Long Exposure

长曝光

Kevin Lee, 1990 to now

In the photographs below, the ones without me in them are mine. The ones with me in them, apart from my self-portraits, were taken by others.

№ DSC4091Self-portrait

View the full photograph

The core of the Milky Way across the whole frame: dark dust lanes and countless stars, in a 479-second exposure.

00Prologue · The shutter

Anyone who photographs the night sky knows that some pictures need the shutter open a long time.

My longest, I waited seven minutes and fifty-nine seconds.

My life, I think, has been made the same way.

Milky Way2018.06.15 00:04NIKON D800479 secISO 400Photo: Kevin Lee

View the full photograph

012007

The road

I was born in Klang, though my family’s roots are in Jenjarom New Village. In 1997, I moved to Klang with my parents.

In 2007, in Form Five, I was a student reporter for 《学海》, a Chinese-language student weekly, in Selangor and Kuala Lumpur.

That year my brother gave me a Nokia N70. On the way with my father to a relative’s wedding dinner in Sekinchan, I photographed the scenery the whole way. By the end of that road, I had fallen in love with photography.

Later I met a group of friends who loved taking pictures, and bought my first two digital cameras with my pocket money: a Canon and a Kodak.

022008 – 2010

The door

After Form Five, I wanted to study photography at Oneworld Hanxin College. The application was filled in; the fees were ready.

Twice I walked to the school’s door, and twice I didn’t go in. I was afraid the money would make things harder at home.

For the next three years I worked in my father’s glass and picture-frame shop. I never put the camera down.

One night in October 2009, I photographed a face in stage make-up, reflected in a round mirror. Four years later, it won Bronze at PX3 in Paris.

Record

PX3 2013 · Press · People/Personality · Bronze · Hypothetical ↗

A round mirror; in it, a face in stage make-up, a red blur in the foreground.

032011 – 2012

Taiwan

In 2011, a friend from my student-reporter days in Johor Bahru told me about a tuition-free programme in Taiwan for overseas Chinese students, which led to a certificate. I chose Ming Chuan University in Guishan, Taoyuan, and enrolled in digital media design.

For two years I never treated the holidays as holidays; I spent all of them taking photographs. I read the library’s photography books one after another, and bought photography and design books one after another.

There I met teachers of photography, art and design. The way I see things today, they shaped.

One morning in September 2011, I photographed a bride’s happy smile beneath her veil. The next year, Happiest Moment won Silver at PX3.

In the summer holidays of July 2012, by the sea, I photographed an ascetic in a red robe.

Record

In warm brown tones, a bride smiles beneath her veil.

On a pebble beach, an ascetic in a red robe sits facing the sea, a green headland in the distance.

042013

Rain

An invitation from a world-class Malaysian wedding photographer made me decide to come home. In January 2013, I came back to Malaysia.

I applied to be a photography assistant. Before the interview I waited half an hour outside the office in the rain. After a round of test shooting, I wasn’t taken on. That evening I took the train home, completely lost.

I began taking wedding and event jobs on my own, and later worked as a second photographer for Louis Loo Photography (Deviews Production). My income was never steady; for a while, even three meals a day were a struggle.

Most days I got around by bicycle and motorbike. When a job needed a car, I borrowed one from family.

One rainy night in April, I photographed two people under a white umbrella. In May, a profile in a white veil.

In June, my brother took me to sell resale homes. I thought: meet more people, and some of them will need a photographer. Photography was the real job; real estate was on the side.

By December, what I earned from selling homes had far outgrown photography. I went into real estate full-time, and started learning from scratch.

The year I decided to leave photography, my photographs were still winning: Hypothetical won Bronze at PX3, and three works received four Honorable Mentions at the IPA.

Record

Heavy rain at night: two people embrace under a white umbrella, the wet ground reflecting the lights of a building.

2013.05.25Photo: Kevin Lee

052014 – 2015

Rise

In my second year, at GS Realty, I won the year’s Top Personal Sales (Pre-Leader Ranking) · 2nd Runner Up, and that year’s third-quarter Top Volume Case · Champion. The same year, I was promoted to Team Leader.

That year, I met Fallon Loo Kah Cheng, Founder & CEO of FLP Realty. I have called her Fallon-jie ever since (jie is a Chinese form of address that carries both respect and warmth). In my experience, she does what she says.

Later, my brother and I moved into new projects. On 11 November 2015, we brought our team to FLP Realty, the firm Fallon-jie leads.

Record

GS Realty · Yearly 2014, 2015 · Top Personal Sales (Pre-Leader Ranking) · 2nd Runner Up
GS Realty · 2014 3rd Quarter · Top Volume Case · Champion

Why I chose FLP Realty

GS Realty’s 14th awards night: Kevin receives a trophy and the certificate for Yearly 2014, 2015 · Top Personal Sales (Pre-Leader Ranking) · 2nd Runner Up.

The same night, Kevin holds the certificate and award for 2014 3rd Quarter · Top Volume Case · Champion.

Early morning on the granite slopes of Mount Kinabalu: Kevin stands in a blue jacket as day breaks.

Mount Kinabalu2017.09.21 05:55

View the full photograph

062016 – 2017

Fall

Then the market changed, and I didn’t keep up. Through 2016 and 2017, my numbers kept falling.

In the end, I went to Mr Fan, who taught me real estate, and asked for his advice. After that, the way I read the market, and the way I work, both changed.

On 21 September 2017, at 5:55 in the morning, I was on Mount Kinabalu. Two hours later, on Low’s Peak, I raised the FLP Realty flag.

Above the Low’s Peak sign on Mount Kinabalu, Kevin raises an FLP Realty flag.

072018

Night

In 2018, I was sixth in personal sales.

In those years I often drove out in the middle of the night to wait for the Milky Way.

One night in September, I set up my camera, pressed the shutter, walked into my own frame and stood still for four seconds.

Moonlit clouds fill the sky; Kevin, in a white shirt, stands beside his car on a lit hillside. — Clouds under the moon2018.09.24 21:34NIKON D8004 secISO 2000Self-portrait
View the full photograph

See my photography

082019

Light

In the first half of 2019, I hit rock bottom. In the second half, I came back.

That year, I was FLP Realty’s Top Advisor of the Year · Champion.

Record

FLP Realty · Top Advisor of the Year 2019 · Champion

On the stage of FLP Realty’s Chinese New Year dinner, confetti flies and the big screen reads 2019 TOP ADVISOR OF THE YEAR · Champion as Kevin embraces someone.

092020 – 2021

Falling again

In 2020 the pandemic came. During the MCO I didn’t move my selling online, and my numbers fell to the bottom again.

In 2021, I moved online. That year I came eighth in the company’s personal sales.

Record

FLP Realty · Top Advisor of the Year 2021 · 8th Place

Under purple stage lights, Kevin raises a hand, wearing the sash for eighth place in 2021.

102022 to now

Leading

In January 2022, I began leading a team at FLP Realty. From then on, my record carried more of my partners’ results and my team’s honours than my own.

I often think of what Fallon-jie said back then: being brilliant on your own counts for little; developing people better than you is what is truly remarkable.

Years ago, I learned beside Louis Loo’s camera. Years later, he joined my real estate team.

In March 2022, I typed three lines into our team chat:

Carry the responsibility for our partners.Take the bullets for our partners.Clear the road ahead for our partners.

Record

2016.09 – 2022 · Host of the FLP Realty weekly meeting
Since 2018 · shared and taught many times at FLP Realty’s weekly meetings
2022.03.12 and 2022.04.10 · 4U For YOU and 4U For CEO · stage sharing
2022.09.23 · brought the 4U For CEO 024 class to FLP Realty for a corporate visit I hosted
2023.04.15 · MAYCHAM CHINA online talk 《2023 马来西亚及加拿大地区投资秘诀解析》 · speaker

What it’s like to work with me

Kevin speaks on stage with a microphone; behind him, the big screen shows his own self-portrait under the Milky Way.

In front of the stage at FLP Realty’s headquarters, Kevin with the visiting students in a group photograph; the big screen welcomes the 4U FOR CEO 024 & 025 classes. — In September 2022, I brought the 4U For CEO 024 class to FLP Realty for a corporate visit that I hosted.

11Now

Tuition

Over the years I have paid more than RM700,000 in tuition, and learned from 12 real estate teachers and 17 teachers of metaphysics.

Photography, design, marketing, copywriting, video, sales, DISC, NLP, human behaviour, public speaking, leadership: I have paid tuition in all of them.

One fee was never paid in a classroom. I once bought the wrong property myself, and lost six figures.

The photography school fee I never paid back then. Everything since, I have paid, one fee at a time.

So now, when I work with a client, I treat them as the last person I may ever get to help. When I work with partners, I lay out every fee I’ve paid, so they don’t have to pay it again.

These past few years, I have also often stood beside students. At 4U Academy (4U 人际教育学院), I have been a small-group coach three times for 《影响力》 and five times for 《人才赢学》. Since 2024, I have been a small-group coach (传承天使) many times in Wealth Mastery Academy (WMA) programmes.

Metaphysics, Eastern and Western: I study both, and treat it as a discipline for reading people and timing. I don’t use it to predict property prices for anyone, and it is not how I choose partners.

Record