Photographing Dad and Mom

So most of you who knows me personally would probably know that I have recently gotten back to snapping shots of my everyday life. Things that we don't normally see or wouldn't have paid much attention to unless from a forced perspective. Okay, so maybe I do take too many photos of my food. Then again, one can argue that food is a large part of culture and livelihood. BUT, that's not the point of this post.

Brought home my lights and brolly to prepare from tomorrow's photoshoot and decided to test it out on mom just to get a better feel of the equipment. It is, after all, some fresh equipment that I've yet to really field test.

Okay, so I might need to work on my framing a little bit more, but it's truly just a light test, to see if it'll really work and shit. As usual, I throw the photos onto lightroom to take a closer look at the shots, make sure nothing's bad or off focus. I certainly didn't see them (camera's awesome as always). What I saw, instead...

I saw wrinkles breaking out from any possible fold on her skin.
I saw the imbalance in eye size due to the surgery done for her bifocal cornea operation thingy.
I saw the liver spots on her face where the cheekbones are.
I saw the slightly jutting jawline that popped out with her new set of dentures that never fit (I think it's her 5th or 6th set now. Dad says even if a deity bestows a fresh set for her, she will still not like it)

It got me thinking about how much she has aged. And it is an interesting feeling for me because all these while, we kept saying that my mom who's 60-ish (shit I can't remember her exact age) probably still looks 40-ish. Youthful energy!!! And then reality hits when I zoom in and see all those signs of time spent taking care of the family, hitting a loan shark runner with a metal pole (true story), making awesome tea and coffee, being a "professional" gambler and many more. Damn she's old!

It's the same when I took a photo for Dad. He was complaining the first photo I took for him wasn't decent looking. Well, he was topless and I was just taking a photo for his google account set up following his new RedMi phone.

And the exact same thing! Okay, Dad's photo wasn't as surprising to me. His body had already shrunk by some bit, and I've been trying to convince him to shave his head instead of holding on to that set of thin, grey hair left at the back. Balding men look older than bald men, don't you think?

Anyways, I'm really glad I got that new camera. With a smaller camera, I'm so much less reluctant to take it out and just randomly snap some shots. Forget about the shutter count and make the photos count.

A Blue Sky To Welcome Me Home

Blue Skies by Bruce Lim on 500px

X-pensive Sha Gua Ji

Dramatic Skies by Bruce Lim on 500px

So I've recently gotten my hands on the Fuji X100s and I have to say, I'M LOVING IT! Everything about it just feels right, the handling, the way the pictures turn out, how silent that little boy is (I literally look a photo of someone from right behind him... twice!). It's been a joy playing around with the camera, my only regret is not being good enough for it...

Bonding Ride by Bruce Lim on 500px

Nevertheless, I did bring it everywhere I went should a good shot pop up. It's so light and small that I won't have to think twice about bringing it around! The quick startup doesn't hurt too!

Big Business by Bruce Lim on 500px

It's a very different situation from shot to shot. Sometimes, I'd like to get better skin tones, sometimes I'd want a more vibrant color for the skies. Film simulations in the camera work so well that I'd normally just take the JPEGs out instead. That said, there are times when I'd already taken the shot, so all I had to do was go into raw conversion in camera to process a different JPEG out of the camera, takes some time, but definitely beats taking a second shot.

Color of Autumn? by Bruce Lim on 500px

I'm a little bummed by the fact that the RAW conversion software provided in the CD doesn't support those gorgeous film simulations, though. Oh wells... I'll just snap away either ways! Anyone up for a simple walkabout shoot?