96 November 2005

Teoh Peng Kee on the importance of pro business support “I am now operating on the basis of the 3P concept – Passion, Patience and Professionalism. It is easy to get carried away by the amount one spends on camera equipment but without the knowledge required to utilise the equipment, it may not result in optimum performance”

Profile● Born in Ipoh, Perak. Teoh Peng Kee got into photography while in high school and also took up photography as an elective subject in university.

● He graduated with a Bachelor of

Science in Nutrition and his first job was as an R&D officer in the Institute of Medical Research, Nutrition Dept. in the Health Ministry. His interest in photography grew further from there and he occasionally helped out at the photography section of the department.

● In 1991, he joined Canon Marketing (M) Sdn Bhd as its marketing officer for the camera division. Nine months later he was promoted to sales executive in the same division.

● He is now the Sales Manager-cum-Unit Head of the newly-created section in CII Group of Canon Marketing that provides support for local users of the EOS cameras.

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Canon Pro Representative Teoh Peng KeeTeoh Peng Kee believes that his passion for photography helps make his job as a Canon Pro Business unit head easier. He talks to Philip Chong about his passion for both

The Digital Camera Interview

The Canon brand is synonymous with quality products and excellence customer support globally. This recognition, which started with the camera division since the company’s existence, has since grown to include Canon’s other product offerings over the past five decades. With the advent of the Internet, maintaining this reputation for customer support is even more challenging.

A reputable brand elsewhere may not necessarily mean similar recognition in other locations of the world and Canon Inc has ensured this will not be the case in the countries it operates. For Canon Marketing Malaysia, its Consumer Imaging and Information (CII) Group has recently set up a newly-created department known as the Canon Pro Business Unit which provides tech support and other essential information to the local professional photographers, advanced amateurs and other users of the EOS System’s analog and digital cameras.

The new unit is headed by Teoh Peng Kee, 41, a Sales Manager previously attached to the company’s camera division in CII Group –

the latter section only provides sales and tech support to Canon’s authorised camera dealers nationwide but the former deals exclusively with the end users of the EOS System. End users of the EOS System are a much bigger responsibility in terms of tech support for Canon today as it seeks to maintain its position as the number one provider of Digital SLR cameras in the global market.

Teoh is recognised by Canon Inc of Japan and Canon Asia HQ in Beijing as one of its staff who has the credentials needed to ensure that tech and after-sales support for the local Canon EOS users will not be compromised as the quest to be the leading DSLR provider continues. The responsibilities of the new unit include helping users of the EOS System to understand their equipment better, organizing seminars with guest speakers from abroad, photography workshops (to be announced) and numerous other photography-related activities.

“During the times with the camera division, my standard operating procedure was

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Having an Image Stabilizer (IS) lens came in handy when I was able to capture this cultural show in Chengdu, China without the need to use a tripod. The motion effect blur created a perfect sense of movement while the dancer remains sharp – EOS 5D, EF 70-200mm f/2.8L IS USM, f/2.8, 1/15 sec., ISO 100

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This scene is of the White Water River, one of the tourist attractions in Lijiang Province, China. I moved away from the crowd to a bridge that was located about 200 metre to the river and shot the scene with the EF 70-200mm f/2.8L IS USM zoom lens – EOS-1D, 135mm, f/14, 1/125 sec., ISO 250

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based on the 5Cs concept that is common in today’s business environment as the customers always have the perception that sales go hand-in-hand with the 5Cs! With the newly-set up Pro Business unit, I am now operating on the basis of the 3Ps concept – Passion, Patience and Professionalism. It is easy to get carried away by the amount one spends on camera equipment but without the knowledge required to utilise the equipment, it may not result in optimum performance, hence this is where the 3Ps concept comes in.

“The biggest amount of work at the moment is to help the new owners who made the switch from a competitor’s brand in getting familiar with their newly-purchased Canon EOS system. As the number of people making the switch to the Canon EOS system increases, the new department will be organizing more events, seminars and photography workshops to enable these new owners to enjoy the benefits of their new equipment,” said Teoh.

On technical knowledge and photography

Teoh added: “My own experience and knowledge in photography allows me to have a better understanding of the situations encountered by users of the Canon EOS

System. With digital SLRs being computerised cameras, it is therefore not a surprise to see many of the photographers face complications at one point or another when using their cameras during assignments. Having faced similar situations previously, I had learnt how to solve these matters and provided the customers with the solutions.

“For instance, the EOS cameras have the necessary features that will help the photographers apply the solutions to the photographic assignments encountered but I find a lot of them tend to take things for granted and usually put the blame on the equipment when the resulting images are not up to their preferences. The Pro Business unit has come across many of these situations and each time, we would show the affected photographers how to deal with the issues they faced”.

What every digitally-based photographer should do

According to Teoh, every photographer has to master his/her camera’s functions and settings in addition to applying all the fundamentals in basic photography learnt to ensure sharp and well exposed images, and to avoid major retouching work in the post-processing stage. Despite the latest advances in digital camera technologies

offering high megapixel resolutions, Teoh says the need for photographers to know how to compose their pictures properly is important as this would save time and effort from major cropping of the images later.

“In addition, while there is no fixed rule of when to shoot in RAW or JPEG mode for DSLRs, I strongly recommend EOS users to experiment with recoding their images using the RAW+JPEG (Small) setting as this allows them the benefit of fast editing and filtering of unwanted images during the editing process. Think before you click the shutter even though there is no film cost in digital photography and this will save you the hassle of filtering out unwanted images later as it better to get it right from the beginning.

“Last but not least, a digitally-based photographer should have some basic knowledge in post-processing especially colour management as this will determine the quality of the images”, said Teoh.

Personal preference of shooting“Personally, the types of photography I love

to shoot are landscape, macro, nature, portraits, people and travel. My passion for photography sometimes makes the family vacation a bit absurd in the sense that I spent more time trying to figure out the best camera angles to shoot the scenes I like

This place was photographed in Gansu Province, China. I reached this desert before sunrise under a very cool and windy situation. The trees appeared like “giant bonsais”

grown on the desert. I shot the scene from a low angle in order to include the texture of the sand dunes – EOS 5D, EF 17-40mm f/4L USM, f/11, 1/30 sec., ISO 100

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rather than enjoying the whole trip as a holiday.

“My wife lacks the enthusiasm and the passion I have for photography but she is able to tolerate my constant indulgence in the medium. Occasionally, she helps me out in the colour management of my images as she has the unique skill to differentiate between the various hues of colours with her eyes. However, both my son and daughter actually follow in my footsteps and they are always thrilled whenever I take out my camera to shoot the scenes I like during such family vacations, added Teoh.

Apart from family vacations, Teoh has traveled to countries such as Belgium, China, Germany (Photokina), New Zealand, Japan, United Kingdom and USA as part of the incentive trips by Canon and used these occasions to enjoy his passion further by utilising the spare times he had to shoot the colours and atmospheres of the places visited.

Seeing is BelievingThe best way for Teoh to convince EOS

users of the quality of the printouts available from using Canon’s top range of PIXMA photo printers is to let them see the photos being

printed right before their eyes. Teoh believes in utilising the “Seeing is Believing” concept when promoting the Bubblejet printers to the local photographers.

“Most of the time, I used my own photos as the print samples rather than those samples provided by the technical dept of Canon Inc. This makes the difference in convincing the SLR users of the quality of Canon’s EOS cameras and PIXMA printers versus those they could obtain with our competitors’ products”, said Teoh.

Types of Canon cameras usedTeoh started off with the Canon AE-1,

followed by a used unit of the New F-1 which he bought from a Canon colleague. He added the T90 as a back-up unit as he found using the New F-1 without its optional AE Motor Drive FN to wind the film was quite a hassle. The T90 was lightweight and has a built-in motor drive that fires at 4.5 fps. When Canon introduced more EF lenses with fast f/2.8 maximum aperture, the first EOS he bought then was the EOS 630, and followed by the EOS-3.

His first DSLR was the EOS D60 when he upgraded to digital photography and his camera bag nowadays carries two camera

This convoy of camels and its guardian was photographed with an EF 70-200mm f/2.8L IS USM zoom lens from a high angle – EOS 5D, 160mm, f/9, 1/160 sec., ISO 200

bodies provided by Canon Marketing; the EOS 5D and EOS-1Ds MK II, with the latter being his favourite model.

The lenses inside the same bag include the EF 16-35mm f/2.8L USM, EF 24-70mm f/2.8L USM, EF 24-105mm f/4l IS USM and EF 70-200mm f/2.8L IS USM, a Speedlite 580EX and Speedlite Transmitter ST-E2.

“As a whole, having mastered the skills needed in digital photography is essential for me as it allows me to make the most out of my passion. Coupled with the fact that any digital solutions that I learn along the digital era would be shared with the customers of the EOS System, all these do make my job as head of the local Canon Pro Business unit much easier. And nothing is more satisfying that seeing a beautiful print come out from the PIXMA printer as digital photography permits me to have more control in determining the final output quality”, said Teoh.

For the local photo enthusiasts who need help in choosing the suitable EOS camera, EF lenses and PIXMA Bubblejet photo printers to suit their budgets, they can talk to Teoh Peng Kee at Canon Marketing Malaysia at Tel: 03-7844-6000 or email him at teohpk@cmm.canon.com.my

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This dragonfly image is one of my favourite macro shots. It was photographed after rain during my vacation in my hometown. I spent about 45 minutes waiting for the dragonfly to land in a perfect spot to take the picture – EOS-1D, f/11, 1/320 sec., ISO 200, EF 180mm f/3.5L Macro USM

I came across this egret catching fish near a pond in the neighbourhood early in the morning after sending off my son to school. I spent the next three days waiting for it to appear again and I was lucky to get some great shots of it scooping up the fish. This image shows the egret about to fly off with the

fish in its beak – EOS-1Ds Mark II, EF 400mm f/2.8L IS USM + Ext. 2X, f/6.3, 1/1600 sec. ISO 400

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