A British photojournalist, Sir Donald McCullin once said “Photography is not about just looking but feeling what you are seeing through the lens; if you can’t feel what you’re looking at, then you’re never going to get others to feel anything when they look at your pictures”.
This is exactly the aim of this duo amateur photographers under their label ‘Native Pixels which is owned and operated by Andrew Patrick and Patrick Turbarat .
Andrew and Patrick started their photography business in October 2019 and want to showcase more of their talent in photography and videography.
“We chose to use Native Pixels because the name signifies us as local teenagers of PNG in the photography and videography industry and we aim at helping people capture great memories that will last for a lifetime”, said Patrick.
Andrew 21, comes from a mixed parentage of Gulf, East Sepik and Manus Province and Patrick 20 comes from the Autonomous Region of Bougainville and East New Britain and are both studying here in Port Moresby.
Patrick is an Aviation student whilst Andrew is in his final studies in Business Management and the duo aim at inspiring other teenagers like themselves to showcase whatever talents they have.
“We are also sending a message out to young people that there are a lot of other ways in earning an income rather than involving yourselves in crime activities that can get you into trouble”, said Andrew.
Native Pixel was inspired by many of their fellow top PNG photographers who helped them improve their photography and videography skills and techniques.
“The people that greatly influenced us in this particular field are Dean Arek, Russell Wai, and Trevor Mallen and these are the very people that taught us how to take great picture shots and the outcome that you see nowadays from our photos are because of them”, said Patrick.
“One challenge we faced during one of our jobs was trying to meet the standard of a particular client which was very stressful and annoying but at the end of the day we were able to deliver what the client wanted”, said Andrew proudly.
Some of the big events that the duo have captured was the friendly match between the Central Dabaris and the Gulf Isou during one of the 2021 Digicel Cup matches, The Higher Vision Concert at the Taurama Aquatic Center and a lot more.
With the current COVID-19 situation in the country, the duo could not book any gigs over the past couple of months and are hoping that the lockdown is over so that they could get back to more photography and videography gigs again.
The boys plan to take Native Pixels to greater heights and their future plan is to expand and become one of the most successful photography and videography business owned and operated by teenagers.
For bookings and charges, rates all depends on the type of occasion they are requested to cover. For big events like birthday parties, weddings, conferences, baby showers etc, they charge a fee of K500.00 and for product or company photo shoots, the team charges K800.00.
