It was during my childhood days when I was watching movies, oftentimes there were scenes that show a person going inside a red-lit, dark room to develop a photograph. I often said to myself, "Wow!, I wanna do that.", but it was more on the process of developing the photograph rather than taking it that inspired me, maybe in my mind I just find it "cool", taking a piece of paper dipping it in different solutions at a time and then the picture starts to show and there you have it, a photograph.
During those days, my grandmother was still alive and she was living with us that time and I had this old film camera, (I think it was my uncle's) I saw my grandmother having her siesta on a wooden bench outside the house, I can't believe my luck, then I took a photo of her and it was perfect, beautiful and I called it "Siesta". This photo is very close to my heart.
When I was growing up the dream of photography was stalled, but my eye for beauty grew. It was not until I came here in Saudi Arabia for work, that that dream of photography was slowly awakened. It started when I bought my first digital camera, I remember it was a Samsung digimax 301, I'd been using it until 2006, I didn't like it that much but that was the only camera that I could afford at that time, any camera cheaper than that would probably render useless (that was a joke). I didn't see any reason why I should buy a new digital camera, since I was not deeply interested in pursuing my dream of photography, at least not yet.
In 2008, I've learned about blogging, and this blog was the first one I've created. My objective was to express my thoughts and feelings while living here in Saudi Arabia, and as you may all know, Saudi Arabia's society is not normal compared to, let say, the Philippines or the U.S.. I then added my second blog which I appropriately called "Camera Ni Cabrera", my initial objective here was to capture in picture the country's surroundings and it's culture. This blog gave me the renewed interest in pursuing my dream of photography and with this blog, I've decided to take digital photography to the next level and even though I don't have proper training, I will just have to let my instinct and my love for beauty to take over. I'm sure I have this within me.
Digital photography is just a hobby for me and it will remain that way, I don't have any plans to be a professional photographer. This is just probably my way of escaping the boredom and loneliness that I'm experiencing here in Saudi Arabia. Every time I look at my photoblogs and seeing those tiny, little flags which indicate where the visitors of my blog came from, I feel a different kind of happiness, somehow I feel like I'm accepted, a part of the system.
Taking photos here in Saudi Arabia can be a little frustrating sometimes. Most people don't welcome the idea of a camera pointing at them specially women and children, but sometimes you get lucky. At this moment, I have 3 photoblogs. I've already mentioned the first one, the second is "La Fotografia de Pepe" on wordpress, which is a back-up blog for the first one and the third is the newest, it's just a couple of weeks old, It is called "La Fotografia de Pepe Cabrera" hosted by Aminus3 Photoblogs.
I'm inviting all of you to visit my photoblogs sometimes. I want to share to you all what I've seen through the lens of my camera. I guarantee you that it'll inspire you and bring out the artistic side of you, like what it did to me.
Vote:
Join:
