Steven Leong’s Blog

10th May 2010 : It seems that today is destined to be one of those days again… picked up the papers (The Star, the largest national English daily in Malaysia) today, flipped through it and found a golf-pullout; curious since that was what I have been shooting recently.

I didn’t get far before I nearly fell down when I jumped up from my chair… there it was, my photo staring me in the face. Haha… another one of those happy moments, I guess…

Suddenly reminded of my recent assignments, I went through the May 2010 issue of the Malaysian Golf Digest… this time, I was laughing like a madman. 4 photos from 2 articles this time…. hahaha….

I guess a photographer can never get bored seeing his work actually published and is seen by many hundreds, if not thousands of people.

For links to more photos from the golf tournaments so far as well as my other work, please check My Facebook Page out.

Time for a celebration? You bet~!

It has been quite some time since I have last written anything because I was moved or touched but today is rather unusual if not special.

Last night, a friend commented, “Photography is no fun at all, because you always have to bring along so many things then go out early in the morning and come back at midnight” (quote modified from typical IM-style English) and not so long ago, I found a suitable reply for my friend’s comment in some stories I read.

These are stories that we (as photographers) never want to read about or hear but sadly (or fortunately, depends on how you look at it) we tend to be involved in them. (continue reading…)

There are times I would look up the sky during a fireworks display and think to myself, “What is happening here?”; Team Canada’s display for MIFC2008 was obviously not one of the displays that made me do that.

Canada had a clear and well-defined goal, they wanted to dazzle the audience and judges with a variety of fireworks following the rhytms and feelings of some well-known songs from We will rock you to the (in)famous theme from Titanic sang by Celine Dion (a Canadian, coincidence?). This was the singular display from MIFC2008 that made me hum together with the music while busy jostling the blackcard in front of my lens.

Was it a flawless display? Well… from these layman’s eyes, something seem rather odd as Canada’s display seemed to be right-heavy with many large bursts only seen on the right of the bridge rather than the left. It is also a bane to a photographer, when you have bisected your image hoping for at least vaguely symmetrical composition and the team decides it only wants the right side; that tends to ruin a photographer’s day.
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16th June 2008, Putrajaya, Malaysia : Today marks the day when the highly anticipated display from Team China for MIFC2008 (Malaysia International Fireworks Competition). As usual, yours truly was on-site very, very early. The display was due for 9:30pm and I arrived at 5:30pm. Why? First of all to get a good spot for my shoot tonight which was paramount and secondly to make sure I arrive on site without getting stuck when the crowd came.

And slowly but surely the crowd came… everyone gasped when the announcer told the crowd that the display was to be postponed to 10pm instead of the original 9:30pm but as they say, good things only come to those who wait.

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Yup… Malaysia International Fireworks Competition is back! And the organizers picked the same time of Beijing 2008 Olympics to do it! So… should I sit at home and watch the once every 4yr extravaganza or shall I go stand for hours just to shoot fireworks for 15mins?

I guess the answer is very simple for me and it was no real choice.

Thanks to a friend from Photomalaysia.com, I got hold of a pass for the event and got to shoot at an excellent location inside the Putrajaya International Convention Center or PICC. Never realized the PICC was this nice until last night.

Anyway, the first performance for MIFC2008 is from Team Malaysia… while as a Malaysian, I should support the Malaysian team but… well… let’s just say the music was beautiful but the display’s quality has it’s ups and downs to my eyes. (continue reading…)