A DEAD SERIOUS PHOTOGRAPHY ENTHUSIAST, THIS!

Khin has generously given me the honor to copy these pictures from his fotopage and encouraged me to kutuk write a bit on them.

The tragedy of an inappropriate combination of camera and lens, forcing him to use a concrete tripod!

So, meet Boogey, an avid photographer, who would crawl on his fours to capture his most coveted shot. Who, other than him, would do the photography unthinkable? A photography stunt i.e. requesting a lower-end camera to fit into a giant lens which has an absurd analogy of fitting a turbo-charged engine to a Kancil! (this happened during a Cannon photography meet at the Zoo recently)

Who would be drenched in profuse sweating macam lencun kena hujan only seconds after starting a photography rendezvous. Who would ogle at a slim belly dancer, whom he opined should put more weight to produce more profound gyrating of the adipose tissue, capture her in titillating action but only to crop the picture and omit from her belly downwards!

Watch out for that frown-lines or you'll need Botox sooner than expected!

Just look at his intent facial grimaces as he closes shut one eye and focuses the other into his treasured D50. Be it to snap a distant flying heron or a close-up shot of a dangling spider, his whole being seemed to be in full concentration with each and every muscle working in great synergy. His steady arms are trained to imitate a tripod, lest a shaky and blurry picture he'll produce. And when he lies prone to indulge in a macro-world of creeping crawlies and bugs, he adopts an attitude so much like a trained infantry sniper.

In deep thoughts, searching for the best angle

I have observed him in various multitudes of stances and some are not pleasant to the eye, I daresay. Whilst at Prambanan, Kulo and I were sniggering at their (he and ikelah) ridiculous postures in wanting to get a good view of the temple: body bent at the waist, legs splayed out for balance and their buttocks jutting out. Khin would have had a field day snapping that shot of them! Squatting, crouching, kneeling, supine and prone, these are the painful postures, just to name a few.

Sweltering heat eh?

And when he looks far ahead with his darling D50 in hands, one can tell that his mind is trying to compose a worthy shot out of a particular scene, searching for the best probable angle . Which reminds me again and again of the time in Parangtritis when he was darting to and fro with his camera and tripod, vying for a good spot against ikelah. I can still recall their playful laughter in the still of the dusk. Ahh! Those were memorable moments.

Photography eye??

As Khin has nicely put, one needs to have a photography eye (is this scientifically proven or just a self conjured up phrase by them?) to identify an apparently ordinary subject and turn it into a state of art. For people like me who know nuts about photography, a stray branch of leaves is well...just a stray branch of leaves! But photography nerds like Boogey, seemed to have this ESP ability to captivate ordinary objects or subjects and turn them into spellbinding images! Ye ler tu!!

Little Miss Muffet, he is not!

Even though his pictures were not picked as winners, Boogey was truly satisfied with the Cannon zoo meet. He developed a high fever later that evening. Probably the excitement of getting to sample the giant lens was way too much for his system to handle. Anyhow, Boogey said it was definitely worth it!