As a kid, I have always
wonder how it feels to be in someone else’s shoe—being in another place with a
different culture, belief, life. Eventually, I realized that it’s an impossible
dream. I can never teleport or live a double life, but I sure can go and wander
around any place I want given time and resources. And so, I started planning
for simple travels like around the city or next town or even the neighborhood. There
might be something new or interesting I could find just around the bend, you
know. God might have heard my quest to go places that He let me be with the
right crowd and school and became one of those that travel to compete for just
about anything the school wants to compete on. Modesty aside, I might be one of
the very few lucky students of my age who have roamed around the region at that
time—at the expense of my school and teachers. If there’s one thing I spend
money on, its camera. My very first camera was a KB 10 by Kodak. This camera
lasted my 4 years in high school and then 5 years in college. I still even had
it when I started working.
Traveling and photography
are my only passions in life. Even after school, I choose to pursue a career
that involves traveling and of course, photography. From a lomo, point and
shoot camera, I switched to a smallish digital camera. It’s one of the very
first from Sony, the DSC Cybershot. This one lasted my exploring hands and eyes
for about 8 years before I made up my mind that a more professional and
creative tool to document my memories would be a wise investment. So I went for
a digital single mirror lens reflex camera. Among many brands, I chose Nikon.
My first DSLR was a D3100, an entry level of the brand to enthusiast photographers.
Fortunately, I chose a very well rounded camera but taking it to the beach and
low temperature areas proved to be a bad idea when its steel parts started to
buildup rust. Also, I’m not the most careful photographer. I dropped it along
with some rocks I took as souvenir from the famous Misibis Island in Albay.
That incident rendered my camera useless but armed with the warranty, the
service center was forced to restore it without cashing in a single penny from
me.
My travels and passion to
capture every single memory of my wandering around required a better camera and
lens over time. I felt it was time to move on so I sold the camera and bought
another one, the Nikon D3200. It has almost the same features as my old cam but
higher pixel counts allowed it to capture more alluring images. Today, I have
already and finally bought a better lens. I am also making little money out of
my passion, both traveling and photography. So if you have the same passion as I
have, just go ahead and live your dreams. There’s nothing sweeter than earning
even how little from doing what you love doing the most. J
