Goodbye 2022

Photo by Sebastian Arie Voortman on Pexels.com

Last day of 2022, and oh boy did time flies. It felt like nothing much had happened this year, yet there were quite a few big events throughout. 

Being able to travel back to my home in Malaysia, business trip to Cambodia, caught Covid & dengue fever, converted my citizenship to Singaporean, placed my booking for my first home… these are just some of the highlights for 2022.

As planned, this year had been all about focusing on my life and work, and that’s exactly what I did for the most part. Didn’t travel elsewhere for leisure despite able to do so, it wasn’t my priority anyway. I’ll save it for next year.

In terms of photography, another empty year. My camera has become rusted I guess, but luckily I still get to practice my creative eyes at my work. Hopefully next year will be better, we’ll see.

Otherwise, I’m glad that the year was over with less downs than I anticipated. Looking forward for 2023 to come. Till then.

Going lite & minimal

Come to think of it, I have a fetish over small, slim, simple stuff. 

When I bought my iMac few years back, I have chosen the 21.5” 4K version over the bigger 27” 5K one. I have owned and loved the WH-1000XM3 headphone, but after living with it for a year, I realized that I wasn’t really a headphone guy and since then fall back to using earbuds. And when it comes to iPhone, I have tried to shy away from the Plus or Max variant most of the time.

The same goes with my photography. I have been a long time prime lens shooter, preferring the small, tiny lens over big-long-heavy zooms. When I have decided to switch to Sony and zoom lenses, I tried my best to pick the smallest and lightest zoom lenses I could find. 

Perhaps its a personality thing as I am pretty minimalist. I prefer simplicity and that’s shown through my life, the decision I made, and even the photographs I took. I believe it is important to have this kind of understanding about yourself, as that would allow you to make better decisions.

Like for instance, with the release of new WH-1000XM5 headphone from Sony, despite how good it is, I knew that it isn’t for me and therefore will not go out to buy one. Or when deciding over A and B, I will always chose the simpler, minimal version that is good enough for my needs. 

Spend some time to talk to yourself, reach deep into your heart. You will then know more about yourself and ultimately, I think this will bring some positive impact to you. Till then.

2022

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Happy new year. It has been two stagnant years on photography front. This year, with borders gradually open up, I will try to look for opportunity to head home and spend some time with family and friends, and hopefully picking up my camera again for some shoots. 

Will I be traveling to other countries for leisure? Not sure, seems unlikely for now but let’s see how the situation unfolds, my priority will always be head back to my home in Malaysia, everything else would be secondary.

Some said you could still shoot in such situations, and yes I agree to it. But maybe it’s just me, I don’t feel like doing so and taking in unnecessary risk, not just for myself but also to others. Hopefully a two years hiatus allows me to restart with fresh mind and eyes, we’ll see.

Otherwise, not much has planned for 2022. I would like to spend more time focusing on my life and career this year, once everything settled down, I’ll then dream bigger in years to come. Till then.

There goes 2021

Photo by Dazzle Jam on Pexels.com

Time flies, as always. 2021 is coming to an end, nothing much, nothing special. Just another year flew past under the effect of pandemic. Despite countries are opening up and “vaccinated travel lanes” were in place, I still do not have the urge to travel this year. Perhaps next year, perhaps, when things get a little better, when medication for both prevention and cure caught up. We’ll see, I’m not in a hurry.

Another year without photography. Oh boy, I wonder if I still remember how to use my camera, take a picture and edit them later. Or perhaps this would become the tipping point that makes me drop photography altogether? Who knows, only time will tell. As for life in 2021, nothing much has changed aside from changing a new job. My new role requires some travelling in the future, perhaps that would help me to reignite my passion for photography?

Let’s see how things are going to pan out in 2022. I hope that I can travel back to my home and meet with my family at least. Let’s hope for the best. Till then.

Mind your own business

In the age of social media, posts shared will normally be flooded with comments and reactions (like, dislike, love, angry etc.). We were conditioned to give a fuck on everything, to react on everything we saw, to type away comments without even thinking through our mind.

Of course, that’s the whole point of “social” media right? Some may argue, but browsing through and you will realize how much of those comments were real conversation, and how much of those were just rubbish. The more we react, the more our data are captured by the platform, and ultimately the more information about ourselves were leaked to those platform to sell it for a profit. But that’s a whole other discussion for another day.

What I’m trying to point out here is: there is no need for us to react to everything. The same goes to the photography world. When someone posted their work, shared their view, if you think they are poorly done, you can give a constructive comment instead of replying: “crap” for instance. If you don’t plan to provide valuable feedback, one might as well don’t react to it and just keep things to yourself.

I’m not asking everyone to stop commenting or reacting to something. Instead, provide quality comments when you intend to react to something, spur discussion, that way everyone can learn and benefit from it. If you do not plan to provide valuable input, you might as well just mine your own business.

This was part of the reason why I’m reducing my screen time on social media, it felt more toxic and taxing to visit one, and I just want to cut the crap out of my life so that I won’t be “reacting” to them as well. Anyway, you view could be different from me, so feel free to have some constructive discussion on this topic if you wish to. Till then.