Model shooting photo contests are common in many countries in the Far East including Malaysia, Singapore and Thailand as well as economies like Hong Kong SAR and Taiwan. From time to time, both the camera and film manufacturers organize such contests in order to promote their latest products to the consumers. Canon Malaysia have organized a few of these contests in the past, in conjunction with the launch of the four IS super telephoto EF lenses and the Miss Photogenic subsidiary title of the Miss Malaysia/Chinese International 2000/2001 beauty pageant. Excitement and fun are among the reasons to enter such contests for the keen amateur and advanced amateur photographers, in addition to the prizes awaiting the winners for the best shots. For me, the excitement was recording on film the atmosphere of the event as well as the participants' (both photographers and models) antics in such contests. These photos below were shot at the launch of the four IS super telephoto lenses. This one is not smiling (200mm) Steady, look here and click! (300mm)     Shot with the EF 300mm f/2.8L w/EF 2x Also with same lens and EF 2x The main idea of the contest was to encourage the participating photographers to test out the four new EF telephoto lenses on the models but as can be seen from the last two photos, none of them were keen to do so, preferring to shoot their images while trying to get closer to the girls. Another comedic routine was that the modeling agency had supplied Canon Malaysia with models who did not have much experience in smiling for the camera since they were basically those used to doing catwalk fashion shows. Only three of the models knew how to smile for the cameras and two of them were among the top three winning shots. The top two photos from the above batch are visual proofs that some of the models don't know how to smile for the photographers. If such model shooting contests were to be held in North America and Europe, I am sure the amateur photographers there would have seized the opportunity of testing the new products available. As for the choice of equipment, I could have used any of the four IS super telephotos (available in pairs) plus a couple of other IS lenses that Canon had on display that day since not many of the photographers were keen to try them out for the contest. My very own EF 70-200mm f/2.8L USM and the non-IS EF 300mm f/2.8L USM were enough for the occasion. Text and photos by Philip Chong. Copyright 2001 by Canon Marketing (M) Sdn Bhd << Back to Main . 1 . 2 . 3 .