Canon PhotoMarathon Malaysia 2016 - Penang

Hey fellow photogs!

After 2 years Canon PhotoMarathon returned to Penang again! The venue is still the same as PhotoMarathon 2014 which is Gurney Paragon. And I also have a something to share with you at the end of this post. This came as a surprise to me as I wasn't expecting at all.

Good morning!

 Date

 17 December 2016 (Saturday)

Time

 7am - 8pm

Venue

 Gurney Paragon Mall, Penang

Registration Fees

RM30 Open category

unlike the different fees in 2014, this time everyone pays the same fees

 Agenda

Guidelines

Goodie Bag

No subway sandwich, cadbury and food vouchers this year. Sigh! The only food they provide are Oreo, Cloud 9 and drinking water.

Not much stuff this year but boleh la...

Hubby still sleepy

Nope I am not using my 60D this time but try on my new mirrorless Sony A5000 due to its light weight. I did not put much hope on winning as the outcome is for sure lower quality than a DSLR and all I want is to have fun!

 We had a not so successful mannequin challenge due to some culprits posing in front.

 First theme announced. Consumerism - The usage of goods for a greater economic benefit.

Market comes into my mind. As soon as we went to Pulau Tikus market we saw lots of fellow photomarathoners as expected lah.

 I wanted to submit this but the fish in front didn't look appealing.

Hence I chose this one for submission. Senior citizen, multi-cultural, warm and cool lighting, and most of all consumerism is part of my criteria.

After breakfast at a kopitiam near market, we headed back to Paragon to submit and watch the preview. Here's hubby's submission. That silhouette shape is yours truly holding 2 goodie bags.

 Around lunchtime 2nd theme was revealed. Beautiful Botanicals - Nature's gift to us.

I'm sure everyone thought of botanical gardens for this theme but hubby drove me to Youth Park instead and found that we were the only ones. It was raining and we had to wait till the rain subside.

This was my first choice to submit because I love how the leaf shelter the people...nature's gift to us.

But hubby suggested this perspective and amazingly a little girl roller skates in front of me as an added value. Nah, I'm kidding. I waited for her to pass by many times around the circular path.

We returned an hour later but hubby was facing difficulty. Apparently the photo he chose was too large so he has to choose another one. He did not know how to resize with his 5D nor he did not check the size beforehand.

 After that we had cendol and pan mee at foodcourt around 2pm.

 Finally announcement of theme 3. Light - Capture light in the most beautiful way.

Man I hate this theme. My semi-pro camera can't do tricks with creative lighting. This is just a test shot coz I had no idea and was about to give up.

 Then hubby brought me here and I directed him on how to pose.

This is my submitted photo. I love the shapes (semicircle, rectangle and triangle) and reflection in this picture. Also the guy too...

We went somewhere to nap for an hour then washed our face and back to stage area at 7pm. This is Zung, a guest judge giving talk o how to capture nice portrait...more like how to approach people to take photo.

 Wah, daebak!

 These were the themes that did not make it into the chosen 3.

After consolations were announced I had no mood to wait anymore coz I never win anything. Then suddenly heard my name. I turned to hubby and repeated wtf wtf? Is this real? 

But honestly my heart did not race that fast. I was quite calm as it's only 4th placing not grand prize. Anything is better than nothing kan?

I was speechless at first then I remembered to thank her and said I didn't expect this at all.

 Grand prize winner 2 times in a row since 2014. His daughter is also one of the winners here.

Yay!!!

Shame on hubby as a pro photographer. Now I can venture into photography business liao! No lah, I owe him actually coz last 2 themes were his ideas. I don't use all these camera accessories so donate to him ler.

The Prize

Highlights

Here's a video of the highlights to conclude this event. Notice I was too shy to receive the prize at the end of this video (3:19) coz I was ashamed to face hundreds of pros in front of me. I kept thinking will the pros be mocking me or saying it's not fair or I didn't deserve this coz my outcome looks like from compact camera?