The One with the First Session

Having flown all the way from KL to Penang just to attend the “From Ordinary to Extraordinary workshop”, I was totally psyched out because I couldn’t control the joy and excitement within myself. Why was I excited? I wanted to reach to newer levels of photography and having just started photography from scratch a little over a year ago, I just wanted to improve myself not just as a photographer but as a wedding photographer.

The first session started at 5.30pm, Friday evening and it was awesome! Although I wished that we had more time (of course I wanted more time to absorb), I had to make sure that I was a sponge and took plenty of notes. Hours just flew by and I didn’t even noticed that the time passed so fast. I met some pretty amazing people in the workshop as well.

Initially I really thought that I might be one of the only participant to come from another state, but there were 4 others from other states! Eugene and Stevie drove up from KL on Friday (this really made me wonder why did I take a flight??) whilst Clement flew in from Sandakan, Sabah and Bernard flew in from Kuching. I was totally blown away by the level of enthusiasm the other participants showed.

By the time the first session ended, the local guys brought us to New Lane to eat some delicious local cuisine. I did as what every other tourist would have done, I ordered “char koay teow”, ate some oysters fried in egg and feasted on some awesome “satay”. Not only was the food delicious, but Sehu voluntarily paid for our dinner. Sehu, thank you so much for the treat. If you ever drop by in PJ/KL area, I will gladly return the favour.

George, who is another participant of the workshop also did me a kind favour and gave me a lift back to the apartments I am staying in. I knew he really went out of his way to give me a lift home and it wasn’t a quick drive but a 20 minute drive. George, thank you so much for the lift and I really appreciate it. Whenever you are down in PJ/KL, give me a buzz and I will buy you a meal!

Frankly, I wondered if I did shoot some photos of the session and of what conspired throughout my day, it would tell a better story, no? As what I learned in this session about photography, I also want to bring my writing to a higher level. No, I will not become a fantastic writer overnight as well but if I take baby steps, the same baby steps which I want to achieve in my next shoot, I would be overjoyed.

So yes, no photos will be posted up with this post as I try to paint a picture of what happened throughout the day using just words. Also you might notice that I am not mentioning much of the contents of the workshop. If you really want to know more about it, I strongly suggest that you sign up for the workshop. It is truly worth all the money it costs and on top of that, I am paying even more by flying to Penang, travelling around by taxi and incurring more and more costs (also taking into account that I am getting poisoned by the rest to get a Nikon 70-200mm lens).

I fully agree with what Louis told me, I will not put a price tag on education because learning is lifelong and I cherish every little bit of knowledge and experience I can absorb.

Until the next post, I need to get some rest. Ok, I am sitting at the local Starbucks here in Penang sipping on some apple juice while churning this post up. I promise that my next post will have more pictures in it.