Just want to say thank you to you all for following my photoblog. A year ago a met by chance a professional American photographer, Ernie Brooks, while I was travelling with my family in North Sulawesi for the New Year. I asked him a bit about photography, about cameras, about lenses. One thing he told me is that for all his life he has been shooting only black and white. That is, he said, the true photography. So, last January, I decided to dedicate this year only to black and white. Once back in Jakarta I realised that every day on my way to work, I was walking the pedestrian bridge over Jalan Sudirman at the Senayan Transjakarta bus stop. I had been walking every day across that bridge without noticing anything important, besides the massive MRT building site below at street level. Once I decided to try to publish one photo every day from that spot, I started to see things. I noticed people. I noticed their expression, what they wear, how they walked, the street sellers, their products. I was blind before setting out to publish one black and white photo a day. I used a Nikon d5100 with a couple of fixed lenses 35mm 1.8 DX and 50mm 1.8 G . A few times I used a wide angle 12-24mm DX. Thank you to Lemanshots for following almost every new post. Thank you to strassenfotografien.wordpress.com. Thank you also to Pear and Bulb and cyclocross2012.wordpress.com.
I kept going for 86 photos and then the summer came and we travelled to Europe. I learned a great deal through those 86 photos: to improvise, to really see, to smile to people, and that most of the times they do not mind a stranger taking their picture.
This is one of the photos that has received most views:
Here a couple more:
During the summer somebody broke into our house in Jakarta and stole few lenses I had not take with me to Europe. Luckily they did not stole the hard disks with all the photos and back ups.
I was left with the 12-24mm DX and the 50mm 1.8 G. I thought a bit what to do and decided to sold camera and lenses and get into the Micro four-third field. I got an Olympus OMD 1 with a 12-40mm 2.8 and two fixed Olympus lenses 17mm 1.8 and 45mm 1.8. It took a bit to get used to a camera which is really a step up from the d5100 in terms of functions, dials, etc. I had to get used also to the electronic view finder but after few walk around in Jakarta I really like it. I like how light the whole system is and how easy is to move and walk around with 3 great lenses.
I started to explore Jakarta a it more. Took photos at Blok M, the grand Istiqlal Mosque, Pasar Baru, Makassar. There is much more to explore in 2016. The most viewed photo ever on my flickr account was taken few weeks ago with the my Olympus:
And in 2016? I want to continue to explore black and white street and travel photography. Maybe I will post here and there some color street and travel photos.
Thank you for following my photoblog and with you all a nice holiday and a happy new year.