Being John Ong: Keith Kee's The East is Red

I occasionally come across some fashion show in the shopping mall but never paid much attention to it. On the Wednesday night that I visited Paradigm Mall, I have my camera with me so I decided to stay on. It was Keith Kee’s East is Red collection for the upcoming Chinese New Year and what a show that turned out to be.

Some of the celebrities who guest-modelled for Keith that night.

I thought I was safe behind my 1000mm equivalent lens but she still caught me taking her picture

The show begun!

What a smile!

Keith appeared nervous on stage. I read somewhere later he is rather stage-shy.

I like how the logo in this picture appeared like a crown on Keith.

The show opened with these three models in black and we were hinted that black will ‘magically’ turn to red but I wasn’t ready for anything. Then the models released the collar and the fabric flow down to reveal another red design within. Quite spectacular really but I only managed to activated continuous shooting for the last model and even then, wasn’t quick enough to catch the action from the beginning.

It’s black, it’s red!

Some local celebrities also made an appearance to support Keith. I saw Amber Chia and Belinda Chee and maybe recognized another from a Jinny Boy’s YouTube video but I don’t know the rest of them, including the gorgeous emcee that hosted the show. Locally we tend to chase after Hong Kong or South Korean celebrities and ignore those from our own shores. Sadly these local talents put in a lot of effort but not gain much recognition so it takes a lot of courage to even venture into show business. We may have a long way to go but as long as they brave people are around, we will get there someday.

I didn’t manage to get many good shots here but instead of abandoning their pictures, I decided to create a collage of them. Hope I didn’t miss out anyone.

And as if an assurance that we have as much talents as we have beautiful people, this dynamic duo appeared to serenade us with music and song. I thought having a violin stuck to your shirt is a little over the top but what a showmanship. I can’t take my lens off them.

The show was too fast for my P510's humble autofocus. I've got way too many unusable shots but here are some that are still ok. I left out Amber Chia from the celebrities collage earlier as there wasn't enough space and also because there are plenty more of good photos of her. Somehow she is just so much easier to be shot. Maybe she held her pose just that split second longer for me to make the shot.

Toward the end of the show I realized I’ve fallen into the long zoom trap again. Zooming into the subject too much when I can take better pictures of the in wider angle or in portrait (above images are all cropped).