Capital Land Photography Contest 2011

I have always love photography. If you read my first post in this blog, you would read about that passion when I was young and how it reignited when my wife bought me my Nikon D90 as my birthday gift. It is that passion for food, travelling and photography (not necessary in that order) that got this blog started in the first place.

I have always considered my pictures mediocre and I am nothing but just a novice, with very little knowledge of what actual good photography is, what constitute a good picture, the various techniques involved or all the technical jargon a photographer should know.

All I know is that if I see something good as far as I am concerned, I would like to capture that and `paint' it with my camera.

I am constantly reading new materials about photography, tricks and tips offered by many well established photographers and looking forward to seeing some constructive comments in this blog on how I could improve my photography technique.

I have never even consider entering any photography contest and I detest those where pictures are posted on some website and how good your picture is depends largely on how many people voted to like it, because more often than not, it is a gimmick by the organizers to drive traffic to these sites. These type of contest to me, becomes more of a popularity contest than an actual talent contest.

Last year however, I stumbled upon the annual Capital Land photography contest normally run between May and June. The contest was opened to all photographers to capture pictures of their buildings. I happened to be in Singapore then and since Capital Land has a number of very beautiful landmarks in Singapore, I decided to make it a point to capture pictures of some of these landmarks and enter some of them for fun. Anyway, I had time on my hand, as I was there holidaying alone while wife was attending her training.

I submitted a total of six entrees, got through the first huddle where I was informed that all six were shortlisted for the second round and that was it. I knew that I did not win anything (not that I was expecting to win anything). I was merely testing to see how far I could go in a serious contest like this.

I have forgotten about this contest till last week, when I received an email from Capital Land to invite me to participate in this year contest again. When I visited the website, there was a gallery where the winners' pictures were shown. Nope, none of mine was there ...HAHAHA (as expected). And there was the gallery where 140 pictures were the shortlisted as exhibits in their exhibition last year in Singapore where the winners were announced. Out of curiosity, I clicked to run through those pictures.

Suddenly, when I was at pictures captured on Clarke Quay, Singapore, two black and white pictures looked rather familiar to me. Hei......THESE TWO PICTURES WERE MINE! Written at the bottom of these two pictures were "Submitted by : Rodney Looi Keng Mun, Malaysia". I was overjoyed. Though I did not win any accolades or prices, just being selected as exhibits was to me an achievement.

Busy at Work (Clarke Quay, Singapore)

Captured this shot using Zoom Burst to pick up the focus of the workers manning the tourist ferries had at the job at hand along Clarke Quay, Singapore. 

The Loner (Clarke Quay, Singapore)

As I busy walking up and down Clarke Quay trying to capture the vibrant colours and activities at this popular tourist destination, I chanced upon this lone individual, sitting all by himself by the river side, oblivious to the surrounding activities, deep in thoughts and a world of his own. Loneliness can happened to anyone, anywhere... even in the busiest of all places ...