About
 |
| Ricoh GR IIIx and I | Tokyo, Japan | May 7-27, 2024 |
Hello,
I'm a minimalist traveler, a full marathon runner, and a learner of photography based in Malaysia.
My interest in photography started in 2018 - after my first visit to Japan to run full marathon at Tokyo Marathon.
Started from using a mobile phone, I then invested in an entry-level APSC camera with two used zoom lenses (covering from 15 mm to 300 mm in full-frame equivalent focal length) in November 2020.
After using for two years, the weight of lugging around a camera and two zoom lenses eventually robbed my joy of taking photography.
I sold my camera gear.
I then bought a used high-end APSC camera system with two lighter zoom lenses (covering from 16 mm to 105 mm in full-frame equivalent focal length).
The new, lighter setup re-ignited my passion and joy in photography during my travel.
But not long after, I dreaded to bring my camera and two zoom lenses with me.
I still found them to be heavy and clunky.
Eventually, I left my camera gear at home.
I then went on a purge again, second time, selling all of my camera system after only a year of usage.
I then took along with me only my mobile phone for travel.
I felt liberated, carrying less.
But something was missing.
The feeling of taking photos with a camera is irreplaceable with a mobile phone.
Meanwhile, my deep love for Japan aspires me to embark on a long-term travel and photography project in 2024.
My aspiration is to travel and take photographs across each and every one of forty seven prefectures in Japan.
I'm not sure how long this Japan project will take.
Perhaps it may take me a lifetime, traveling many times to Japan, to complete.
Perhaps it may never materialise at all.
It doesn't matter.
It's about the journey that counts, not the destination.
This exploration journey of creating memories, capturing aesthetic beauty, and finding poetry with a camera across forty seven prefectures in Japan and beyond excites me.
This journey is going to bring me great joy and fulfilment.
And I don't want to miss shooting any moment that makes me happy with a camera.
When a moment comes next, one that makes me feel, I want to better capture it.
These beautiful moments are meant to be captured, feelings to be remembered, stories to be told.
For this new phase of travel and photography journey, I have decided to break free from heavy gear, break loose of the weight, and break free from old ways.
I want to go where makes me alive and shoot what makes me happy, without the camera gear burdens.
I want to travel light, simple, and minimal to see and capture forty seven prefectures in Japan and the world.
No camera fits my current need more perfectly than an ultra light, compact, pocketable Ricoh GR IIIx, with a fixed lens of 40 mm in full-frame equivalent focal length.
One camera. One lens.
Limitation is liberation.
No choices is freedom.
And make more with less.
It's also so light that I can stay fly.
This is my travel and photography self-discovery journey with Ricoh GR IIIx, which I bought in April 2024.
This is my happiness of pursuit.
This is my story.
(pen name)
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