On its ninth straight year, Canon Philippines once again held the biggest photography event in the country ? the Canon PhotoMarathon, which was attended by 2,000 participants this year.
The mammoth event was conducted last Nov. 8 at the Bonifacio Global City in Taguig City.
According to Lim Kok Hin, president and CEO of Canon Marketing Philippines, ?From being the biggest photography festival in the country, we hope that this Canon PhotoMarathon helps stretch the creativity of all the participants and brings out the best in them in terms of photography and expressing themselves visually.?
The PhotoMarathon has two categories: the point-and-shoot and the digital camera with interchangeable lens.
Christian Sangoyo was the grand winner for the point-and-shoot category and brought home a Canon EOS 700D, dual arm Fotocrane, camera strap, 32 GB WiFi SD card, and one international round trip from Cebu Pacific.
For the digital cameras with interchangeable lens category, Jerome Duenas took the winning shot and will be the first to receive the latest Canon EOS 7D Mark II in the Philippines.
Along with this, he also won a dual arm Fotocrane, Black Rapid camera strap, 1 TB WiFi Hard Drive 3.0, Harley Davidson Jacket, Columbia Jacket, 24-hour adventure drive using a Jaguar, and one international round trip ticket care of Cebu Pacific.
Sangoyo narrated how he stumbled on his winning entry: ?We were walking around the streets of BGC, and we were drawn to the construction sites since they fit well with the themes given ? cross, exciting, and cityscape. After taking this shot, I stopped and thought this was it.?
As for Duenas, who is eager to try out his brand new Canon EOS 7D Mark II, said, ?I do hope Canon continues this event. It helps us [aspiring photographers] a lot since the program includes available workshops by their ?Crusaders of Light?,? referring to a team of expert photographers picked by Canon.
What started in 2006 as a part of Canon?s ImageNation campaign, the PhotoMarathon has grown into a huge event and is now approaching its tenth year.
The competition runs for the whole day, and themes are released on-the-spot, allowing contestants to put their creativity and photography skills to the challenge. The themes were ?Circular, Peaceful, and Fashion?, and ?Cross, Cityscape, and Exciting?.
Canon?s “Crusaders of Light” photo ambassadors served as judges during the contest.
Prior to the competition?s national leg, the university phase was held at the De La Salle University and was exclusive for students.
In evaluating the event’s success, senior marketing manager Jill Santiago said, “It goes to the whole core goal of it ? the quality of experience in each attendee. That is the ultimate key measure of success for this event. If a participant can say that this event inspired him or her to pursue photography, whether as a career or hobby, then that is how we know we have done our job right.”
