mentors and a deck of cards…

December 16, 2009 in monochrome, photography, ramblings, thoughts
Tags: amazing, and, black, education, interview, magic, mentor, monochrome, nikon, photography, polytechnic, singapore, teach, temasek, white

Kids needs a target… sometimes, we, the arrow…

Being a photographer doesn’t mean taking photos 24/7/365, but to get others to take photos as well. At exactly 12pm, I met up with 3 students of Temasek Polytechnic studying journalism and had an interview with them.

Basically, it’s a “How I got to be a photographer” interview. But knowing me to be me, meeting up with them got me thinking of how far I have gone since those college days and the amount of things that I know now that probably would be a gem to have if I knew back then.

Educating the young is a very important aspect of photography. Not only in the means of getting them into schools and holding a class, but to get them out and chase their dreams. How many of us have dreamt big dreams only to be extinguished in the classroom of, “no, you can’t do it that way…” I have my fair share, trust me on that.

And if you are nodding your head in unison, don’t despair just yet cos this is why I am writing this. The vast amount of knowledge we have should be shared, in ways that makes our youth in society aspire to be great. I use the word great like I would use the word to describe Einstein.

So how do we make a difference? How about putting some of your expertise to good use? Have a mentoring programme?

an interview and a starbucks coffee

So I was sitting there with these 3 kids right, and they were talking about the interview, the projects for their school and a lot more about their education. The first thing that I felt was, they weren’t exactly enthusiastic about the things that they did, in the sense that I am enthusiastic giving that interview. Now how can they be jaded when they just started? Something’s gotta be wrong somewhere.

What’s a deck of cards got to do with all this?

Magic tricks and a business card...

Well, I was talking about photography and this boy kept on playing with his deck of cards, and I was wondering what’s the deal with it, so he started showing me card tricks, like amazing magic card tricks and I was pretty impressed. He did it pretty well, and I asked him how long has he been at it. 1 year! So that’s it, if a guy takes a deck of cards wherever he goes and keeps on learning tricks and repeats it and keeps practicing, the improvement will be tremendous.

So who takes their camera wherever you go? So anyone who wants to excel in anything needs a certain amount of gumption, the passion to take their art wherever they go and have the enthusiasm to go for it, and that means having a camera along wherever they go?

So back to the point on enthusiasm. Why are these kids talking to me and looking jaded? I have this funny feeling that they need a sense of occasion to do things that they want to do. And I am talking about getting out there and actually doing it. How many times have you done things alone and wondered if you are doing it right? All those moments of second guessing? Now, how about us doing them a favour and taking them out and point them in the right direction? I sure needed that when I was their age… Mentoring, could be something great.