Jonathan Poh, Photographer

Hello there. I have some exciting news! Most of my family, friends and former co-workers know that I've spent most of my working life as a front-end web developer and UI/UX engineer.

I’ve been doing some soul-searching lately, and have come to realise that I really did – and still do – enjoy photography, and I want to get back into it. Web design and software development was fun and fulfilling, but I think it’s also been wearing me down, and I’ve missed the more creative pursuits.

With that I'm ‘pivoting’ (as they often say in Silicon Valley) to photography as a change in my career.

Photography activates both sides of my brain, requiring both the technical know-how as well creative composition techniques. Even after the shot is taken, there’s yet more to do, with processing and editing the photos before it is ready be shown to a wider audience.

I started my photography journey many years ago. My father, the late Laurence Poh, was an accomplished hobbyist photographer and keen birdwatcher who pioneered the ‘digiscoping’ technique, coupling the fledgeling ‘digicams’ of the late-90s/early-2000s era to a spotting scope, to capture some amazing nature & bird digital photographs at a fraction of the price of traditional professional-grade telephoto lenses and cameras.

I inherited all his camera gear, and maintained a keen interest in photography for the past two decades, leveraging all that I learned about composition, the exposure triangle, and the Rule of Thirds in my university studies, and did a tonne of experimentation: low-light and astrophotography, long exposure, landscapes, streetscapes, macro, you name it.

Some professional photographers say things like “you're not a real photographer until you your work is made into prints, which completes the process”.  Having worked as a front-end UI/UX engineer for the past 20 years where “everything is going digital/online”, I kinda dismissed that as old-school nostalgia.

But lately, reflecting on how ephemeral the creation of websites is - here today, gone (or at least re-designed or rebuilt by someone else) tomorrow - I’ve been longing to make things - art - that is more tangible and lasting.  This year I’ve been looking back at my terabytes of photo libraries and realising the long journey I’ve been on - literally in the places I’ve had the privilege to visit and live in, and in the growth of my photographic craft - and decided I’d love to pursue this properly.

I’ve recently had a few of my own favourite shots printed, both on a home printer and sent out to a professional lab, and I get it now. It is quite a different experience holding a print in your hand, or to have a large canvas print hung up on a wall!

I'm currently focusing on Landscapes and Landscape Astrophotography, but you can be sure I will continue experimenting and learning new techniques. With that, I hope to share my joy of photography with you, from my collections, as well as new projects in the future.

My main portfolio website is at: https://jonathanpoh.photography

Follow me on my Facebook Page: https://www.facebook.com/jonathanpoh.photography

and on Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/jpoh.me