Red Crew Lai Jun Wei receives S.League Photo of the Year nomination

By Les Tan

Lai Jun Wei, a member of the Red Crew, recently had a picture he took nominated for the 2009 S.League Photo of the Year award. The award was eventually won by Lianhe Zaobao.

In 2008, Red Sports was also nominated for the S.League Story of the Year award for our interview series on national footballer Aleksandar Duric.

Jun Wei, 20, was the first member of the Red Crew back in 2007 when he was in his second year at Innova Junior College.

Jun Wei has a place to read History at the National University of Singapore in August 2010.

Here’s his take on his nomination and sports photography.

Red Sports: What do you enjoy about sports photography?
Jun Wei: Shooting sports is exciting. As they always say – picture tells a thousand words. When a picture is well taken, I like it that it is able to capture all the action in that one single frame.

While videos can show the entire sequence of an event, I feel that sports photography freezes the moment, allowing us to appreciate things better.

I also like it that sometimes, a good sports photo can make someone go “Wow…”. That gives me a sense of accomplishment.

What do you enjoy about working on Red Sports?
I get experience where I can never find elsewhere. When I was fresh into Red Sports, I got a chance to shoot at the Singapore Badminton Open.

I believe that if I were to start out with other photography agencies, I would probably not get a chance to shoot so early into joining.

I would probably be lugging equipment for my chief, or assisting my photo editor in some other ways. I have an opportunity to acquire skills which cannot be taught in a classroom, especially when I’m shooting at national or international level events.

Red Sports also provides a platform for me to showcase my pictures. While a person may have the most expensive camera and most expensive lens and he or she might take the most beautiful pictures, but if there’s no one to appreciate it, I don’t see much of a purpose.

I may not have the best of equipment, but Red Sports allows me to showcase my pictures, and allow our readers to appreciate them.

How did you feel when you found out your picture was nominated?
I did not really believe it at first. I was expecting the mainstream newspaper photographers to get nominated instead. But then again, I would like to thank the Football Association of Singapore and the judges for recognising my work and effort.

This nomination acknowledges community sites like us, and it goes to show that we exist, and that we can help tell the Singapore sports story together.

If you realise, two out of the four nominations (Red Sports and Kallangroar.com) were not from the mainstream newspapers. I think this is a good start for everyone, and it will let others know that the online media can also produce quality material.

Is this the first time you’ve been nominated for a picture award at the national level?
Nope. I’ve been ranked in the Top 15 before in photography competitions run by the International School of Photography. I’ve also got shortlisted before in other local competitions by Noise Singapore.