Canon Photomarathon 2008.

The Malaysian leg was held on November 1, 2008 with the flag-off point being the Boulevard area of Berjaya Times Square Kuala Lumpur. The duration of the event was to be from 0700 - 2000 which to be honest, is totally insane to me. The initial gang of the usuals had shrunk to only 2 participants - which is pretty sad.

Anyhow, I was already there around 0650 to complete the registration and lucky me for being early because just a little 10 minutes later - the queue went from horrible to you've-got-to-be-kidding-me! Imagine reaching the score 1482 on Snake 1 in your Nokia 3210.

Red people mountain, red people sea.

Due to the overwhelming response as quoted directly from the MC, the announcement of the first theme was delayed by half an hour - so, all in all, I have idled around for pretty long - finished my free meals, discussing with Adrian on where to have breakfast and lunch later, checking out products on sale, nosing around the download station, watching the clips and listening to the Canon song over and over again, on the look for chiqs friends and most importantly, scan other contestant's gears.

To which I totally regret doing because my already slimmest possible hope of winning anything was further crushed - these dudes are well equipped - flash guns, telephoto lenses, tripods, unipods, battery grip, so on and so forth. All so canggih-manggih maciam transformers.

After the initial flag-off, participants start trickling away from the Boulevard of BTS KL.

So, the rules were simple, to capture something related to the theme announced creatively. Then head to the next pit stop - the Canon Concept store in Pavillion to get the second theme within the allocated time - and finally to the Canon Concept store in KLCC for the third and final theme. There were no limitations on area or location, if you want to, you can travel all the way to KLIA or Malacca to get some shots. When done, return to the starting point and submit your images when the download station opens at 1500.

Then linger around before the results are announced later that night.


For Adrian and I, we were not planning to stay through the whole photomarathon, hence, we were pretty much done around 1300 - returned to BTS with the purpose of heading back home but to our surprise, the downloading stations were already open - pretty smart move to ease possible congestion later I would say. Submitted our images - not like can win anyway but just for the sake of submitting - and headed home because way too tired already.

Adrian in action for the first theme - looking at this picture only then I realize he really, really kurus loh.

Walking around aimlessly - snapping around aimlessly as well - good chance to stock-up on photos - can be used when lack of blogging inspiration.

One thing I realize through this event is that, there's a lot of beautiful moments or sceneries that can be captured even in this hustling city of Kuala Lumpur. Perhaps the uniqueness of things lies in the ability to stop and look around in between the zooming vehicles and individuals rushing past you with a camera in hand.


Anyway, congrats to the winner of this photomarathon, I dunno whom, who gets a Canon 40D bundled with the 17-85mm IS lense and would be heading to New Zealand for a photo clinic. More pictures to come later when I have the time to edit them.

Adrian - post photo submission picture - so happy macam baru saja graduate dengan cemerlang gemilang.