New Horizons

Three years. Three years of inactivity on this blog. Three years of missing to write here. And in those three years, a lot of things happened.

I stopped posting in this blog on September, 2011.

In 2012, I went to traverse ten-thousand miles to see the sun rise half the world away on a Midwest horizon, and see it set over a rolling sea of clouds. And then catch Thor in the act of lighting up the night sky over Chicago city with his cloud-to-ground bolts with a very, very lucky shot.







Events and seemingly fate led me to the company of 23 strangers* from my homeland, for a month-long overseas study program in the United States. Strangers, who at the end of 35 days, I came to regard as my second family. To be compeletely honest, the intensive program brought challenges and headaches, but nevertheless it had its moments - lots of them. Equally unforgettable was getting to know people who were some of the most brilliant in their fields, as well the people who took care of us there. Once in a lifetime experience. (*Two more in the second family were my schoolmates.)

Strangers-turned-family. Some of the best and brightest of the homeland. Lincoln Memorial, Washington DC.

Abe in the Lincoln Memorial. We used to see this scene only in the movies.

Northern Illinois University hosted our program. Cameo appearance of the home university, too.

Of course, I never forgot the Motherland. I may have shot almost eight thousand pictures outside the country, but it is incomparable to the hundred-thousand pictures that I've shot over the course of three years. Its mountains, fields, sunsets, mosques, churches, its colors, or simply just the old places back home. Not to mention the people who gave life to most of the pictures, whether the anonymous stranger, a schoolmate or even the goats by the road. It didn't help that I was pretty much laagan during those times. It just fed my photography appetite.









Let's not forget those smiles. Portraits of sweet happiness. And smiles need not to be staged portraits - look for the odd one out in the crowd looking back at you with a grin.





Not all pictures were confined to pretty faces and picturesque sights. The central philosophy behind my photography was for the pictures to tell a story. Whether it were events of significance, or simply the more mundane and personal happenings - it was all capturing snippets of life on a frame. And this was where my forte of taking natural, unstaged, candid shots would shine.





In the three years since I've stopped posting in this blog, I've stopped flight simming for reasons beyond my control. I may have stopped flying the skies in my own world, but in exchange I grew even closer to one of my obsessions - in the real world. I've sat at the controls of my dream office. I've even managed to visit a real aircraft museum for crying out loud! If I still glance up at aircraft climbing out of Tambler airport over our school for all these years, it just means something: the fascination to fly has not weakened - it just got stronger.









Even people have grown older in those three years. If you remember that infamous blog post of old - then you can remember this face glowing in the dark. All grown up.



So in short, I'm back. Kinda missed telling stories here. I've got three years of catching up to do. So let the pictures roll.