In Between an Autism and a Tyler Stableford

Last Saturday, 5 May, I joined a photography seminar by Tyler Stableford, an adventure photographer from Colorado, USA,  at the XXI Epicentrum, Kuningan. When I was about to reach the Epincentrum, I watched some crowds with blue and yellow shirts, mostly family, were walking and sitting in the parking lot, the park, and in front of several cafes nearby. I found that they are family of people with autism. “Walk for Autism” is printed on their shirt. In the park, everyone could make a hand printing as a support for people with autism. Unfortunately, I could not join to make one since I was a bit late to come to the Tyler’s seminar.

 Actually, I was not that late (at least I could grab a chocolate éclair and mini-tiny-bitty burger, and eventually a cup of black coffee) but people had queued so long. Even worst, in front of the Studio I (the room where the seminar took place) the queue became scattered and unorganized.

The seminar was brought by Canon and the official distributor of Canon in Indonesia, Datascrip (Yes, it is datascrip without the ‘t’!). As a (very amateur) member of Klub Fotografi Datascrip, I got a big-price-cut for the seminar entry fee, yet still got a full freebies: an exclusive EOS organizer, EOS cleaning kits, free lunch coupon, and a chance to get Tyler’s signature. Thanks Canon and KFD!

The MC opened the seminar with quizzes asking newly launch Canon EOS, Canon pockets, and the 1D X (in Indonesia, it is said that people have to indent to get one). Then, Ibu Merry Harun as Canon Division Director gave an opening speech. She welcomed the crowds, especially those who had come from Bandung (by a bus!) and several joining sponsors and invitations.

Finally the real star came to the stage. Tyler put a quotation from Antoine de Saint-Exuperry as his first presentation: 

“A designer knows he has achieved perfection not when there is nothing left to add, but there is nothing left to take away.”

However, on his presentation, Tyler said that photographer, especially adventure photographer, is a basically taker. Taking pictures of local people overseas is the action of taking something (story, emotion, and feeling) from others. He suggested the audiences to give back after taking pictures. He said he usually printed the pictures and gave to the people. At least, he would show the result to them right after he shot. Creating a close connection with the people or the model is a must, he added. And Tyler walks the talk. Later on, when he shot a model on the stage. He asked the name of the model and directed the model by calling his name.

In the first session, Tyler shared his experience in adventure photography. Having a background as a journalism (he took his undergraduate on journalism as well), he loves to create a story-telling-picture. He also loves to put a ‘human’ on his photo. He said that almost 95 percent of his pictures included human.

Tyler also shared his 5 ways to take better images.

First of all: Do not afraid of the sunlight! He said a bit light flare creates a strong picture.

Second: Shadows create drama. Don’t we all agree? Indeed!

Next: Get the flash off the camera. Avoid the snapshot look at all cost.

Forth: Move your subject off center. Create tension with the ‘rule of thirds’.

Last but not least, go wild... Oops! Go wide, go long. Use wide angle and telephoto lenses for a new look.

After almost a half hour of Q&A (through SMS) session, Tyler shared his experience of creating short movies on his DSLR. Tyler said he uses EOS 1D X, and said repeatedly ha ha ha. There is only 2 ‘rule of thumbs’ for taking motion picture through DSLR:

One. Go wide, go tight! Alternating between 14mm and 100mm macro lenses.

Two. Tilt and shift!

Then, Tyler showed his 13 minutes short movie of an ex US army, a victim of bombing in Afghan (or Iraq? I forgot! My mistake.), who regain his life back as a Paralympics athlete. Before Tyler played the movie, he’d unexpectedly explained that the movie does not show on how patriotic US army is, but on how someone moves on. I do not why he should explain his reason. A feeling that Indonesia will see the movie too American-minded perhaps?!

Time to lunch break!

I ate my lunch box while enjoying a talk show on autism on the main hall of Epicentrum. Farhan was MC-ing a talk show, also interviews and quizzes. He interviewed Daniel, a child with autism whose hobby is reading calendar. Surprisingly, Daniel remembers all the days of the date of the year 1900 to 2050. Some people checked their birthday and Daniel answered correctly. Even the audience and I checked on our smart phone calendar to confirm the accuracy. I was amazed!

I saw a lot of parents encouraging their children to come forward, to the stage. A girl with autism played a guitar. Three or four kids came to the stage to answer the quizzes. I truly salute parents of children with autism. They seems so proud of their kids and very supportive regardless several kids were out of control.  

Inside the Epicentrum mall, Yayasan Autisma Indonesia made a painting exhibition. All paintings created by children with autism. One painting catched my eyes is “The Twins” by Ihsan Abi Satrio. It’s just cute!

I saw the painting when I was about taking my Dzuhur prayer. By the way, the Epicentrum mall has a great Mushalla (prayer room). It is neat, clean, and comfy. Located in Floor 2. Unfortunately, today the Mushalla is a bit crowded, thus, I could not take a picture of it. I was afraid to disturb the other’s praying.

Back again to the photography seminar. On the second session, Tyler showed his latest short movie, Shattered. Shattered tells a story of a well recognized mountain climber (but, I forgot his name he he he) who has reached the TOP of the top mountains on the Earth, but in the end found that he felt empty inside. Tyler shot some closely intense shoots: face, eyes, nose, breath, snows, ices. Showing another extreme point, Tyler took a wide and long shoots to show how high the mountain is. Superb! It is said that the movie has just launched in Las Vegas two weeks ago.

Then, Tyler and his team made a demo. Helped by two soccer freestylers, Tyler showed how to create dramatic pictures as he explained on the first session. Yes, he really walks the talks. He even could make an almost perfect picture in his first shoot. What a photographer! 

Personally, Tyler is a nice and humble guy. He did not mind to sit on the stage to respond his fans asking his signature and kept saying thank you sincerely. Tyler looks on our eyes while he saying so!