New opportunities

I have started my new hobby of photography earlier this year and it has been challenging and fun at the same time. I still learn everytime I shoot something important. Aside from constantly wanting new equipment for the strive of better photos under tougher situations ,I discovered from my last shoot that it has given me lots of new experiences and opportunities.

Every picture I take and give to someone, I hope they will be happy with the results. So I shot a variety of things so far. Let me start with my first shoot. My work has many opportunities to take pictures, all I had to do was ask for an opportunity and accepting me as a newbie. I was not very confident at the time, and was afraid of showing poor results, but then I asked my friend to help me out. I learn that night how to better position myself, and understood why equipment does matter in tough situations. Then I realized I needed better gear. The night was successful, and there wasn't many keepers, but good thing my friend had better photos than I did. Having a giant camera doesn't make you a good photographer.

I'm really into sports and wanted to shoot a sporting event. This was fun. The game itself was great which added more emotion to the end. The pictures turned out really great and the team was happy about the photos. Again, I realized how I couldn't really shoot a real baseball game if I can't move around, since my lens isn't long enough to get a close up of the center fielder or someone from the opposite side of the diamond. So I can't capture all the critical moments. I learnt that spending money on the lens the results are worth it.

Then I helped my friend out with his engagement/wedding. Again, it was a new learning experience and the results were good. Again, I had poor equipment and knew that from my last shoot. The happiest part is to share the happy moment with my friend and also giving them a hard copy memory of there happy day. I was not so good with posing people, and not 100% comfortable with that, but I knew to be a good photographer in that situation you need to be more vocal.

Another friend asked me to step in last min to shoot their engagement. Sorry, I can't post any photos, its all so personal to my friends. Its funny how I can say my friend cause no one has really paid me, so they are not my customer. Again, my shots were good, but they could of been better. I learnt to use better equipment, but I need to work on the poses. I haven't really done much of this or seen a professional. Reading up only helps so much, and doesn't work in all situation, and I don't see enough pictures of couples being intimate, so its hard to pose them, but then all the articles I read tells me the couple should be intimate. I learned that some guys are just really hard to work with, since they don't like the whole process and is very shy, which makes it so much harder for me to work with. The end results were great, and I was actually honored more than anything, for them to ask me to help them with their engagement photos. I was really proud of my work and it forced me to learn some basic photoshoping to touch things up, and made me wonder I can do a better job if I was a real makeup artist but in photoshop. They blew up one of my pictures really big to put at the entrance of their wedding reception, and showed the pictures I took in a sildeshow before the wedding.

Then onto my lastest shoot which was really different. This time it was for family and I wanted to help out and its something I enjoy doing. I was shocked and had no clue what to take pictures of at a funeral. All the past experience I had surely paid off. And I was excited to use my new lens. I've only read amazing things about the lens but when I first took the first picture at work, I was in awe of how beautiful of even a computer looks. I borrowed better equipment and owned my new lens, so I had all the equipment I would need. I haven't shown the photos to my cousin yet, but I am confident he will be satisfied with the results. At one point it was very sad and I couldn't take any more pictures. The image stabilization wasn't helping cause my hands was shaking so much. It was very touching my cousin's speech. In the end I took a deep breath and thought that my cousin must be feeling worst than I did. I took this task to heart to give good photos, and at points I didn't really pay deep attention to what was happening, but just really trying to capture the moment. I really think I've succeeded and gave me a real confidence in my photography skill.

I've have been trying different types of photography so far, and haven't really discovered what is going to be my niche. I do enjoy sports, but I realized I like events as well. During these events, I still have lots to learn. I mainly shot in events where flashes weren't permitted, so thats another thing I have to learn and get use to. Mastering it, I don't think I'm close.

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Why we help people?

So recently I've been thinking about why we do things. This seems very generalized, but please read on. So when we go help someone we know or a stranger, what kind of expectations do you have? Someone told me that they believe that other people owe them for all they have done for them. Then I get into the fact other people are just being used.

When it comes to friendship, I believe you don't own anyone anything. You do things for your friends and family just cause you feel like they are close to you. I don't think someone should think they owe their family anything if they help them out because your parents gave you life. Technically you should owe them for raising you no matter what job they did, they should love you. (in a normal family situation of course) You help your friends cause you should be there for your friends, and you have the good and bad times together. (at least thats some aspect to look at friendship)

So how do you feel when you help a stranger? I guess it depends on a task, what if you gave your seat up to an old lady, or help someone carry something up the stairs that you thought was too heavy for them. I don't think of that as doing too much and people expect anything back. Maybe they just believe in karma. Or some people are just nice and likes to help others. Whatever the case maybe it makes people feel good to help others in most cases.

Do you sometimes get people who only need your help and only contact you when they need help? I think thats very shady of those people. I wouldn't call those people friends. I think thats being used, and some people just don't know when to stop. Once it starts and you continue, the other person will just continue to take advantage of you until you say no, or brush them away.

What if your just trading your help knowing in return you will get something? In this case, I think its okay to help, I wouldn't even call it help. Its like giving up your time/labour/skill for someone's time/labour/skill. Maybe its also karma.

I would say, when you help someone, its best not to expect anything in return. You never know what your going to get. If your expecting nothing, then thats great! You will never feel like your being used, and feel good about yourself that you helped someone. But if you constantly looking for something in return, it seems like your a gold digger. You wouldn't be very happy not getting what you want in return. I preferably like to help my friends and if I would consider them a friend and family, then I'm confident if I needed some help they would offer without me asking. I'm sure there are still some good people out there in the world.

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