Capitaland, NatGeo Channel, Annie Griffith

In year 2012, I participate the CapitaLand National Geographic Channel competition.

2 of my photos was selected to top 30 that was displayed in some places in CapitalLand Property to let people to vote:

CapitaLand properties* in Singapore:

Total 4 photos are displayed in Ion Orchard Singapore from 17-26 August 2012.

I got invitation to attend the seminar by Annie Griffith who is one of the first woman photographer for National Geographic.

I really enjoyed the seminar, seh share how she become a photographer, and about her story in Namibia when she photographed a mother with 2 daughters. That’s really amazing story that when the polaroid photo come up, that’s the first time the mother and daughter seeing their face.
And I story that proved her passion in photography, when she was in assignment. That morning she woke up because of the sun light went to her windows. She open the curtain and saw how beautiful the scene, she took her camera and run towards the field, the horses come nearby and she took the photos.
She did not realize that 5 cowboys were behind her, looking at 1 lady in the early morning taking photograph of the horses. But she realized why they looked so confuse, because she still wore underwear and t-shirt.
That’s the prove of her passion, because of the scene she forget to wear proper dress just because to take the scene photograph.

Annie really pay attention of the human photography, especially woman. She started Ripple Effect, a collective of photojournalists who are documenting the programs that help poor women deal with the effects of climate change.
That’s the wonderful things that she has been doing from photography.

Annie also shared about her photography tips, she share all the stories about the photos that she took, “every photos has his own story”
And I really like her composition, human photos, some make me laugh, and she has great sense of humor.

The 3 most important are:
– Light
– Composition
– Moment

Then the others 3 are:
– Time
– Color
– Wonder

It’s really wonderful time that Steven from NGC introduce Annie to me, he said that my photos is one of her favorites, and when we met up, she told “Oh you are the one, the photo that have 2 men in condensation glass”, I love that photo” then we went to the booth that photos was displayed, she told Mr Oliver Lim (Chief Financial Officer of Capitaland) that she like the curve, the condensation and the sharp building name, and framing by the 2 men.
Mr Lim also asked how got this condensation, then I explained to him the scene that time was raining, then I tried to find the photos that can tell it’s CapitaLand building and also got people in the scene. That I saw these scene, all ornament were there. The Name of the building, and 2 workers was sitting there because out site was raining.

I’m really happy because she remember the photos, and that’s a big gift for me.

This is the second time I had a chance to meet National Geographic Photographer.
The first one wa sin Jakarta, Michael Yamashita , that time I was invited to his seminar by National Geographic in Jakarta, Indonesia, that time also Natgeo asked me to become speaker for their community in Jakarta.

It”s always great that can listen and learn directly from their story, many things you can learn from them especially how they appreciate life from photography.

By entering the seminar, I also know more about CapitaLand, I quite impress of their program especially they are really not only build the building but also build people. They build 16 schools in china and vietnam. They put 0.5% of their net profit every year for the Capitaland Hope foundation.

Some of the words that touching my hearth.

“Every land has it story, evey building has it story too”

“Building people, Building for tomorrow”

“Good building like good person”  righteousness, trustworthiness, wisdom.

“When we build building, we build people too”

“You cannot build one building without the others”

“We are not care about building only, but importantly we care about building people too”