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Hi, I'm Jeff Kim from Cadred. I've done interviews with top professional gamers for Cadred since 2010 and currently dabble in other organizations doing my best to help them with news-related stuffs. Every few months over at Cadred, I attempt to expose 'the meat' of a person, that is, their lives and routine outside of gaming, allowing for us, the gamers, to appreciate things we take for granted. As you'll read, last year I interviewed Sam Aotaki, a model from LA and just this past April I got to interview Ross Capicchioni, a man that was shot with a shotgun at point blank range and lived to tell the tale (both interview links in the Cadred article).
This time around to wrap up the summer LAN season, I've decided to interview my friend Jingna. A lot of us in the e-sports scene have seen her work, but we've never had an inside look into what she does. Below a few snips from the interview followed by the full interview's link. Constructive criticism/feedback is greatly appreciated -- although my work is not always welcome or respected due to extreme opinions, TeamLiquid has been one of the main sources of my work's improvement, and for that I thank you all. I decided to put this in SC2 General, as I found it more appropriate than the General Forum section -- if a mod feels it necessary to move the thread, please do so.
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You're quite the shot -- many people may not be aware, but you're actually a very talented air rifle shooter, breaking a national record 10 years ago and even going on to win Sports Girl of the Year via Singapore's Olympic Council. How'd you ever get into air rifles?
With the previous answer I don’t think it’s hard to guess. My mum was a sports psychology researcher at the Chinese national shooting team for eight years, then later became a coach for air rifle and pistol shooting in Singapore. When I moved to Singapore I would often go to the shooting range with her while I tried to study English, so when the time came to pick extra curriculum activities in secondary school I ended up trying air rifle.
When it comes to working with brand names and more known celebrities, you're a veteran. Your portfolio shows beautiful work with Mercedes-Benz, Canon and even Rain, one of Korea's more loved figures in music. Is it somewhat surreal to be approached by such companies, or are you the type that looks at everyone equally?
I tend to think everyone I get to work with is special, be it an unknown model or a celebrity. Because if I don’t feel excited about working with the subject, then the work itself will probably fall flat as well. But of course I won’t deny the bigger names definitely generate more interest in terms of commercial value for me, but for myself, at the end of the day, I try to do my best with every single shoot and make them all count.
Regarding the gaming scene, you've been keen on Starcraft for quite some time. What inspired you to delve into video game photography and what, if anything, makes it unique from your usual pieces?
I grew up with a lot of guys who work in video games, concept artists, animators, art directors. So out of not wanting to be left out on all the jokes and puns from projects they’ve worked on I make an effort to check out the games. StarCraft II kind of started that way for me.
As I made friends and started hanging out with a couple guys often, we decided to make a clan, then eventually turned it into a team last year and that’s how Infinity Seven was born. Going along with the team to various MLGs I started taking photos at the events, and when TeamLiquid featured my blog posts for the pictures on its frontpage people started to notice my pictures.
One of the really interesting things to me is the lighting at events that make images super vibrant, colourful and dramatic.
I don’t have a habit of using too much artificial colored lighting in most of my work, so it’s a very interesting exploration to work with such different setups. And of course seeing my work as Day9’s profile picture on Forbes was pretty cool too.
FULL INTERVIEW: http://www.cadred.org/News/Article/182886/
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so that's where day9's picture came from. very good interview, i like her answer below:
Q: Was there ever the thought of risking a stable income or career for the chance to become a successful photographer that came across your mind? It's been said as a stereotype that photography is one of the industries where you either go big or go home, and many individuals despite being drawn to the art choose to study a more reliable field and keep photography as a hobby, opposed to a career. What's your take on that, being a top tier professional that's surely seen the industry go both ways for people?
A: I’ve never really thought about it that way or worried about it. Sure I guess when I decided to quit school to do photography full time I did think about what I’d do if I failed and can’t support myself. But so long as you do something worth doing I think it’s better than living a safe path and regretting having never tried.
so true.
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Jingna you are beast 
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Great stuff. Working with Jingna for as long as I could was both enduring and a learning experience. She manages and owns a team, but her outside work is also more influential than you think. Almost all TLPD, Liquipedia and often major streams of the player's portraits come from her (though there are a lot of other photographers as well who do great work!)
It's weird seeing someone so high up in the world of photography both in fame, following and passion to come back to Skype, talk about the finer points Infinity Seven, the team, and try to improve with what little life she has to give. It's a mix of seeing soemone so prestigious, also have a real interest outside what she does and it's quite inspiring and new! Very refreshing to see.
Keep on truckin' and work hard Jingna!
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Having had no clue who she was, and only reading the OP and skipping through parts of the interview, even though I am not that interested, from what I read it was a very well put together piece which actually meant I knew who was being talked about and what she did, without having to have any prior knowledge.
Nice interview, from what I read of it, and well made thread. TL++
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Very cool. I've always enjoyed her pics on TL; seems very down to earth for someone so accomplished. I am always inspired by people that succeed at what they're passionate at, bonus for doing it so young. 
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Amazing little interview. Gotta love Zemotion's work.
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Great work Jeff. Hope more people see this and enjoy it. Was really well put together.
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yeah this was really cool gj!
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who saw huk talking about zemotion on his stream a couple months ago.
i think he was talking to maker im not sure
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Some beautiful photography there, and great interview! Thanks for sharing!
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On August 31 2012 06:07 Richard_Lewis wrote:
Great work Jeff. Hope more people see this and enjoy it. Was really well put together.
<><
On August 31 2012 06:50 Vaftrudner wrote:
Some beautiful photography there, and great interview! Thanks for sharing!
Thank you, hope you enjoyed.
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Some of the pictures are beyond beautiful, maybe even haunting, simply amazing.
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Just saying that Day[9] pic is super sexy, cool and overall awesome, but i still must say this pic of day[9] will always be my favourite + Show Spoiler +
but even still ur day9 pic *drools* please more shots of him :D
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Thank you everyone!! ><
On August 31 2012 04:19 Torte de Lini wrote:
Great stuff. Working with Jingna for as long as I could was both enduring and a learning experience. She manages and owns a team, but her outside work is also more influential than you think. Almost all TLPD, Liquipedia and often major streams of the player's portraits come from her (though there are a lot of other photographers as well who do great work!)
It's weird seeing someone so high up in the world of photography both in fame, following and passion to come back to Skype, talk about the finer points Infinity Seven, the team, and try to improve with what little life she has to give. It's a mix of seeing soemone so prestigious, also have a real interest outside what she does and it's quite inspiring and new! Very refreshing to see.
Keep on truckin' and work hard Jingna!
Thank you for the kind testimonial and help Torte :D
On August 31 2012 04:20 GGOPphatpak wrote:
WOOOHOO you're my idol<3
Woo really O_O TY
On August 31 2012 06:18 KiWiKaKi wrote:
da best
TY sir.
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Great interview! I've always been impressed by how stunning your work is, zemotion.
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If you want to look good, go to Jingna :D
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EPT![[image loading]](http://i.imgur.com/fTgZq.jpg)
![[image loading]](http://i.imgur.com/aK4WV.jpg)
![[image loading]](http://i.imgur.com/d7pF0.jpg)
![[image loading]](http://i.imgur.com/QgUij.jpg)
