Selected Excellence: The Young Tess

^ A shot in a cafe on the last day of 2008

Catching sight of some of Tess Roby’s photos on her Flickr page, I was like, "Wow, this aspiring young photographer could be the lady version of SY Hsu." (By the way, SY Hsu, who has appeared in quite a number of our Selected Excellence posts, won in yet another international photo contest after his two consecutive year of winning some prizes in France’s PX3. This time it is the 2009 IPA’s honourable mention.)

She is young but her photos show signs of her talent in photography. A special photographer's eye she has, which I will write some observations as to why tomorrow. If her style can be summarised in one word, it will be "other-worldliness".

^It was the image that misled me to guess that Tess was British. The quality of other-worldliness to the photo may have some bearing on the unspeakable, out-of-this-world Britishness in it. The shot was taken on a farm in Suffolk, England.

Interestingly, this young lady only does film photography with an old camera which we talked about the other day, Olympus OM-1. The photos here are some of her keepers from her OM-1.

For that matter, I asked her, "How did you come to use films and the OM-1?"

"The first film camera I ever used was an OM-1, it was my fathers," she revealed, "He bought it in the 1980's and took it with him on his world travels. Since then, I have gotten my own OM-1 and have been using it since summer 2008. I only do film photography."

^ This photo of Miss Tea taking a cup of tea and showing her eyes is simply eye-catching. It can make you want some tea like now.

Regarding film photography, she explained her passion, " There are so many surprises when you get your photos developed, the quality of the photo seems richer. There's so much excitement around getting rolls of film developed - I love that."

^Tess revealed that this photo about Salinger and cigarettes was taken on a lovely spring day in Trinity Bellwoods Park, Toronto.

So, I asked what her idea about photography is. I especially mentioned to her to give her own views regardless of the other established definitions. Her reply is:

One of the most important things for me in photography is making sure you know what's in your lens. You need to focus on all the aspects of the photo, not just your subject. The subject in the photo also needs to be interesting - it needs to catch people's eyes. I like to take photos of my friends and the adventures we have together, I take photos of what catches my eye hoping it will do the same to others.

^ Self-portrait of Tess in the other-worldly room lit by a light source from the lampshade

Oh, a little bit about our young photographer: Tess Roby is a self-taught photographer now stationed in Toronto. She likes to travel and photograph old and new faces. She's always on the move, except when sleeping in.

Keeping going, Tess! We look forward to seeing your winning works.

(Photos and some texts are courtesy and copyrights of Tess Roby)

A Real Hero

(Grip On Reality: This photo was taken on my way to work. I was walking past trucks parking on a cul-de-sac when the ropes caught my attention. The light was right, the colour was right and the criss-crossing pattern was perfect and I held up my GX200. People passing by checked me out and wondered what could be made out of such a boring scene. To me, the fun in photography is that the photographer makes something interesting out of what is not obvious to most at the scene. The ropes tied in knots somehow reminded people I know who are in the grip of the recession) You must have also known a friend or two, or even yourself, being baffled by the spiral downturn of the economy. Bank went bankrupt and the rich was faced with a shrinking wealth. A friend of mine has just had his salary cut by over 10% and some of his colleagues started to be shed. But, wait. Was this done really for the sake of continuing the business? Or is there a factor or greed in it? I wonder whether the

New Low Prices

The window shopping some hours ago has almost provoked my AgIDS illness. Just in case you’re in Hong Kong or are coming here, and have the money to burn (All in HK$/ body only): GX200 = $3,280 GRD2 = $3,380 LX3 = $3,180 G10 = $3,280 Prices are available form a gear shop on the 1st floor of the Mongkok Computer Centre. Besides these new low prices, I found that Wing Shing Photo (55-57Sai Yeung Choi St., MK Tel: 2396 6886/ 91-95 Fa Yuen St., MK Tel: 2396 6885) is offering a Sony A700 + Carl Zeiss Lens package for HK$9,980 (hopefully, a bargain will make it some hundreds cheaper).

Eye Contact

(Leica D-lux 5) The digital era may make it easier to end up with fave shots. Even lousy photos may be turned likable after a few clicks in the post-processing workflow. But if digital advancement or amendments have any bearing on the cultivation of personal style, no photographers will need to discover his or her own photographer’s eye. Undoutedly, this is out of the question. Only with a trained photographer’s eye can we give a thinking gaze and capture an eternal moment, in our unique style. Style is the soul of a great photo. A few posts have been written in GXG to touch on the topic of photographer’s eye. Instead of finding an answer, which would require academic discussions, the posts are intended to give my general reflections and spark interests in moving towards further exploration of the topic. The posts can be viewed after the links: 1) Photographer's Eye: Storytelling 2) Photographer's Eye: Little Show of Observing 3) Photographer's Eye: Sight-Worthy 4

GX GARNERINGS

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