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The Curious Side of the Lens | Bryan Alexander Lim | TEDxTARUC


and how y’all doing all right so
obviously today I’ll be talking about
photography yeah that’s the amazing
thing about photography we can’t share
about the message that we want to
portray to everyone so for today’s topic
it is the cure side of the lens because
they want to tell everyone like from my
perspective of photography so in the
beginning how I started photography is I
got my first camera right after I
graduated from home five so I got my
first entry level camera and I started
to experiment with it I did all sorts of
photography that’s how we want to
progress so I did this thing called 365
days challenge goodbye every single day
for one whole year yet to post a photo
every single day sounds difficult right
so I did it and it actually helped me
out in the beginning when I stopped at
the thought of people so it helped me to
write so to help me to explore different
kind of photography style for example a
fast shutter speed shooting like random
things such as people falling through
water cheesy things such as this kind of
things oh I saw this kind of things from
Flickr back then it was Flickr we don’t
have Instagram or like Facebook so yeah
and then this kind of things like water
droplets this were the things I saw that
when I started to explore it’s really
amazing because these kind of things you
can’t see with your bare eyes so Togepi
you can use it as a tool to see things
that we usually don’t see and from that
perspective it opens your department it
opens a thought in your mind
to bigger things in the world and I did
like normal stuff shooting weddings
shooting in bands and this way I started
doing portraits I was inspired by this
commercial photographer called Dave hill
he did all this kind of effect
everything has like a specific story to
it so this is possible Halloween things
that I shot like long time ago and then
this kind of things
I always enjoy capturing things in
motion like for example of what this
feeling or like smoking and those kind
of things that you can’t see with your
eyes so it makes it more unique and now
we’re moving on to defining a style this
is a very important thing for all
photographers or anyone basically who’s
doing anything you want to be unique you
want to stand out so when I did my
photography when I started off I did
channel 65 photos for one whole year and
then I start to understand and I explore
myself like what kind of photography do
I want to specialize in and that’s when
I started to explore the world of
manipulation using Photoshop and I call
it surrealism it’s called fine art
photography so basically surrealism is
things that are not real but from the
photographer’s perspective it is what he
sees and what you could leave him and
all these photos that I shot it has a
story to it all from my experience or
for my background things that I want to
share with people so usually how I do it
is I would just give like the single
title and it’s up to you on how you want
to see the photograph because that’s the
fun thing about photography everyone
comes from different background and from
different background you have different
ideas and different
Taunton that’s the amazing thing about
telling stories so they’re like this
kind of things and then I moved on to
taking my affection and street
photography and I thought like how can I
use my inflation and put it into my
style so I did this kind of things as
well for like sneakers and stuff like
that and then I started to do more of
this kind of stuff like street
photography as well long shot then this
kind of photos like always amazing you
know you just want to see the light
feels it’s so amazing and then a little
bit of outdoor stuff as well capturing
stars things that you know people don’t
usually see and now I want to talk about
the top process of like how I come up
with my ideas so this is one thing that
I want you guys to bring home today so
that you can apply it to anything you do
when it comes to the thought process one
thing that’s really important is you
have to utilize your five senses that
God gave us you know a sense of touch
sight taste and and the rest of it you
know because this are the things that
will help you to get inspiration so for
example one thing that I always get this
from music sense of hearing
I always listen to all sorts of music
and then it gives me inspiration and it
puts me into the mood when I come up
with an idea so how I do it is I would
usually sketch out a photo to begin with
I will plan like what kind of props do I
want to use what kind of clothes do I
want to wear for it and and then I go
out and execute the photo so it came
something like that
and this is the photo series that
everyone has been asking me about what
what is it about basically it’s called
wish you were here
I started this series of back when I was
studying in the UK because like when I
was away of this place it’s like in
London Paris and that touch of myself
like oh man it’s kind of lonely like
it’ll be amazing it’s like someone was
with me to enjoy the view
so I started this series and until today
every place that I go to pick the folder
with the boy this you were here and now
behind the scenes how do I shoot and how
do I eat my photo okay so in my backyard
I saw like this middle opening and it’s
kind of cool so I wanted to do like
something like a wall whereby you want
to climb over and see what’s behind it
and then it came on like that yeah the
power of using Photoshop is really good
but use it to a point where it’s to
inspire people not to you know frame
someone I mean right yeah
and this was in UK okay so usually all
the behind the scenes for you they look
really awkward and weird like this okay
so this is one of the toughest photos
that I’ve ever done
it’s about accumulation of 40 photos
measurement into one so basic as you can
see there’s a frame a mirror and a my
on the side so what I did was I take
every single photo and then I started to
compile them and then on the right hand
side it’s not the finished product yeah
so I wondered would like a different
dimension a different wall so I put like
a forest and then after that I will do
the color correction and then this is
the point yeah this one took me two days
to do yeah it’s pretty hard to do the
hands because you have to like make sure
every single detail is correct
so if say like a single light thing or
like the angle is wrong then it would
definitely trough the photo and now
moving on to storytelling storytelling
true photography is something that I
always believe in every single photo has
to have a story so for example this
photo that I took the title is called
set it off so basically it’s about you
know love so it’s like a love that is
dying which is represented by the flower
which is on fire and the water which is
to set it off so basically that’s the
story about it and then this is called
the art of conversation basically in a
room in a relationship there must always
be a two-way communication it’s not just
one so this is basically a
representation of a one-way conversation
it’s like the mirror and the cop in the
strings like you’re talking to yourself
and then this was one of my first
surrealism Cannavaro this was like a
long time ago yeah this is also about
love you know so
and now I want to share about the
curiosity beyond photography what else
do I do
it’s iconography and how do i how do I
bring out other things explore my
creativity so I started a clothing line
called obscure with my partner we do but
I export it by a clothing line and I
just wanna I’m gonna talk much about the
brand itself but I’m gonna talk about
how I apply in my photograph scale into
the fold of the XO so this is some of
the photos that I took the loophole so
it’s all about motion about story a lot
of details on the background on the
location and then here are some of the
photos as well like it’s really weird
but I don’t know I just really enjoyed
and besides fashion brand I do this
thing called magnets I mean 2xe as well
it is a football platform where I am
stories about local football so for this
I think photographs and I write as well
because I always feel that I don’t want
to confine myself that’s just a
photographer there’s so much room to
explore things that can help you to
express better I know that taking photos
is a good way to express but writing is
also another form for you to express
different kind of feelings and ideas so
basically this gives me an opportunity
to do a little bit of a sports
photography as well it’s not really one
of my favorite because it’s quite tough
and then I had like a photo exhibition
Japan as well for the photo and some of
my Japanese friends that I met and then
this was in Cambodia so I’ve been there
for like a TV show and then there was
like Cambodian kids playing football and
then the ball that they used were like
really bad you know like the skin peeled
off
it looks like it’s no hair in it and
then I thought why not just buy some
balls and provide them you know so like
after I gave the ball to them they were
like so happy and then we all just
played together
yeah and last but not least I started a
ryan crew called me me thirsty some of
the guys are here so we because these
actually a running platform where my we
run and then we trying to express our
creative part you know running is not
just running running helps you to
express yourself as well when you run
you’ve cleared your mind it helps you
think better and that we can help you to
come up with ideas you know it doesn’t
just make you feel just so um stuff and
after a long day you just run and then
you feel much better and before running
this was me that’s me it helps you lose
weight and then I started to do things
more productive and then yeah I just
really need you to live life to the
fullest you know then yeah that’s how
the crew guys yeah so in conclusion I
just want to let everyone know that do
not confine
so to just one particular skill always
explore always look down for other
things that you can’t do no photography
is a good way right thing is a good way
music as well all the things you take it
and you try and explore different kinds
of things so my name is Brian thank you
very much
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