de-facebook experiment

photography is going well....the exhibition is in 2 weeks and I took over 800 photos for Holy week, you can see some on facebook. now to what i want to talk about...my deactivation from facebook for lent. I decided to do this for many reasons but one main reason was that i was just wasting a lot of time. i felt that this social network became the way i knew about everyone's business without really asking about them to their face. So as I saw uploads and status messages, I felt the more traditional means of communication was becoming obsolete, but i was also finding that close friendships started to strain as a result of not having a normal phone conversation...so I deactivated.

In the first 2-3 days of my deactivation, part of me wanted to reactivate, but I stuck to my guns. I spent 55 days not knowing if someone was sick, if they were in the bathroom, what they were eating and I found myself that my time that I spent on facebook went to other things (okay so I do have a twitter account), but I was a little more productive with my time and I had more meaningful one on one conversations with people. I did however miss out on invitations to places since I just wasnt on facebook for people to click on me and invite me to a party....but I was okay with out understanding that it's just easier to invite on facebook rather than sending out a mass text or heaven forbid a phone call.

Easter Sunday rolled around and I reactivated and I found myself to be overwhelmed by information overload. Once again I know about the 600 or so 'friends' I have on facebook. Here are my findings from this social deactivation experiment.

1- Facebook is an excellent tool to find people you've lost touch over the years (that includes the people I grew up with in Pleasantville and college friends)
2- I can't possibly remember everyone's birthdays--facebook is great for that...
3- Facebook has made us socially lazy to have one on one communications....in my opinion, nothing is better than having a good old conversation :)
4- Photos---many people missed my photo postings and it was literally one of things I did after i reactivated.
5- I need to be more active in reaching out to people individually and privately without the social tool.

There's a lot more I'm going to stop for now....watch out for more posts regarding my photography expeditions....

some days arent the best

The other day I had the most awesome opportunity to use friends during for a photo shoot. It was my first photo shoot using my camera in manual mode. I was really excited and so were there. As I kept snapping I noticed I had major lighting issues, my subjects (friends) were either too light or too dark. I was getting frustrated. I started questioning my talent for photography and felt a little down. I can't give up though. I was really humbled knowing that there's just a lot to learn and also that my friends are supporting my hobby. Many people have been telling me that I should start a side business but I feel at this point in time it would take the fun out of what I love to do. There's something about capturing a moment at the right time (with of course the right exposure)....At the end of the day I realized that all photographers go through this....there are some bad/off days, but I did manage to come out with some nice shots.

I have a new respect for photographers who do shoots for a living...there is so much effort and pressure to make sure that the image is perfect.

photo love

so much has happened this year and i haven't kept up on this blog to document the egyptian revolution and the aftermath that basically brought out all sorts of skeletons in the closet. one of which including that the egyptian interior ministry was behind the bombing in alexandria....there was an earthquake in japan followed by a tsunami...one of the worst disasters recorded....

however behind the current events, i started to do something that i love....photography. i started taking classes. i was so scared my first day not knowing if i would make friends or even if i would be good at it. it turns out, i have made new friends, and i find some sort of refuge by taking photos. this past weekend i had an amazing backdrop to actually snap in manual mode....and i impressed myself, although others haven't stopped with the critiques. all those photo lovers with point and shoot...you're missing out on manual mode...the reason being...you have extra creative control....

so hopefully ill post more about my experience, it's truly amazing for me :)