Christian Ming Chieng
No this is not my child lol. Just on camera duty at my nephews 2nd birthday party š„³
Chris Chieng (formerly Chris Do) is an experienced badminton, tennis, golf and dog photographer and avid badminton player. Cultivating his badminton skills over the years, Chris has been an inspiring and motivating figure in the United States badminton community. Chris attended Foothill College (did not compete in collegiates) and Piedmont Hills High School where he started playing badminton when he was a junior in high school. Chris also served as the assistant coach of the Saratoga High School Badminton team for 4 years, which is home to many high ranking as well as junior national players. Through his many years of playing and coaching, Chris has experienced many tournaments and discovered the need for media coverage in badminton. He started his badminton photography career while photographing at tournaments for AK Badminton, but decided to move his business to a larger scale.
Chris wants to reach for the stars and travel the world through his photography. He has covered several major international tournaments so far in the United States and has collaborated with Yonex USA, Badminton World Federation, NextShark, USA Badminton and many more with numerous publications throughout the globe internationally. He dreams of traveling the world to attend and photograph prestigious events such as the Olympics, World Championships, All England, Thomas Cup, World Tour Finals, Wimbledon, Australian Open Grand Slam, PGA World Tour and so on.
While he is not traveling abroad, Chris is a PM at Google. Chris heavily emphasizes the importance on the development of the sport here in the United States and works closely with clubs and parents of Bintang Badminton, Bellevue Badminton and with more clubs and organizations in the near future.
As long as you accept the fact that your dream might not go out as planned, youāll still feel fulfilled by the pursuit of your dreams. Always go after whatever you want to do, or else, what's the point in living?
-CMC
More about me
Hey there! Thanks for checking out my portfolio. Didnāt realize until recently how old my bio is. My web guy Martin wrote that for me at the beginning of our launch back in 2015, so I decided to add something personal here.
Iāve had the pleasure of meeting so many people throughout my 9 year journey and have the privilege of having them as long life friends and hope to meet you at some point too. When Iām not photographing, I like to play badminton at Bintang, white water kayaking, trying new restaurants, looking for new goodies at Trader Joes, shopping at Nike or watching NFL/NBA with friends and my mom. Iām very outgoing and love to joke around/have fun. However, I do feel like my social battery is deteriorating and starting to understand Squidward more as I get older (ha!) I do get a handful of questions when I meet people at tournaments, but hereās some fun facts about me and commonly asked questions. Feel free to ask me more in person!
What equipment do you use?
Canon R6 (2)
Sigma Art 24-70 2.8
Canon 70-200 2.8 II
Canon 8-15 f4 Fisheye
What made you choose Canon?
I was watching Monday Night Football with my step dad when I was 8 and a Canon commercial came on. It took place at a house with a mom taking photos of her son playing football with the father, with progressing evolution of the mom taking photos at pee wee football league, high school football, at the beach, in a local neighborhood and the NFL. The slogan really caught my attention when the message said āPhotography is a journey, how will you remember the trip?ā From that moment in the year 2000, I always envied sports photography and wanted to try it. I also told myself once I start, Iām going to use Canon. Great marketing! Link to the video can be found here.
Whats your favorite shot in badminton and golf?
Badminton: left handed players that are super flexible that reaches around their head a lot and celebrations hands down. Iād say the celebrations are the absolute hardest to get and is 50% luck. Sometimes they turn around towards your direction, sometimes they donāt. But if you do capture the moment, it makes it 10x more rewarding.
Golf: the dirty mirror effect. This involves dirt/grass flying in the air. Sit about 30 yards away from the subject, press the shutter and get the follow through swing. Only works when theres soft soil.
What are the biggest difficult aspects of photographing badminton?
Being limited on space
Bad lighting
Hardwood floors instead of mats
People walking in front of my camera while photographing
People being demanding when asking for their photos
Players whoās feet donāt leave the ground/scissor kick/on full stretch when theyāre playing. Doesnāt look nearly as interesting.
Players who wear all white or black clothing. The contrast is horrible.
All white gyms
Favorite things about photographing tournaments?
Parents and kids showing their appreciation and getting to know them. Always heartwarming and a pleasure to pay it forward to my sport and community.
Uploading tournament photos on Facebook/Instagram and seeing people getting excited on what goodies I have
Food - each place Iāve traveled to has unique restaurants and cuisines. Sometimes the trips back to those cities excites me because I know theres a specific place I want to eat at least once š½
Favorite venue to photograph at?
Harbour Pointe Badminton Club - Mukliteo, Washington
Having a dark background and with the lights reflecting on the floor gives it such a nice glow. The colors there does wonders!
Do you speak any other languages besides English?
Most of my family is from Hong Kong but I sadly cannot speak/understand Cantonese. But I know all the profanity words bc thatās how we roll in Hong Kong baby. I know more Mandarin than I know Cantonese, which my mom is not super thrilled about lol. I picked up Mandarin since I have a lot of Mainland/Taiwanese friends. Pretty much only know the lingos on what I can use on the badminton court and restaurant.
Whats your racket/string set up?
Yonex Astrox 99 pro - BG 80 @ 28lbs
I recently went to India for my best friends wedding and picked up 2 Astrox 88D Pros. Definitely did not need them, but they were incredibly cheaper over there and very pretty lmao. Same string and tension.
Guilty pleasure(s)?
Scrolling on amazon for things that I donāt need but end up buying anyways. Same goes for Target. Come there for one thing but end up spending $100 somehow
Watching the dallas cowboys lose and seeing their fans in misery (esp in the first round of the playoffs) Notice how I didnāt even capitalize the teams name. Yes Iām on that level of petty lol
Favorite emojis?
š¤” šļø š¤ š® š¤
Badminton idols?
Lee Yong Dae (Korea) - because Iām a front court player and learned so much from watching his videos when I was growing up! Also a pleasure to photograph this guy. Funny person too
Tony Gunawan (Indonesia/USA) - Jesus, how to even get past this guy in the front court? The best all around player youāll ever see. I donāt know how he sees everything so early. Da GOAT
Mathias Boe (Denmark) - Yes, another front court player and love how strong his focus is. I also feel like left handed players in doubles typically tend to play recklessly (unless youāre a world class player) but heās probably the smartest left handed player
Taufik Hidayat - I knew that I had to improve my backhand when I was leveling up on my high school team. Now I over abuse using backhand as Iām not as confident of my around the head š
Toby Ng (Canada) - I watched him here and there when I was younger and was impressed how stable and efficient he was. I also have the privilege and honor to have him as one of my really close friends! I took some lessons with him and 2 of the things I wanted to work on were the most important things Iāve ever learned in the sport. I also became more inspired recently to play mixed doubles as this was his discipline that he mainly practiced and represented in the 2012 London Olympics for Team Canada! š
Tips to learning badminton photographers?
Iām still learning myself. Every assignment I get sent out to is an opportunity for me to practice, which Iāll always be grateful for. There isnāt a textbook way of photographing badminton. I pretty much learned this on my own and made my own blueprint, so some may or may not agree with my practice principles.
Minimum 1/500 shutter speed
Study your subject before going to their court. Same principle if you wanted to analyze someone before you play them. Know what their strengths/weaknesses are and know what you can get from them. Every player is each to their own!
Certain shots look better vertical horizontal. Vertical shots: jump smash, scissor kick with the racket bend and celebrations. Iāll hit these shots horizontally if theres a nice audience in the background. Horizontal shots: defense, doubles shots to include both partners and anything with the subject off centered
You get what you pay for. This is not a cheap hobby/profession.
Quality > quantity
Martin Okamura - Web Designer
Martin Okamura is our web designer and also a badminton enthusiast. Martin is a video editor and handles quality assurance at Anatomage. He competed in collegiate nationals while he attended college at California Polytechnic State University San Luis Obispo. He attended Westmont High School in Campbell, CA where him and Chris met in 2009.
Martin started playing badminton when he was a freshman in high school and faced Chris during his junior and senior year and defeated Chris both home and away in the season of 2009 and 2010. Many regard Martin, including his peers as one of the greatest badminton players of all time from Westmont High School.