The Digital Camera Interview

Canon Pro
Representative
Teoh Peng Kee
Teoh Peng Kee believes that his passion for photography helps make his job
as a Canon Pro Business unit head easier. He talks to Philip Chong about his
passion for both

The Canon brand is synonymous with quality
products and excellence customer support
globally. This recognition, which started
with the camera division since the
company’s existence, has since grown to
include Canon’s other product offerings over
the past five decades. With the advent of
the Internet, maintaining this reputation for
customer support is even more challenging.
A reputable brand elsewhere may not
necessarily mean similar recognition in other
locations of the world and Canon Inc has
ensured this will not be the case in the
countries it operates. For Canon Marketing
Malaysia, its Consumer Imaging and
Information (CII) Group has recently set up a
newly-created department known as the
Canon Pro Business Unit which provides tech
support and other essential information to
the local professional photographers,
advanced amateurs and other users of the
EOS System’s analog and digital cameras.
The new unit is headed by Teoh Peng Kee,
41, a Sales Manager previously attached to
the company’s camera division in CII Group –
the latter section only provides sales and
tech support to Canon’s authorised camera
dealers nationwide but the former deals
exclusively with the end users of the EOS
System. End users of the EOS System are
a much bigger responsibility in terms of
tech support for Canon today as it seeks
to maintain its position as the number
one provider of Digital SLR cameras in the
global market.
Teoh is recognised by Canon Inc of Japan
and Canon Asia HQ in Beijing as one of its
staff who has the credentials needed to
ensure that tech and after-sales support for
the local Canon EOS users will not be
compromised as the quest to be the leading
DSLR provider continues. The responsibilities
of the new unit include helping users of the
EOS System to understand their equipment
better, organizing seminars with guest
speakers from abroad, photography
workshops (to be announced) and numerous
other photography-related activities.
“During the times with the camera division,
my standard operating procedure was
Profile
● Born in Ipoh,
Perak. Teoh Peng
Kee got into
photography while in
high school and also
took up photography
as an elective
subject in university.
● He graduated with
a Bachelor of
Science in Nutrition and his first job was as an
R&D officer in the Institute of Medical Research,
Nutrition Dept. in the Health Ministry. His interest
in photography grew further from there and he
occasionally helped out at the photography
section of the department.
● In 1991, he joined Canon Marketing (M) Sdn
Bhd as its marketing officer for the camera
division. Nine months later he was promoted to
sales executive in the same division.
● He is now the Sales Manager-cum-Unit Head of
the newly-created section in CII Group of Canon
Marketing that provides support for local users of
the EOS cameras.

Teoh Peng Kee on the importance of pro business support

“I am now operating on the basis of the 3P concept – Passion,
Patience and Professionalism. It is easy to get carried away by
the amount one spends on camera equipment but without the
knowledge required to utilise the equipment, it may not result
in optimum performance”
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 Having an Image Stabilizer (IS) lens came in handy when I was able to capture
this cultural show in Chengdu, China without the need to use a tripod. The
motion effect blur created a perfect sense of movement while the dancer
remains sharp – EOS 5D, EF 70-200mm f/2.8L IS USM, f/2.8, 1/15 sec., ISO 100

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 This scene is of the White Water River, one of the tourist attractions in Lijiang
Province, China. I moved away from the crowd to a bridge that was located about
200 metre to the river and shot the scene with the EF 70-200mm f/2.8L IS USM
zoom lens – EOS-1D, 135mm, f/14, 1/125 sec., ISO 250

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 This place was photographed in Gansu Province, China. I reached this desert before
sunrise under a very cool and windy situation. The trees appeared like “giant bonsais”
grown on the desert. I shot the scene from a low angle in order to include the texture of
the sand dunes – EOS 5D, EF 17-40mm f/4L USM, f/11, 1/30 sec., ISO 100

based on the 5Cs concept that is common
in today’s business environment as the
customers always have the perception
that sales go hand-in-hand with the 5Cs!
With the newly-set up Pro Business unit,
I am now operating on the basis of the 3Ps
concept – Passion, Patience and
Professionalism. It is easy to get carried away
by the amount one spends on camera
equipment but without the knowledge
required to utilise the equipment, it may not
result in optimum performance, hence this is
where the 3Ps concept comes in.
“The biggest amount of work at the
moment is to help the new owners who made
the switch from a competitor’s brand in
getting familiar with their newly-purchased
Canon EOS system. As the number of people
making the switch to the Canon EOS system
increases, the new department will be
organizing more events, seminars and
photography workshops to enable these new
owners to enjoy the benefits of their new
equipment,” said Teoh.
On technical knowledge and
photography
Teoh added: “My own experience and
knowledge in photography allows me to have
a better understanding of the situations
encountered by users of the Canon EOS
System. With digital SLRs being computerised
cameras, it is therefore not a surprise to see
many of the photographers face
complications at one point or another when
using their cameras during assignments.
Having faced similar situations previously, I
had learnt how to solve these matters and
provided the customers with the solutions.
“For instance, the EOS cameras have the
necessary features that will help the
photographers apply the solutions to the
photographic assignments encountered but I
find a lot of them tend to take things for
granted and usually put the blame on the
equipment when the resulting images are not
up to their preferences. The Pro Business
unit has come across many of these
situations and each time, we would show the
affected photographers how to deal with the
issues they faced”.
What every digitally-based
photographer should do
According to Teoh, every photographer has
to master his/her camera’s functions and
settings in addition to applying all the
fundamentals in basic photography learnt to
ensure sharp and well exposed images, and
to avoid major retouching work in the post-
processing stage. Despite the latest
advances in digital camera technologies
offering high megapixel resolutions, Teoh
says the need for photographers to know
how to compose their pictures properly is
important as this would save time and effort
from major cropping of the images later.
“In addition, while there is no fixed rule of
when to shoot in RAW or JPEG mode for
DSLRs, I strongly recommend EOS users to
experiment with recoding their images using
the RAW+JPEG (Small) setting as this allows
them the benefit of fast editing and filtering
of unwanted images during the editing
process. Think before you click the shutter
even though there is no film cost in digital
photography and this will save you the hassle
of filtering out unwanted images later as it
better to get it right from the beginning.
“Last but not least, a digitally-based
photographer should have some basic
knowledge in post-processing especially
colour management as this will determine the
quality of the images”, said Teoh.
Personal preference of shooting
“Personally, the types of photography I love
to shoot are landscape, macro, nature,
portraits, people and travel. My passion for
photography sometimes makes the family
vacation a bit absurd in the sense that I
spent more time trying to figure out the best
camera angles to shoot the scenes I like

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 rather than enjoying the whole trip as
a holiday.
“My wife lacks the enthusiasm and the
passion I have for photography but she is
able to tolerate my constant indulgence in
the medium. Occasionally, she helps me out
in the colour management of my images as
she has the unique skill to differentiate
between the various hues of colours with her
eyes. However, both my son and daughter
actually follow in my footsteps and they are
always thrilled whenever I take out my
camera to shoot the scenes I like during
such family vacations, added Teoh.
Apart from family vacations, Teoh has
traveled to countries such as Belgium,
China, Germany (Photokina), New Zealand,
Japan, United Kingdom and USA as part of
the incentive trips by Canon and used
these occasions to enjoy his passion
further by utilising the spare times he
had to shoot the colours and atmospheres
of the places visited.
Seeing is Believing
The best way for Teoh to convince EOS
users of the quality of the printouts available
from using Canon’s top range of PIXMA photo
printers is to let them see the photos being
This convoy of camels and its guardian was photographed with an EF 70-200mm f/2.8L IS
USM zoom lens from a high angle – EOS 5D, 160mm, f/9, 1/160 sec., ISO 200
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printed right before their eyes. Teoh believes
in utilising the “Seeing is Believing” concept
when promoting the Bubblejet printers to the
local photographers.
“Most of the time, I used my own photos
as the print samples rather than those
samples provided by the technical dept of
Canon Inc. This makes the difference in
convincing the SLR users of the quality of
Canon’s EOS cameras and PIXMA printers
versus those they could obtain with our
competitors’ products”, said Teoh.
Types of Canon cameras used
Teoh started off with the Canon AE-1,
followed by a used unit of the New F-1
which he bought from a Canon colleague. He
added the T90 as a back-up unit as he found
using the New F-1 without its optional AE
Motor Drive FN to wind the film was quite a
hassle. The T90 was lightweight and has a
built-in motor drive that fires at 4.5 fps. When
Canon introduced more EF lenses with fast
f/2.8 maximum aperture, the first EOS he
bought then was the EOS 630, and followed
by the EOS-3.
His first DSLR was the EOS D60 when he
upgraded to digital photography and his
camera bag nowadays carries two camera
bodies provided by Canon Marketing; the EOS
5D and EOS-1Ds MK II, with the latter being
his favourite model.
The lenses inside the same bag include
the EF 16-35mm f/2.8L USM, EF 24-70mm
f/2.8L USM, EF 24-105mm f/4l IS USM and EF
70-200mm f/2.8L IS USM, a Speedlite 580EX
and Speedlite Transmitter ST-E2.
“As a whole, having mastered the skills
needed in digital photography is essential
for me as it allows me to make the most
out of my passion. Coupled with the fact that
any digital solutions that I learn along the
digital era would be shared with the
customers of the EOS System, all these
do make my job as head of the local Canon
Pro Business unit much easier. And nothing
is more satisfying that seeing a beautiful
print come out from the PIXMA printer as
digital photography permits me to have
more control in determining the final output
quality”, said Teoh.
For the local photo enthusiasts who need
help in choosing the suitable EOS camera,
EF lenses and PIXMA Bubblejet photo
printers to suit their budgets, they can talk
to Teoh Peng Kee at Canon Marketing
Malaysia at Tel: 03-7844-6000 or email him
at teohpk@cmm.canon.com.my
5/25/06 11:32:17 AM
 I came across this egret catching fish near a pond in the neighbourhood early in the morning after
sending off my son to school. I spent the next three days waiting for it to appear again and I was lucky
to get some great shots of it scooping up the fish. This image shows the egret about to fly off with the
fish in its beak – EOS-1Ds Mark II, EF 400mm f/2.8L IS USM + Ext. 2X, f/6.3, 1/1600 sec. ISO 400

This dragonfly image is one of my favourite macro shots. It

was photographed after rain during my vacation in my
hometown. I spent about 45 minutes waiting for the dragonfly
to land in a perfect spot to take the picture – EOS-1D, f/11,
1/320 sec., ISO 200, EF 180mm f/3.5L Macro USM

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