World Hepatitis Day Archives - Mudframes PicturesMudframes Pictures

July 28, 2012

Main event of World Hepatitis Day 2012 at One Utama

I was in for a second day running for the main event of World Hepatitis Day 2012 held at One Utama, High Street after the official launch yesterday. The registration counters for HBV vaccination, counselling for Hepatitis B and free Hepatitis C blood test were abuzz with a multitude of people.

My three wise monkeys pictures were also used to make a neat looking bookmark.

It was really nice to see my brand as one of the sponsors too, among the many pharmaceutical companies.

The day’s programme kicked off with an “It’s Closer Than You Think” talk on the hepatitis disease by Prof. Dr. Rosmawati Mohamed.

The Studio @ KL was also kind enough to jump and join in the effort of whipping up loads of fun and attraction for the crowd. Their unique art jamming style got many people trying their hands on painting. The resulting piece was a “See No Evil, Hear No Evil, Speak No Evil” representation and a message of not ignoring hepatitis.

The central hallmark of this main event was the “monkey business” Guinness World of Records attempt. The record title called for the most people performing the “See No Evil, Hear No Evil, Speak No Evil” actions in 24 hours at multiple venues around the world (starting at 12pm).

First, the entire concourse area was prepared in accordance to the rules and guidelines. Lines were drawn and markings were placed to indicate the exact position of every participant in the grid box.

Participants were required to register themselves first before stepping in through the only entrance, before leaving the other way through the only exit.

Once the participants stepped in, they were instructed on how to perform the required actions and they had to do it simultaneously or risked being disqualified.

After they have completed the actions, their hands would be stamped to indicate participation. Certificate of participation were also given out. A final total count of close to 200 participants were recorded at the end of the day.

Throughout the day, there were numerous musical and dance performances to draw in and entertain the crowd, including a special appearance by Ana Raffali, together with the Jazzercise team and some fencers.

July 27, 2012

Official launch of World Hepatitis Day 2012 at One Utama

After a long and arduous preparation for over 2 months with limited resources, the World Hepatitis Day 2012; the Malaysia Campaign, was finally launched at One Utama on the 27 July 2012. The small, simple but packed turn-out proved to be a surprising satisfaction and achievement, I must say.

Despite its relatively modest presence and implementation as opposed to the previous year’s event held with much bells and whistles, this year’s campaign was done to a smaller scale. Much to the organising committee’s delight, this year’s campaign saw the participation of more volunteers on a larger scale, from front desk manning, to numerous performances on stage.

There was also free counseling on hepatitis C by member staffs and pharmacists of University Malaya Medical Centre (UMMC).

Some of my placard pictures from last year’s photo shoot were re-used as part of the event’s exhibit material.

The event started off with a speech by Professor Dr. Rosmawati Mohamed, the Chairman of World Hepatitis Day 2012 Committee, set against a backdrop of some of my three wise monkey portraits.

What the event lacked in fireworks and fun fair, it really did make up for also by the presence of the Minister of Health. The Honourable Minister of Health, Y.B. Dato’ Sri Liow Tiong Lai officiated this momentous event at High Street, One Utama.

After officiating the World Hepatitis Day 2012 Malaysia Campaign, Dato’ Sri Liow Tiong Lai proceeded to make a tour of the venue’s exhibits.

Dato’ Sri Liow Tiong Lai’s presence lent credence, importance and impact to an otherwise commonly dismissed “community service health awareness” trivial event. His support naturally drew the attention of numerous media who sought his ministry’s views and stance on the prevention and treatment of hepatitis, along with current highlights on facts and figures of this silent killer disease.

After the tour, the Minister of Health proceeded for a press conference session with the media, along with Professor Dr. Rosmawati Mohamed, Mr. UK Menon (Group CEO of Stamford College) and Dato’ Teo Chiang Liang (CEO of KBU International College).

July 25, 2012

World Hepatitis Day 2012 Billboards around Klang Valley

Finally, it has all come together in one “big” public representation for the campaign, literally. BIG Tree, the outdoor media company was kind enough to sponsor some 10 ft x 40 ft billboard adverts for this year’s World Hepatitis Day, though only the production costs were born by the organising committee.

BIG Tree has allocated 5 locations around Klang Valley for the public display of the above billboard design featuring the 3 wise monkey portraits I shot recently of some friends, students and staffs of Stamford College Petaling Jaya.

The digital file for the printing of the billboard above is a *.psb file (Large Document Format) with a final size of 1.06 GB, and the dimensions 12″ x 48″ (1 ft x 4 ft). I was working on a 1:10 ratio; hence, the file will be blown up to 10 ft x 40 ft.

In addition to the 5 billboard locations, BIG Tree has also generously thrown in 14 digital screen displays at KLCC escalator lobby (Level P1, P2, P3 and P4) plus 9 digital screen displays at various RapidKL/LRT stations (KLCC, Masjid Jamek, KL Sentral, Bangsar & Hang Tuah).

All these have been such a monumental and significant progress given the minimal 3-men organising committee team running on over-stretched resources, tight deadlines and last minute surprises. Truly a miraculous undertaking and development over the past couple of weeks.

Here are some shots of the billboard at the 5 different locations around Klang Valley.

For the first time ever, I have credits to “Mudframes Photography” mentioned on such a large public domain, albeit, possibly unnoticeable to fast passing vehicles. Ironically, I see myself finding favour in traffic jams at such moments in light of the many eyeballs I can get during rush hour.

It’s truly an indescribable and remarkable feeling seeing your works displayed in very large format at public places. It isn’t about pride and a sense of achievement. It’s just, well, a huge departure from having to squint at the usual millions of pixel representation on a digital idiot box. That’s a huge difference.

Well, ok, perhaps, maybe a little overjoy, and all right, some sense of achievement and pride after all…

Looking forward to a memorable second year running of World Hepatitis Day 2012 this Saturday at One Utama Shopping Mall. Truly an honour to be officially associated with this momentous occasion.

June 25, 2012

Stamford College takes on World Hepatitis Day 2012

Just when I thought the photo shoots for World Hepatitis Day 2012 were over, I headed over to Stamford College to photograph some of their students last Tuesday. The World Hepatitis Day’s organising committee needed some extra shots of the students holding up placards with messages and call-to-actions.

One of these pictures will then be selected and used as the promotional poster. This poster will eventually be used to rally for support among Stamford College’s staffs and students.

As this was arranged at the very last minute, I had no idea how the scenes were going to look like. All I knew was, it will be showing the subjects holding up placards. I wanted it to look different and atmospheric, though not necessarily with an attitude. The “sterile” look was definitely off the menu.

Within minutes upon arrival, I surveyed the place and quickly pinned down the stairway as the most appropriate and cool location. It took me less than 3 minutes to confirm that. When I first set eyes on the place, I knew I needed to flash paint the place to add some colours to an otherwise dull looking atmosphere.

I shot all these at f/5 (except for the group pic below at f/7.1 @ ISO 400), 1/60 sec @ ISO 200. The rear bare speedlight gelled with a full CTB was at 1/4 power, another camera-left bare speedlight gelled in full red was at 1/8 power (if I could recall correctly) and a final umbrella key light gelled in 1/2 CTO and 1/2-1/4 power was to high camera-left.

The low-powered red-gelled light was aimed through the stairs to cast some shadows and create a mild red cast on the floor of the subjects.

June 23, 2012

Confronting the reality on World Hepatitis Day

It has been a year since I first embarked on the photo project “Am I Number 12?” commemorating World Hepatitis Day which falls on 28 July. Unlike the previous project which was done to a certain extent, on a much larger scale, given the number of personalities and “celebrities” involved, this year will prove to be much quieter and low-profile.

The theme for this year’s visual branding would be that of the three wise monkeys. This denotes the perception of the general public in assuming an indifferent stance toward the little-known and much stigmatized hepatitis disease. One thinks that if one were to see, hear and speak nothing about hepatitis, one will successfully avert oneself from the disease. It’s a sad and horrifying act of sweeping things under the carpet to hopefully eradicate the problem.

However, education and awareness is definitely the way to go when it comes to confronting the reality on this World Hepatitis Day come July. Riding on this continued momentum of rallying support for a much-informed society about the silent killer, I had my first photo shoot at KLPac over more than 2 weeks ago.

We got a few friends to turn up and effortlessly acted the parts of Mizaru, Kikazaru and Iwazaru. It was simple, quick and easy!

A couple of days later, the second and final photo session was held at Stamford College. Stamford College is one of the co-host and main sponsors for this year’s World Hepatitis Day. They rounded up a few of their staffs and students to participate in contributing to the visual branding exercise for this year’s Malaysia campaign.

Finally, a selection of the headshots were made and put together in a tiled format, with the missing 12th headshot, replaced with a “It’s closer than you think” tag line.

This composite picture will be the main promotional image for this year’s World Hepatitis Day, Malaysia campaign to be held at One Utama from 27 – 29 July 2012. Keep a close watch at this space or visit www.myhepatitisday.com for more updates.