Into the New World
Gosh, I've really been behind with my postings... to put it simply, I just didn't have the time. I've been too busy with work, in in the morning and back late at night on rush days, having hardly much time for myself. It's tiring, but work is work, we need the money to survive, no? Despite earning hardly enough to get through the month, I still keep going. Times are hard and rising prices are tough too... The fact that September is a month of car insurances and road tax for me doesn't help one bit at all.
Pardon the homage to SNSD's famous song as the title of this blog entry, but it was pretty much what happened to me last week. Thursday, 28th August 2008, something interesting came passing by. After the weekly company meeting, the boss called me to her room. Now, I had to admit I was a little nervous. After all, why all of a sudden? Sifu said I was gonna be fired. Joking, of course... After a short chat with the boss, it turns out that I'll be covering an event... as a trial. To see how I perform, as a possible branch-off to my usual work schedule. Well, of course I was excited... but I was helluva worried and feeling nervous chills up my spine.
This could very well be a blessing... or a curse.
I've always wanted to try journalism, so I accepted the offer, which is to cover a *gulp* fashion event at The Curve. I was to take photos and write a short article. The event was a launch of a new collection titled "Dangerously Glamorous". It was really daunting, to be there with so many experienced journalists and photographers there... and worst, I didn't recognize who the 2 designers were! I asked the girl who sat next to me, I forgot her name, but she works with Klue. She said she had no idea either, but she was there to do a photo assignment, herself being new to this too. Met her rather cute colleague too, my guess was that she does the writing. Anyways, it wasn't too long before we found ourselves running to the middle to find a good spot to shoot. It was tough cos the pro photographers already got the best angles. The lighting was a lil low, and there was a mix of fluorescent and incandescent lights. Anyways, here's some pics from the event:
The event took place at Binwani's Boutique
Yup, that's Amber Chia! I was so excited to see her up close~
Miss Astro Chinese International 2007, Joanne Yew. She was so gorgeous!
Occasionally, my cam would steal flash from other cameras, resulting in shots like this~
Oh, Dayang Nurfaizah was there too, although she walked past the photographers during her 1st round. Well, it's ok I guess, since she's a singer and she doesn't do this as often as Amber. We all asked her to stop for a while the following round she made. Hehe...
Amber looking gorgeous. This was one of the nicest outfits to me~
Oh, and here Joanne is showing off this nice green asymmetrical evening gown, which I found totally stunning and it's my favourite of the event~
Another photo of Dayang~
This nice dress had lil bits sewn to it~
The finale... look at those gorgeous girls with matching gorgeous gowns~
Mr. Vijay Binwani himself~!
Oh, and I bumped into Amber 2 times on my way back. I should have asked for a photo! Real wasted opportunity... sigh. Well, the event went on fine, I was able to go back home right after that as it was already after working hours. Lots of thoughts crossed my mind over how to do the article and whether the photos turned out okay...
The next day itself, Farah came over and asked if I could do a favor and cover an event at Sunway Pyramid. I was quite surprised. Another assignment, so fast? Wow... Well, I took the job, went there after lunchtime. It was at the Blue Entrance, an event called "KICK! 2008", in which a team of amateur girls aged 19-29 attempt to break the record for "Most Number of Martial Arts Kicks by a Team in 24 Hours" in the Malaysia Book of Records. They're also doing it for charity as the public could donate for each kick. This was to promote Breast Cancer Awareness. The target to beat was 52,800 kicks and each girl has to do an average of 40 kicks a minute to meet that figure. A daunting task if you ask me. I helped to shoot some photos, as the official photographer for that day, Thean Howe, had another assignment at 4pm, so he had to miss the actual kicking. Spoke to a photographer from the NST there, her name was Nurul if I'm not mistaken. It was quite cool to see a female photographer among the guys. The poor gurl just came back from 3 days staying with Orang Asli for a story. Anyways, some photos from the event:
The stage in which the girls were gonna kick for 24 hours~
Captain Quack sent in a special request to try for himself some kicks!
This is team captain and manager Xaviera, whose kicks are pure awesomeness!
This girl, June, is also very hyper... look at her go!
This girl caught my attention. Her name's Ca-Ryn, she was quite ferocious like the rest, but in between kicks she was so hyper and ready for action...
She's cute, and not to mention darn fit...
Here are some videos of her in action... notice how ferocious her kicks are, and they cute way she keeps herself aggressive during rests in between kicks.
Video Link
Video Link
I left after watching them kick for bout half-an-hour. They kept going at it, it was awesome... The last ones I watched were Fionna and Puteri (I think), and gosh, despite their small frames, they were simply amazing. The next they the results were 53,085 kicks, a whole 285 more than the initial target, earning themselves the record. Well done girls~!
My next task was to write the article, which I admit proved harder than I thought. I was slow in starting it, and I feel this had to be improved. Usually the start is the important part, then keeping the momentum. The boss told me she liked what she saw, and would forward it to the editor. The next thing I knew, one of my articles was going to be put into the coming issue! Woweee... needed some changes though, but basically it's there... the KICK! 2008 story, with a mixture of Thean Howe's photos and mine. A whole full-pager... I was so excited. After laying it out (took me ages, cos like Sifu said, it was my 'baby'), I found out that Zali was laying out... guess what... my Binwani's story! With my photos!!! OmG! 2 full-pages? I couldn't contain my excitement... That would of course increase a lot that evening when the early print of the paper came out:
Here are links to bigger-sized pages so you can read them :)
Well, like I said earlier, this is just a start... I'd like to see how this goes, but I have my worries too, on whether I can keep up and whether it'll affect my work. It's going to use a lot of brainpower to come up with something so quickly. It's not going to be easy but I'm gonna give this a go.
Wish me luck!
PEACE and God Bless,
Aris Tee
Pardon the homage to SNSD's famous song as the title of this blog entry, but it was pretty much what happened to me last week. Thursday, 28th August 2008, something interesting came passing by. After the weekly company meeting, the boss called me to her room. Now, I had to admit I was a little nervous. After all, why all of a sudden? Sifu said I was gonna be fired. Joking, of course... After a short chat with the boss, it turns out that I'll be covering an event... as a trial. To see how I perform, as a possible branch-off to my usual work schedule. Well, of course I was excited... but I was helluva worried and feeling nervous chills up my spine.
This could very well be a blessing... or a curse.
I've always wanted to try journalism, so I accepted the offer, which is to cover a *gulp* fashion event at The Curve. I was to take photos and write a short article. The event was a launch of a new collection titled "Dangerously Glamorous". It was really daunting, to be there with so many experienced journalists and photographers there... and worst, I didn't recognize who the 2 designers were! I asked the girl who sat next to me, I forgot her name, but she works with Klue. She said she had no idea either, but she was there to do a photo assignment, herself being new to this too. Met her rather cute colleague too, my guess was that she does the writing. Anyways, it wasn't too long before we found ourselves running to the middle to find a good spot to shoot. It was tough cos the pro photographers already got the best angles. The lighting was a lil low, and there was a mix of fluorescent and incandescent lights. Anyways, here's some pics from the event:
The event took place at Binwani's Boutique
Yup, that's Amber Chia! I was so excited to see her up close~
Miss Astro Chinese International 2007, Joanne Yew. She was so gorgeous!
Occasionally, my cam would steal flash from other cameras, resulting in shots like this~
Oh, Dayang Nurfaizah was there too, although she walked past the photographers during her 1st round. Well, it's ok I guess, since she's a singer and she doesn't do this as often as Amber. We all asked her to stop for a while the following round she made. Hehe...
Amber looking gorgeous. This was one of the nicest outfits to me~
Oh, and here Joanne is showing off this nice green asymmetrical evening gown, which I found totally stunning and it's my favourite of the event~
Another photo of Dayang~
This nice dress had lil bits sewn to it~
The finale... look at those gorgeous girls with matching gorgeous gowns~
Mr. Vijay Binwani himself~!
Oh, and I bumped into Amber 2 times on my way back. I should have asked for a photo! Real wasted opportunity... sigh. Well, the event went on fine, I was able to go back home right after that as it was already after working hours. Lots of thoughts crossed my mind over how to do the article and whether the photos turned out okay...
The next day itself, Farah came over and asked if I could do a favor and cover an event at Sunway Pyramid. I was quite surprised. Another assignment, so fast? Wow... Well, I took the job, went there after lunchtime. It was at the Blue Entrance, an event called "KICK! 2008", in which a team of amateur girls aged 19-29 attempt to break the record for "Most Number of Martial Arts Kicks by a Team in 24 Hours" in the Malaysia Book of Records. They're also doing it for charity as the public could donate for each kick. This was to promote Breast Cancer Awareness. The target to beat was 52,800 kicks and each girl has to do an average of 40 kicks a minute to meet that figure. A daunting task if you ask me. I helped to shoot some photos, as the official photographer for that day, Thean Howe, had another assignment at 4pm, so he had to miss the actual kicking. Spoke to a photographer from the NST there, her name was Nurul if I'm not mistaken. It was quite cool to see a female photographer among the guys. The poor gurl just came back from 3 days staying with Orang Asli for a story. Anyways, some photos from the event:
The stage in which the girls were gonna kick for 24 hours~
Captain Quack sent in a special request to try for himself some kicks!
This is team captain and manager Xaviera, whose kicks are pure awesomeness!
This girl, June, is also very hyper... look at her go!
This girl caught my attention. Her name's Ca-Ryn, she was quite ferocious like the rest, but in between kicks she was so hyper and ready for action...
She's cute, and not to mention darn fit...
Here are some videos of her in action... notice how ferocious her kicks are, and they cute way she keeps herself aggressive during rests in between kicks.
Video Link
Video Link
I left after watching them kick for bout half-an-hour. They kept going at it, it was awesome... The last ones I watched were Fionna and Puteri (I think), and gosh, despite their small frames, they were simply amazing. The next they the results were 53,085 kicks, a whole 285 more than the initial target, earning themselves the record. Well done girls~!
My next task was to write the article, which I admit proved harder than I thought. I was slow in starting it, and I feel this had to be improved. Usually the start is the important part, then keeping the momentum. The boss told me she liked what she saw, and would forward it to the editor. The next thing I knew, one of my articles was going to be put into the coming issue! Woweee... needed some changes though, but basically it's there... the KICK! 2008 story, with a mixture of Thean Howe's photos and mine. A whole full-pager... I was so excited. After laying it out (took me ages, cos like Sifu said, it was my 'baby'), I found out that Zali was laying out... guess what... my Binwani's story! With my photos!!! OmG! 2 full-pages? I couldn't contain my excitement... That would of course increase a lot that evening when the early print of the paper came out:
Here are links to bigger-sized pages so you can read them :)
Well, like I said earlier, this is just a start... I'd like to see how this goes, but I have my worries too, on whether I can keep up and whether it'll affect my work. It's going to use a lot of brainpower to come up with something so quickly. It's not going to be easy but I'm gonna give this a go.
Wish me luck!
PEACE and God Bless,
Aris Tee
