A gruelling nearly 15 hour marathon, in the sun with no scheduled breaks, and a tshirt that wasnt exactly cotton was what a couple of colleagues and myself were subjected to the previous weekend.

Surprisingly, we had truckloads of fun because we’re all trigger happy people.

The Canon Photomarathon 2008 was a record breaking one, gathering even more than last year’s turn out.

1,282 participants in the Singapore leg
credits Photomarathon Asia

But we’re all first timers.

There were three themes for the day; each given 3.5 hours for you to capture that ONE single shot and then come back to the download stations to submit your work. No pre-shot pictures, nor edited pictures were allowed. You were thus only, limited by your imagination and of course creativity and composition. It’s not to say that Point and Shoots dont work as well as DSLRs, but I couldnt help but feel somehow having a large-a*s camera with them powerful lenses (tele-lenses or whatever they call them) gave the semi-pros and professionals a cutting edge over n0obs. But I shouldnt be one to complain I suppose, already having owned a DSLR of my own.

The first assignment was “Change” and we were off to a good start. We had loads of ideas, the problem was where and HOW to get our respective shots captured. Deciding that Chinatown was a good area to get our triggers clicking, it wasnt long before we were taking random shots of everything and anything just to warm our cameras up.

Some pictures I particularly like which are unrelated to the theme.

We took a couple of pictures themed “Change” and I had trouble deciding between several photos.

Eventually I submitted this.

“Change”

Now that I think of it, it kinda looks like a decapitated hand. Haha! But a decapitated hand with change in it, spells oxymoronic (ie. death doesnt change).

The second theme was harder – Dreams.

I drew a blank notwithstanding its relevance to my pseudonym.

I particularly liked these but didnt think they conveyed the idea of “Dreams” very well.

“Dreams”

I chose to go with the latter owing to its blue-ish tinge and the way the little girl lay across the stone slab.

The final theme was met with exhaustion on my side. It was increasingly difficult to generate ideas although we’d started out on a high note. I guess it also didnt help very much that the organisers kept pushing the time back and we were due back at 8pm that very night when originally it could have been 6ish/7.

“Freedom”

Shyuan’s picture for “Freedom” where I had to model on the damp grass. Haha. Looks good though and I had it printed in A4! Haha!

Finally we were done at almost 1030pm. The entire experience was a good one and I learnt how to use my camera in several ways I never thought I would normally do. Plus, us n0obs also agreed that we learnt how to infuse meaning into our pictures instead of randomly just taking stuff all the time. We’re definitely going to join again next year! Wo0ot!