Boey emerged as the inaugural winner of the Canon Teen Expression Photo contest. Her picture showed one of her friends trying to climb out of a cardboard frame.

For Boey, the picture shows a person wanting to reach out, much like teens who want to get away from their normal routine. “I brought the cardboard to school and there was a classmate who could not stop playing with it. I asked him to see if he could get out of the frame,” she says.

For her creativity, Boey won a Canon EOS Camera System worth RM20,000, which includes a Canon EOS5D, telephoto lens, flash, extra battery, a CF card and a battery grip.

Boey took her picture with a simple point-and-shoot digital camera but looks forward to using her new digital SLR camera. She’s learning how to use it by going online.

Her prizes will certainly come in useful for the next phase in her life as a student at Cenfad.

“I’m pursuing design and broadcast arts, so having it would be good,” she says.

Boey was one of the five finalists in the inaugural contest, which was held in conjunction with Canon’s 20th anniversary last year.

Canon Marketing Malaysia Sdn Bhd’s assistant director of Consumer Imaging & Information Division Calvyn Laang says that the contest is part of a comprehensive initiative promoting young people’s creativity in the media of photography as well as encouraging artistic skills and cultural enrichment.

“We are offering an opportunity for Malaysians to display their creative skills and also present them with the experience of printing their very own creative pieces from the comfort of their homes,” he says.

The contest consisted of five rounds, with each round seeing eight of the most creatively expressed pictures compete as fortnightly finalists.

The winner of each round was then selected to compete for the grand prize. The winner of each round also received a HV20 camcorder and Selphy ES1 worth RM5,600.

Winners were judged based on the highest public voting received via SMS and by a panel of judges comprising an independent team from Canon Marketing and Dentsu Malaysia Sdn Bhd.

Canon also awarded prizes to five SMS contest winners, they are Nurkunasegri, Alicia Arleen Hamilton, Komalan Mugunam, New Sook Ying and Looi Yi Sern. They each received a Canon Ixus 70 digital camera.