Published by Bohol Sunday Post
When life throws you coconuts make buko salad, right? (I prefer coconuts over lemons.) Or in this article’s case, make buko salad even if life ain’t throwing coconuts at all.
Picking off from last week’s article, owning a digital camera you really love is not easy. Apart from your not having enough moolah to buy one, the people around you are not that rich to gift you one – even during Christmas. Or, sure, you got money but some other things are just a tad bit more important – like the iPhone 3G you’ve always bugged your Mommy and Daddy about. Yes, iPhone. Digital camera, no. (The iPhone’s got a 3 megapixel camera anyways, you say. Good for you.)
So, here are a few ways to teach yourself photography while waiting for your own camera. Absurd? Read on.
1. Finger Framing. Using both your hands, position your thumbs and pointing fingers to form an “L” or the “Laban” sign. That’s two Laban signs, one on each hand. Using these, form a four-sided box kind of shape and use it to frame a scene just like a camera. You’ve seen this on TV right? The director goes up to a scene, forms his “finger frame” and envisions the shot through it. This exercise trains your eyes to see in framed pictures.
2. Visual Vocabulary. To speak or write better English, you need a better and broader English vocabulary. In photography, you need to have a good visual vocabulary. To do this, you should constantly and passionately appreciate pictures. Browse through a newspaper, a magazine, a book. Which images inspire you? You can even start a scrap book of magazine tear-sheets and pull-outs. Eventually, your own photos will look as good as your inspirations.
3. Meet the Masters. If you are a basketball fanatic, you will either love or hate Kobe Bryant. If you love boxing, you must be thinking Pacquiao is the pound-for-pound king. Do you know Ansel Adams, Henry Cartier-Bresson or Irving Penn? They are the masters of photography. Get to know them and a lot others. Understand and appreciate their works.
4. Fun at the Forums. Online or offline, photography forums are best. In there, you chat up and learn photography from other people. Join online forums such as www.dpreview.com or www.pinoyphotography.org and you will find everything you need to know. It helps that people are nice, too. It is highly advisable to join local photography clubs also.
5. Check Out Cameras. While waiting to be your own camera, take to check out other people’s gear. Hold it, test-drive it. Take it for a spin. You might even want to rent some and schedule an afternoon shoot using the rented cam. Before getting my Nikon D80, I used/rented/borrowed/stole many other cameras for practice and even for work. When I finally got my own, I needed no schooling – the Nikon D70 I borrowed from Chris Ramasola had almost the same features.
Again, learning photography does not mean having your own camera. There are a lot of things you can do to learn more about photography. So start your education now. Make no room for your lame excuses.
Here’s a challenge. Do you want to learn photography but don’t have a camera yet? Shoot me an email and I will schedule an afternoon with you. I will let you borrow mine and teach you stuff. If more people respond, I can call up a few other photographer friends and they will make their cameras available for practice as well.
You game? Happy shooting!
(For questions and comments regarding this column, please email me at ryanmacalandag@yahoo.com or look me up on Facebook. You may also catch me on these websites: ryanmacalandag.blogspot.com and www.flickr.com/ryanmacalandag. A photography workshop and clinic is planned to happen soon in February. Stay tuned.)
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