Sony Teh Tarik Session @ The Curve Sony Lifestyle Store

Just 2 weeks back John from Sony asked me to share some of my travel photos for one of the Sony Teh Tarik sessions.

My first reaction was what? Teh tarik? At mamak?
Well, NO. It turned out to be a proper and more importantly, an EDUCATIONAL session for both presenter and attendees. The turnout was good (the room was full!) and Sony reps such as John and Mr Ishida San were present to facilitate the session.

Attendees were given the opportunity to test and toy around with some Sony camera models as well as gears such as lenses and accessories. 2 hours in a blink of an eye. John Shum rolled things off with a short introduction and poisoned us further by showing off some “toys of the day” – a Sony camera body and top of the range lenses.

Then it was my turn to share some of my travel pictures – all taken with the Sony NEX range of cameras. I have used Sony NEX 5N, NEX F3, NEX 7, NEX 6 and most recently the latest Sony NEX 3N.
In my blogging life, I have been handed review units of many cameras from many brands. And very honestly, I somehow just prefer the NEX over the other similarly range cameras by the other brands.

The navigation of the screen and functions, the camera size, form and weight and most importantly the picture quality – the Sony NEX range of camera just works for me.

And thus I’m a true fan, regardless of whether Sony loaned me a camera or otherwise, the NEX is my preferred choice at the moment. My only gripe is the inability of Sony cameras to record video and capture stills simultaneously, something I hope to see soon in their upcoming range of cameras.

I had an easy time sharing my video and pictures and thankfully the people present were easy-going and fun! They nodded obligingly as I rattled on and smile and laughed on cue. 😛

After me was Marshall Ho. Oh my, I thought my travel pictures were ok till I saw his. I was embarrassed and thanked John silently for letting me present first. I’m sure no one would pay any attention to my pictures after seeing Marshall’s!

And it was then I realized I had been complacent in my “photography”. I had always been comfortable with my pictures and since the NEX does most of the “hard” work for me, I had the habit of just setting my NEX to Aperture mode and only changing the White Balance and Brightness settings when required. Most of the time it worked fine so I got lazy.
After seeing Marshall’s New Zealand photos, I realized it’s time I stop being lazy and start learning to frame my pictures better. And that’s only for a start! I have lots more to learn but good composition would be a good kickoff! 😛

So yes, contrary to what most of you may think, the Sony Teh Tarik Session is not just come, sip coffee and watch some fella talk about himself and his photography. John and Ishida is on-hand to put in some advice and techniques here and there. The presenter of the day (other than my clueless self) are usually able to dish out some valuable advice on how and why he took that particular amazing shot.

Then at the end of the sharing session, Sony cameras (body), accessories, lenses are free for all to play and use. This is when you get to try it out and unlike doing the same at a Sony Centre with the sales staff, during a Sony Teh Tarik session you’re able to ask both John and Ishida directly for technical tips and advice. Likewise, you get to meet like-minded photography enthusiasts that are more than happy to share their opinions and knowledge, a good way to improve on your photography and of course, make new friends!
The Sony Teh Tarik session aims to build a community of photography enthusiasts – beginners, intermediate, advance or super master photographer – all are nice people and everyone is more than welcome to join! 😀

As you can see from some of the session on their site: https://mysony.sony.com.my/Workshop/ – there are classes for different levels of proficiency and even sessions where there are Sony cameras provided for you to use and learn so that’s ideal for those who do not have Sony cameras. 🙂

All in all, I myself would be going for more of Sony Teh Tarik sessions as long as I don’t have anything up on a Saturday afternoon. The sessions are usually between 2-4pm. I hope I’ll see some of you there! Do drop me a comment if you have any queries or you can surf over to https://mysony.sony.com.my/Workshop/. 😀

Here’s my Nepal video which I shared during the session. Comments? 🙂