This has to be a good enough reason for my new love.

Most of my avid blogger friends currently based in Melbourne have managed to post up images from the Moomba Festival happening over the weekend. So I thought I’d chip in my angle of Moomba.

No one has really talked about the pyrotechnicians so far, and I might be the only idiot who fell in love with them. But look, I got shots that I know I’d never be able to get if not for their baton twirling and whateveritis that these fire-loving artists do. Here’s a little well-deserved recognition to these daring souls, risking their lives for art and entertainment.

I wanted to post a close-up, more impactful image of the pyrotech at work, but the picture above gives more context, so I guess… situation over artistic value this time. But hey, that was still taken with a shutter speed of… ten seconds, I’d think? Or maybe five. Now you’d understand why I love my tripod.

Aside from that, it’s a big relief and sense of self-pride having finished my first experimental photography assignment. I’m not going to show what pictures I’ve chosen to print out to be handed in next week, but all I know is that I’ve gotten extremely lucky in so many ways. I personally couldn’t be prouder of the two shots I’ve produced and now left to dry at the printing lab.

I know I said nothing could match up to YJ’s side profile portrait shoot. My second piece sure didn’t; but I suppose it’s in a league of its own and my heart shifts from one image to the other. To the decorative paper-star lamps sold at Queen Victoria Night Market: thank you.

The whole point of this entry is that after such a gruelling time of choosing the cream of the crop, I’m beginning to realise what a truly good photography shot is. Out of the thousands of images that I have in my iPhoto, maybe only a hundred can be labelled as good captures. The rest are either hopeless, good-but-pointless, average and… almost made it.

It’s not about appropriation and just good lighting/ good colours, it’s about the overall composition, angle and the whole range of technique explored within one image.

I have to sadly leave photography behind for now and try to focus on my batik research and experimentation. It’s ironic how I’m looking at my homeland’s craft from a third person’s point of view. But maybe that’s the only way for me to learn.