Jemapela Photography

Jemapela Photography is the brand name used by Jeremy Chua since the 1990s.

Born in Singapore, Jeremy came to Australia in early 2002 and completed a degree in Electronic Engineering with Honours in Melbourne. He has since lived in Melbourne and is an Australian permanent resident.

Photography is Jeremy’s strongest and longest hobby since 1990 in his teenage years. Back then, film was widely used since digital cameras were in its infancy and extremely expensive. Jeremy honed his skills with film for over a decade before digital cameras gradually became accepted as the new way to go. From 1999, the hobby brought him income on a self-employed and full-time basis for several years mostly photographing events, weddings and portraits. At the height of his photography, he was hired to be one of several official event photographers for Singapore’s National Day Parade in 1999 and 2001. He was also hired in Melbourne to photograph the Singapore Deputy Prime Minister Wong Kan Seng accompanied by Melbourne Lord Mayor John So at Singapore Day 2008.

Jeremy’s main area of interest is in portraiture. Soon after graduating from university in 2004, he worked in a photographic studio in Melbourne. As a portrait photographer, directing and posing people as a photographic subject, requires good interpersonal skills. He is confident at, and comfortable with, photographing nude female and male bodies. Over the many years in Australia, Jeremy has photographed a wide variety of people whose birthplaces include Australia, Singapore, Malaysia, Indonesia, Brunei, Thailand, Korea, Japan, China, Hong Kong, Vietnam, India, Pakistan, Oman, Turkey, Mauritius, Sweden, Norway, Germany, France, Italy, Ukraine, UK, US, Canada, and more. He seeks confident, courageous and creative individuals to model for him.

After working as a studio photographer, Jeremy was briefly a sales representative selling studio equipment, and then became a repair technician. For 8 years until late 2014, Jeremy worked as a camera repair technician in Camera Clinic Pty Ltd. He repaired many Canon DSLR cameras and lenses. He also modified digital cameras for infrared photography which has scientific, covert surveillance and law enforcement applications. The enthusiasm and passion was gradually eroded over time, and leaving the job marked his departure from repairing digital cameras and lenses on a daily basis.

Repairing a flagship Canon DSLR camera as a technician.

Repairing and servicing my Canon EF 50mm f/1.4 USM lens.

The technical knowledge and hand skills from his technician job are now infrequently used. Some of the knowledge is very specialized, especially in the areas of spectral modification (infrared conversion) and Canon CHDK. He occasionally services, repairs, or modify, Canon cameras and lenses for his own use, or to be sold away.

Photographing in a redwood forest in East Warburton about 80km away from Melbourne.

Jeremy and his “white horse” at the Rainforest Gallery in East Warburton about 80km away from Melbourne.

Jeremy photographs mostly on-location portraits, sometimes landscapes when he drives out to the countryside, and sometimes interesting aspects of life as it happens. Taken along by his humble and reliable “white horse”, photographing on-location portraits and landscapes is an artistic and creative pastime that helps to creatively tickle his brain and distract him from the mental weight of our increasingly complicated, conflicted and troubled world. In other words, photography could help to keep depression away. Compared to the conservative Asian nation where he was originally from, Melbourne city has a liberal mind towards visual art, and Victoria state is blessed with nature’s beauty.

Jeremy at the 12 Apostles along the Great Ocean Road about 280km away from Melbourne.

After over a decade of working experience in the photographic industry, Jeremy has in late 2014 switched careers to now work in the tourism industry.

He remains a member of Hawthorn Photographers Club, a Melbourne-based club formed in 1992.