Freezed.Asia maybe Penang’s newly formed Photography Society, but the class had been conducted in the early 2007. Back then; students amounting to about 30 attend the lecturer with the hope of understanding the technique behind taking a nice and meaningful photo. The theme was simple back then, “To Enjoy Photography” was an ideal phrase that made our fellow photographers to be more open heart when taking photos. Classes that had been conducted were simple and straight where students start to take notes and there is a Q&A session at the end of the class. Students also had the chance to show off their talent through their snapshots, as the class would have a photo sharing session every once a month. With this taking place, students tend to accept critics and also praises that would motivate them to improve their photography skills along the way.

Soon the news got out fast and the number of students had increased. This had triggered us to search for a suitable place and thus convenient to most of the students participating in our class. As most of the students are from the Industrial field, a place at the nearby area would most definitely be appropriate. Than Hsiang Temple was considered the most suitable place for the class to be conducted. From there, students and members tend to grow from time to time due to the interest of photography.

2006 October

Creative Heritage: Photography Class in One-Stop Midlands

In the month of October, Mr. Leong a.k.a CK started conducting a photography class with an intention of sharing his ideas and knowledge on photography techniques to the people who had made photography as part of their interest. With only about 20 students attending, they were taught different kinds of ways of capturing a better photo with the key idea of “Exposure”. Without this basic understanding, we believed that any photos wouldn’t come out right no matter how hard a person tries to modify or edit his photos.

    CK had been in the photography profession for almost 10 years. During the years, he tends to understand the basic of photography and also to have an idea on which situation and position to have a better shots of a certain photo. He is also a member of the Photography Society of Penning (PSP). Thru this society, he had improved on his photography skills and also exposes himself to other creative techniques that would make a normal photo to become a more outstanding piece of art.

    MASP – Manual, Aperture, Speed and Program (MATP in Canon) is the basic function of the DSLR that is always been mention in his class. Having to master these functions is rather preferred than to use the Semi-Programmed functions that is available in all DSLR. Program – Semi Auto Program Mode that enables the processor to determine the right speed and aperture to be used when the exposure had been determined. Speed – The control of the speed (1 sec, 1/2000 sec) of the shutter to captured the photo where the Aperture would be determined by the processor. Aperture – A control in the opening size of the shutter when a photo is been captured where the speed would be determine by the processor. Manual – A full control of the Camera functions where the user will determine the Aperture and Speed of the Shutter by the Exposure capturing before the shutter is been released.


    Once the students had mastered all this skills, they tend to go out to the field to try out their skills and knowledge learned from the class. Every lass class of the month, a photo sharing session will be conducted in the class itself where the students would be able to display their best photos regardless of non-focus, low-lighting, non-centered and others. The idea of having this session is to enable the students to share their photos and accept critics and also praises from CK and other fellow students. With this session, it is believed to motivate the student and correct his ways and improved himself on photography skills.

    The class had also conducted outing for students such as portrait and landscape shooting. Different locations were been selected to conduct this practical. One of the famous outings was the model shooting in Botanical Garden. On this day, photographers had the chance of taking both portrait and also landscape at the same time. Models that are able to pose different posture gave much opportunity to the photographers to have creativity to capture different angle and portion of the said model.

    Other than the class and outing, CK also gave an opportunity to the students by introducing them to several state photography contests. By entering this contest, students tends to understand where their photo stand among other photographers and also to have a view of pass winners to understand their skills and the secrets of having an outstanding photo among the rest.

2007 July

The Rise of the Photographers

    With the increase number of students taking part, the location wasn’t ideal anymore to take in more members into the packed room. A conduct among the students, enable us to understand that most of the students are from the industrial profession and a new place to conduct the class had to be somewhere near there to ease their transportation. Than Hsiang Temple was the ideal choice to solve this problem. With the available class and also well equipped with lecture tools, having a more improved environment for the lecture couldn’t have been better. With a new place, a new name was given to the class as to introduce the existing and also the goal of the photography class. Than Hsiang photography was and initial name to start and since the name had been spread around, many tends to join the class.

    As before classes was conducted from 8-9.30 pm where CK would explain to the class the techniques of taking a nice photo and also the detail in the DSLR functions. Due to new comers in the class, a new syllabus, which starts from the Basic of Photography, was conducted. Many of the students were first time or beginners of the DSLR world and tend to understand more on their kit before going out to capture those photos. Q&A session was also available at the end of the class to enable the students to have a more detail understanding of photography with CK.

    One of the outings, which were conducted at that time, was the “ Yoga for Passion” which was conducted at the Spice Garden. Participants as many as 40 people had come to enjoy the Sunday morning breeze and also an opportunity of improve their skills on the portrait area and Macro.

Like before, photo-sharing session would be conducted at the end of the month. This enables the students to show their work and share them with other fellow photographers. With the large number of student, detail arrangement had been done to enable everyone to share his or her work.

2008 June

    After a year of conducting the class, hence with the increase of fellow students the class had turned itself to a photography society. This enable use to have recognition among the members and also the people at the surrounding area. A few meetings had been conducted to select a name and also the key committee members to run the society. After several considerations, Freezed.Asia had been selected as the name for the class.

    The reason why we choose "freeze" not because be turned into ice or another solid as a result of extreme cold to be our team name that was not our purpose.

       Remember photographers have their own attitude and style to take a photo but if without a passion how would you catch the moment which you think is a very nice view with your eyes?  You might calm down with your feeling or cool down yourself and concentrate on what are you going to shoot for a topic every single moment. That's why the word "Freeze" represented our feeling. Meaning: do not be panic and control our emotion while taking each single photo. Again once you snapped a view do you think the movement still going on your camera? The logically we are actually freeze the moment, the views and so on for our memories".

    From there, Freezed.Asia will continue to improved and enhanced the skills of DSLR and Camera beginners and also to provide more creativity towards photography.

Article written by JH Chan