Tuesday, April 03, 2007

KL Flickr Meetup Big Bash 1st Anniversary

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The various Flickrs gearing up to shoot anything and everything under the sun.

The KL Flickr turned 1 last month and a big bash was held at IZZI, Kuala Lumpur to commemorate the event. The attendance was one of the largest of any meetup as was expected and various activities were planned like a photo slideshow focusing on various themes, product presentation by Photobook and others. A lot of ideas were thrown into what the 1st anniversary celebration was going to be like but in the end everyone agreed that our central theme of, having fun and carefree meetups were the best formulae that has been sustaining the group past the year and instead of anything elaborate, formal and stiffling we all had fun as usual.

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Our hardworking admins and pioneers, Shafina and Liyin, you gals rock hehe.

Sadly to say this was the first meetup i came in late no thanks to the commuting time and traffic but everyone was just lounging around and doing what they did best, taking photos, socialising and having a ball. Many old faces were there, some after a long hiatus while others are hard core regulars at our monthly meetups. Kazee, Shafina, Johan, Liyin, Hanny, Visithra, Kenmin, Abdul Hakim, Magnus and many others were all present and some new faces, Shaolin Tiger and Kimberly Cun made their first appearance to the group to join in the fun, been meaning to meet them for a long time.

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Vegetarians in the house?

The highlight of the afternoon was the various slideshow segments pieced together from contributions by members. Hanny, Faris, Johan, Shafina and Janice took time to make a slideshow presentation out of the varied photos and kudos to them for the great job as evident when everyone was in rapt attention and the various ooo and aaahhhs coming out across the room as the pics came on. There was food if I remember correctly but everyone was paying so much attention to the photos and talking that it was second in thought. They did serve a great KL Flickr cupcake courtesy of Shafina's sis who put up the effort to prepare the special treat for the occasion.

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Eating also gaya posing

It was a threat and great relief to say that IZZI was good enough to book the entire first floor for our activities that afternoon and thank god to that for some of the antics that occured that day are best left out of the general public's eyes lest we all get hauled off for some charges such as public indecency especially of Kazee's antics of unbuttoning the guy's shirts to shoot their body hair, getting Johan down on the floor and stripping him, photographing the guy's jeans and underwear etc, not to mention her fixation of Whydee.

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Faris and his large equipment

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Kids, always a pleasure to photograph them.

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Whydee and Faris sharing some tips for shots

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The lovely Flickr cupcakes courtesy of Shafina's sister I'm told, very personal touch to the event.

There were some great moments, Faris had the great idea of using a fish eye lens to get a profile of all those that attended and as a surprise made an extra segment for our slideshow entitled the Fish eye Disease and some of the pics that came out were hillarious and sent many of us rolling on the floor with laughter. Some of the participants had to leave early but the majority stayed till way past the evening. Group pics were called for and man was the shot hillarious. In the end a lucky draw courtesy of Photobooks gave away free magazines and an offer for a buy one free one edition but sadly the timeframe was too short and even as I was one of the lucky few I will not manage to make use of it.

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Even when not being the subject being photographed, Flickr members have their own style of shooting as evident with Visithra's kaki kangkang and elbow on couch shot.

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Whydee makes a cool model subject, dark.

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Kazee up to her antics again this time trying tp get Johan's shirt off, luckily there were no other restaurant patrons on the first level at that time, they wouldn't want to know what the condiments are used for by us.

The hardcore bunch actually stayed much later and with the hours passing by and adrenaline pumping hard and appetites unsatiable, the normal psychotic syndrom called Flickr Trigger Finger soon began to crop up among the group. Some notable and unforgettable happenings during this period would best be listed as follow:

Whydee became a group favourite model subject and was subjected to the utmost scrutiny by Kazee who insisted he model for her. I must admit his dark and cool look coupled with a boyish and innocent feature gave a really great contrast as a subject. In the end Kazee just had to give him several big kisses as thanks.

Kazee again had Johan literally on the floor with her all over him trying to get his shirt off.

Liyin is a group favourite, you never know what comes into this girl's mind and some of the actions carried out today are trademark Liyin. Oh her posters for our meetups are great work. Somehow along the line her psycadelic multi coloured striped socks became the fixated subject our countless photos.

Visithra and Kazee did a double on the floor and liberal use of IZZI's cordiments and cutlery added to the crazy atmosphere there.

Kenmin got all amorous with his fated girl pals, Syiqin and Visithra and a threesome ensued. Poor Kenmin, things seems to always happen to him when he cross paths with these two but heck a little muhibbah photo shoot will wash away some of that bad karma.

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Life's always interesting with Liyin around. Here's she making a meal of our two models, Kazee and Visithra

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Kenmin in a bind as his two favourite target girls gets friendly with the guy here

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First sympthom you are a Flickrholic: you start taking the strangest objects you can find with what ever means you have, here Hanny is getting intimate with Liyin's socks

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While others were busy snapping away at Liyin's foot and Johan's behind I took the scene, precious

Still after all that we weren't satisfied. Even as the evening dinner guests were streaming for dinner we had to be chased out of the premis by force and man can Kazee shout and give drill sergeant orders. A bunch of us decided the night was still young and we made our way around Bintang Walk and settled down at Starbucks near Starhill. Most of us had coffee and settled down to enjoy the night and a friendly chat between members. We next made a move to Starhill on pretense of Kazee wanting to use the facilities but when we all ended up near the light walkway connecting Starhill and JWW Marriot we all went crazy and shoot like mad with some pretty funky results. Kazee had Whydee posing against the wall and Kenmin and Visithra followed suit as models. We certainly got many stares from patrons that thought we were crazy but we didn't mind. At a point even the management had to come over and asked us what was up.

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Kenmin going all out

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Shooting people at Starhill

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Another dreamy shot of Visithra at Starhill

When I thought everyone was pooped out and had their fill, somehow someone ended up stating that they were feeling hungry and sure enough everyone agreed and we just had to find a mamak stall to have supper, mind you it was already near 11 p.m. So we headed to Bukit Bintang for food. I never realised that the night life here was quite happening, everywhere all over the place activity was rife. There were people sitting at the stalls and restaurant smoking water pipes, teenagers were hanging all about, the streets were filled with the cacophony of the pasar malam nearby and street musicians were entertaining dining patrons along the roadside. Nearby street masseuse were offering their services. We sat down and ordered our favourite mee goreng maggi and teh o ais limau and continued with our meetup. Before midnight all was over, everyone was pooped out but had a tremendous time. Certainly this was the latest I've been out of town but it was fun with the group. Looking forward to more meetups and Happy 1st anniversary KL FLickr Meetup! Love you guys and gals.

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Its near midnight, the members were exhausted, hungry and high on adrenaline and what do they do, tango all the way to the nearest mamak for supper. Kazee and Asrul dancing to a roadside band near Bukit Bintang.

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All sleepy eyed after a long day out.

3 comments:

mrbherng said...

Wondering what's this Flickr KL thingy about? Sounds fascinating.

Kervin said...

It's a group for any avid photographers, anyone is welcome. If you own an account with Flickr or if you don't have one, check out the group site at http://www.flickr.com/groups/kl-meetup/
The group usually holds a monthly meetup around KL every 3rd week of the month where members meet, eat and have fun shooting around the locale. Other events include mini meetups between the members and there is a lively discussion board at all times. Feel free to take a look at the activities and if you're interested come over to the next gathering.

5xmom.com said...

Oh wow, envious! I hope to be able to join next time, i.e. if they want Penang mali.