Italy

[AUGUST 15, 2016]

We went to Italy to attend a seminar. They got Peter as a guest speaker. The seminar was about photography! His passion!

Peter was so passionately talking and answering their questions.

"Since when have you been taking photos?" The host asked.

"I guess, since early middle school. I had a lot of memories from that time and wanted to capture them all so I took the photos from my old little phone, just for fun. From then on, I became fond of it and started saving money to get a more professional camera..." He had a smile while saying those words. I remember those times. Our group of friends was always a care-free one. We were doing a lot of crazy stuffs.

"What are the best equipments beginners can use?"

"Tripods are actually an essential. It's extremely useful as the stability of a tripod allows you to take longer-exposure shots without any camera shake. A remote shutter release is actually very useful because it lets you take a photo without actually touching the camera, it eliminates camera shake or blur, it actually goes along really well with the tripod....." He thought for a moment before seriously answering the question. I can feel some of the people in the venue taking down some notes of the things he were saying.

That's one thing that I loved about Peter. He was the happiest and he looked the best when it comes to talking about something he loves.

"Well, everybody has an inspiration right?" The host asked and the audience agreed.

"For our handsome photographer here, who is your inspiration?"

He was quiet for a moment before saying, "My girlfriend," and he got all shy that he laughed and smiled so widely, "Her name is Astrid."

Everyone was touched and the host had the loudest "awww".

"Tell us about her."

"She has been my biggest supporter. She's actually here," he looked and pointed at me from the stage, and everyone followed his direction as a light was shined upon me, I smiled awkwardly at the attention and felt embarassed, "I told her that she could just stay back home, because the seminar won't last long, but she insisted. She always pushed me to do my best, to join photography contests, and many more. She's always included in the backstory of how I did everything.

"We've known each other since we were kids, and the very first time I saw her, I felt something. We remained best of friends, until I finally had the courage to tell her everything. She is actually the reason why I started taking pictures. When we were in middle school, she was doing a lot of crazy stuffs and those were the moments when I felt that she was the most beautiful, with just being herself. And I wanted to capture those moments for her and treausre it." It was my first time hearing that story. I always noticed that I had more pictures on his camera than our squad all together. But I only thought that he did it simply because he liked me. It was a common thing people does when they like someone. So when we got together, I asked him about it and he only said, 'you looked beautiful'. This man never fails to amaze me.

That day was really a happy one. When we got back to our hotel room, his notifications was in a chaos. His phone was ringing from time to time. His account was bombarded with messages. Even my accounts was flooded with messages asking him to take photos for them. A lot of famous magazines and people were asking him to work for them. More opportunitues literally rained him, his skill was starting to get known internationally, and seeing him happy, also made me happy.