Pin Pasol: Not everything can be photoshopped.

I have learned a lot of things tonight, photography wise, and I want to share it with you guys.

Technically, I haven’t missed a single photo day of my 365, but I wasn’t on flickr everyday. The reason why, because I thought I knew enough.

I thought I knew enough because when I shoot outdoors, most of the time I get a good exposure. When I shoot indoors, I know exactly when to raise my ISO, manipulate my aperture and have the focus I wanted, when to shoot in tripods for long exposures, to where I position my flash, blah blah blah blah.

I thought I knew enough, until tonight.

There were a lot of things going on with my work lately and there wasn’t a time that I got home not exhausted. To compensate for my 365, I still shoot, even if it’s not that creative, simple things that will make me remember the day when I look at the photograph. The bad thing was, it became a habit, until I wasn’t even trying to shoot something flickr-worth. I did a lot of planning, concepts, dresses, lighting, title down to the smallest detail, but no photoshoot happened.

I was okay with it for a while, not until tonight, when my cousins Joy, Ice, Glen and I did a photo shoot. We were so excited but my enthusiasm slowly turned into disappointment when I didn’t get the results I wanted.

"How's the light position again?"

"Why can't I make this thing look good?"

"What is happening with me?!"

For the first time, I only got 5 good shots out of 300, isn’t that frustrating?!

Not everything can be photoshopped. You need at least a good shot and make it look outstanding with the help of photoshop. Photoshop alone can't do your work!!!!

Photography isn’t just manipulating your camera or sitting with your laptop all day. You cannot learn photography in few days, or weeks- it takes a lifetime and unless you let it become a part of your life, you will never learn. Tonight I realized that I did spend thousands of pesos for my camera to bring out my creativity, not to learn to cheat myself.

Honestly, now that I am browsing the outtakes, I feel sorry for myself. I recognize that I haven’t been in my best and I'm starting to miss my old self- the one who is excited to be home early to catch the sun set at the attic, the one who goes for a photowalk, alone, the one who wastes the rest of her night with her laptop photoshopping, the one who spends two hours in a book store reading photography magazines.

Photography isn’t simple, it takes a lot of valour and dedication.I realized my perseverance is starting to fade out, and it scares the hell out of me. I thought I knew enough, now I realized I know nothing.