Smartphone Photography. /  by Jack Chen

It is the new era and we are living in different world now.

A photographer is no longer that odd guy/gal in the crowd who is carrying a big black chunky DSLR along with a huge lens that could potentially knock out an unsuspecting person if you swing it hard enough into his/her head.

I think photography had evolved into something else, now everyone and anyone can get into it easily and the learning curve for one to take beautiful pictures is no longer as steep as it once was. 

This also reinforced an idea in photography, which was it's not the equipment that matter the most in taking a beautiful picture, it's the person who is taking the picture that matter the most.

So keep shooting!


Inspiration 1.3 /  by Jack Chen

Heinrich Kühn's work is amazing! 

Film photography is still so amazing even in this digital age. The almost painting like effect in these photographs just simply made me speechless! 


All Credits goes to Heinrich Kühn.
This post is for learning purposes only. No copyright infringement intended.

Natural Light Master! /  by Jack Chen

His real name is Stanislav Puchkovsky, but many of you in the photography will know him as Sean Archer. Yes, THE Sean Archer.

Sean is one of the few photographers alive who impressed me a lot and become my main source of inspiration when I was still new to photography. What makes him so special is that all of his personal work are done using only natural light and he is really really good at it. His pictures are always as simple as the light he uses and yet within this simplicity there will always be a faint feeling of complexity. You are always drawn into his portraits of his beautiful friends and could never get over the simplicity that was involved in producing the shots. I wish I could be like him one day and truly master natural light.

Here are some of his work. All photo credits goes to Sean Archer. I do not own the pictures. This is just for education and inspiration purposes only. 

 

Inspiration Sunday 1.2 /  by Jack Chen

It's inspiration Sunday again and I was absolutely blown away by this spread. This is a perfect example of blending Art and Fashion together while keeping the photography simple at the same time. 

Mixing Art and Fashion, this would be an interesting concept. I would definitely try it! 

All photo credits to the respected parties.

Someone to look up to. /  by Jack Chen

Oleg Oprisco is someone to look up to. He shot these amazing images purely on film. This is something that's very difficult to achieve in an age of digital photography. I am not sure about how much post-processing done to the pictures but I guess it would be quite little considering that the limitations on photoshopping a digital scan of a film. Amazing, amazing work! I just can't stop saying amazing!!

All photo credits to Oleg Oprisco.

Nostalgic /  by Jack Chen

Let me be a little bit nostalgic today. 

It was pouring outside and the rain was hammering down at my window glass while I sat in my room drinking a cup of steaming coffee. I began to think about things and eventually I got to the part on remembering the start of my photographic journey.

Everyone starts from somewhere and not many people can become successful overnight and those who does were extremely lucky and blessed. So once in a while, you would start to recall where you started and reflect on your progress in life.

Today, I thought about my first camera and the amazing moments I had with it. It was a Canon 400D with a 17-85mm kit lens. I start by photographing all kinds of things, from the snail crawling on the wet concrete floor to the clouds floating against the deep blue sky. I had a lot fun and will continue to have more with my new gears now. 

So, what's your first camera? Did you enjoyed the time you spent with it?

Quality over Quantity /  by Jack Chen

I had a friend looked at my website today and she said it was good but there are too few content in it. Well, my biggest explanation for this is that I am aiming to have quality over quantity.

 

This is not my first website, in fact, I came over from Wix before all this and I had a lot more work showcased there than what’s here. Back then I was still a new photographer trying to shoot whatever I could and whenever I can, so it came to a point where I would be in a photoshoot but was at the same time thinking about the next shoot. This only meant that my focus was often not on what I was doing and that took a toll on many of my older work and it’s probably the main reason why my work was only starting to improve tremendously in the recent years. To summarise my point, focusing on the one thing at a time is the key to producing better images and I learnt it the hard way.

 

During my “Wix” era, it was all about quantity and it was mainly because that I was too keen on getting my work noticed that I lost a sense of direction. Now, it is the “squarespace” era and quality is the new standard.

 

Like what the amazing Lara Jade said on her recent post that “why shoot 50-60 shoots a year when you can’t commit time or energy to make each one be its very best?”, you will be exhausting yourself up with a packed schedule, rushing the post-production of each shoot, have little time to think or reflect on your work and most importantly, lose focus. All this would eventually cause you the quality of your work.

 

Your work is you. To be a successful photographer, professional or not, you need to put out there you best, not 200 pictures that would expose all your weakness to your potential clients or viewers. You want to be known for producing good work so quality should be above all concerns and that is what I am focusing on now and hope to improve further in the future.

 

Sure, there are many other elements to work on too at the same time in order for one to succeed in the business of photography but if I have to choose which to focus more on, it would definitely be quality and I hoped you would choose the same too.

 

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