Luzzio

I don’t know where to start with this.

Well first of all, let me introduce to you Pearl’s butt (she says “hi!”), who will later be featured in our analysis of Malaysian photographers.

Malaysian photographers. The only photographers I know, because I’ve yet to see a Brit here carrying around a DSLR.

Attend an MSSM society event however, and you’ll see boys carrying it around their neck, D300’s, D90’s, Canon 50D’s, white lenses(!!), basically the geek equivalent of carrying up to RM10,000 (£1,500) worth of bling. Hell most tai-tai’s dont even carry that much value around their necks. My question to them is, what’s the point? What kind of photos do you expect to take in a crowded sardine-con? The most I’ve done when going to an event in which I’m not a designated photographer is attach the small little prime 50mm. That’s it. Even with that one felt like I had the sign “ROB ME!” over my head.

The funniest part is that these people, with their fucking huge mega omg look at me and my gear attitude, don’t take photos. No. They sit there, huddled together, not sure how to join in the crowd with the awkward black things around their neck jutting out like a rude penis, again, not taking any photos. The occasional gear talk comes up, I suppose, then it’s back to the silence. Something in their heads seem to tick ‘bring the dslr’ to any opportunity (Tik Tsin this is where an awesome cameraphone comes in right?)

As if it’s not silly enough, then there are the, I suppose, hm… wait let me place a word for this… it’s at the tip of my tongue… drone? No…geek? Offensive to me… hmm…sheep? Yes. Sheep. I present to you… brand sheeps.

not taken by me

Look at that! Woooooo an entire battalion of red shirted people, generously provided for by Canon. This was taken by someone who attended the Canon Photomarathon Sunway event. The big three brands (Nikon, Sony, and Canon) host these kind of events once in awhile, and I’ve been to the Sony workshop before (and failed miserably in the competition), but that’s it. That, as you see above, is something I could never do. I could never take off my own shirt and put on a brand (shut up, the clothes I buy have no brand logo on them), then allow myself to be marched among a thousand other similarly dressed people.

This is the best part:

Mohd Assafri aka Asap, who has just acquired his 1st DSLR last week, thought of joining the Canon Photo Marathon to learn and gain more experience for his newly started DSLR journey, which turned out to be one of the best moments in his lifetime, as he scored the grand prize of Japan Trip and 500D + 18-55mm IS.

You can see the rest on that here.

Of course, the most sinful transgression is none of the above. Not at all, dear reader, not at all. It is something so sinister, so face-cringing, I can’t even force my mouth to say it. So the poor fingers will suffer; watermarking.

let’s take a break and have another look at pearl.

An example of how watermarking is such a rampant disease among us can be seen in the lowyat flickr group. I don’t know if SmashPoP’s large white pasted fonts fall into this category, but hey, he’s an amazing phoggie with or without them anyway, so I’ll leave that as an exception.

There is no difference between pasting a pretty girl’s face and putting “Luzzio Photography” onto the bottom right of your picture. There is no difference. It prettifies the picture.

Now my photo looks like an amazing fashion advert.

Or an amazing cover for 2009’s Pulitzer prize winner. Or maybe some chick lit.

Most of the time, of course, they look like the above.

It’s disgusting.

Some of them take quite good photos, to be honest, so I’ve no idea why they feel a need to do that. No one’s going to take your pictures. No one’s going to steal your pictures, or have any intention to buy any of the majority of the crap you take (face it, if you’re posting on flickr or lowyat you’re not a professional). I doubt most of you even PUT it up as stock for sale. What’s with all this credit-whoring?

If you don’t like what I say don’t comment, and don’t give me all that open web 2.0 maybe-you-should-password-protect argument because this blog is my prerogative and I will delete comments I don’t like. Lowyat has a lot of amazing photographers, though for the most part I think we’re all to a certain extent gearheads first, photographers/hobbyists second.

But I love you guys. Notice that I didn’t put up any particular picture from anyone else because this is not a personal attack. This is a general comment. Ad incase someone calls me arrogant (it’s not even mentioned above, but you never know how far people can jump to conclusions), I need to put a disclaimer:

I know that I myself don’t take good photos and even when people compliment it my instinct demands I refute their compliment by defecating all over my work.

Also, I bought Mcdonald’s today. It was the first time eating fastfood in nearly two months.

Heaven, I tell you.