Hey!!! Thank you for checking out my website and clicking on About Me. Apparently you want to get a glimpse of who I am right? Hah of course you do! Question is, why wouldn’t you? Haha just kidding. All jokes aside…
For obvious reasons, my name is Justin Yap. I am a “Christian-based photographer”…if that is such a thing. I really don’t like putting titles or categories on myself, but if I have to, I think that is the closest “self-made” title that I can coherently describe myself. Now let us get to the fun stuff…
I was never one of those kids who started photography as a young adolescent. I was one of those types who would try a bit of everything and see what the piece of the pie tasted like. If I didn’t like it, I would spit it back out. If I did, I would stick to it until I get tired. I would say that Photography actually first started coherently when I was interested in majoring in Architecture back in college (which is my current full time profession now, but I’ll get into a little more detail later.) I needed to photograph my work or my architectural models for my portfolio since it needed to be presented professionally. I started off with a basic Nikon D40 with the 18-55mm f/3.5 VR kit lens (sorry thats a mouthful.)
I bought a book or two about DSLR photography since it was completely new in my horizon. My instant thought of getting a DSLR was “Oh wow! I’m a ‘pro’ now that I have one! It's a step up from the point and shoot disposable film cameras that I have used in the past.” From reading the book, I was learning about aperture, shutter speeds, iso settings, and how to use the different modes on the camera. After reading the book (please don’t ask me what it was, because I clearly don’t remember); I eventually bought a tripod, camera bag, cheap filters, and another Nikon lens, a 50-200mm f/4 VR. I thought I was really getting somewhere until I realized how expensive this hobby was and how far I derived from just photographing my architectural student work. Since then, I stopped buying stuff for my camera and solely only used it for student work.
Fast forward a few years, I eventually graduated from Woodbury University with my Bachelor of Architecture degree. I majored in this field because it's both artistic and dealt with computers/technology – at least that is what I believed at the time. That statement was definitely true when I was going to school, but not in the professional world as an everyday practice (at least not from my experience so far.) I started to hit this “creative doubt” immediately when I got out of school and into the professional world. I no longer was creating fun projects of my own, but now continuing off of someone else’s design and making CD’s (construction documents) package for the city & client. I no longer had the luxury of making anything physical, but now sitting in front of the computer for 8-9 hours (sometimes even more) drawing up details, plans, elevations, etc., and thats when I started to doubt my profession…
It was really bad in the very beginning to be honest. A lot of things were happening in my life as well as outside of my work, that I was doubting and questioning if I made the right move to major in this architectural profession. I started to think if I should just go into the Air Force to help pay off my student loans; or to become a physical trainer since I liked exercising so much; or if going to Woodbury was the right move to begin with. I missed creating and designing that I needed another art-related outlet. I then wrestled this idea with God (Jesus Christ) for a while.
I prayed and asked God…“WHY?! Why on earth did I go to school for this and to realize that I’m sitting in front of a computer for hours?!? The closest human connection is the buddy next to me.” Was I suppose to study Architecture to become an Architect? Surely that can’t be it because I clearly do not find an interest in becoming licensed - especially for all the money that I just spent to get a professional degree. The questions that I started to ask myself, should I be designing churches? Should I be designing sustainable homes for people? Should I be working on low-income housing? Or…should I be going to different countries and design buildings/shelters for the poor? How will you (Jesus) use me in my field!? To answer all of that, I still don’t know what it is, even to this day. He is still writing my story. However, I do know that my creative outlet started to express itself a little more at the church - 3Crosses. I started to get involved with the musical productions as a way to get my creative juices going. It did its job for the time being as I quickly realized how time consuming it took, and that I was sacrificing a lot of my own personal time to be involved while serving. Don’t get me wrong, its great; but just wasn’t completely suitable in my current life situation.
[ If you have read this far, you’re probably wondering how and why this relates to my photography. I’m probably giving you more than just a summary or glimpse of my biography, but that would be too boring and you probably still wouldn’t understand why I do ‘the things I do” on this webpage. I’m getting there! Trust the process. :) ]
The second seed of photography started out with a good Christian man named Lee. Lee is a very respectful, caring, and a God-loving man who I met at 3Crosses. Lee and I bonded at church when he found out that both of us work in downtown San Francisco. We started to meet up during my lunch time when our schedules aligned. We would talk about our personal and spiritual life which was really great as it broke up the monotony during the week. It was a breath of fresh air. Until one day, we had this one conversation where I told him of my recent camping trip up in Oregon, which I will later go in depth. Lee was already fascinated as I mentioned my experience since he loves the state, and how there is so much nature to be explored. I started to show him my puny iPhone pictures that I took and instantly he was in awe. He was in silence for a few seconds as he started to stare into the picture, then slowly swipe to see the next. As he kept swiping, he was so fascinated that he asked me if I considered selling the picture. I was a bit shocked and never really thought about it. He even wanted me to send him a picture because he was so in love with it.
As Lee was shocked and perhaps opened my eyes a bit, I started to ponder about photography again. I surely wasn’t going to dive in like I did before, nor use the same camera for that matter since it was outdated and lacked a lot of functionality compared to current cameras. However, I didn’t pull the trigger so quickly in exploring this new “seed” that was planted. I would say that I was more questioning and wrestling this idea with God. I wrestled this idea with Him for about a year. A year of questioning, brainstorming, and finally came with an idea 💡. It was sort of this “ah-ha” moment and kind of went like this:
“I started to invest into quality backpacking gear that could be used in tangent with camping, as a way to see the world, or God’s creation, that is both lightweight and universal. Instead of going to touristy places and pay for hotels, I could find camping spots instead. Not only that, how do I share insights and God’s creation more than just stories and souvenirs?…Hm…Oh wait a minute, photography!”
Now obviously that was more of the “spark-note” version of it, but I realized that with the two ingredients (camping/hiking/backpacking plus photography) would make a great way to see…and share…His glory…
[ If you want to continue reading about my Godly experience in Oregon, keep going! If not, you can stop…but I think you already know what I’d like for you to do. The door is open, I’m just sayin’… ]
During my trip to Oregon, I had an opportunity to be in a hot spring campground. Mind you, this was my very first experience of a hot spring in such a place. I have heard about it, but never seen it in person or had experienced it. As I was in the hot spring early one morning, before the crowd started to come; it had hit me that God created…this! This! This very thing that I am going to try and paint a picture with words of what I was experiencing; so bear with me here as I’m not the greatest picture-painted-person-who-is-good-with-words (or grammar for that matter):
Imagine a cold morning around 40-50 degrees Fahrenheit. I just got out of my sleeping bag and prepared to dip in the natural hot spring right by the camp site. As I wrapped myself with a towel to stay warm, put on my slippers; I headed to the hot spring. As I approached closer, I am greeted with a nice steamy natural pool of water surrounded by tall sequoia trees. The air is fresh and misty as the campsite had a light rain the night before. I took off my slippers & towel and located them off to the side. As I dipped slowly into the water for my body to adjust to the temperature, the warm water from my toes and legs quickly felt good that I started to descend even faster while I slowly closed my eyes as I went down. As I sat in the warm hot spring, my body is quickly warmed up to my neck. It felt so…good as I slowly breathed…and exhaled as the steam from the water rose. As I slowly opened my eyes, I looked to the distance of where I was. A place where cell reception is minimal. A place where its absolutely quiet from the busy city life and all I heard was the sound of nature at its finest. The trees from above periodically dropped cold droplets of water into the hot spring, and sometimes on top of my head. The sky is cold and overcast to a point where I could barely see the top of the mountain filled with other green trees. The sound of the birds singing in the morning for their food and it was that moment when I realized…I am in a place that God…our loving God…created this.
This exact marvelous and loving God created the heavens and the earth and He said it was good - book of Genesis reference right there for ya. This was the moment where I realized that I needed to experience more of this. More of His presence and His creation because I was sitting there and couldn’t help but to pray and thank Him for everything. For everything He has done in my life and how He let me be in that current situation at that exact time. At that time, I felt free from everything and couldn’t help but to be thankful and internally sing praises.
So with all of this combined from not knowing what Architecture is leading me to; to the loss of the creative outlet; to the spark of experiencing Gods glory in nature; and to the second seed of words from Lee; I have joined in on a journey with God to go out, seek, camp, hike, capture, and share for the world to see. Each time I go out and photograph something, I’m always asking God of what He wants to reveal to me. Sometimes He will reveal something new, remind me of something that I have forgotten, or He just wants me to ‘Be still and know that [He is] God’ - Psalm 46:10. (NIV translation says “I am God,” but obviously I modified it to fit the grammar in that sentence.)
My goal with this photography journey is to capture and share something beautiful that God created. If it isn’t something beautiful, it's definitely something that He is trying to show and teach me. Thank you for reading this far, seriously though - thank you! It sure was a long one just typing this…and now to proofread…