Moon Surface Close-Up

Last evening my mum and I were standing on the balcony seeing my sister off at the car park below. After my sister drove off, my mum raised her hand and pointed to me the big round moon in the sky. She said she has never see a moon so bright and clear.

As usual, I wouldn't miss a photography opportunity so I quickly took my Nikon D70s camera and mounted a 300f4 lens with a 1.7x and set it on my big Gitzo to photograph the moon. The sky was really clear and I amazed that I could even capture the craters on the moon surface on the upper right hand corner of the moon!

Too bad, I wasn't able to capture China's Chang'er I orbiting the moon. Otherwise it will be a prize possession for me! Haha....

Ian Thompson Memorial Football Match

Hmm, looks like this is a charity week for me. Last Tuesday I was at the elderly folk charity work and yesterday I was shooting video for a charity event "Ian Thompson Memorial".

I started filming for this event just last year. My Managing Director knows I am interested in photography and videoing so he asked me if I would like to help to video a charity football match for his pal Alistair Thompson and I promptly agreed because I have never film a football and further more it is for a good course so I thought why not. My MD role is the official commentator for the event and my HR director role is the director of the video and my role is a videographer.

Alistair's dad (Ian Thompson) passed away due to cancer a few years ago and he was very sad so he organised a charity football match and gather all his pals to play in the game to raise some money for the cancer organisation in memory of his dad. This football match started in Scotland a few years ago and when Alistair moved to Singapore, all his pals still fly-in from all over the world to support him in the event and to raise money for charity. This is a team spirit I greatly admired. These people are CEOs, MDs and Regional Managers of MMCs, who have very busy schedules to keep, and yet they are willing to take time off on their weekend to fly in to Singapore from as far as Scotland and the USA just for football match and to support their pal!

After last year football match, my HR Director edited the video footage and we screen it in a pub for the participants. Everyone was amazed by how the video turn out. There were some gossip interview footages with the players which really add to the success of the video. After an afternoon in the blazing sun these players could now seated down in the comfy of the pub to enjoy their food and drinks and laughing away heartily at their comical actions on the field and cursing at the little gossips from their pals.

Well, I have captured some very interesting footage on the field yesterday and a scene in the changing room! Hopefully we will have another enjoyable night at the pub when they video is out.

Charity Work

In my forty years of living I have considered myself extremely lucky and blessed. I never have to worry about money or meals. My parents are there for me when I was growing up and now that I have grown up I vowed to take care of my family and be there for my family whenever they needed me.

There are some people who are not so lucky. Some kids come from broken homes and some old folks are left to fend for themselves even though they have well-to-do children. In 2005, one of my colleagues organised a charity event for us to visit a children home. Most of these kids come from broken family and at such tender age they have to face such hardship in their live. Though it is only a half day event, we are glad that we managed to bring a moment of joy and some happiness into their live by organising games for them and bringing them some goodies which our company kindly sponsored.

Last Tuesday, a colleague of my again organised another charity work for us. This time we went to a resident community centre at Buona Vista to organise some games and buffet session for some elderly folks in the area. Our company again very generously gives us a sum of money for the event. We bought lots of daily food stuff from NTUC for these old folks to bring home after some games and buffet session.

We set up four gaming station at this event and grouped these elderly participants into a few teams for the games. Though most of them are meeting for the first time, they are very cooperative, cheerful and their team spirit is very high. The winning team also gets to win some prizes. The grand finale is the bingo game whereby the participants enjoyed the most. There is lots of laughter and excitement during they games. Many of them also get to win a hand-held massager once they Bingo.

As the saying goes "every feast has its end", it is a very sad farewell for all of us and the participants at the end of the day. Some of these folks are so touched for our effort in organising an eventful afternoon for them, they held on to our hands tightly and told us that they are very grateful that we spend time with them and if fate had it they would really love to see us again! We went for a charity event but leave with a heavy heart.

In the course of living our happy live, I really hope that more people could spare some thought or our time to reach out to the needy people around our community.

The New Minstrels Concert

In the past, I have been to the Esplanade many times and I have taken many pictures of the "Durian" from the outside. Yesterday I finally have the privilege to take pictures inside the Esplanade Concert Hall. I was commissioned to take pictures of "The New Minstrels" concert.

The sound system and lightings are really fantastic and I'm thrilled to have the opportunity to take pictures in such a grand concert hall! I get to move around freely within the concert hall during the rehearsal and I get to shoot from any angle I like. I also get to try all the seats in the concert hall and that includes the balcony seats too!

Technically it is quite a challenge to take pictures of a concert in such a grand concert hall. Flash is not allowed and I have to turn off my camera's autofocus-assist light because the bright light from my camera would distract the audience. I have to set my camera ISO to around 800 and 1600 because the shutter speed is very slow (around 1/15 to 1/50) most of the time. The lighting is very beautiful to the eyes but it is very tricky for the camera metering. When I took the exposure reading based on the ambient light the singers would be over-exposed and vice versa. I constantly have to decide whether I want to capture the ambient lightings or the singers and set my camera exposure accordingly!

Here are some photographs to share with you.

Monkey Business

Yesterday morning during my morning walk in MacRitchie, I came upon a couple doing their "Monkey Business" out in the open on a park bench in the full-view of the public eyes! I quickly took out my camera, switch it to video mode and captured the following footage. I slowly inched closer to them to get a close-up footage and they simply ignore my present and continued on with their "Monkey Business". Initially, I thought of posting the footage in YouTube or Stomp but then I do not want to embarrass them so I decided to post it on my blog to share with my friends and relatives. This is the first time I captured such close-up footage but please be advised that I not a pervert, it’s just my curiosity had the better of me!!

A new begining

Last night before midnight I was rather sad because I'm parting with a good buddy of 10years! My buddy name is '30s'. Yes its name is '30s'. My '30s'!

After twelve midnight, I welcomed my new friend '40s' and '40s' is here to stay with me for 10years! My-oh-my, you must be thinking what on earth am I talking about?! Have I gone bonkers?! Well not to worry, I'm still pretty much a sane person. '30s' and '40s' is referring to my age. Yes I'm officially 40-years-old today! Yup, the "Big Four-O" - I been around for 4 decades now. Wow, seems like a long long time!

My cousin is very kind and comforting, she sms me and told me 男人四十一条龙！Well, I really hope it holds true for me, otherwise I will be 男人四十老kock kock, hahahaha!

Today many of my friends and colleagues also wish me 'Happy Children Day" because it is Children's Day. Unfortunately, I wasn't born in China otherwise I will be celebrating National Day too and have "A Golden Week Holidays" to enjoy my birthday!

I wish to thanks my sister, my uncle, my cousins, my boss, my friends, my local and oversea colleagues, my ex-colleagues, my schoolmates, my acquaintances and my vendors for all the heartwarming smses, e-cards, calls and the mini celebration in office!

I'm ashamed to admit that I'm not a person who would call to say hello or keep in touch and still all of you bothered to remember my birthday! I'm truly overwhelmed by all your birthday wishes and greetings! The first sms I received was at 0003hr, then one at 0130hr (I'm sure you know who you are - hmm wondering why you are still awake at that time!) and the last sms I received was this evening 1930hr. Thank you all of you and I love you all!

Here's a picture of my birthday cake and two pictures taken with some of my colleagues in office.