My Curly Hair

I was helping a friend to take his daughter's 2nd birthday one Saturday and there were lots of kids running and jumping around but there's this particular girl that caught my attention. She has big round eyes and very curly hair!

Initially I was trying to capture her in slow motion when she runs around trying to catch the bubbles. But, all of a sudden she stops, stared into my lens and gave a slight smile, then went back to chasing the bubbles.

I was lucky to have my finger ready on my shutter-release button and at that very instant she looks into my lens and smile I quickly depressed my camera's shutter-release button to capture that very split second moment! I did take some more shots of her but none manage to capture any spontaneous moment.

Even though I managed to capture the split second moment with my camera, the surrounding was too clustered for my liking. Therefore I use my favourite picture editing tool, Photoshop, to crop out the unwanted surrounding so the emphasis will be solely on the girl.

Following are the original and the edited version of the picture.

Ian Ashwin Lian Jayaratnam

Last Saturday my buddy's wife gave birth to a charming baby boy, Ian Ashwin Lian Jayaratnam. He is a big baby weighing 3.99kg!
Congratulation to Shaun and Emily!

Here're two pictures of my friend Shaun, the proud daddy and his son Ian Ashwin.

An adorable visitor

Last Friday I was at home working on my computer when I heard a voice coming from my main door asking “anyone wants to buy coffee?” To my surprised, I looked up to see my fun-loving Uncle Lim and Aunty Khoony at the door and with them was my cousin’s youngest son Gavin Leong!

Gavin is a bit chubby and very adorable! He kept looking around the house, probably thinking how come this house looks so much different from his own house and his grandparent’s house! It was his first visit to my house but he is comfortable enough to let my mum carry him around.

An hour later, Gavin is feeling sleepy and my aunt put him on my mum’s bed to rest. I quickly took out my camera to take some pictures before he falls asleep.

Paulaner Brauhaus

Recently I did a photo shoot for my colleagues from GfK HealthCare. The director Mr. Rudiger Papsch was very happy with the pictures and to show his appreciation he bought me a Paulaner Brauhaus beer mug and two brunch (breakfast cum lunch) vouchers!

Last Sunday, Rudiger arranged a brunch gathering and invited some friends and myself along. This is the second time I ate at Paulaner Brauhaus. The food is very good and there is free flow of ice-lemon tea. This restaurant serves freshly brewed on premises German beer and traditional Bavarian cuisine. There were a variety of sausages, roasted pork, pork knuckles, bread, cakes, ice-cream, and potatoes and so on. We have a great time eating all the delicious food and catching up with each other.

I still have another Paulaner Brauhaus brunch voucher and Rudiger said he will arrange for another gathering in February 2009. He said it is sinful to eat too frequently at this restaurant because we will put on lots of weights from too much of these delicious foods. Well, I totally agreed with him.

Here are some photos I took of Rudiger and the gang at Paulaner Brauhaus.

The Day After

I was trying out the burning and dodging tools in Photoshop CS2 hoping to create a more dramatic sky for this picture but somehow I over-did it. Instead of having a dramatic sky, I get a threatening sky! I name is picture "The Day After".

Laundry Hanging Competition

The rainy season in Singapore is back again. The passed few days have been raining heavily and it must have affected many people whose laundry are piling up with no where to dry. Well, this morning the sun is out again to the delight of many people because they could finally hang their laundry out to dry!

In the older housing estates, there are usually six laundry pole holes per household, for occupants to hang their laundry out to dry. This is sufficient for most households when the sun is shining brightly every day. Once it started raining continuously for a couple of days, with laundry piling up, the six laundry pole holes will no longer be sufficient. This is a time you can see how creative individuals could become!

Instead of having just six laundry poles for the six designated pole holes, there will be additional laundry poles crisscrossing each others or in a juxtaposition. The laundry are carefully arranged to get the maximum exposure to the sunshine!

Well, here are some interesting pictures depicting the creativity of laundry hanging. If there is a competition for laundry hanging, who would you pick?

Learning something new everyday

Recently I was looking at my colleague’s website and I saw an interesting picture where the whole picture is in monochrome except for a selected portion, a red dress, that stand out in bright red colour.

Initially I thought he has used Canon camera’s Picture Style function to create the effect but after checking with him I realised the effect was created in Photoshop. I have been using Photoshop since I started digital photography many years ago and yet I did not know that it is capable of creating this effect!

Mervyn is very kind to explain the Photoshop technique to me and I came home to try it out myself. I have selected a candid shot of a lady holding a red umbrella when she was posing for her friend beside an airplane for this effect. Here is the effect I created in Photoshop CS2.

There are many learning opportunities in everything. With an open mind, we could learn something new everyday!

Ang Mo Kio - My Home Town

In 1976, my dad bought a new flat in Ang Mo Kio and we moved into the flat at the beginning of 1980 when I started my secondary school. Although it is only a small three room flat, I have live here happily for the past 28-years!

When we moved in to this flat, I did not like it at all because it is really small compared to where I have lived before. Somehow, I got used to living in a flat and have made lots of friends in the neighbourhood. It was also here that I met Shaun, my schoolmate, who eventually became my classmate and my good friend. Shaun got married and he is now living in Ang Mo Kio Avenue 6 but his mum is still living in the same block as me.

Over the years, I have grown to appreciate and love this old estate where I live. There is a Bishan Park just across a road and Lower Seletar Reserviour is just about 10 minutes walking distance from my home. Nature is just at my door step!

About a year ago, I received a letter from the HDB that our area was selected for enbloc (government is going to use the land for other projects) and we would have to move to another area nearer to Ang Mo Kio central in 2 years time.

In order to preserve the memories of my current estate, I took a lift to the 25th floor of a nearby flat and took some pictures of my estate. Here are the views of my estate from the 25th floor.