The event
Saturday, 16 October 2010.
Attended this year's PhotoMarathon which was held in Penang.
Considering the number of DSLR users on the island, reckoned not likely to sniff let alone win any of the juicy prizes but then it's cool to get a chance to compete with the heroes... plus we get a free T-shirt. Yay.
So, at 7am we gathered at the Marina to register and collect our freebies, and joined the hordes of red shirted humans. Suddenly it felt like a Thai demonstration in Penang. Sorry couldn't get a good shot of the crowd. Being short does have it's drawbacks.
We called him the Short-Shorts Guy.
Red shirted camera-totting humans were everywhere. The excitement level was high. Majority were EOS users armed to the teeth with gear. A sprinkling of compacts were spotted, luckily, else i'd have felt really lonely.
CK and KC
For some the wait was either too long or they were conserving their energy. Registration at 7am, event only began at 9am.
Game Face On!
By the time 9am arrived, the dark clouds and thunder had begun rolling. Coincidentially that day was also according to the Chinese Lunar Calendar the Festival of the 9 Emperor Gods, which has always without fail been a rainy day.
The rain began.
The briefing at 9am was conducted by this Canon Marketing rep who was one of the most irritating speakers i've ever listened to yet. Not only did she have bad pronounciation of words, she also spoke like a true nag. Definitely not a good way to kick off an event.
The irritating lady.
At 915am, some guy held a small handheld airhorn and with a tiny blast, that was supposed to be the kickoff. The media folks on stage asked the crowd to wave their arms when tht happened and it seemed idiotic because due to the pouring rain, we were all stuck. Not a successful kickoff to any marathon, IMHO.
Nevertheless there were folks who didn't let the rain dampen their spirits. They started snapping shots immediately while others prepared their rain defenses.
I shoot you!
Camera-Raincoat; patent pending :P
The rain stopped as suddenly as it had begun. With renewed vigor, off we all went!
Crossing the road.
The non-reds here are members of the media
Red shirts were everywhere around town. We had 3 places to be at certain time periods, 1) the Marina at Weld Quay, 2) Upper Penang Road, and 3) the Canon Boutique at Burmah Road. At each checkpoint the new theme was revealed.
By the end of the day before 530pm we would select and upload a pic for each theme and that was that. The winners would be announced at 8pm, but since the 9 Emperor Gods Festival processions would be right smack at the Marina, most folks decided to skip that and head home instead. I'm still wondering how many of the tired thousands were at that announcement.
The weather alternated between rain and hot hot sunshine. By the final checkpoint it was clear that many were wilting. I gave up taking random touristy shots and focused on my extremely amateur submissions instead. We're not allowed to touch-up our shots in any way, so it's tough when i can't do cropping or color edits with s'ware. Bad luck that this year they lumped DSLR and compacts into a single category. I'll admit my interpretations of the theme were abit strange, but i'm happy with mine anyway esp the first one.
My submission for the first theme: Eyes on EOS
(see, lining up to look at the EOS?)
(see, lining up to look at the EOS?)
My submission for the second theme: Humanity
(Penang's LivingHeritage the signboard maker)
(Penang's LivingHeritage the signboard maker)
My submission for the third theme: Delicious
(reckoned most ppl would go for macro shots of food and since i couldn't find a toddler to mess around with choc ice cream for me)
(reckoned most ppl would go for macro shots of food and since i couldn't find a toddler to mess around with choc ice cream for me)
The PhotoMarathon was overall extremely tiring but really fun! The idea of holding it in Georgetown was brilliant since everyone could wander around the heritage area and take shots from many different perspectives. Made some new friends and learnt a number of things. Here' hoping for next year's event to be somewhere nearby too!
