Sometime back, I read that The Jeju Weekly, an English newspaper in Jeju, was planning to publish a photo special of Jeju and was inviting readers to contribute photos for this spread in several categories: Coast, Mountains, Seasons, People, Food, Jeju City or Seogwipo City, Travel and Patterns.
I decided to submit eight photos that I had taken of Jeju last November to the newspaper. Apart from this being a fun thing to do, I was curious to know how it feels to see something that I created in print. I wanted to have a new experience, or whatever one calls such feelings.
Of the eight, four managed to make their way to print together with photos of 12 other contributors. The online edition of the spread came out today and it is available here and I am waiting for a hardcopy of the newspaper to be mailed to me.
The photos of Jeju are really not my best. When I was sifting through my photos to shortlist some for the submission, I wished I had done better.
I find myself lamenting: If only I had used a neutral filter…. If only I had tilted the camera a little to the right….. If only I had bent down a bit more… If only I had adjusted the exposure, If only I had moved back five steps…and the ‘Ifs’ are simply endless. I find myself thinking “if only I had a chance to redo this shot, I would have….”
That’s the thing about photography: you only have one chance, most of the time, to capture a specific moment or a particular scene and if you don’t make the best of it, that moment disappears. For instance, you might experience the loveliest light at one point in time but once the clouds move a wee bit, the lighting alters and that moment seems alot different from what it appeared to be just a minute before.
Or sometimes, you hanker after getting the perfect shot that you completely miss out on experiencing the beauty of your surroundings.
At the risk of sounding cliched, I feel that photography is in many ways like Life: I tend to forget to savour the little moments of what life has to offer us because I am always focusing on something else that seems more important.
It is weird. Until a couple of years ago, the camera was just something I used to document my travels: me and/or TBH posing for photos at places we were vacationing at. The fact that I enjoy photography as a hobby still bewilders me today.
I shall try to add a gallery of the Jeju photos tomorrow. Too tired right now to figure these things out.
Before I go to bed tonight, I have to remember to vote for Jeju to be named as one of the New Seven Wonders of Nature. 🙂
