A photographer friend of mine once wrote on his Facebook status. “To produce great pictures is to see the world in more interesting ways.”

He argued that gadgets and filters can only take you so far, but whether or not your pictures speak to the beholders, it all depends on how interesting you are. It is a sum of the books you’ve read, the movies you’ve seen, the music you’ve listened to, the people you’ve met, and the paths you’ve trodden.

His words have stayed with me since then. They have pushed me to make a conscious effort of expanding my repertoire: I began to watch movies hailed as classics, make good use of my Spotify Discover, and even sign up to an online poetry workshop on Coursera.

They also led me to a whole new world. His world: photography.

I used to approach taking pictures with a clinical sense of perfection. Every element of the pictures had to follow the right choreography to tell the story of how great life is. I would follow all the rules — the rule of third, the rule of A6 filter, the rule of staged effortless beauty.

This year, I want as little of that as possible. I want to strip myself of that impossible obsession with perfection. I want to be in the moment. I want raw and unapologetic.

So, with a little help from another photographer friend, I bought myself a Pentax K-1000 on a whim. I have been in love with analog cameras and films ever since. The idea of not knowing how my action — a single click of the shutter button — will turn out… I find it so romantic.

I don’t have the liberty to unthinkingly take countless of pictures as I would with a digital camera. And even if I have the urge to, I can’t pore over the hundred results to choose the best shot and apply the best filter right there and then. But that is exactly what is so liberating about analog photography. And that is what ensnared me.

Judging from the pictures below that I took from the past few weeks, my efforts to see the world in more interesting ways haven’t fully manifested. I haven’t become that much more interesting.

Yet, crazy as it may sound, I’m over the moon with excitement. Here’s to imperfection!

 

Credits:

All pictures taken by me.