Saturday, February 22, 2020

The Unconventional Guide to Photo Challenge

"Taking pictures is savoring life intensely, every hundredth of a second." ~ Marc Riboud
Good morning; afternoon; and evening friends and fans! I realize I am late with this but Gong Hay Fat Choy to my Asian fans, readers, and community. In the past year or two years, I've been looking for a fun, exciting photography challenge to participate in and haven't had the funds to make such purchase for 35mm film. I know I had promised a second blog within the month of January but had an unexpected death of my stepfather but I am nonchalant about it because life goes on and I had to also take care of myself health wise. (Sadly there's false accusations about my mother for being "selfish", all because she had gone to an optometrist in Manhasset, I digress). If you think about it or take it into serious consideration, if my mother's cataracts go much worse leaving her blind; if she doesn't take care of it now then how will she take care of her family? Best advice is to get your head out of your arse as a favor to yourself and to society. Well, any who, I've been wanting to do a photography challenge and have been using up the film currently in my possession before I purchase any additional film from either Adorama; B&H or K&M Camera. I've searched for several YouTube videos on photo challenges involving 35mm film but no luck as of yet and will continue searching for YouTube videos involving 35mm film photography challenges. I realize people use digital photography nowadays and I should get with the program of adopting the digital photography concept. I'll eventually adopt digital photography but will continue to look around for Nikon cameras when I'm ready and have my debt paid off.
"There are always two people in every picture: the photographer and the viewer." ~ Ansel Adams
What inspired me to do a photo challenge, I've been looking into different websites to help me improve my photography skills through [35mm] film and I've found about three different photography challenges for 2017, 2018, 2019 and 2020 on The Photo Argus website. For a moment, I had to put all that on the back burner until over a month ago when I came across this YouTuber, Pierre T. Lambert while searching for a photography challenge while using 35mm film [36 exposure] but found Pierre T. Lambert to be very entertaining to watch and inspiring but informative in his own way. Watching his videos on YouTube makes me want to start doing YouTube videos but I'm camera shy and not fully comfortable being in front of the camera. All in all, my editing skills is at a zero at this point but willing to learn at my own pace so I can be up there with fellow photographers. My inspiration for a photography challenge is up there and it's not going to change, despite what all you haters may have to say because I know I have the eye and talent to become a successful photographer! I know I have potential as a photographer and have had three people telling me that I'd "never make it very far as a photographer" but I honestly don't know why I even listened to those individuals who are haters that try to discourage my potential as a photographer. What a waste of energy spent on listening to such low energy individuals. I'm going to continue to be inspired by what I see in my everyday life regardless of what people have to say about my pure greatness of what I have to offer in life and want to make my dream a reality. I'm going to be inspired by fellow photographers so I can continue to inspire myself and improve my photography skills. At the end of the day, I hope to post many pictures on my Flickr account once when I've found someone to assist me in editing my pictures before I post any pictures from the spring semester of 2013 at LaGuardia Community College until present day with 35mm film. To say the least, I hope to remain inspired in my everyday life and photography is everywhere; billboards, advertisements (fashion, food, etc when you look through magazines, menus, etc); social media such as Instagram, Facebook, Flickr, DeviantArt, no matter where you go here in New York City, you'll always find inspiration! That's what I love about living here in New York City, there's different opportunities to explore.
"Everything always looked better in black and white. Everything always looked as if it were the first time; there's always more people in a black and white photograph. It just makes it seem that there were more people at a gig, more people at a football match, than with colour photography. Everything looks more exciting." ~ Jack Lowden
I hope to continue to share more content with you in the upcoming months and hope to receive feedback from the general public in regards of what you hope to read or inquire more information about. I currently shoot with a 35mm film camera, a Minolta X-370 but still does the job and I use a combination of black and white and colour film. I enjoy using film because I feel like I can learn more from using film than digital photography and my goal is to continue to improve my photography skills. Also drop off thirty rolls of film that I currently have and I also have ten unused films, several of them are expired. I have seventeen rolls of film a friend of mine had given me several years ago and they're expired, I'm aware of the film being expired. I have several other rolls of film that are either expired or on the verge of being expired and I intend on dropping off the thirty rolls of film off at B&H when time permits. For the time being, I'll be thinking of new writing material for upcoming photography blogs.
Warm blessings,
Jennifer