That’s what its unique – Rush…, originally uploaded by Lobinhoot.
I’ve always been contemplating about joining a photo competition. Its not that I’m afraid of anything, but it was more like asking myself, what or who am I trying to prove to? Oh well, in the end, I signed up for this year’s Canon Photomarathon. It was a wonderful experience for me. I’ve never participated in any competition prior to this and I must say it was an experience I will not forget so soon. Haha…
There were about more than 650 participants in this year’s competition. I saw alot of school’s photography club sending entourage of photographers for the marathon. But this kind of shoot should serve well as a gauge to those aspiring photographers. But what I am concern is the fact that the judges are not all photographers and that their selections were purely on their own preference. That’s what worrying me. Anyway, I woke up at 6am yesterday and headed to Suntec City. Breakfast didn’t materialise as planned, cos MacDonald’s Suntec wasn’t a 24-hour outlet. Nonetheless, I had a good meal with a couple of the shutterbug pals.
The turnout for the competition was so good that the registration took a little longer than expected to be done for all the participants. We kicked off the 1 theme at about 8:15am. For each theme, we have about 3 hours to complete the shoot and submission of our preferred entry. In other words, we only have about an hour to shoot our theme. The rest would be travelling time and waiting time at the submission booths. Marathon? Hmm…
Theme One – Faces. I gave the first theme a hard and long thought before commencing. Should I go conventional? Should I go out of the way? Hmm… In the end, I chose this pic here.
I thought it was quite a blissful face. And I had some colours in it. Haha… But this pic was not in the top 10. Too common I thought in the end. Oh well, lesson learnt. 
I’ve had other shots. One of an old lady selling lillies and flowers outside the Kwan Yim Temple. Another of some pigeons feeding around that same area.
The eventual winner was a shot of a mass of tomb plaques. It was really well taken. Jus couldn’t imagine how far pple can go to get those kind of shots. Amazing…
Theme Two – Power, Simply Red. My team decided to head down to Orchard for theme two’s shoot, cos one of them recalled seeing some red balls hanging from the trees outside Takashimaya. I submitted this pic for theme two.
I thought this traffic stopper was good enuff. Composition was okie. Some depth of field element here. But, it never caught the eye of the judges. Haha… The winner was a forehead of an indian devotee. There was the red dot on his forehead. Quite a dramatic shot I must agree.
So its 2 out of 2 failures by 3pm. Haha… I was thinking of giving up then, but my peers urged me on and say we should at least complete the “race”. And so, I pressed on and went about shooting the final 2 themes.
It was indeed a gruelling experience for all the first-timers at this year’s Canon Photomarathon. With the PSI level rising by the minute, it was getting tough to see any beautiful scenic views out of Suntec City.
Theme Three – A slice of history. I chose this pic here for my third submission.
I didn’t wanna go the Sir Stamford Raffles way and thought by being more abstract, it will catch the eyes of the judges.
Boy, I was so wrong! Haha… We even went by to Sungei road to capture shots of old records and garang guni man selling their antiques. None of those works.
There was this old burnt down house along Beach road which alot of the competitiors were shooting by the time my team got there.
The winner for theme three was a female contestant. Her winning shot? A picture of an old tea set as the foreground and a black and white pic of a couple in bridal attire as the background. Very nostalgic indeed.
Theme Four – Darkness. It was 6pm when the organisers released the last and final theme to us. We were exhausted. My mind was almost in a blank by then. We decided that heading to the food court was our top priority. Haha… 
After our dinner, we headed over to the Fountain of Wealth and snapped some shots there. I submitted this pic for my final theme.
As we were told we couldn’t use any photoshop functions on our pictures, I could only make use of my camera’s preset functions to make my shot more dramatic. So what do you think? Did it work? The answer was simple – No. The winner used a strobe light to cast light on his subject and in the background were ceiling lights. The result was good. All you could see then was the subject’s face and rows of lights in the background. *Clap clap clap*
By the time the final winner was announced, it was close to 10pm. It was a long and tiring day. But I enjoyed it. Very much, in fact. Was I disappointed? Well… Maybe a little sore that I didn’t win anything, but I’m sure I could have done better. So should I be there the following year? We shall see…
I met an old friend at the marathon and he was last year’s overall winner. He didn’t won anything this year either. I asked what he did different last year. His reply? The judges were different and their choice and tastes changes. Haha… Alot bores down to luck. In fact, 90% of the competition depends on luck (according to an ex-champion). So I guessed I should’ve gone into the Kwan Yim Temple yesterday morning and do some prayers. Maybe next year I’ll do that….
