Masterpiece

I recently browsed through all the photos I posted on my Flickr site, in an attempt to possibly pick out any I could add to my pingyima site. There are perhaps 800 some photos in total, most of which are from my trips and holiday get-togethers with my family and friends dated back 8 years. I thought if I tried digging deep enough, you never know, I might find a good photo I framed in my camera by random luck. Tried as I might, the disappointing reality settled in at the end of the effort: Not a single photography could suffice my lowest standard.

This is how I think of a masterpiece in photography and any other art forms. Good photography to me has to present three things: 1) good eyes, 2) good technique, and 3) good luck. Good eyes discover beauty. It determines the material of an image. It's an "it"-nature factor. You either have "it" or don't have "it". It's what your parents gave to you at birth. Good technique dresses beauty. It polishes the material of an image. It's a "he"/"she"-nurture factor. It's what can be humanly trained and learned. Good luck is a "He"-God factor. It's what's at God's mercy-a right moment at a right time. "He" is the one who creates the material in the first place. When you present your parents, yourself and God in one photograph, then you get a wow factor - a masterpiece at last!'

One can travel seven seas and most likely take some magnificent shots but if we might only see 3) in them. To make what I want to say a little understandable, here is an example. For instance, we pick up our cameras and took some photos when we see a herd of sheep appear under a rainbow. Everyone's shots are in and they are all different shots of the sheep herd and rainbows except one. In this photo, it shows a single sheep with injured legs going the opposite direction from the herd (good eyes), seemingly lost under the shadow of the herd (good eyes and good technique), but undoubtablely heading towards the end of a rainbow in the distance (good luck). That, my friend, is my masterpiece I will get someday!