So far hmm..so good

“Motivation is what gets you started. Habit is what keeps you going.”
~Jim Rohn


Location: Pähkinärinne, Vantaa ,Finland
Date taken: May 26, 2008 at 2.56pm EEST
Camera: Canon PowerShot A710IS
Exposure: 0.003 sec
Aperture: F/4
Focal length: 5.8 mm
Modifications: adjusted brightness & contrast levels, cropping,
noise reduction, added vignette

I picked this lady bug photo for this entry because I want to talk about my little accomplishments in the field of photography. If you think you couldn't bear reading this entry,
that's fine with me, just let me go on blabbing before I hit the sack. So here it goes...

In August of 2007, my shield bug photo was used for the article Ancient Giant Insects Breathing Easy. I was novice then, so the thought of my photo being good enough in the eyes of another person somehow felt nice. But who knows? Maybe the writer was just too desperate for images :-)

I was in the Philippines earlier this year. While I was there, my butt got featured in Manila Bulletin's Picture Perfect section.

I didn't expect to see 6 of my photos in a national broadsheet. It was a big thing for me. It was also the first time for me to see the printed versions of my work. They didn't look bad. Picture Perfect is a good read for hobbyists. They sometimes feature tutorials & camera reviews. Unfortunately, I can't read anything from their column anymore, it always says "no other news". They should have that fixed. It worked in early summer though. Mr Eric Lirios wrote an excellent article about a certain point & shoot user :-) But because I was already here in Finland then, I didn't get to see the printed version right away. I had to ask someone to send me a copy of that paper. It was so wrinkled when it got here. I haven't taken a photo of it yet.

This morning I got a copy of JPG magazine from the mail. My spotted tortoise beetle photo is on page 94. It was among the photos that were chosen by the magazine's staff & JPG's members to be published for their Creatures feature. There could have been a short story about that pic, but regrettably, I noticed their e-mail too late. Darn! Maybe I was too busy with Flickr then.

So what's next? I don't know yet. I still learn new things everyday. Among my goals is to prove that in photography sometimes you won't need heavy gears for your work to be recognized. I guess I am doing okay.. so far.