Feeling Strangely Reminiscent of the Old Days

Recently everyone very inspired to write something about their photog lives hor? Ms Koh has been at her post for 4 hours already neh...

I never knew photgraphy ran in my blood. Both my dad and grandpa had strong interests in photography, but ever since I was born my dad's camera broke and he never took anymore photos with an SLR. So my dad's old 1978 Nikkormat and my grandpa's Yashica was stashed away somewhere in the house. I did a treasure hunt in my (old, tiny, messy) storeroom last year and VIOLA! found my grandpa's Yashicamat, a TLR camera. Which is broken already. It was wrapped in this really old NTUC plastic bag (yeah, remember the old fairprice plastics bags that screamed red and blue?) most probably in an attempt to keep it clean and dry. I remembered the day when I almost wanted to scream the house down for my dad not actually teaching me about photography sooner.

I was like Harry Potter, the boy who didn't know his father was such a good player at Quidditch that it ran in his blood... until he tried his first game.

I only knew about my photography potential after joining Photography Club.

First things first, during PAE Photog club was my 2nd choice. Unexpected, yes? First choice was Squash, which I was too lazy to go for their trials. I wouldn't pass anyway, having not played the game before. Thus I was allocated to Photography Club. During PAE, we had a handful of J1 members but only about 4 J1s turned up for the first meeting. All I remembered from that meeting was- 1.we were playing stupid games and 2.chee howe's name is weird.

That's how I remembered his name anyway.
Because it sounded weird to me at the first impression. I always had a problem with remembering chinese names. Just two days ago I was talking to a new teacher in MJC, and I can't remember her name already. Oh, she introduced herself to me by her first name partially because I looked like an adult already. (DIE.)

There was also Benjamin and another girl, if I'm not wrong her name's Joyce. Pres didn't join at that time but because she didn't get allocated a CCA of her choice, I dragged her into Photog. She is a friend of mine for almost... let's see... I know her when I was in Kindergarden, then we were in the same class in P5 and P6, schoolmates all the way from K1 to JC2... Almost all our lives, I guess. Hahahaha.

The reason why I stayed on in Photog was really because I liked it in Photog. It was almost homely (the way MRT likes to nag at us), most of the seniors were very nice to me, and Junsen inspired me. Xing Quan was the first one to teach me how to use a camera. Sadly, I remembered that camera to be one of our Fujifilms. I was one of the lucky few (there were about 20 active J2 members then, you'd understand what I mean later on when I elaborate on the logistical shortages we had) of the J1s who got to shoot with the D100 at every event. There was a senior (Samuel, I think) who heard that I'd be shooting on the D100 at Roadrace, he actually pleaded me to let him go in my stead. I couldn't because orders were that all J1s have to go and shoot roadrace with a senior. And so happens my mentor was Junsen. I think I was really blessed.

Photog club was a roller coaster ride for me, and also a molding process. I have a bad temper. First few months into EXCO, the new environment, duties, school work, PW... everything piled up. I was the secretary (i.e. all miscellaneous work will be done by me) so when one fine day Mr Cheng decided to come into the club room, he needed someone to initiate Print and Sell... Somehow the rest of them all ask me to go and do it. From there on, most of the projects that involve earning money, I was in charge. Imagine every new project requires a new proposal, a detailed workflow and this involves many manhours of planning and discussion by the EXCO, sometimes amounting to conflicts among the four of us. (The fire started sometime towards the end of my office term, but I shan't elaborate on that.)

Oh yes, back to piling up.
I have a bad temper. Don't ever touch my nerve or I'll make sure you die a horrible death. Ok in the first few months of being EXCO I often lost my temper and sadly, King was almost everytime the poor guy who kena flame... Hehehe sorry ah... After EXCO, though my temper's still as bad, but I've learned to practice listening quickly and speak slowly. (Sounds familiar, right? Very useful advice.) It stretched my abilities wider and was really good training for good time management.

Some of the projects that we started up- Print and Sell, Prom night on-site, JC1 mugshot, Inter-JC photo exhibition, online gallery... Just to name a few (that I can actually remember). The first difficulty we faced as an EXCO was that our seniors didn't train us properly (as like how their seniors did) and we felt like we were left in the dessert... in the dark. We had to look for our own oasis, and we were glad help always came from Mr Tee, our single light source, who was ever so understanding to our shortcomings. We only had 2 D100s, and if I wanted to cover an event so badly, I'd have to book in advance with Pres and remind King every few meetings that I will be covering that blah blah blah event. The most memorable one was Orientation 2007, Chee and I actually booked the lens and camera few months in advance so that we get what we wanted, and even rotated the 70-200 between the two of us. (see, only got one 70-200 so we always have to fight.) Towards the end of 2006, Mr Tee added a D70 to the Nikon family. Which no one really likes to use.

Not only was I tied down by EXCO duties, I was also in the Atlas Cheerleading team. Two years of Colosseum, I was involved as a backspot in the team. Training was very vigourous when Colosseum season nears and training took place everyday after school. The closer to the competition date, the later the team had to stay in school. One night we were chased out by the Indian security guard. It's not like when I'm in cheerleading, club meetings stop, exco meetings stop, projects I'm in charge of are put on hold. Everything still goes on as per normal and it was really a test for me. As much as I want to perform my Photog duties well, I want to do well at cheerleading too. Sometimes I feel that I have too strong a sense of responsibility. As a backspot, the life of the flyer is in my hands. If I don't train properly and listen to instructions/ give accurate instructions, it could cause hurt to my team mates.

Training paid off. In 2006, Atlas was Cheerleading champs and 2007 we came in second.

I felt MJC gave my batch an exceptionally strong sense of camaraderie. Among my cheerleading mates and EXCO, we were all a very tight bunch. It wouldn't be possible to be able to achieve so much without this spirit. If I'm off to cheerleading, the rest of the EXCO will take care of matters in the club and I don't have to worry about the club at all. Among the EXCO, we are so good at doing each other's jobs that in the case that one person isn't here, one of us will fill up the post. When I'm supposed to be at cheerleading, but because of where my calling lies I have to miss out certain parts of the training. When I arrive they'd give me and update and understand that I have to be at a Photog meeting which, I have highlighted many a times, is my priority as a Secretary. We faced problems, yes, but I wouldn't classify any of them unsolvable.

The EXCO would often sit the at the study benches discussing... Why not in the clubroom, you ask? Because it is 9pm at night...

And once MRT even called me at 9.30pm to ask me whether Kingston was beside me... err... I replied "sir, now 9.30 le leh. I at home."

He said "yeah, I know, just now you all in school and so I was hoping to catch King cos he didn't pick up his phone."

...

We never thought that MRT would leave the club. We thought he was joking when he told PPC "next year this bunch you take good care arh." And turned out he really left! WAH! T_T

Mr Tee's strict ways gave us very good training and foundation as an EXCO member that when PPC held the reigns, we were able to do almost anything at all... Among the things while PPC was in reign, he bought Canons. UGH! PREPOSTEROUS!

The club took a huge turn..........