painting when I was 10. Unfortunately, I could barely distinguish red from green or any color that is combined to these colors. I thought I was a flourishing cartoonist when I was in high school but i gave up after realizing that my drawings were 'flat'. I have been a flickrista for almost two years now and I'm pretty proud that my shots have become better as I look at my photographs way back. I may not really have some talent but I'm a big fan of passion and persistence (that's the English translation of my surname :D) .

I'm still in the process of demystifying my new D80 but I still shoot sometimes with my Powershot a620 that took me more than a year to fully understand (an average learner here.) Although I try to learn and apply techniques in photographs I take in every genre, I think my passion is into travel and social photography or fusing these two. I also like the sheer fun of doing 'semi-candids' such as those in wedding prenups like what I did in my sister's wedding. My inspiration and philosophy in taking photographs is shaped by this quotation from an Italian photographer, Ugo Mulas, in a book about my favorite photographer Gianni Berengo Gardin:

"There is an enormous difference between good and beautiful photography. Beautiful photography has no content but is perfect in form, while good photography has content. So we favor good photography above all. But if good photography also has form, it is easier to understand, and it helps and encourages us to interpret it. "

For me, making good and beautiful photographs is the greatest and most exciting challenge of them all.



This image link leads to my naive attempts in this exciting pursuit. It is so far my one and only achievement as a 'photographer': having been printed in Manila Bulletin's Picture Perfect Photo of the Week.

My blogspot blog is very new, you can still read my old Blue Notes for some lengthy and boring discussions of photos I took in the past.