Capturing through lenses : my exploration with Photography

As far as I remember, photography has been my number 2 hobby after arts. It grew to be my passion when I was a school boy at the age of 10.
I saved all my pocket money to buy a very cheap camera. So cheap that a roll of black and white film was half of its price.

Petronas Twin Tower at night, taken few years back while outing with family. It was hand held (without a tripod)

My Gear

My first camera that I owned (bought from a senior friend) Yes, second hand, no wonder it was very. cheap...as I remember, was a DIANA. (First generation) for only $1.20 (RM5.00) in 1972. It was not a toy, because it took real pictures!

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This is not exactly the one I was telling about, but of the same brand...

Later on I found out, cheap camera alone, did not amuse me much because the films were expensive. One roll of Agfa 127 B&W was already half the price of my Diana... to develop and print the negatives and photos were even more costly. I was not a rich kid, therefore, i had to be very ‘smart’ in handling this expensive hobby.

At the age of 13, one of my uncles generously gave away his old camera to me as a present for my achievement to join a boarding school. The Agfa classic model used 120 film which only had 12 exposures. The price of each roll of film was even more expensive. I bet, the brand name like Kodak, Fuji, Ilford, Agfa , etc , might ring a bell.

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With the semi professional camera in my hand, I continued with my passion. To be able to survive, I invested some of my scholarship money to start a business in photography .

I started to take pictures of friends, teachers at events or in the hostel, and sold to them to cover my expenses, on top of that, makingsome profit, as well...

From B&W to colored photos in late 70’s....

I continued to make some money even after I finished school and further my studies in Architecture in a local university. This time with a better camera and a cheaper film (135 format with 36 exposures).

I remember joining the Photography Club and learned a lot from friends with the same interest.
My exploration actually started there when everybody kept competing to take better pictures
with different genre possible.

i learned how to take landsacape,portrait, macro, studio photography, long exposure, high speed and many more.

Photography became relatively cheaper with digital camera. You did not have any worries on the film anymore. You might be a trigger happy person to snap hundreds of frames for only one subject required...