Trapped by technology

On a recent Tuesday afternoon, I was trapped in a lift for the first time in my life.

For the first five minutes, I was confident that the doors would open and I could go on with my life. That did not happen.

It took another 15 minutes of frantic ringing of the alarm and banging on the door before a human voice came over the intercom. Help was on the way, he assured me.

I sat down to rest and wait. Suddenly, I remembered that the deadline for this column was due in two days.

My thoughts were interrupted when a voice came from behind the doors wanting to know which floor I was at. How was I supposed to know? I was trapped in the lift, remember?

Surely there must be technologies that could alert the lift maintenance company when a unit has broken down, or just when it is about to break down? Or there must be some way in which the security guard could determine on which floor the lift has stopped, without having to ask me. And with advances in telecommunications, why couldn’t my cellphone work in the lift?

Was my one-hour ordeal justified?

I think it is time we talk about a technology update.

I have, for the most part of my professional career, been careful about not becoming a gear-head. When most of my peers were embracing digital, I stood by film, swearing only to jump on the bandwagon when the terms were right. My conditions included a true one-to-one image ratio plus standard professional features, at current SLR price.

A wise friend, Tan Kah Heng, who heard about my daydream, told me quite bluntly that I could dream forever. “It is not going to happen, buddy,” he said.
I guessed he couldn’t be wrong, since he has been consulting for a major camera brand.

I would be lying to say that I understood all the technical information he tried to load onto my limited brain, but I was convinced enough by his knowledge.

To cut the story short, I have since begun a digital collaboration with Olympus.

John Cosgrove, another good friend, had a field day poking fun at me when he heard about my change of heart. “I thought you said digital doesn’t work!”

Well John, seeing is believing. Blame yourself for not spending more time educating me ;)

The truth is I am probably a techno-snob and a techno-phobic at the same time.

In junior college, I had sworn never to touch a computer. I am now into my sixth Apple. I have been scanning and making digital prints for more than 10 years, but I just resisted going fully digital.

While I have crafted one of the most comprehensive conventional-to-digital conversion plans for my former employer, I have never really tried to learn how to use a digital SLR.

But after seeing one of my first digital images, enlarged to a stunning 30 x 20 inches, I was completely sold.

To this day, I thank my lucky stars that there were good friends along the way who helped to make my transition as painless as possible. One of them formatted the compact flash card for me so that I could start using the camera. Others explained the differences between RAW and TIFF formats.

My brainwashing was finally completed when my long time associate, Chris Yap, whom I first met at Fotohub, patiently gave me a few precious lessons on digital file management.

One thing I have learnt for sure: though I have long subscribed to the belief that technology does not kill creativity, I have not always taken this belief a step further, which is to use technology creatively.

Mobile phones were invented so that we can be contactable at all places (except in my lift of course) and at all times, but does that mean we should be driving and talking at the same time? Even with hands-free sets, I strongly advise against it.

Fortunately for me, my supporters at Olympus have taken an enlightened position with regards to our collaboration. Apart from obvious conflicts of interest, I am free to use any other camera brands or formats, as long as the choice is good for my photography.

When women are upset, they go shopping. Men, fortunately, don’t need that excuse. We just have to convince ourselves that we need to spend, and then convince ourselves that we can convince the women.

In a related round of upgrading, I finally installed wireless Internet access at home and moved up to a G4 PowerBook.

Now, having spent the money, I just had to wait for the right opportunity to justify the spending frenzy. And thanks to JP Pappis of Polaris Images, I didn’t have to wait too long.

A few days ago, near the close of midnight, I received a call from Pappis, president & founder of one of the world’s premier photo agencies, based in New York City.

He wanted to know if I was available to do a magazine assignment in Singapore the next evening and have the images transmitted to the agency by the following morning.

I had worked with Pappis before on several other occasions but each time, it was a nightmare simply because I didn't have the right tools.

But this time, I confidently accepted the job.

Armed with my new digital gear, I met up with my subject, veteran bodybuilder Ching Teng Soon. We shot for a while at his gym, before proceeding to make some outdoor environmental portraits on a small hill nearby. After that, we went to his flat, where I recopied a few of his old pictures.

Two hours later, I was back in the western side of the island, sitting comfortably at home in an armchair and editing my images.

Another two hours later, I had finished transmitting 22 high-res images to Polaris, complete with captions. That was at about 8 am in New York City, and I was almost 12 hours ahead of deadline.

In my pre-digital days, I would probably still be scanning my images at midnight. As a result, I lost quite a few jobs and opportunities.

Sometimes, we have to be grateful to the Singapore Government. It is always coming up with great campaigns and slogans.

I don’t think I would qualify for any of the Lifelong Learning Awards, but it sure feels like the tagline at the Singapore Learning Festival 2003 website, “A year of challenges and learning to adapt to change”, was written exactly for people like me.

Since we are still new in the year, I should set some 2004 learning goals.

Top of the list is to learn how to make mobile phones work in my lift.


The column first appeared in Grain Magazine.