‘Photo finish’ that turned into a new start for ex-teacher
KLANG: After both her children left home to pursue their studies, former teacher Eva Chew decided it was time to reward herself by embarking on an adventure.
“I left my teaching job to raise my children and for years I focused on running my household, teaching my children and taking care of my family’s needs,’’ said Chew, 51.
To supplement the family income, she ran tuition classes at her home in Setapak, which further tied her down.
“Thinking of ways to make up for the many years of not doing anything special for myself, I decided to try photography and started shooting simple photos of flowers and puppies,’’ said Chew.
Her daughter Felicia Low Fei Qing, 24, is working in Singapore as a 3D artist while son Deon Low Di An, 22, is studying actuarial science at the Nanyang Technological University under an Asean scholarship.
Her husband Casey Low, 54, a banking services manager with a local bank, supported Chew’s move and accompanied her to parks and places of interest to shoot during the weekends.
But Chew wanted more and joined the Photographic Society of Petaling Jaya to learn basic photography and to participate in its monthly outings.
That was in 2013 and today Chew is a skilled photographer who has travelled to places she had never even dreamt of visiting previously.
“I upgraded my gear and began travelling abroad and have been to some fascinating destinations such as Inner Mongolia, Yarchen Gar in Ganze Tibetan Autonomous Prefecture, India and most recently, Bangladesh to shoot,” she said.
She added that her photographs help document her adventures and were souvenirs of her travels.
Since last year, Chew started taking part in various photography exhibitions.
She said that she had not expected to come this far because initially it was just about capturing beautiful moments and subjects.
“But as I became more involved in photography, I realised that it instilled in me many positive values such as patience and perseverance because I had to wait for the best moment to capture a good shot.
Chew said photography also taught her to truly live and savour the moments which may disappear as soon as the photo was taken.
“I also get to meet people, forget my worries, tell stories through my images and most importantly, make myself happy,” she said.
Chew shoots different genres such as nature, street, landscape, human interest and portraiture, and is seriously thinking about specialising in newborns.
“It would be wonderful documenting the progress of a newborn to his or her teens through photographs.
“But most importantly, I would also get the chance to cuddle babies again,” she said.