60 budding photographers meet up with professional photographers Kid Chan, Steven Goh and Heart Patrick for a special Groupon Lenses workshop
Petaling Jaya, 20 June 2013 — In an effort to further cultivate the passion for photography amongst young Malaysians, Groupon Malaysia recently hosted a special Groupon Lenses workshop which saw 60 young and aspiring photographers learn all about the art from renowned local professional photographers Kid Chan, Steven Goh and Heart Patrick.
“Photography has always been a fascinating profession, and in this day and age of constant communication, the demand for visuals and images has never been greater. With that in mind through the Groupon Lenses workshop we aimed to provide budding photographers with a fun yet insightful session on what photography today is all about” said Mr. Rafiq Razali, Country General Manager of Groupon Malaysia.
Two of the workshops key speakers, Kid Chan and Steven Goh, are well-known and high in demand wedding photographers who share their knowledge regarding the profession, from how they first ventured into the field into how practical experience led to an evolution of innovative creativity as they sought better and better images, both as a personal challenge and as their clients became ever increasingly demanding.
“One of the most insightful shooting experiences I had was actually shooting in a dog shelter. Essentially, I wanted to capture the emotions of the dogs in my pictures and let them paint me a picture. Therefore, to illustrate the perspectives of the dogs, some shots were taken close to the ground in order to get the visuals on a dog’s eye level. I also captured monochrome images as dogs don’t see things as colourful as humans do. As most of the dogs were strays and untrained, it was difficult getting close to the dog to capture the desired shot.” Goh commented.
The final guest speaker of the day, Heart Patrick, is a specialist in travel-photojournalism and regaled the audience with stories of how he sought not only to capture images of different places but to also capture the culture of the people whom he encountered and on how even the simplest backdrops could be used to add more emotion to an image.
“Wedding shots are probably one the most treasured pictures for many couples as the pictures need to be able to reflect the love between the two. This is why I usually opt to have the wedding shoot in places that the couple is familiar with, places where memories between the two were made in order to recreate the passion between them. These could be location such as nearby playgrounds or schools,” Heart added.
The workshop was then followed by practical sessions facilitated by Groupon Malaysia’s very own photographers Ethan Ong and Ivy Tan, who further tested the skills of participants. To showcase the roles of lighting, set, and angles in food photography, Ivy demonstrated the simple steps of glazing food to make the food more appealing and getting the right angles to make the food look more complete. Ethan on the other hand, gave practical lessons on still-life photography using only a wine bottle, a wine glass and a rustic background made from a rugged cloth.
“This is our first Groupon Lenses initiative and the word was spread solely on social media where our team has been pushing for 2 weeks ahead of time. Despite the time constraints, we are glad that via this platform alone, it has brought this active and creative bunch to come together for a fulfilling Groupon Experience,” added Rafiq.
“Groupon Malaysia is always on the lookout to explore more opportunities for young people and this is part of our initiative to continue giving back to the society.” Rafiq concluded.
Groupon Lenses is the first in a planned series of community engagement activities presented by Groupon Malaysia. The Groupon Lenses workshop was also supported by Canon.
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