Monday, April 20, 2009

A Barbarian in Class

It has to happen, sooner or later; inevitable, and yet, certainly a welcome step towards the correct direction. After all, many societies in the past rose from their wild and barbaric ways to become a great civilisation. Through infusion of knowledge from other societies where some are far flung even in the modern mode of transporatation available today, these societies learnt to improvise, adapt and adopt, to become a respected civil society that is more often than not, feared by many. The history of mankind is replete with such stories. The same however, cannot be said for a certain barbarian living in this world of ours today.

"Some people drink deeply from the fountain of knowledge. Others just gargle", so said Grant M Bright, a certain leadership and management development expert. If truly so, then Bright must have expressively thought about this certain barbarian, which truly can be a strange thing as the two have never met, and nor is Bright even aware of the latter's very existence - apart from being barbaric, he is also a hermit. For the barbarian though, the truth of the quote may well depict him; having been forced to learn a new set of skills, the barbarian goes about trying figure out how best to adapt and adopt the newly acquired knowledge into his life - he is currently gargling. The success or failure of his forray into this field, will only be evident with the passing of time, or the life of him...the barbarian Aje.


Sometime last week, my friend Manan dragged me to Subang Parade. "It'll do you a world of good!" he said as I tried to keep up with his fast-paced walk. In his eagerness, he forget that his old friend here do have some problems with his left leg, which Aje was not about to cry out. I mean, hey, a Barbarian is supposed to be one tough hombre.

As we parked at the basement of SP, the walk was (thankfully) short. The entrance via SP's IT Centre, and up the escelator, led us straight to a camera shop where I was introduced to 2 gentlemen there by the name of Abas and Edwin. Both, I was told, posses some of the highest skills and technical knowledge in the world of Photography in Malaysia. While Abas rose in status from being a simple Sales Technician to becoming quite a well known name, Edwin is endowed with sharp eyes for beauty and is artistic in his approach. Both, needless to say, are well respected by many photographers. What then, one may be prompted to ask, was Aje doing there?

Well, as it turned out, Manan had enrolled himself into a 2hour basic photography class conducted by Fotobilk, with Abas imparting his knowledge and experience. And though Manan have had 3 or so years of experience in photography, the talk by Abas should not be something to be missed, he said. And since Aje was getting into it as well, Manan dragged him along.

Edwin (l) and Abas (r). In absence of one, Aje regard these two gentlemen as his sifu.

As it promised to be, the class was basic but rather invaluable to anyone new, either as a hobby or for work purpose. Manan, Aje, and the 8 other people there were briefed on the basics of photography and some mechanics of the camera. It was here then that Aje found out that Photography, is both, an Art as it is a Science; we were told that there is even a PhD in photography, which off course, had that Aje's mouth gaping wide. Needless to say, time pass by too fast when one is having fun, leaving Aje in want for more knowledge ( a later story).

Armed with the basic knowledge, Aje found himself taking more and more photographs from a garden in Kota Damansara. Surprisingly, for such a small patch, Aje took more than 500 pictures. One thing though, before Aje finishes off with his story, both Abas and Edwin had advised against cropping pictures as it would lead to a lesser development of skills needed. And true, ever since then, Aje found that certain pictures do need the depth (or width) to convey the message or beauty of the scene. However, due consideration have to be given to space limitation and even upload speed of large uncropped pictures. To his best though, Aje will try not to crop any of the pictures after this date. Now undoubtedly, the question remains in the minds of several (Aje himself included): Has the class done Aje any good?

A barbarian Aje may well be. But to be conceit, and a fool at that? Its best left to others to judge and give fair comment as only in such manner can Aje improve himself; kindly visit From A Small Patch I, II, and III at Pictures-Only, thank you.

Update: Thanks to my niece, Hanis, I have uploaded the pictures at Picasa web with the link as follow and slideshow below it:
From Emak's Patch


6 comments:

  1. Salam...

    Owh...ur leg still in pain eh? if i may ask...sakit tu which part eh? the knee or the muscle?

    Cantik lahh all the flowers...minta bleh? ngeee

    Errr...type pasal flower...tmrw or day after my mom balik...mostly orchid dia rosakkkk...sebab anak dia tidak pandai jaga...abis lah kena bising ni...

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  2. W'salam Cello,

    Leg ni biasalah, kat ankle dan heels.

    Nak flowers? Kena tanya tuan punya dulu tau. Nanti datang KL, tanya le sendiri ek. Tapikan, memandangkan your mum's orchid rosak...kena interview dulu nanti ;)

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  3. Salam CA,

    Wah1dah masuk kelas ni,tak lama lagi boleh lah jadi Prof.Photographer kan?Mahal tak 2 hours course kat SP tu?teringin gak nak belajar...

    by the way,take care ye,kaki yang sakit tu...hati-hati ok!

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  4. W'salam rs,

    Hehe...jauh lagi perjalanan nak jadi mahir, apalagi jadi professor. Kelas tu rasanya tak mahal kerana Manan sponsor saya. Apapun, saya rasa itupun kerana Manan memang pelanggan mereka.

    And insyAllah, I jaga kaki I (tapi hati?), thanks :)

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  5. Uish CA. Takutla. Sudah bersedia untuk berjuang nampaknya. Tangkaplah! Tangkap gambar sebanyak-banyaknya. :)

    ReplyDelete
  6. Salam Intan,

    Tangkap, mesti tangkap!

    Thank you :)

    ReplyDelete