Shoot your story

Everyone has a story to tell. And everyone, if given the chance, will tell his story. In the oral tradition, storytelling included the storyteller and the audience. The storyteller created the experience, and the audience saw the message and created personal images from the words.

But there are occasions where words are not enough. And this is when photos are needed. After all, look at a photo and all at once there is a story for the person viewing it.

Behind every picture is a story waiting to be told.

Nokia recently invited eight camera enthusiasts and tasked them to weave their own stories in still images with the theme "Sharing Dis-coveries."

Armed with a Nokia N73, photo artists Aldwin Aspil-lera, Wam Molina, Alistaire Israel, Paolo Lim, Francis Perez, Dan Gil, and Johann Espiritu chose a sub-ject of interest which they captured on cam, applying creative com-position, lighting and interpretative imaging to create the fine art of photography. They posted their output online using the Flickr feature of the Nokia N73.

The Nokia N73 is a camera phone for the Internet age. With it, people can share their photos on the Web in an instant on Flickr or other photo-sharing communities.

There’s more. A challenge is on for camera enthusiasts. Using the Nokia N73 for photo or Nokia N93 for video, let the imagination run wild and choose a subject you can creatively capture, then upload online through Flickr (for photos) or by going to www.whatsyourstory.com.ph. Photo participants who register within the contest period, which runs till Dec. 1, will be eligible for the contest and raffle.

Every Monday, an electronic raffle draw will be held till Nov. 20. Judging will be done from today to Nov. 21, where 25 video and 25 photo participants will win a slot in an exclusive Imaging Workshop to be held on Dec. 2.

The workshop will be conducted by multi-faceted and award-winning BBC director and executive producer Ian Oliver.

Ian Oliver worked for BBC television for much of his early professional life, as camera trainee, cameraman, trailer producer, then producer, director, executive producer and scriptwriter. He produced a wide variety of programs, but concentrated mainly on documentaries and features, including Blue Peter, The Adventure Game and Multi-Coloured Swap Shop, and won awards from the British Academy of Film and Television Arts (the British Oscars).

He has also worked for the Oman Television Service where he was executive producer of all film output. One of his documentaries won first prize at the Manila Film Festival.

In 1985 Ian moved to Singapore and started teaching his craft. He has lectured at NUS and NTU and runs courses in Media Awareness for people from all walks of life.

He speaks English, some French, German and Arabic, and is currently learning Japanese.

At the workshop Oliver will teach the ins and outs of taking photos and videos using a camera phone. Participants will be given the chance to shoot images or do a short film using a Nokia N73 or a Nokia N93. Their output will be judged and the two winners chosen will get a chance to go to China in February 2007 to witness an actual Discovery Channel shoot.

For more information, log on to www.whatsyourstory.com.ph.