Renovation

Blog might look weird for the next few days... so bear with it a little... trying to do a major renovation with it with the help from others =)

So till then... erm... patience?

Little Sorting Work...

Cleaning Up =)


After awhile of not doing anything... I've finally decided to go thru the friend list on my blog and to update a few, delete a few...

Deleting those who...

Never Update for around 2 years already
Deleted their blog
Changed their blog address without telling me
etc

If your name isn't there... don't cry... you're not less loved, it's just maybe I've accidentally deleted you or what, or you changed your blog address and haven't informed me yet =P

Other way... err.... yeah you're not lesser loved, I think....

But now I'm seriously thinking of changing my blog's whole layout and look... it just looks... well kinda plain and boring already~~ anyone got any nice, yeng templates to share?? Now looking into changing the whole look...

But being reminded in the past of the hours and days it took me just to change the layout... woo...

*SHIVER*

Anyways if anyone has anything interesting, do share~~ I'd really appreciate it~ cause now blog looks a little messy in some way~ want something with alot of space for big pictures, yet looking neat~ =P

The Story of Kevin Carter

Kevin Carter, a photographer that not many might know, but years ago he was one of the most popular photographers then~ but how his life ended wasn't something beautiful...

Well the story might be a little long, but if you have the time I suggest reading it.... I mean... you SHOULD since you've already clicked on the Read More button... and since I've directly copied it word by word from the Amature Photograpy Magazine which took me almost an hour or so to write it all down...

in early March 1993, a United Nations jet flying under the banner of it's Operation Lifeline Sudan initiative, touched down in the parched famine belts of southern Sudan. Kevin Carter, a veretan photographer of the power struggles in his native South Africa, took leave from his day job and borrowed money to join this UN flight so that he could document the rebel movement in Sudan.

During a stopoever of 30minutes while the UN delegation distributed food, Carter and fellow South Africa photojournalist Joao Silva disembarked to have a wander around, intend on photographing local guernila fighters. Silva hurried into the nearby village. Carter, however, stayed near the plane. Years covering conflict and suffering had taken their toll on him. and the solace he sought in the camaraderie of his fellow photographers, as well as dagga, the locally grown marijuana plants, seemed to help him get by. Silva recalls, however, that this was Carter's first time in a famine situation, and he wore his shock across his face.

Nevertheless, Carter carried on with his job. As parents queued to collect rations of food, their children lingered behind. The children interested Carter, and he began photographing them as they lined up on the outskirts, looking on in desperation. He took a series of pictures, but eventually the scene became too overwhelming and he walked off. It was then that a faint whimpering caught his attention. Overcome and hollowed by hunger, Carter saw an emaciated young girl collapsed with exhaustion. Behind her, a vulture landed and watched in anticipation.

Intinctively, Carter crept slowly forward until he was just ten meters away, and both the girl and the vulture was in focus. He waitied 20minutes for the vulture to spread its wings, but when it refused Carter took the picture. He took more, and the vulture eventually flew away. Carter then found a place to sit, where he lit a cigarette and talked to God in between sobs and tears. "He was depressed afterwards" Silva recalls. "He kept saying he wanted to hug his daugher.

Carter didn't know it yet, but the reluctant journalist had taken what has become the most lauded and heavily criticised image of all time. On 26 march his picture first appeared in print in The New York Times, and thousands of enquiries into the fate of the young girl followed. Public interest prompted a special editor's note. Explaining that the young girl pulled herself up and walked away, but her ultimate fate remained unknown.

Meanwhile the image was reproduced around the world and became an icon for Africa's plight. Colleagues and acquaintances phoned Carter one by one and congratulated him on his work. Buoyed by newfound fame, he quit his day job and signed on with Reuters as a freelancer with a guranteed $2000 a month. A year later he won the conveted Puitzer Prize for featured photographer. Carter wrote to his parents in Johnannesburg: "I swear I got the most applause of anybody... I can't wait to show you the trophy. It is the most precious thing, and the highest acknowledgment of my work I could receive."

Yet with success came scom. Mixed between allegations of faking the scene were more serious accusations of journalistic irresponsibility. "The man adjusting his lens to take just the right frame of her suffering might as well be a predator, another vulture on the scene," opined Florida's St. Petersburg Times in a scathing editorial. Even friends questioned Carter's lack of response to the girl's obvious peril.

Carter had long been a troubled soul known for the tumultuousness of his moods, and when the number of criticism began matching his successes it only served to feed his constant self-doubt. Carter suffered under the pressure. He struggled with drug abuse and a string of failed relationships, as well as professional errors that left him worrying about his financial security. On top of his constant visions of death, the impact of his iconic image consumed him, and those close to him recall how he withdrew in the months after his image was published. "Kevin always carried around the horror of the work he did," his father said, and it was partly his inability to distant himself from the horror he saw that lef to Carter taking his own life.

On July 1994, just months after he won a Pulitzer, the 33-year-old Carter drove his pick-up truck into the suburbs of Johnannesburg and parked it against a gum tree where he often played as a small boy. With silver gaffer tape, he attached a garden hose to his exhaust pipe and ran the other end through the passenger-side window. The note on the passenger seat read,

"I'm really, really sorry. The pain of life overrides the joy to the point that joy does not exist."

Well not many of us would understand this story or even know the photographer... But I guess one thing that might make us remember it by seeing this award winning picture that he took~
Forgot what was the title of this picture already... but this was the picture caused the world to weep then in realizing the sufferings happening in Sudan~

But I guess there's alot we can learn from this story, do you think what he did was right, or was it wrong... well I guess it's to your own opinion~~

There's still so much to talk about my fingers burning d... gotta rest them now~~ =)

Photography Wars...

It's nothing you've expected it to be...


If you think this is going to be a post about the talk on which camera is better... Nikon or Canon... let me say that I just couldn't care much less about that kind of argument... -_-"

You can go around complaining on how the other camera is lousier than the one you have now... well it's only just natural because if your own camera was lousy you wouldn't even buy it wouldn't you??

BUT going back to topic... well whichever one is better, Canon or Nikon, it doesn't really matter, what I think?? They are all magnificent camera's, and in the end it doesn't matter which one you choose, because in the end all camera's are great (unless you buy a Malaysian made camera) but in the end it all comes to what you like, what's your taste, etc... and the rest... well it's just the connection between the photographer and the camera~ =)

But that's not what I wanted to talk about today...
well I just came back from a very full dinner, was treated to California Pizza... oh yeah~ =)

And being full like mad, it then comes to the part of being lazy and just siting down listening to people talk and learn new stuff... what I've learned today...

You know they are clubs around?? Sort of like car clubs... Satria Neo... Honda Civic... etc etc.... well in a way there are also Photography clubs around like that... people calling different names like EOS and stuff... and how they work is sort of like a gang, if you go out take pictures then invite the others, like how gangsters go to gang fights by inviting others to join in the fun =)

and one thing that made me go "HAR!?" was knowing that they have this like some sort of rule...

Kinda like erm... if club A takes pictures of this model, then they would kinda assume that that model belongs to club A, then if that same model goes to take pictures with club B, then would kinda have like a fight between A & B... sort of like

"Why you take my model!?!?!?" kinda fight... interesting ain't it...??

But words of wisdom from an experienced photographer at the table when he said that the model isn't bounded by a contract by the club, and they are all freelancer models so got no attachment so can't really treat it like their your model... mmm getting interesting...

Even now well there's kinda like a war going on, till got fights of photographer against photographer, photographer treatening model, model's going against photographers...
Hmmm... and I thought the world of photography just goes around making friends and taking pictures... who would've thought it would go so deep...

Hmmm... would I join a photography group eventually...?? Seriously I do not know how to answer that question... but till now I'll just wander around and see what happens la =P