Happy Anniversary CanCan Baby

July 2011, Christmas came wayyy early and I was given my first DSLR Canon 450D by my dear dear cousin, Arman Priadi. He knew I have always loved photography, but I have never taken myself seriously for it. His picture of MONAS (National Monument) that he hung in his room created from 10 or more parts pasted together, stayed etched in my mind. It was at least a decade ago that I first saw it and photography has not reached today's digital era yet.

It took me a long long while to actually figure out what the freak those buttons can do. Heck, I didn't even know how to focus. I spent days mulling over this alien machine and all the thousand pictures I took were either black, blur or both. Seriously in such a short days, I was on the verge of giving up. Then, seeing my agony, Sis bought me a Groupon class. Or rather I MADE her buy with all the whining.

Thank God for it, I found my Shifu Wilson Wong US, catch his website here http://www.wilzworkz.com/. It has been 2 years! I remembered the first question I asked him was, "Why my shutter just wouldn't click?". I am probably one of the laziest student he ever had, but he has always encouraged me with all the SPIN posts (do join us there), never failing to share his expertise with his own quirky ways. One photography walk after another, I find myself deleting one picture after another as I see them not up to my standard, definitely not up to Shifu's standard. Yet, I learned to never give up, keep on practicing, learn to respect my own work and learned that one does not need to have the best machine to produce a great work. Super thankful and grateful to find a mentor like him. Appreciate all the hard work he put in to guide us newbies and I have always said he is like an energizer bunny who never stopped to rest, he really is.

I have come a long way, but there is definitely a longer way to go to improve myself. I have been lucky as I have most-of-the-time willing models to practice on, such as my nephew and niece and of course my little photogenic baby girl, April. Also has been lucky to have great photography friends (you know who you are) who never stinged on sharing their knowledge with me, answering my stupid questions and some who always asked me to buy buy buy  !!!

P.S. Before I get hate PMs (seriously I don't know why, but I always get it, especially on Facebook).
Take note that pictures below are some of my favorites, definitely ain't the best for some of you experts, but I love them and it's all that matters. See how I have improved, yay!