By Venessa Anthony
World Photography Day is an annual, worldwide celebration of the art, craft, science, and history of photography. A photograph has the ability to capture a place, experience, idea, or moment, and for this reason, it’s said that a picture is worth a thousand words. Photographs can convey a feeling faster than, and sometimes even more effectively than, words. A photograph can make the viewer see the world the way the photographer sees it.
Photographs even transcend the passing of time – a photo from a hundred years ago can still be as appreciated now, as it was then; a photo taken tomorrow can still be just as appreciated in a hundred years’ time.
In honour of today being World Photography Day, The Morning Brunch reached out to a few local photographers with various skillsets to see what advice they have to offer to aspiring photographers.
Arantha Sirimanne, whose extraordinary eye for capturing the perfect shot enabled him to become the exclusive photographer for Miss Sri Lanka for Miss World in 2011 and 2012 consecutively, has also been dubbed as Asia’s Most Sought-After Photographer by several international magazines. Sharing some words of advice on the art of photography, Sirimanne urged one to take a good look inside themselves and see if one has the passion for the field, pointing out that there are plenty of up-and-coming photographers these days, who in his observation have little to no idea of what it takes to be a photographer.
“Calling yourself a photographer is not simply about owning a fancy, new camera – if one lacks the passion, it will show in your shots, and you will never be able to make it in the field,” he expressed.
In conversation with The Morning Brunch, Ayesh Dananjaya Perera immediately noted that photography is not an easy job; it requires a lot of skill and years of hard work and dedication that goes into perfecting the craft, adding that if he was to say everything was a challenge when it came to his career in photography, then he still wouldn’t be wrong.
Perera shared that time is the most important factor to consider where travel photography is concerned. “There is always a perfect time to capture your image, be it at sunrise or sunset – time waits for no one,” he explained. He added that one’s poor understanding of time means they will have to work faster and snap the click – a skill only acquired through experience – and urged budding photographers to perfect their notions of time.
Supun Buddika, better known online as Kofloo, took photography one step further and ventured into the art of travel videography. In his opinion, any aspiring videographer must have a simple script in their head, even though they may be freestyling the actual end-product. He also added that if one is considering working on cinematic vlogging, a simple fact to remember is to “capture every single frame in the footage to look like a good photo”, so the viewer won’t be bored. He noted that despite how hard it’ll be at the beginning, if you have the passion, you shouldn’t stop pursuing the art.