This was no ordinary marathon. It was the longest in Singapore's history. 218 kilometres. My partner and I had been trailing the runners for 31 hours. Fatigued and tired, every moment seemed like a hundred years as I waited.
The rear door opens and the van starts rolling. Every member of the media crew lifts their equipment to their faces, ready to fire.
An ex-classmate once told me, "Hey, you get paid for taking a few pictures! Cool!" I could not be more offended by that. Photography is not just "taking a few pictures". It involves much planning, skill, physical strength, stamina, and most importantly, passion.
The equipment are heavy, the hours are long, and the chunk of metal we call a camera is constantly strapped to our bodies no matter what we're doing or where we're going. The unwritten rule of a photographer- never let the camera leave your side when on assignment.
The auxiliary police and support cars come into sight. The first of the core runners, Yong Yuen Cheng, runs in with his support team. Camera shutters fire like crazy. TAK TAK TAK TAK TAK TAK TAK TAK! TAK TAK TAK TAK TAK TAK TAK TAK! The firing does not stop. Being a photographer- no matter which sort- is about getting the correct timing. No one really knows when "H-Hour of D-Day" is, you'll only know when when you see it. The photographers continue to fire. The van stops rolling. The van had no access into the road to the ending line. We had to get off. And RUN.
I grabbed my kakhi colour National Geographic backpack. Feeling as if I was an infantry man getting off a tank, I held on tightly to the barrel of my lens, kept my head low and jumped off the rear of the van. 200 metres. Yong was 200 metres away from me. He was in a fast jog now. I started running.
Every inch of my tired body pressed on. There is everything to lose now. My partner and I have persevered to cover most of the route, I can't give up now. The ache in my knees, my back, the weight, oh golly the weight! Yong closes in. Photographers are frantically running to the ending line to get their shot now.
Every event I have covered always make me feel the same way. As if my subject is going to bash my face in any moment. Firstly, that's how close I generally am to my subjects to capture their raw genuine emotion (and sometimes their strong hatred for a person with a media pass) and secondly, really, they sometimes really want to bash your face in. It's the spirit of capturing the winning moment that never stopped me, and of course, at the end of the day seeing my work being exhibited or published is the greatest reward above all.
Even if getting the perfect shot involved kneeling in the middle of the road and getting the possibility of being laughed at or kicked in the head... the dedicated photographer would do it anyway.
