The journey thus far

I guess that its finally time for me to post an entry...

I don't know why. But somehow the events of today just made me feel like chronicling down the events, incidences, moments before these memories fade away... Maybe it will also serve as a reminder to our future generations of photographers of the humble beginnings of the club and how it slowly progressed.

I remembered that I entered MJC in week 10 of term 2 2005. I was like a wide-eyed boy, amazed at the modern looking general office, feeling lost in the 3 plus consecutive days of induction, bombarded with all the infomation like e-admin, e-training, prosoft and what not....
However when Ms Choy came in and talked to us about CCAs, she said that the school will always try to match the teachers' interest to the CCA. I knew immediately that it would be Photography for me. I guess I was pretty fortunate as there were already 3 teachers in charge, Mr Quek, Mr Tee and Mr Chua.

On the 5th day since I entered the college was the 3rd Students' Council Investiture. I remembered asking around whether is it okay to take photos of that event. (I picked up photography in April that year and I was hungry for opportunities to hone my skills). So there I was, this total stranger walking around with a monopod, a 20D with a 420EX flash and a 28-200mm lens walking around snapping away. And mind you, 20D has a very loud mirror slap. Thereafter in the afternoon, the entire school was transported to the National Stadium for our very first A Division socer match. It was at that place where I finally met the venerable Mr Tee... (I heard so much about Mr Tee that he was good etc etc so I was always interested in meeting him). I admit that I was taken aback when I saw him, because I thought that he would be more of this middle aged fellow (anyway he was my JC tutor's tutor).

I approached Mr Tee and introduced myself and asked him whether can I shoot the match too. He was very nice and said "Of course". The match was very exciting, we scored against the run of play before VJC equalised. The match entered into extra time and the sky was turning dark. I remember having to push up my ISO to maintain at least 1/200 s. Eventually the match has to be decided by penalty shootout. The sky was dark and the stadium floodlights weren't switch on. So the shootout was a 'dark' affair. In the end, we prevailed with a 5-4 score. During the prize presentation, Mr Tee told me to take the prize presentation as he didn't bring along his flash (hee... Mr Tee was using a D2X then.... a professional camera but it doesn't come with an onboard flash). I took the photos with a 50mm f1.8 lens, though it was plasticky and slow in focusing but the f1.8 saved the day. When Ms Lai lifted the trophy, I just let the 20D go and it went rattling away... later on one of the shot made it into our school's old website and annual. The one with Ms Lai holding up the trophy in pitch darkness. Was I proud to be a Meridian? You bet I am.

After my first foray into shooting school events, the June holidays came. I went with my wife to Melbourne for our 'honeymoon'. I brought all my gears along. The Lowepro Off Road (or was it Road Trails), 20D, 50mm f1.8, 18-55mm, 55-200mm and a super cmi tripod which came with my Konica Minolta Z3 Dimage which I bought about a year ago. (It cost me $800 for a 4MP prosumer. But then again, the 20D costed me 2.4k second hand).

We had a lot of fun. It was a road trip and we spent about 3 days touring the Great Ocean Road and coming back via the Grumpians. Even though my gears were so much more inferior than what I have now but the images that they made were among my most treasured ones. I played with different settings, perspectives but I believed what made those images special was that they captured those moments as they were meant to be.

June passed. Finally I am assigned my classes and CCA. No surprise, it was Photography. I still kind of remember the first time I stepped into the club room. There were quite a number of people and I remembered seeing Alex, Benjamin and particularly Junsen as he was sitting in front of the Mac doing some posters and I think it was for the Photo Salon (for the uninitiated, Photo Salon was the inaugural Photo Competition held within the school). Then I thought that Junsen was a bit cocky (maybe its due to the fact that he was the most competent in terms of technical stuff. Well it guess its true then since Kingston and Quentin also have this similiar air of cockiness and they too were the technical maestro of their time). Ah.... I remembered Xing Quan too... He was this goofy guy and he had this pretty easy type of mannerism when he spoke to me. I was quite 'mean' to him and I 'chided' him and said "Is this the way you speak to a teacher?", he was went something like "Just kidding, friend friend mah." And of course the chiding continued. I stayed on in the room chatting with Mr Quek and I remembered nearing 5pm, he started to rush the kids, saying "Hey if you guys don't go, I can't go", something to that effect. So that was really my first day in the club.

I didn't get to do much with Junsen's batch other overseeing the Photo Salon. But truth be told, I didn't do much other than meeting the exco at about 4pm to discuss about it and that's all, only one meeting. Somehow I guess Mr Chua (the main teacher in charge) took over. I can't exactly remember why I wasn't more active beyond that meeting. I guess it was the stress of being a beginning teacher and being a chemistry teacher is particularly busy so something had to go. The other incidence that I remember was Eric going up to announce that the entry submission for the Photo Salon was still open (because there wasn't many entries when the deadline strucked) and he went "....well we don't have many entries coming in..." gosh, if I were dead then, I would be somersaulting in my grave. Well in the end he was apologetic about it... guess sometimes, kids do unwittingly make mistakes without realising it. Anyway the inital prizes announced for the Photo Salon were mouses and USB thumbdrives, I think...but thank goodness, Mr Chua changed them to some vouchers.

The months sped by and soon it was Oct when teaching duties were over and one day when I was in the staff room, Ms Lai walked pass me and suddenly she turned around and told me that she was going to put me in charge of the club. I was stunned and all that I could mustered was "Ms Lai, I will try my best". I went away feeling excited and thinking of all the things that I could do in the club.

A few days later, Ms Ee approached me and asked me whether I'm interested in joining the students' council. Well I felt a little bit honored (though there wasn't a need to) cause SC was the premiere CCA, the creme de la creme... Well I said no since I was going to head Photography and I was concerned about my teaching as I will be teaching JC2 the next year. However she later asked me again and again. In between those times that she approached me (in total 3 times), I had the opportunity to work with a small group of teachers to organise the inaugural JC1 bash. That opportunity opened up my eyes to organising events on a wider scale for students and I guess it was because of this that I eventually agreed to Ms Ee when she asked the 3rd time. Well what about Photography? Well I thought that I should be to juggle both. In fact when Ms Lai saw me later, she asked me "Are you sure? SC can do till you die one." I said "I'm still young so its good to stretch myself". Eventually I wasn't given the headship of Photography because of SC and Mr Tee had to receive back the baton from Mr Chua. Ha I remembered Mr Tee 'scolding' me for taking up SC.

Oh just prior to the Photography Headship and SC. I had my first encounter with Ms Koh when we were invigilating in the hall and we spoke about the upcoming Staff dinner and I shared with her what I did for my own wedding dinner as I did a lot of customisation myself. And you know Ms Koh's usual self "Come join Staff Welfare lah" and I went "Well why not" since every staff was supposed to have a CCD.

Well when the end of the year staff meeting arrived, I had a shock when I saw my deployment for 2006. I was in Photography, SC and also.... Staff Welfare. Wah I didn't know that Ms Koh was so powerful... my casual agreement actually led me to be deployed in SW. I had thought that since my involvement in Photography and SC was confirmed, SW would definitely be out cause SC was in itself a killer. Well since the plan is out, I thought to myself that I would just bite the bullet.

Come 2006, 1st term, I was able to pop into the club room now and then and I suggested to the exco to do a print and sell for the orientation and that was how the print and sell all started. I was able to avoid orientation duties as a SC TA because I was in JC2 and lessons were ongoing.

But soon the pace quickened and things just came fast and furious. I had to do my first lecture on Alcohols and in my own opinion was a disaster. My confidence in my teaching ability dropped and somehow my CT class, which I just took over, weren't responding well to me. I struggled with some of the boys in the class, one was particular antagonistic towards me (he even once pointed an accusatory finger at me, faulting me for this and that when the actual fact was that he simply didn't do his work... this boy eventually became one of my supporter and I guess I was his favorite teacher and we still keep in touch till now)

So my teaching journey was a tough one in 2006 and it in itself will be another long story...

With the heavy teaching load and also struggling with the JC2 content, soon I find myself not being able to attend the club meetings as often as I would like too. Furthermore in SC, I had to oversee the 4th SC investiture and the upcoming Teachers' Day. SC meetings then were very long. We have interviews to screen students who are applying to join SC. We had debriefings after every meetings and often my wife would be waiting for me in the car at 9 plus. I seriously couldn't remember how it was like to leave school with the sky still looking blue.

The 4th SC investiture went very well but the Teachers' Day celebrations could have been much better. Couldn't fault anyone for it. Guess it was a confluence of factors that resulted in a lacklustre Teachers' Day. But I must admit that I felt really lousy about it, felt that it was a failure on my part.

The thing about SC was that I didn't feel belong... Don't get me wrong. I enjoyed working with the fellow TAs. There was this sense of camaraderie and I felt sad when I felt them. Rather I just don't feel the ownership when I was there, perhaps student leadership wasn't my cup of tea, perhaps I have a differing view towards moulding student leaders, perhaps I was just meant for Photography Club. If there was one thing that I really felt bad about, it was the fact that I 'abandoned' Photography Club.

In the 4th term of the year, the SC TAs were discussing about the distribution of duties for 2007 and inevitably I was asked whether would I stay on or not. I guess most people around me could see that I was struggling. Well I wasn't breaking down or anything. Far from it. It just that I was spread too thin and I'm not particularly being efficacious in any of the stuff that I'm involved in. I remembered saying that I would like to stay on till the 4th SC stepped down as I would like to follow the 4th SC through their term in office. For Photography side, I would still like to be involved (even though I have not been able to attend or be involved in the club) as it was still my passion and I felt that I have unfinished business.

Eventually I was told during the year end meeting with my boss that they would streamline my work (it wasn't just for me but rather for the entire school) and I was given the headship of Photography Club and my CCD was College Photography, for teaching wise I was tasked to be in charge of H1 chemistry (for the H1 chemistry part, I was seriously surprised cause I didn't think too well of myself in terms of teaching... hmmm I guess I'm just too critical of myself). When told the news, I was relieve that my SC TA days were over but yet at the same time I was wondering when I was 'dropped' from SC.

Now that I know that I can once again focus on Photography, I immediately sought to meet the new exco which was Kingston and who else...??? Yes that was how time flew by as I busied myself with SC and teaching... I didn't even realised who were the other 3 exco members.