Farewell 2011 and Welcome 2012!

Today is the 31st December 2011 and in about half an hour, Singapore will welcome 2012! I took a series of sunset photos this evening as a record of the last sunset in 2011. In 2011, there were many natural disasters and lots of economy uncertainties that affected many peoples' lives!

I hope 2012 will be a better year for everyone! I wish everyone a Happy New Year and all the best in 2012!

Downsizing

This coming Thursday I will be flying off to Tioman Island in Malaysia for our company retreat. As my old trusty Canon S80 is getting old, the battery is not holding charge and it could only accept a 2GB low speed card that is very difficult to find, I decided to look for a new camera for my Tioman trip. After some Internet research and price checking, I decided to buy a Canon Ixus 220HS camera and a underwater housing for it.

The Canon Ixus 220HS camera is very compact, smaller than the palm of my hand and very light-weight. It has a focal length of 24-120mm that is almost equivalent to my work-horse Canon 5DMKII with a 24-105mm lens minus the bulk! The beautiful of this miniature camera is, it takes good pictures, features packed and takes HD video too! The photos are quite good up to ISO 1600. I could also shoot close-up photos without having to buy a costly macro lens. I have yet to use it in the under water housing so no comments on that for now.

Will I replace my Canon 5DMKII with this little Ixus 220HS? The answer is definitely "NO". Its a fun to use compact camera that allows us to take good photos for Blogs or for Facebook sharing but not a work-horse camera for professional use. I paid $299 for the camera, $244 for the underwater housing and $7 for a third party spare battery. It also comes with a free 8GB card that allows you to start taking pictures the moment you step out of the shop. Here are some photos I took with this little camera.

I'm Back

I have not blog for the past 4 months because I was busy with my new house renovation, the shifting and finally the unpacking and settling down into the new neighbourhood. I'm glad that the tedious process is now over and currently life is back to normal again!

Views from the roof top of Marina Bay Sands

Last week, I was invited by a colleague to Marina Bay Sands to record a short video at the hotel's pool side. The swimming pool is only open to hotel guests and I'm glad that I had the opportunity to access to the pool.

The view from the top was really breath-taking! On the pool side, I could see the whole of Singapore's downtown area. On the sky-garden side, I could see the ships out in the eastern anchorage and the construction of the new botanic garden. There is even a beautiful sunset to wrap up the day!

Maybe one day, I will book a room in the hotel, so I could go and enjoy the hotel swimming pool and take more pictures.