The Case of BeingCyrus

Cyrus, he likes photography and vlogging. We connected through Tour De' Karachi Photowalk. He got potential but so far his good work buried under the ruble of his ordinary snaps. He is a hobbyist photographer and vlogger at very start of a never-ending road of unimaginable possibilities ahead.

You can find him on Instagram under BeingCyrus1997

I don't know him well enough to talk about things I am about to talk and I don't know is photography background either but I know that he follows several photography channels on YouTube. By going through nearly 150 pictures he shared from photowalk we have had with 80 other photographers, I conclude some points, with hope to help him see what I saw.

I can say he lacks basic information of the craft; he doesn't have good control on Framing shots, yet. But I am sure it was his subconscious mind that did an excellent job making some great photos during the photowalk.

A vision, a perspective unique to him was kicking out here and there to identify its presence to him.

I select several of them to show. I resisted the urge of doing basic editing on some. Let's see if you can see the potential I am talking about.

Usually we turned to well established masters of a craft to be inspired and to find our motivation. Seasoned experts are obvious choice to learn and grow. We barely look at work of beginners, unless we are handsomely paid to do it.

I strongly believe that we can learn from anything, anyone, and at any stage of life. Success resides outside our comfort zone, and going through work of a beginner can be very discomforting for a number of reasons.

However this is exactly where we can find a different approach to the same subject. We can learn by noticing not only weaknesses, but strengths of compositions from someone who is driven purely by natural instinct.

So with this mindset I went back to look at photographs Cyrus took during the photo-walk we were a part of... And I got inspired to put words to some of my thoughts. I will cover those in other articles.

I may not agree with his editing style and pictures are not flawless, naturally.

I also feel that he is overwhelmed, confused or distracted by the amount of tools at his disposal for editing his photos. But the edit he really needs right now is the selection of photos he needs to display.

Yes, selecting strong images out of an entire collection is also called editing! And it is as important as adjusting an image. His good work did not shine because it was hid under dozens of regular snaps.

From the looks of his pictures that I saw, he got potential to do good Cityscape photography.

You will notice how sunlight is a big element in his compositions. I don't think he positioned himself to capture that dance of the light and shadows on purpose but there it was, a fine balance of two.

You will notice layers in his pictures. Forground, Middle and Background are neatly stacked.

It was Sunday morning, shops were closed but with 80+ photographers in surrounding, trust me find people-less spot was not easy and yet, he managed to capture those too.

Challenges he faced in the past shaped his personality to be a frontrunner. Luckily, I believe he doesn't want to be the center of attention, but hold himself responsible to be the voice of others. He is very careful and respectful towards privacy of others.

You would not see any of his personality trades in his pictures. But if he learn to materialize that side of his personality into his work, I am sure his photographs will be very strong.