Category: People

their love

I know what love is. I’ve never actually been in love myself but I see it all around me. The way my parents’ open up their arms to me when I come to them after a long day, when my dog scratches on my door to wake me up and when my sister lets me crawl into her bed. I especially see it in my parents, how they act around each other. Being the closest people to me, I am constantly reminded that such a love exists outside of books and movies. Their kind of love is considered rare in the world now and I know how lucky I am to see it for myself every day. They always share a bed and when they spend a night away from each other they’re sure to call to wish each other goodnight before bed. They’re patient with each other. My mum puts up with my dad’s jokes and apologises on his behalf with a smile on her face. My dad listens to my mum’s far-fetched theories and puts her worries to rest with a reasonable explanation. Most importantly, they never give up., on each other, on our family, on their marriage. They knew what they were getting into when they commited to each other. I never worry about them because I’ve been around for 18 of their 19 years of marriage and in all that time they’ve made it through the tough parts. I think it’s because ultimately their love for each other is stronger than any obstacles they face. My dad always reminds me that he loves my mum even more now than he did when they first started dating and my mum never left his side as they moved all over the country. Whatever they do, they do it together.

When my dad sides with my mum during a family fight, when I have to go through both parents before getting permission to go out, when they talk in hushed whispers to each other when they think they’re out of sight, these little things remind me that they love each other in everything they do.

Mabul Island, Sabah

Ahh! It’s been a while. Just a month ago, I graduated highschool. Since then I’ve been busy travelling, catching up on reading and deeply overthinking about my future. As you know by now, my post excerpts are often unrelated to the post itself. This blog is indeed a photo blog but I have to let you know that I have always been more interested in writing. In fact, I joined my school’s editorial board as a writer hoping to gain knowledge that would spur me on to achieve my dream of becoming a journalist. To my surprise, there and then was where I discovered my interest in photography too! After that, I decided that I wanted to be a photojournalist.

This leads us to the birth of this blog! It’s my virtual photography portfolio. When I took up journalling in December of 2020, I also began to enjoy writing in everything I did. I even started to enjoy writing 6 page school essays about how to encourage students to read. That’s when I decided to leave little pieces of myself whenever I wrote and that made this blog a lot more personal to me. I have so many thoughts and it’s much easier to organise my headspace when I put them into eligible words. Here I try to share the things that I hope you find relatable.

It feels good to know that I put my writing out there. I used to write short stories and I’ve made many attempts at participating in writing competitions. For the past two years, I’ve been on and off writing a novel. This slow pace frustrates me and I feel discouraged. “What if I never fulfill my childhood dream of publishing something for the world to read?” So here we have this blog, my hope! The little paragraphs I write here remind me that I’ve still got it in me. I love writing and no matter what I write it is of importance. A small step is better than no movement at all. Do wish me luck as I continue this writing journey and thank you for being here 🙂

Little India, Ipoh, Perak.

Some shots of India Street that I took when I was searching for some traditional wear. I live in Sabah right now and it’s hard to find traditional Indian costumes. Normally we’d get them from home- Semenanjung, but in the year of not going home due to the travel restrictions I outgrew my old costume and didn’t even get a chance to wear it out. So this trip, getting new costumes was on my must-do list. My dedication to getting a new outfit paid off. The dress code for my graduation from high school this year is traditional costumes. The year before the pandemic, there was a best dressed competition for our school’s Deepavali celebration. I didn’t take the chance to partake because I assumed I would have my senior year to join. If only I had known how much things would change.

Lately, I’ve been thinking a lot about the person I was 2 years ago and how much I’ve changed since then. There are people whom I haven’t spoken to since those 2 years and seeing them in person again this year is scary. To be honest, I do post a lot on social media. From just my instagram you’ll find out what I do on a daily basis. But you really can’t judge someone purely based of their social media. Social media tends to just show the highlights of life. There’s a lot more to me than what you see on a screen. I’m scared I won’t live up to the person I am online. I don’t want Aly online to be different from Aly in reality.

the people around us

Apparently not many people bring their DSLRs to the vaccination centre. I got lots of smiles and everyone was super friendly. After going so long without socialisation, I was in heaven.

I find that my camera is a great conversation starter. People point and ask me to take their photos as if it’s a natural instinct when a camera is around. I really expected people to shy away but right now we can hide behind a mask and ‘smile’ for a couple shots.

Sea Gypsy Boys//Bajau Laut Sabah

I took these photos at Semporna, Sabah, last year. These boys are Bajau Laut etnic people. I saw them playing under the jetty I was on. They were jumping off the 10 foot high jetty into the sea-urchin laden sea. In these photos you can see them on a foam-board. One of the boys found a pomelo’s skin and thought it would make a great hat!

More pictures can be found on my instagram @_travelcamera

written on 18th of May 2021

social distance.

Taken a few months ago, this picture captures how I felt amidst this pandemic. I was so fascinated watching them arrive to the beach alone as the sky grew stormy overhead. They wanted to watch the storm and they came prepared for it. The sky looked like it was going to cry and there was a gray sunset. However, it did not rain.

To me, this symbolises how I felt waiting for the storm to come. Alone, trying to be prepared for the unknown.