Insider View, Teenager won Recognition Award in PPAC International Awards (Documentary)

SUNGAI LONG: Travis Tan Yong Jie, 24, graduated Universiti Tunku Abdul Rahman (UTAR) student won Recognition Award in Professional Photographers Asia Community (PPAC) International Awards in silver documentary category and currently he is still blooming well.

Story behind PPAC photo

It was still pure luck to get this shot at the right timing and angle even though everything was planned.

This photo shoot happened when he saw a news saying that there will be nine KAI-TB50 fighter jets fly-over the Petronas Twin Towers by Black Eagles aerobatic team on 29 March 2017 for 15minutes.

Then Travis planned to shoot this scene and went KLCC as he waited at the fountain near Twin Towers for the jets to fly-over for around one hour as the jets came late.

The jets flew a few times but at different directions and routes for each instance, Travis had to run between the two entrances of Twin Towers to find the perfect angle and finally get a shot where the jets just passed by between the Twin Towers.

The pedestrians were giving a strange look at him as he was running here and there in the shopping mall but he neglected about how people look at him as he only wish for a good photo.

           

“Sometimes patience and luck are very important to create a good photo” said Travis.

 A perfect photo with patient, passion, skill, and luck., also won 1st in UTAR Photo Expo 3.0.

About Travis

Photography has always been Travis’s passion since young. He started to join photography club in secondary schools at the age of 16 and then proceed to buy his first digital dingle-lens reflex camera (DSLR) in 2013 and learnt the basic skills of handling camera from the club as well as other effects online.

July 2017, he created a Facebook page named Travis T and two Instagram accounts which are travis.tyj and travis.portraits additionally, he had been collaborating with various models for photo shoot session for free as an achievement in his portfolio furthermore it’s an excellent platform for him to practice and hone his skills in photography.

Year 2018

The Facebook page now has a total of 680 likes while Instagram has a total of 1394 and 1110 followers respectively.

             

 

Besides taking photos, he also produces cinematic travel film about the countries he went.

The most recent video is about his journey to Taiwan on 18 June this year, this video had hit the highest views among all his videos which is 10k views on Facebook.

Friend’s Perspective

Tiong Kung Ching, a close friend of Travis mentioned that Travis is quite dedicated when it comes to certain style or objective and he will do his very best to achieve best possible results, even under unfavorable weather condition or surrounding.

There was once that Travis, Trident (a friend of Travis), Tiong and the two other friends went to Mersing to shoot Milky Way photos.

At first the clouds were gathering so they couldn’t get a clear shot for the Milky Way and decided to have a short nap as the five hours of driving exhausts them.

Tiong noticed there wasn’t raining yet and decided to go out for a short walk after a half hour of chit chatting with Travis and Trident and notice that the sky was clearing up then he woke up the other two friends who were sleeping and start shooting.

Moral of the story – “Don’t sleep if it’s not necessary”, laughed Tiong.

Trident Xuan Tew, a close friend with Travis had different comment about him.

He said that Travis will listen to other’s comment and try to improve from there which Trident think that it’s a good part of him; there was once Trident commented on his photo and told him where to improve.

Initially Travis showed signs of denial, and the situation was kind of awkward between them both, but the air started to clear up as Travis opened up and started to take in other’s opinion and try to improve.

Future Plans

 A photographer who couldn’t live without coffee, stay up all night to edit the photos and videos.

In near future, he would like to step in the industry of wedding photography.

Wedding photography requires high skills in both photography and communication because the cooperation with client is critical in order to finish the shot in a shorter period.

“Wedding photography will need a team to prepare a lot of things and people will only shoot wedding photography once in their lifetime. This will be a challenge that I never face before” said Travis.

By Tan Yann Fang