Few weeks ago, I got to know about the talk from Alvin Leong Photography Academy. Photographers’ Evening Out Photography Talk. I was simply excited by the event’s name, what more to say, they are featuring the likes of Saiful Nang and Jason Victor, of whom had produced extraordinary artwork thru their lenses.
Breeze Model Sapphire being introduced to stage.
The crowd turned out to be great despite the rainy evening, as I was told the total number of people turned up for the talk was 260. Probably due to the rain, there was about 30 minutes delay to the start of the event.
Mr. Alvin Leong delivering his notes.
They started the event with the marketing video from OUM. For a moment, it felt like I travelled thru time, back to the pre-university years. Oh well, this is pretty much expected. Anyways, here’s a summary of how the flow or highlight went that night:
- Sharing session by Alvin Leong of Alvin Leong Photography,
- Sharing session by Brendan Goh of Photo Gallery Malaysia.
- Sharing session by Saiful Nang’s of Candid Syndrome International.
- Sharing session by Jason Victor’s of Jason Victor Photography.
- Model shooting session with appearance by Breeze Models
I am not gonna detail out how the event was carried out that night, instead, I am thinking of sharing my thoughts on the event itself.
A brief sharing by Breeze Model Sapphire
First of all, I must thank Alvin Leong Photography Academy and the whole organizing team to make this event possible. Now here is what I think about the event. Prior to this, I attended their Introductory Preview Road Show in OUM campus in Kuching few months ago. Back then, they brought in photographers like Jimin Lai, and Yusuf Hashim. So, this time, when the event was announced as ‘Photography Talk’, I had already got an expectation embedded in my mind already. I was looking forward to more of a technical sharing. However, I was quite disappointed that night, as the even turned out to be similar to what they had in the previous session in OUM campus.
'Model Shooting Session' towards the end of the talk.
The Deliverables: I understand this may be one of the marketing drive for the photography school. However, I thought it would be better if they could tease the more experienced enthusiasts or even semi-pro among the crowd. When we were told that they are going to share how their pieces of work is done, I was expecting more of how the photos are done technically, i.e. if there were any flash were used, what power were the flash set, or what mode was used, Av? Tv? Full Manual? Aperture setting? Sadly, none of those were mentioned. We were only told how the photos came about, i.e. what the bride was doing in the photo., etc. I must say, as a photographer, I am not interested what ‘happened’ back then. I am more interested how I can play make use of my gears and the available lighting to capture my shots in future. I thought, at least, you could tease us with bit of the technical area, especially in studio shooting.
Breeze Model Sapphire Wong
I would think what they were delivering are more suitable for the fresh starters, beginners. As for those who has some extend of knowledge in photographer, we would love to be teased with more than what they had offered that night.
'Model Shooting Session' towards the end of the talk.
Time Management: The event was supposed to happen within the 7:30pm to 10:00pm. But the event only ended at around 11+p.m., which was way after the original time. Despite the delay, I think the organizing team should try their best to keep the time. It felt as though everyone has exceeded the time given in each session. Some of the sharing session were bit draggy. That could probably because the video presentation’s playtime were not taken into account when they first planned. It’s only my two cents, but I think everyone should have do a trial run one round before the actual talk happens.
Me and the funny, and cool Saiful Nang.
Model Shooting: When they first mentioned about the model shooting towards the end of the event, I was quite excited as I could see them preparing the strobes, and other studio equipment, where I thought it’s good as we would have chance to try hands on to snap with a studio setup. However, I was wrong again. The model shooting session was just some random snap of models, with them standing in front of the studio backdrop. Maybe they had to cut short on this due to the time constraint, as the night was running late. Everyone was tired already.
Anyways, thank you and congratulations to Alvin Leong Photography Academny and the team behind this talk for making it happened. We would certainly appreciate more of this type of event in Kuching in future.
Cheers! Happy snapping, everyone!
