Halloween Night

Is it a ball? Is it a balloon? No, it’s a pumpkin on the Singapore Flyer!

What do pumpkins got to do with the Singapore Flyer? Well, today is Halloween Night that is why there are many pumpkins and many scary creatures and decorations around the vicinity of Singapore Flyer to celebrate Halloween!

Happy Halloween to all of you out there!

My New Hair Style

Sometimes it is good for us to change our usual hair-style to give ourselves a more refreshing outlook. Often we are afraid to try a new hairdo, afraid that it may not suit us well and we have to live with it for a few months! If there is a computer program that allows you to try on your new hair-do, will you try it?

Well, before your next visit to your barber or hair-dresser, you may want to try out some retro-hair-style at this URL: www.yearbookyourself.com.

I have tried it myself and here are some of my retro hair-style pictures. Have fun!

Happy Deepavali

Today is Deepavali (Festival of Light) and it is also a public holiday in Singapore. I hereby wish all my Indian friends and all my blog visitors a Happy Deepavali.

The good thing about living in a multi-racial country like Singapore is we get to celebrate all kind of festivals with our fellow country man. Every year during Deepavali, the main stretch of Serangoon Road (our Little India) will be lighted up with colourful decorations to welcome the festival. I happened to be passing by Serangoon Road few weeks ago, so I managed to take some pictures of the light up.

Happy Deepavali everyone!

子干的Vinegar Pig Trotters dish

Last Sunday, 我们又有口福了！Whenever I mentioned the name 何子干，most people will know him as the Music Director of radio Love 97.2 FM station or the popular Radio DJ of Y.E.S 93.3 FM in the past! But, few people know that this very individual, my uncle, is also a very good cook!

It is not often that my uncle would cook for us, even though occasionally he would bake some cakes or cook up some dishes for us to try. Last Saturday, when we went for our morning walk, he told me that he had a new recipe for cooking vinegar pig trotters and he will cook some for us on Sunday.

On Sunday, I packed my camera before setting off to my elder uncle’s house. When I reach my elder uncle’s house, the vinegar pig trotters were all cooked and ready for consumption on the oven. I took out my camera and took a couple of shots as I though it would make an interest topic for my blog.

The picture was not as sharp as I would like it to be and the depth-of-field is too shallow because the lighting in the kitchen was quite dim and I have to use a big f-stop to take the picture as I was too lazy to carry my tripod along. Somehow the picture does not do much justification to the fabulous vinegar pig trotters my uncle had cooked. Thanks uncle, your vinegar pig trotters taste marvelous!

Swing Singapore

On Saturday 27th August 1988, Singapore held its first street dance party called Swing Singapore. The whole stretch of Orchard Road was condoned off for the party and an estimated around 10,000 or more people turned up for the party!

I was in the Army then and since it was a Saturday, I got to book out of camp and I decided that I should to go to the so called party of the year! Upon reaching home, I quickly rang up a few good friends and like all other youngsters we all decided to go and paint the town red!

The road was already jammed packed with all kind of people, both locals and foreigners, by the time we arrived and everyone was dancing and jiving to the ear deafening disco music. As usual, there were many newspaper photographers stationed along the road to capture the moment. Whenever we saw photographers, be it newspaper photographers or hobbyist photographers, my friends and I would wave our hands in the air and cheers at the top of voice to attract their attentions and hoping they would capture us in high spirits.

On the following Sunday, I went to Rex Cinema with my good friend Shaun to catch a movie and we saw a “Mama” (uncle in Tamil) store selling Swing Singapore newspapers. My friend wanted to get a copy so we went up to the uncle to purchase a copy. As the uncle was handling over the newspaper to my friend, he told my friend the guy on the cover page looks like me!

Both of us quickly take a closer look and realised that we were both captured by one of the Swing Singapore newspaper photographer! My good friend was very angry because he was facing away from the camera and we could only see his out-stretched hand (showing a peace sign) and the back of his head.

How times fly? My so called first newspaper debut was 20 years ago! The copy of paper is all crumpled and had turned yellowish by now. Likewise, my jet black hairs had turned grey-ish too! The only consolation is I still have my hair whereas my best friend Shaun's thick and wavy hair is completely gone by now! I know my buddy will definitely kill me when he read this blog! Sorry bro!

Global Warming and Tropical Polar Bears

During my recent visit to the Singapore Zoo at the polar bear enclosure, two questions lingered on my mind. First, it was a documentary film I saw on SCV regarding how global warming threatens the survival of the polar bears in the Arctic. The ice is melting away at an incredible speed and it is getting harder for polar to find food. Although our polar bears in the zoo enclosure looks more well-fed than those I saw on in the documentary film, the few big rocks and brown flooring of the enclosure keeps me wondering what would happen to our mother earth if all the white Arctic ices were to melt away due to global warming and the whole area becomes a barren land?

Secondly, was a newspaper article I read sometimes back regarding some wildlife conservationists protesting about keeping of polar bears in a tropical climate country like Singapore. The article talks about closing our polar bear attraction and relocating our polar bears to a cooler country. When I read the papers, I thought why would the wildlife conservationists asked to move our polar bears since the polar bears have been with us for years and it is such a wonderful attraction for both locals and tourists visitors.

When I was at the polar bear enclosure recently, I was perspiring like crazy because it was a very hot day. True that I was lugging my heavy camera equipments in the unbearable heat around the zoo that is why I’m perspiring. If I’m feeling the heat of the day even in my dry-fit T-shirt and I’m not covered in thick fur as the polar bears, I’m wondering how the poor polar bears were feeling at that moment? I really feel pity for the poor polar bears! We wanted to have an attraction and we shipped these 8 footer tall giants from a vast wintery white land to a tropical enclosure!

As much as I love our Zoo, I hate to see any animal suffers for my viewing and photography pleasures. If the authority should decide to relocate our polar bears to a cooler country, I would give my full-hearted support!

Eyes of the tiger

Whenever I visit the zoo, there is one place I love to spend a lot of time at. It is no other then the tiger den or should I say the White Tiger enclosure!

Yes, the White Tiger is one of the animals I love most! I enjoyed watching them pacing up and down their enclosure and sometime if I'm lucky I will see them jumping into the water and splashing around. The fur on these endangered species of tiger is so beautiful and I love to stare into their ferocious eyes through my long telephoto lens! When their eyes met mine, through the glasses, it really send a chill down my spine even though they are enclosed in its enclosure!

On my last visit, the tigers were not too active, they just lazed around and yawning away! When they started yawning I managed to trigger of a few frames showing their big canine teethes.

So would I like to get close with these tigers? The answer is definitely "NO"!

Shooting in RAW format

I have often heard people saying about how great one's picture will turn out when it is shot in the RAW format because it holds all the details and resolutions the camera system is capable of delivering.

Somehow I never get to try it out until recently when my colleague William Chan asked me to give it a try. William is kind enough to help me load the Canon software onto my computer and gave me some instructions on how to go about converting my RAW images.

My first trial was to test out my Canon 40D in RAW format at the zoo. Near the entrance of the zoo, there are some colourful parrots and it is a good subject for my first RAW trial. When I saw the images on my screen, boy...I was immediately blown away by the colour and details I saw on these parrots! The colour is so rich and I could see every strand of details on the bird's feathers! The only problem is the file size is almost amazingly huge!

Well, will I shoot in RAW format in future? The answer is a definite "YES" but only on selective subject. Otherwise my current 1.5 terabyte of storage space will run out in no time! The images uploaded here may not display all the colour and details because I have to down size these images before I upload it here.

Here and gone!

Two weeks ago I was full of anticipation and excitement, gearing up for my first Formula One (F1) races and looking forward to my Hong Kong colleague William's visit! The F1 night races were here and after three days of exciting races, it ended last Sunday.

On Wednesday, my colleague William made his way here after his meeting in Malaysia. As it was my birthday on his first day of visit, he brought me a present - a Digital Wedding Photography book - thanks William!

During his three days of stay in Singapore, we went to many places of interest to take pictures and he has shared with me lots of tips on how to improve my photography. He's a real master of photography and very knowledgeable in the field of photography! I have learned a lot from him! Hopefully I'm being a good student and able to apply what he has taught me!

The three days have been very exhaustive! We left home early in the morning and returning home late in the evening. It is very fulfilling though, because we get to shoot lots of pictures and meet up with many other colleagues to try out various local famous foods.

William left early this morning to Malaysia and he should be reaching Hong Kong as I'm writing this blog. Time is constantly moving forward and my much anticipated events were here and gone in a blink of an eye! Even so I'm not sad because good times are how I choose to live my life and I could always re-live those happy moments through my pictures!