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How I Switched From Shooting Everything To Specialise In Portraits.

Back then about 20 years ago, I was the pioneer batch of students in my secondary school. We had no seniors to look up to and nothing was set in place as everybody was trying to find different extra curriculum activities for ourselves, we practically started all sorts of ‘ECA’ as we go along. When I was around 14 years old, my history teacher, Mr. Low Siew Thian, was always carrying his SLR camera going around taking pictures of our school functions. Even when photography was an expensive hobby during that era, I grew fond of it. – I approached Mr. Low as I wanted to try my hands on big cameras. Upon seeing that there was real interest in photography, Mr. Low decided to ask the school for permission to use some of its funds buy a camera and termed it as the school’s official camera. This particular SLR (Canon EOS) somewhat became my personal camera as there wasn’t any other school photographer either than me. Till today, I fondly remember the good old days of going around shooting school functions in film, having to prepare the exact number of rolls for each event and at the same time not knowing how my shot would turn out as I do not get an instant preview of what I have shot.

Fast forward to 2007, I finally bought my first DSLR a few months after starting work. I began my journey of photography and revived a dormant passion within me. I began to shoot everything I see; abstract, street, people, landscape, etc. I didn’t have a particular genre which I like but shot anything I see. A year later, I had my first few sessions on directed portrait. To have someone posing in front of the camera where I could conceptualise, plan, style, discuss and execute the exact kind of image I wanted to create, ignited a lot of positive vibe in my work. I felt a sense of fulfilment having been able to interact with my subjects, makeup artist and the rest of the crew in the process. I enjoy the little conversations during each session and how everyone has a part to play in creating beautiful images. To me, there are so many facets in the portraiture genre itself and there are always new things to learn and explore. Having shot more than a hundred sessions ever since I started specialising, I would love to present a few shots of a particular shoot I did while I was still very new to portraiture. These pictures got me some acknowledgement and thereafter, commissions.

I hope my story ignite a spark in many of the readers in pursuing your aspirations somehow in one way or another. Please do contact me if you would like to pop over for coffee and we might be able to collaborate.

Cheers,
Jay.C

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