Festivals are among those where you can use your camera and lenses to capture on film, provided you know of them in advance. If you don't, carrying a camera along almost everywhere you go will come in handy when you come across any festival, cultural group or fashion show performing in your neighborhood or shopping malls. If you think this is strange, I have personally come across some local photo enthusiasts who enjoyed watching these shows being performed live (without their equipment) even though they have previously complained of not having any good stuff or happenings that they could use their cameras to shoot at. Excuses of "I didn't know there would be this kind of show here" or "I left my camera at home" does not reflect very good on any photo enthusiast's reputation if he/she is the kind that always laments about not having great subject matters to capture on film. These cultural and fashion shows were part of the same batch of photos that were captured using the EF 135mm f/2.0L USM telephoto lens that was reviewed in Nuts & Bolts column issue No: 42. How I got to know of this event was to check the daily listings in the local newspapers for anything interesting that could have been great subject matters for test with this EF lens. Chinese drum beaters Malay cultural troupe     Catwalk fashion show Another one up close     A cultural troupe member Shot with fill-in Tv flash Sporting events are also those where you can use your equipment to capture the action and colors. May be in Malaysia you don't have a lot of sporting events, whether a small or big one on a weekly basis but for those residing elsewhere, like in Europe and Japan, they are being held on regular intervals and the majority is open to amateur shooters. Examples are motocross and cycling races where the spectators can shoot from behind the lines. In Malaysia, basically anyone with a camera can shoot from where the crowd stands at the moped bike racing and selected motocross events. Even the annual Proton 300 Km Endurance Merdeka race (below) is quite open to non-professional shooters, provided you apply for an access pass in advance from the organizer or sponsors concerned. Proton Merdeka race One of the cars in the race     Another one that crashed out Expressions in the pit lane Remember, when covering such events, do not concentrate on the action alone as those that happen in the pit lane and paddocks are also full of surprises. << Back to Main . 1 . 2 . 3 . 4 . 5 . 6 .