This is probably the most interesting fashion show in Sabah. The Coconut Fashion Queen contest is the highlight of Pesta Kelapa (Coconut Festival) celebrated in Kudat annually. The contestants have to dress in outfit and accessories made of coconut materials. I think the contest is solely for fun and laugh, but the contestants were really serious about it.
Actually Coconut Fest is not my main target to visit Kudat. I just timed the trip during the pesta so I had something to do at night, before I moved on to other destination the following day. In fact, there were some delay on the show, so the event ended at 11:30pm. @_@
This was my 2nd time watching the Coconut Fashion Show. I had already blogged about this festival in year 2005. When I look back at those old photos, goodness… so bad quality (taken with a compact camera). This year I took better photos, but it really hurt my arms to hold heavier camera for hours.
Compared to year 2005, their coconut fashion design has become more sophisticated and beautiful. I like the costume of contestant no.5, she reminds me of Sailor Moon, a Japan anime character. Though she didn’t make it to top 5, she won the title Miss Photogenic.
The bad weather and heavy rain almost spoiled my travel plan. I managed to visit a few interesting places such as Kampung Minyak (Oil Village) in Kudat. Later this week I will blog about them.
Ok, I know, I know… The event was on 21st of Sep. Kind of late to blog about it. This was the first time I saw nearly 200 Sabah photographers at a time, and there were many familiar faces (of photographers and bloggers). Besides being introduced the new Canon SLRs and being told Canon was better than Nikon, there was a model shooting session in the morning. The organiser hired 3 BIKINI models for us to play with.
Just divide 200 photographers by 3 models, each model will need to entertain over 60 photographers in average. So you can imagine how crowded it was and many was overexcited with the sexy bikini models. We pushed one another. During the shooting, I kept on cursing coz the heads and hands of other photographers spoiled the shot. To be frank, I am not good at portrait photography. I shot for sendiri syok only, but this time I wanted to photograph their personality and characteristics (not only figure).
Nicole was undoubtedly the favourite of most photographers. Can tell that she is very experienced in modeling. Not only she knew how to pose, she seemed to be aware of the surrounding light and tried to adjust her poses for the best lighting angle. I tried to capture her sexy and “dreamy” look in my photos. Her fair skin radiated under the sunlight, causing some of my initial shots “exploded” (overexposed).
The next model I forgot her name. Very flexible and did whatever the photographers asked, even laid on the dirty ground. I like her warm and friendly expression, the feeling is like taking the pictures of your friend.
Madona is the sister of Madelynn (Unduk Ngadau 2005 and Miss Sabah 2007). I think she is new in modeling. Though less experience, she is photogenic. She got sweet smile and nice black hair. It was tricky to get good photos of her, coz she stood under the shade or at a spot with backlight. I hope the organiser will provide reflectors for photo shooting next time. I know KL did, but don’t know they didn’t prepare it here.
Overall, it was an interesting experience. What feel better than turning the beautiful models into slaves under our lens? Everyone who got camera was like a king that day. Some photographers even made funny requests such as asking two models to act kiss kiss like lesbian. Frankly, I am not fond of shooting those action-action show-off poses. Personally I prefer something more natural.
What I learnt in this seminar was we needed a lot of $$$ to pursuit for excellent photo quality, and I also learnt that I was not rich enough to pay for it. OK lah, more photos below. Just click them to see bigger photos:
Photos taken in Kota Kinabalu, Sabah, Malaysia Borneo
They told me there was a 3-day “underaged” Ratu Kaamatan Beauty Pageant for the teenagers (about 15, 16 years old) in Centre Point. At first I was hesitate to take their pictures coz I didn’t want people think that I am a horny “Uncle Gold Fish” (though I am).
Last week I went to Centre Point to collect my Canon f/1.8 50mm len. Yeah, finally I buy it. This len will be very useful to photograph people during Kaamatan. When I passed by the stage, I saw 11 contestants there, but they were so mature and didn’t look like “small girls” (actually most are bewteen 17 to 20 years old).
Good chance to test the new len, so I took some photos. During the catwalk, a few of them were very confident and even posed for my camera, making me the uncle a bit shy pula. Top 3 contestants were selected that evening to enter the grand final in the following day. But I didn’t go. OK lah, here are some photos for you:
Click thumbnails below to see bigger photos:
Photos taken in Kota Kinabalu, Sabah, Malaysia Borneo
The launching of Kaamatan Festival (Harvest Festival) on May 1 every year marked the beginning of Kaamatan celebration, which lasts for a month. Today the world food shortage crisis makes Kaamatan more important, as rice is our main source of food. Sadly, more crop such as oil palm is planted to feed the cars (with biodiesel) than the mouth. Every year we got funding for aiding rice plantation. However, after many years, we still heavily count on imported rice. Now our government is crying for more fund. I wonder how the money was used in the past.
Mother’s Day also falls in May. That reminds me the story of Huminodun, the greatest Mother of mankind coz she sacrificed herself. Her spirit resided in the paddy and became the 7-in-1 Bambarayon (Rice Soul). But the harvesting and processing of the paddy will split these spirits apart. That’s why KadazanDusun people have Magavau ceremony, to recover the Rice Soul, to ensure a good harvest again next time. Sumazau dance is also performed to complete the ritual.
Beaufort town hosted the event this year. This is the 3rd year I come to launching of Kaamatan. And I never miss the chance to see the Unduk Ngadau (Harvest Queen) beauty pageant. There are a few things unique about this beauty pageant:
1. Traditional Costumes
It is a cultural beauty pageant to choose a figure to remember Huminodun. May is really the best time to see pretty ladies dress in finest traditional costumes. Since Kaamatan is celebrated by KadazanDusun and Murut people, you will see the contestants wear KadazanDusun or Murut costumes. Below are the 3 most common costumes worn in the competition:
Sometime you see them carry a towel. Not towel lah, just kidding, I forgot the name of that item. You would find each district has its own mix of costumes being displayed, usually represent the ethnic groups in that area. For example, some contestants from Kudat district would dress in Rungus costume. This is the first time I see Bisaya costume in Unduk Ngadau competition.
2. Mushroom Hair
No offense ok. I am not making fun of it. Even my Kadus friends also think it is very old-fashioned and they wonder why the Mushroom Hair should be the “official” hair style for all Unduk Ngadau. Why ah? Anyone knows? I am curious to find out.
3. Bare Feet
This is also a “feature” b’coz it is probably the only beauty pageant that doesn’t need shoes. Also no butt-shaking catwalk, show off poses and mouth pouting to purposely act sexy. Instead, the contestants will walk very slowly and pose gracefully. I like it coz it makes my photo-taking a lot more easier.
Let’s us pray for a bountiful harvest for the world. I got the photos of all the beauties. Please check them out. I lost the name list of the contestants so I couldn’t print their names. I will add the names later. Personally I like contestant no. 11.
Just some dessert for you before the Valentine’s Day. Razz Ma Tazz organised a Miss Cheongsam beauty pageant a week ago. But I was so busy recently, so I had to wait for a holiday to post the photos. Razz Ma Tazz has done many beauty contests. Though their show is informal and in smaller scale, it is HOT. Better yet, I don’t need to pay a RM100 ticket and sit at a far corner to watch the show and listen to stupid + boring VIP speech.
This album includes the photos from Semi-Final and Grand Final, so you will see each girl wearing two different contestant numbers. Cheongsam (a.k.a. Chi Pao) is the traditional dress of Chinese. Even though most of the contestants are not Chinese, the dress looks equally nice on them. In the photos, you can see that cheongsam also has many styles. It can make you look cute, mature, elegant, or even sexy.
Besides cheongsam, 14 contestants also presented themselves in casual, evening gown, and beach wear (yeah!). After getting a speedlite flash and faster camera, I can shoot almost none-stop, compare to my old compact camera that needs 6-sec flash recharge. Now I am facing too much choices (photos), every time got thousands of pictures, taking up more disk space and more time to sort them out. Good thing is – I am no longer “forced” to use the lousy photo when it is the only shoot available.
My favourites are contestant no. 1, 4, 6 and 14. If you got face and body like them, it will be impossible for me to decline your invitation to a dinner tomorrow. To know who won Miss Body Beautiful, Miss Photogenic, Miss Popular, Best Catwalk, Best Costume, Best Hairdo, Miss Personality, Miss Cheongsam… just check out the photos.
Just kidding. He is the hairdo stylist of the Best Hairdo beauty. You would not object that I should win the title “Mr. Horny”, for taking so many photos of Sabah beauty, right? I won’t mind bearing this title if you give me RM100,000 cash prize.
Photos taken in Kota Kinabalu, Sabah, Malaysia Borneo
Just some photos of the fashion show of Slim and Beauty Exhibition in Sabah Trade Centre last Saturday. The design and catwalk were all done by students of Sabah Institute of Art (SIA). Help yourself…
Dresses with the theme “Coral”:
The “Inside Out” fashion show:
Why look so shock? If I were him, I would be so “syok”.
I had a One-night-stand at Shenaningan of Hyatt Hotel. I mean I stand there for the whole night to take photos of Miss Borneo beauty pageant. Borneo is the 3rd largest island in the world, and it includes Sabah, Sarawak, Brunei and Kalimantan. But the furthest contestant was from Tawau. Probably others live too far away and couldn’t make it. They started with a number of 34 contestants, and only 12 of them entered the grand final on Aug 15.
There were 3 rounds for the contest, i.e. (1) Casual Wear and Introduction, (2) Beach Wear, and (3) Q&A. At first I thought they wanted to select a Miss WWF, coz many questions and conerns were related to environment conservation and protection. It is a good idea too, as it is easier to let liang moi (pretty girl) to stop the men from doing bad things to the nature.
Shenaningan is a small place to run a beauty pageant, but it turned out quite ok coz I could move closer to the stage for photo-shooting. The only problem was – there were a few overexcited drunken cats tried to be funny, kept on shouting, which interrupted the ladies to answer questions. The MC was annoyed and had to ask them shut up and zip their mouth.
The contest was from 10PM to 1AM, and it was on Wednesday. At first I was reluctant to go, coz I needed to work on next day. Anyway, my vision is to make MySabah.com got the most complete collection of all beauty pageants in Sabah. So here you are. The new one keeps on coming so it is like a never-ending mission. I am very curious what other beauty contests that I never heard of (please let me know). There are more than 40 beauty pageants in Sabah every year (Check out my blog on Pretty Girls category if you don’t believe me). If every contest offers 3 prizes, there are 120 prizes for the winners to grab. Sabah is really a place that has lot of great opportunities to the beauties. If you care to join, who knows you might earn a Miss something title.
This is the only “purely Chinese” beauty pageant that I’ve ever seen in Sabah. Hakka is the biggest Chinese sub-group in Sabah, and they have dialect of their own. I say “They” because strictly speaking, I am not a Hakka guy, though I can speak Hakka well. But not all Hakka speaks Hakka, in Sandakan, many Hakka speaks Cantonis, for unknown reason. In overseas, I am happy to hear someone speaks Mandarin (official language of Chinese), but I feel even happier if I hear someone speaks Hakka, like I see someone from hometown.
Hakka means “guest family”. Hakka originated from northern China. Because of war and social unrest, they had major migration a few times (like a “guest” without home) and settled in southern China. After experiencing so many hardship, Hakka people developed a conservative, peaceful, and hardworking traits in their culture and value, something enable them to survive the worst.
My late grandfather migrated to Sabah in early 1900s. When he arrived Sabah, he was shocked to see that Sabah was so “shang ba” (village). Anyway, like many other Chinese, he established our root here and developed the land. Most Hakka worked as farmers and traders. It is not too much to say, without Hakka, Sabah would look totally different today.
Back to the Miss Hakka Tourism beauty pageant on Jul 29, there were 15 contestants from different districts of Sabah, to compete in 4 rounds. The winners will join the national-level Miss Hakka competition in KL on Sep 7, and the Miss Hakka Malaysia will participate in Miss Hakka Tourism International 2008 competition. In first round, the beauties dressed in traditional Hakka dress (but my mom says she never wear such cloth before), very kawaii. Second round they dressed in evening gown. Third round is my favourite, they dressed in Cheongsam (Chi-Pao). They all looked so elegant (and sexy).
To look really good in Cheongsam, you should meet two requirements: (1) You have to be slim and have nice figure. If you have too much extra fat like a middle-age aunty, basically you will look like something out of shape in Cheongsam. (2) You have an oriental face. I don’t know why Cheongsam looks better on Asians, but I can’t deny the feeling that if a orang putih (westerner) wears Cheongsam, it is like painting some stripes on a horse and call it a zebra. Somehow others feel that something is not right but can’t tell what’s wrong.
People (especially guys) will be interested in finding out what is in your brain, only if they are attracted by your look. After the 3rd round, top 8 contestants were selected to enter the final round, knowledge test, which is always the scariest part of beauty pageant. They were tested by questions on Hakka culture or tourism. For example, “What does Hakka mean?”, “How do you introduce Sabah to the world?” Their Hakka sounds more like a mix of Hakka, Mandarin and Cantonis. Not a surprise, me and most others can’t speak pure Hakka too.
The Result: Miss Hakka Tourism 2007 + Miss Photogenic: Corvina (Keningau) 1st Runner-Up + Miss Goodwill: Sandy (Kota Belud) 2nd Runner-Up + Miss Hakka Culture: Melody (Keningau) Miss Body Beautiful: Audrey (Tuaran) Miss Friendship: Loh Pei Yi (Tuaran)
(I try to translate the Chinese names. Any mistake is purposely made.)
My new Canon EOS 400D allowed me to take better photos this time. Compared to my earlier photos, they have less noise and the exposure of the background is excellent (look brighter and more colourful). Hope you like them.
