A Moment In Time

Kampong Chicken Rice at Tiong Bahru

2012-01-16T20:21:00.006+08:00

If you enjoy chicken rice, you should try out the delicious Kampong Chicken Rice at Tiong Bahru, a few store away from the famous Tiong Bahru Pau store. Here are some photos taken on my iPhone.

Farewell 2011 and Welcome 2012!

2011-12-31T23:18:00.004+08:00

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

2011-09-19T22:19:00.007+08:00

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

2011-09-19T22:14:00.002+08:00

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

2011-04-09T12:50:00.011+08:00

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.

Yesteryear's Glory

2011-03-27T10:54:00.009+08:00

Queenstown was one of Singapore's very first satellite town. During the 60s and 70s, it was one of the most modern housing estate in Singapore. According to a friend's mother, the Queenstown Bowl, which houses and Bowling Alley and a Cinema, was the place to go to during her courtship days. After watching a movie or a bowling game, there is a hawker center nearby, selling lots of delicious local dishes, to fill the hungry stomach.

Today, the building looks weathered and rundown. Fungus started growing on part of the building's walls with some broken windows, sign-boards and rusted metal railings. The bowling balls no longer roll in the Bowling Alley and the Cinema no longer screen movies. Letter lies uncollected in the mailbox and a Pawn Shop with its shutter half closed.

In the fast changing pace of Singapore's landscape, many previously so called new or modern housing estate will one day share the same fate as Queenstown. Singapore government will continue to build new housing apartments and relocate the people from the old housing estate then tear down the old flats to make space for newer facilities. From a positive stand-point, this is upgrading. Unfortunately, for the older people, who was born and grew up in the old estate, their old housing estate will only be a memory of the years gone by.

Heaven and Earth

2011-02-05T10:05:00.007+08:00

When I was in Switzerland, I went to the "Top of Europe", actually it is top of Jungfraujoch. The view on top is very spectacular! I stayed a night in a lodge in Grindelwald and took the train up the mountain the following morning.

When up in the observation station 11,333ft (3,454m), the mountain is covered in snow and it is very cold. There were strong winds and slight snow and it is quite painful when the strong winds blew the snow on my face but it is a very fantastic experience! Luckily for me, I did not get any mountain sickness. My two travel companions felt nausea and headaches when we were up in the mountain. One of them even required medical attention and were sent to sickbay to rest.

While waiting for my friend to recover, I visited the ice-palace, where you could see very nice ice sculptures. The floor is a bit slippery so have to be more careful when walking around. There's also cafeteria where you could order some warm food or drinks and sit by the windows to enjoy the snow-cap mountain view.

There are lots of photo opportunities and the scenes are very different from what we are accustomed to in the tropic. As the mountain air is very thin, be prepared for mountain sickness. Drink more water and don't run about in a hurry. Slow down your pace and enjoy the spectacular view!

A Brewing Storm

2011-01-04T22:35:00.004+08:00

One day I was standing at my sister's bedroom windows, enjoying the view outside the windows, and the light breeze blowing gently on my face. As I looked up towards the sky, I noticed the dark clouds were building up overhead. In the distance horizon the sky is bright but I could see approching rain from the right.

The sky looks threatening from where I was standing. I quickly ran down to the living room, grab my camera and a wide angle lens, then ran back to my sister's room to take pictures of the threatening sky and approaching rain. I was hoping there would be lightning to enhance the picture but to my despair, there was no lightning that day!

I used the wide angle lens to exaggerate the sky, to make it looks even more threatening than it already is. After snapping a few shots, it started raining heavily and I have to close the windows and end the photo session.

After I finished writing this blog, I realised I have coincidently written a similar topic for my 2010 first blog. The only different is, the pictures in my 2010 first blog were taken from the kitchen of my flat.

Happy New Year

2010-12-31T22:02:00.002+08:00

Tick-tock, tick-tock, minute by minute, the clock is slowly ticking away. Soon we will bade year 2010 farewell and welcome year 2011. I hereby wish all of you Happy New Year. May year 2011 brings lots of happiness, good health and good fortune for all of you!
May the new year brings peace and harmony and less disaster to our world!

See you all in 2011. Cheers!!

A road less travelled

2010-12-29T22:42:00.012+08:00

We often heard people said: "Singapore is a concrete jungle", but how often do these people went round the island to explore the hidden greenery? If you are willing to spend 1-2 hours tracking through MacRitchie Reserviour, off the beaten track, you will be rewarded with beautiful greenery away from the hastle and bustle of the city live!

As I'm on leave this whole week, I went with my uncle to explore the beautiful MacRitchie Reserviour on Tuesday. We tracked through the less travelled path with cameras in hands and captured the beautiful scenery along the way. It is a tiring three hours plus walk but it is a good form of exercise. We feel very refreshed after the long walk!

Return to Nature

2010-11-17T18:16:00.007+08:00

Recently most of my photography subjects have been revolving around human subjects. As today is a public holiday in Singapore, Hari Raya Haji, I thought why not re-visit my favourite haunt, the Lower Pierce Reserviour (LPR), to take some nature or macro photography.

Initially, I was feeling quite lethargic because I have to wake up earlier on a holiday and set out from home around 6.30 a.m. When I reached LPR, many people were already there for their morning exercises!

The morning was very cooling because it was raining most of the afternoon the day before. I took a deep breath of the fresh morning air and immediately I felt revitalised! I watched the mirror like water surface of the reserviour as the sun slowly creep up over the horizon lighting up all the dark corners of the reserviour. A beautiful morning has begun!

I wished I could just sit on bench and watch the world goes by but I have a mission on hand. I'm here to take some nature or macro photography!

Star Search 2010

2010-10-09T21:53:00.005+08:00

On September 14th, while surfing the Internet, I saw an article inviting photographers to submit their portfolio for selection to the Star Search 2010 photography session. The last time I took part in the Star Search photo shoot was back in 1988 where winners include Zoe Tay, Aileen Tan and Jazreel Low. Since that was a long time ago, I thought why not just submit my photo webpages for fun and see if I'm lucky enough to be selected for the Star Search 2010 photography session.

I did not place much hope of being selected as there are many good photographers in Singapore and only a handful of photographers (around 40) will be selected for the photography session. Each selected photographers will be given an hour to take photos for 5 pairs of contestants. Meaning there is only 10 minutes per pair. It is quite a rush for a portrait session, before the photographer and the subject could warm up, it will be time to move on!

On September 29th, I was surprised to find an email from Promo 8 when I open up my mailbox. The email stated that I was selected for the Star Search 2010 photography session!
"Congratulations!
You have been selected to take part in our “Star Search Photography Contest”! Your portfolio is truly amazing and we are
honoured to have you in our contest. We are happy to have you make beautiful pictures of our contestants."

For others, being selected for a photo session may not be something significant but for me, I'm happy to be selected because it goes to show that my photographs are being enjoyed by others.

The photography session was held last Sunday, 3rd October 2010. I was allocated the 10 a.m slot to photograph 5 pairs of Star Search Contestants. They are Jerry and Kristy, Jeffrey and Sora, Jeff and Mika, Lucas and Yilynn and finally Romeo and Peggy. All the contestants were very friendly and I had a wonderful time taking photos for them. Here are some photographs from the photography session. If you wish to see more pictures, please visit my photo-website http://ctsm88.zenfolio.com/p752636125.

Samsung NX100 Camera

2010-09-28T22:40:00.007+08:00

Last Wednesday I was given the opportunity to try out Samsung NX100 camera. I would like to thanks Ms. Lim Mui Kim of Samsung for giving me this opportunity.

When I took the camera out of the box, my first impression was the camera is very light-weight and compact, even when it was fitted with the Samsung 20-50mmf3.5~5.6 lens. The Samsung NX100 is only the size of my Micro Four Third (MFT) Olympus E-P2, but it has a bigger APS-C image sensor and higher resolution (14.60 Megapixels). It also comes with a very clear and sharp 3-inch Amoled screen.

The buttons on the camera are well laid-out and easy to maneuver. There is also an “I”-function button on the lens that activates the Aperture control (when the camera is to Aperture priority mode), Shutter Speed control (when the camera is to Shutter priority mode), Exposure Value (EV) control and White Balance (WB) control. This button is very useful for quick access to the various controls during photo taking.

There is a dial on top of the camera for selecting Aperture priority mode (A), Shutter Priority mode (S), Manual mode (M), Movie mode, “Smart” mode, “I” mode and Scene mode. Personally, I prefer rotating the dial then scroll through menu. Finally, I find the pictures from the NX100 turn out pretty well up to ISO800 and the lens could take pretty close-up photos with any attachment.

Beside all the good points stated above, I wished the camera has come with a built-in flash. The built-in flash will come in handy when taking pictures at darker place or for fill-in. I also wished that the lens has comes with a 52mm filter thread instead of 40.5mm, simply because there is more choice of filters in 52mm then 40.5mm. The Samsung NX100 has all the feature of an DSLR minus the bulk.

Please note that I’m not a professional camera tester, the abovementioned is strictly my personal opinion as a amateur user. To get a better and moe technical review, you could visit DPreview.com.

Following are some pictures taken with the Samsung NX100 over the weekend. If you would like to see more pictures from the Samsung NX100 please visit my picture website at http://ctsm88.zenfolio.com/p427188415

Lim Chu Kang Jetty

2010-09-12T10:48:00.005+08:00

Last Friday was a public holiday (Hari Raya Pausa) and it started raining around 11 am in morning so I just lazed around the house doing some readings and surfing the Internet. Around 4pm I received a call from a colleague asking me if I'm keen to go out to take photos and off course I replied: "Yes!”

I packed my gears and went down to meet him and we headed to Dairy Farm in Bukit Timah but we couldn't find the entrance to the park so we headed to Kranji Park to take some micro photography of insects. There were lots of insects and lots of mosquitoes too! After a short while, we couldn't stand bitten by the mossies so I suggested going to take photo of an old jetty at the coastal area of Lim Chu Kang Road.

The old jetty has been there for a long time, I went there during my Pre-University years back in the eighties and the jetty is still there today. Surprisingly, it is still as busy as it was years ago. Small bum boat fetches passengers to and from the off-shore kelongs. Fish mongers also use the jetty to load their trucks with fishes from the kelong and suppliers use the jetty to send fish food to the kelongs. Of course, there are the occasion fishing enthusiasts using the jetty to get to their favourite fish spots! To us photographers, it is a good opportunity to capture people going about their business.

So here are some photos I took at the old jetty.

Mid Autumn Festival

2010-09-09T21:50:00.008+08:00

The Mid Autumn Festival is here again. There are lantern display along Clarke Quay River Promenade. The theme for this year lanterns incorporate Chinese Legends, literary classics and 12 Chinese Zodiac animals.

There are Chinese musical performance and dance performance by performers from the prestigious Beijing Dance Academy. If you are hungry, there's also a Taiwanese Food Street selling 台湾小吃. If you are tired after all the walking, there is also a foot massage stall, where you could get a foot massage. Finally, you could challenge your oponent to a game of Chinese Chess or take part in the Latern Riddles competition.

There is something installed for everyone. As for me, I preferred to walk around taking pictures and soaking in the Mid Autumn Festival mood.

Photography after work

2010-08-08T21:05:00.006+08:00

Recently one of colleague, Joe, bought a Canon EOS 50D camera and he was anxious to try it out so he asked if I could go out with him to take some photos after work. I agreed and invited another colleague, Eugene, to go along. Eugene has been using the EOS 50D for quite awhile now and he is very familiar with the camera's operation and settings. I reckon Eugene will be able to share his experience with Joe.

The following day, all three of us brought our camera to work and headed out for the photo-taking session after work. This year, our National Day Parade (NDP) will be held on the Padang and I wanted to take some pictures of the NDP setup. Eugene said he has not been to the Helix Bridge and he would like to take some pictures there. With the two locations on mind, we walked from our One George Street office along South Bridge Road to the Padang then crossed the Esplanade Bridge's underpass to Marina Bay. Finally from Marina Bay we walked to the Helix Bridge.

We were pretty fortunate to choose the right day for a photo-shoot. The cloud formations were very dramatic and it helps to create a more interesting outlook to the otherwise familiar landscape! When we reached the Helix Bridge, Eugene was quite disappointed because the bridge was closed for our Youth Olympic Games (YOG) rehearsal.

Despite the Helix Bridge closure and feeling quite tired after the long walk, we were all very happy with the photo session. I managed to take photos of the NDP setup. Eugene took some wonderful sunset photos and Joe managed pick-up a few photo tips from both of us and he also to take some good photos too!

First Time in Europe

2010-06-27T13:40:00.010+08:00

In May 2010, I finally made it to Europe! I was planning to travel to Europe in 2004 when the SARS outbreak came about and I had to cancel the trip. It has been six long years before I finally fulfilled my dream of travelling to Europe. Although I only visited Germany (Munich and Frankfurt), Austria (Salzburg) and Switzerland (Basel, Bern, Interlaken, Zurich), I really enjoyed the scenery and the experience of free-and-easy travelling.

When in Germany, I attended a wonderful wedding of Julia and Dominique Walter in Munich and stayed with a friend, Christina and her wonderful family, in Freigericht. Christina and her boyfriend, Sebastian, are very kind to spend their precious weekend bringing us sightseeing, shopping and to taste the local specialty food! They are the BEST tour guide one could hope for!

Christina's parents (Fred and Melitta Bayer) are very kind too. They not only let us stay in their lovely home, every morning we get a big breakfast too! There are variety of bread, sausages, and homemade jam! Christina also has a wonderful Oma (grandmother)! When she saw my jacket is torn, she insisted on mending it for me 11pm plus! She is very creative too, she showed us how to make paper carrier bag the wonderful Christmas cards she made over the years. I’m sure people who received her cards would be very delighted. The warm hospitality of Christina's family gave me a "home-away-from-home" feeling! I hope one day, I will be able to go back to visit Christina’s family again!

Switzerland is a country with lots of beautiful scenery. I travelled through Basel, Bern, Interlaken and Zurich and the scenery never failed to impress me! During my stay in Grindelwald, I lived in a Jungfrau Lodge and right outside my window I have a spectacular view of the majestic mountain ranges! How I wished I could live there forever! The only problem in Switzerland is the cost of living, everything is so expensive. A plate of roast pork rice cost $23.00 Swiss Franc! For that price, I could eat at least seven or eight plates of roast pork rice at hawker centers in Singapore! Well, I guess that is the price to pay for living in such a beautiful place.

It is coming to a month since I returned to Singapore and I only managed to edit 4 days of pictures and upload it on my Facebook. There are still eleven more days of photos to edit. Here are a few pictures taken on the first four days of my Europe trip.

The Helix and MBS

2010-05-02T10:17:00.009+08:00

Yesterday was Labour Day and the first weekend for our newly open Marina Bay Sands (MBS) Integrated Resort. As usual, I went to explore the new place and to take some pictures. I took the MRT from Bras Basah to Promenade Station after buying some stuff from Sim Lim Square. Then walk from Promenade to MBS across the Helix Bridge.

When I reached Raffles Avenue, there were thousands of people walking around and crossing the Helix Bridge in the scorching sun! I think the temperature must be around 34-35 degree because it is really burning hot! It was a cloudless day and the sky is very blue, which is superb from a photography point of view.

There are countless photos opportunities at crowded places. You can take pictures of families enjoying their outing, older folks strolling along on crunches or wheel-chairs, couples walking hand-in-hand and snapping pictures of each other on compact cameras or their mobile phone. As usual, there were enthusiastic kids running ahead of their parents, lazy kids who wanted to be carried and sleeping babies in prams. There were also many foreigners and foreign workers taking the May Day holiday to visit the MBS.

Guess what?! Even Elvis Presley was there in Viva Las Vegas style, but luckily he did not sing “Heartbreak Hotel” otherwise no one would want to stay at the hotels! When I was taking Elvis and his partner, I heard a crowd of man said, “Wow, got Elvis Presley leh!” Strangely though, when I peeked at their camera, all I saw was Elvis’s partner, the Viva Las Vegas lady, being framed. Well, man will be man, who does not like to see beautiful lady.

I heard on the news that during normal weekday, there were long queue of Taxi but no passenger before the Electronic Road Pricing (ERP) operation around 4pm. Thereafter, there were long queue of passengers but no Taxi because all the Taxi is not willing to pay the $3 ERP entrance fee to pick up passenger after 4pm. Yesterday was a public holiday, there wasn’t any ERP in Operation, hence there were many Taxi and the passenger queue is moving very fast despite the large crowd of people. The bus stops were also packed, so after taking photos around the Bay Front, I walked all the way back to Funan Digital Mall to take a bus home.

Here are some pictures taken on my Olympus EP-2 and a Panasonic 14-45mm lens.

Drifting with Olympus EP-2

2010-05-01T13:10:00.009+08:00

Last weekend, I was down at the Singapore F1 Pit to take photos of the Drifting competition. A huge crowd had already gathered at the arena when I reached. As I'm lazy to carry my DSLR and long lens, I have to slowly inch my way through the crowd to get a better view.

There were many photographers with state of the art cameras and super telephoto lenses and they were rather annoyed with me as I inched my way to the front. I'm much bigger and taller than most of them and though they were standing on top of a two steps ladder, I probably still managed to block some of their view. When I turn around, I could see many angry faces staring back at me. I guess they were even more disgusted when I open my bag and took out a compact Olympus EP-2 camera. Luckily no one hit me with their super telephoto lenses!

Well, I couldn't help it, I'm also there to take photos and I would like to have a good view too. Those people on the two steps ladder were also blocking the rest of the people behind them. The only thing I could do is to duck down after taking a shot and let those behind me take their photos.

The Olympus EP-2 is very compact and light-weight camera. It is very good for sceneries, portraits and travel photography but it is too slow sport photography. I ended up having to pan in order to get reasonably sharp photos of the cars. Well, I guess there is no "perfect tool", as long as we understand the limitation and learn to overcome it, then it is still a great tool to use! Following photos were taken on my Olympus EP-2 camera with either a Panasonic 45-200mm lens or a Panasonic 7-14mm lens.

Sri Mariamman Temple Facelift

2010-04-11T13:02:00.005+08:00

The Sri Mariamman Temple on South Bridge Road is the oldest Hindu temple in Singapore. The original wood and attap temple was built around 1827 by an Indian pioneer. The temple under went reconstruction between the period of 1862-1863. It was later replaced with the current brick structure and completed in 1943 by Indian convicted labourers. In the early days, the temple also served as Registry of Marriages for Hindus.

Well, you may wonder there are so many Hindu Temples in Singapore and why am I so fascinated in this particular Temple? Firstly, it is the oldest Hindu Temple in Singapore. It was built more than hundred years ago, way before my grand-parents and parents were born! Secondly, it was the temple where my best friend, Shaun and his wife Emily, held their wedding ceremony. If I remembered correctly, Shaun’s parents also held their wedding ceremony in the same temple. Thirdly, the temple is a famous landmark that sits in the heart of Chinatown! Can you image, the surrounding streets were all Chinese residents and in the middle of nowhere there is a Hindu Temple? Perhaps this is uniquely Singapore! Lastly, I walked pass this temple at least once week to Temple Street for my vegetarian food.

Recently, the Temple went through months of facelift, starting from late last year. When I walked past the Temple two weeks ago the main door was still closed for renovation. I finally get to enter the temple on Thursday to take some pictures. The new paint works on the statues and ceilings are brilliant! If you stare long enough at the painting, especially through the magnification of the camera’s zoom lens, the murals on the ceiling almost seem to come alive! It is like the Michelangelo’s creation in Singapore!

Here are some photos I took last Thursday. My pictures may not be the best justification for the beautiful paintings. If you have some spare times, you should visit the Temple personally to enjoy the beautiful paintings!

Photographers' Night Out

2010-04-02T19:12:00.015+08:00

On Thursday evening, when most people were sound asleep, I joined a group of photographers to take pictures through the night. When my colleague, Eugene Leong, approached me with the idea to join this group outing, I thought he must be crazy. I would rather spend the night sleeping then roving around town with my camera taking pictures!

After Eugene furnished me with the itinerary, I decided to forgo my sleep to join the outing. As it was Good Friday the following day, I could still catch some sleep in the morning if I'm tired. We met at the Merlion around 11pm to take pictures of Singapore's skyline then went to Geylang for supper around 2am. After supper, we proceed to Jurong Fishery and finally to East Coast to take sunrise pictures.

When I was out taking pictures, I'm surprised to find there were still many people around the Esplanade area well passed midnight. As we were heading towards Geylang for supper, the various Lorongs were buzzing with life and the Jurong Fishery was full of activities in the wee hours of the morning!

In the past, I have heard about the Jurong Fishery but I have never been there. I'm glad that I join this group to experience what it was like at the fishery. It started raining when we were leaving the fishery. Rain could spoil a beautiful sunrise but it has not dampened the group spirit. The friendliness of the members easily made up for the less spectacular sunrise!

The outing ended around 8am, Eugene and I went to Casuarina Road for some Roti Pratas before heading home. Yes, I was dead tired when I reached home. After a hot shower, I went straight to bed until 1pm!

GfK Sngapore No.1 Award Ceremony

2010-04-02T18:17:00.011+08:00

Our company's GfK No.1 Award ceremony is here again! The award is created to recognise the top selling brand for the calendar year in each key category covered by GfK audit reporting. Many companies are competing for this award because of the level of prestige and credibility it carries! Winners are entitled to use the official GfK No.1 Award Certified logo in their winning product marketing for a year.

On your next visit to a retail store, try looking out for the GfK No.1 Award logo on electronic products such as home appliances or digital imaging products. You can also find our GfK No.1 Award logo on Newspaper advertisements, for instance, Canon's DSLR advert.

Well if you would like to find out more about the GfK No.1 Award ceremony, there will be an article in the upcoming issue of Digital Life (DL) supplies with The Straits Times. Here are some photos I took during the GfK Singapore No.1 Award Ceremony.

Lights Up Disappointment

2010-03-21T09:29:00.005+08:00

This year there is no Flower show in Sentosa during Chinese New Year, instead there was a twelve animals of the Chinese Zodiac Horoscope lights-up on display. My colleague, Alfred and I decided to go and take some pictures one day after work.

As our Korean accountant, Rachel, was in town for training, we decided to bring her along. When we reached there, we were all very disappointed, the lights-up of the twelve Chinese Zodiac animals have ended on the 15th of Chinese New Year! Since we were already there, I decide to take a picture of my colleagues Alfred and Rachel in front of their Zodiac animal, the Rooster.

After which, we just walk around the newly completely Resort World Sentosa area to take some pictures and called it a day. Here are some pictures taken with my Olympus Pen 2 camera.

OCBC Cycle Singapore

2010-03-07T16:51:00.008+08:00

I signed up for the OCBC 40KM cycling event with a colleague a few months back. Initially I was skeptical I could complete the 40KM ride because I hardly ride a bicycle nowadays not to mention cycling a distance of 40KM!

Every day on my way to work, I would walk pass OCBC and look at the big cycling helmet outside OCBC building with a timer counting down to 7th March 2010 and wondering if I could ever complete the distance! I told myself I need to do some cycling to prepare myself for the cycling event but weeks and months went passed without action. Finally, last Sunday, I forced myself to East Coast Park, hired a bike near MacDonald, cycle to Fort Road then from Fort Road to Changi SAFRA Country Club and back. My cycling training trip ended up more of Olympus Pen2 camera trip because instead of concentrating on my cycling, I concentrated more on testing my new camera! Well, that’s the one and only training session for me.

Last night I retired to bed early, around 11.30pm, hoping to get a good rest before the event but the weather is playing havoc with me! It was so warm that I woke up perspiring at 1.30am even though I had my air conditional turned on at the usual 25 degree setting! I needed the rest so I turned on the fan and set the air con to 23 degree, hoping to catch some sleep before my alarm clock goes off at 4.30am. Unfortunately, I’m up at 4am perspiring again! I could not sleep anymore, so I took a shower, make myself a drink and wait for my cab to come at 5am.

Luckily, despite my lack of training, sleepless night and the XXL cycling Jersey cannot fit, I managed to complete the 40KM cycling distance just slightly over 2 hours! Beside my shaky legs when I got off my bike at the end point I’m feeling fine. Hopefully I don’t get too much aching in the following days!

The Sun, The Sea and The Breeze

2010-03-01T22:21:00.005+08:00

It has been a long while since I last went to East Coast Park to ride a bicycle. I really missed cycling along the coast line and enjoy the sea breeze blowing in my face! Since I'm taking part in the OCBC 40km cycling event, I thought it will be good to do some cycling before the event next Sunday. I packed a camera and a bottle of water then headed to East Coast.

The bicycle rental shop I frequent is the one near the under pass from Marine Crescent. The rental fee has been reduced from $8 per hour previously to $6 per hour plus the second hour free! I found that the East Coast Park has gone through quite a lot of changes since the last time I was there. The cycling tracks are better paved and many facilities have been upgraded.

As usual after renting the bicycle, I started riding towards Fort Road then from Fort Road to SAFRA Country Club and back. Somehow it wasn't very congested yesterday so I have the freedom to pick up speed or drop speed as and when I like. Occasionally, I would stop to a take a drink and to snap some pictures.

Here are some pictures taken at East Coast Park with my Olympus Pen2 and a Canon 70-200f4 lens.

Back to work!

2010-02-17T22:54:00.002+08:00

After 4 days of Chinese New Year holidays, I’m back to work again today! When I reached office, there were not much people around because many colleagues were still on leave. I was feeling quite lethargic in the morning, until around 1030hr, when the roaring drum and cymbal sound from the lion dance troop began playing outside our office.

I quickly grabbed my camera and ran to open the main door to welcome the lion dance troop into our office. As usual, the “lion” performed a small dance at the main door to bless our company then make a round around our whole office and blessing all the senior managements’ rooms.

Thereafter, the “lion” performed the “采青” dance and presented us with a”旺” word. Hopefully there will be more money flowing in this year after the blessing! Huat-ah!!

A compact love affair

2010-02-15T13:01:00.007+08:00

Recently a lot of my friends noticed that nowadays I rarely carry my DSLRs around to gatherings or outings. They noticed I only carry one or two weird looking compact cameras with me. Reason is I have found two small compact cameras that I really loved and enjoyed using. One of them is the Panasonic LX3 and the other is an Olympus Pen 2 compact SLD compact camera. The reason they think the compacts look weird is because I always have some kind extension tube, lens shade or Micro 4/3 attachments on the cameras.

Why I love these two compact cameras? Well, as the name implied, they are really compact, light-weight and hey produced pretty good quality pictures up to around ISO 800. I loved taking photos under natural lighting condition, meaning I would try to avoid flash whenever possible. My Panasonic LX3 compact camera comes with a fixed 24mm-60mmf2-2.8 zoom. My Olympus Pen 2 comes with an interchangeable “Pan Cake” 17mmf1.7 lens. As it is a Micro 4/3 camera, the 17mm actually convert into a 34mm wide angle lens in 35mm equivalent.

I have a Nikon to Micro 4/3 attachment that allows me to use my Nikon AI-s lens on the Olympus Pen 2 body. If I need a longer focal length lens, I could use my Nikon 50f1.2, 50f1.4, 85f2, 85f1.4, 105f2.5 or 180f2.8 lenses on the Olympus Pen 2. The 50mm lenses will become 100mm, 85mm lenses become 170mm, 105mm lens becomes 210mm and 180mm lens becomes 360mm on the Olympus camera and still they maintained the large aperture. If you notice, from the abovementioned, I always preferred lenses with small f-stop numbers. These allow me to throw distracting background out-of-focus and makes my subject stand out from the background and take pictures in low light condition.

As these are compact cameras, they come with a lot of interesting effect settings like, HDR, Pin-Hole, High Grain B&W, Crossed Process and Softener effect, plus many more! So if you are tired of the regular picture settings, you can always try the various effect settings to add some interest to your pictures. These two compact cameras come with 12 mega-pixel CCDs, so I could shoot in 4:3, 3:2, 16:9 or 6:6 (Olympus Pen 2 only), and still do some degree of cropping during the processing stage. I hardly made prints nowadays, but I did print some Super 8R (12x8 inches) photos taken at ISO 400 and ISO 800 settings for my friends and I’m really amazed that the pictures are still pretty sharp and the grain very acceptable!

Well, these cameras will not replace my Canon or Nikon work-horses when I am shooting weddings, sports or PR assignments but they are great cameras to have if you want something compact and light-weight for outings or holidays with family and friends. Here are some photos with and without effect settings from my Panasonic LX3 and Olympus Pen 2 cameras. All the photos are taken in available lights.

新年快乐

2010-02-13T15:58:00.012+08:00

一转眼，又到了年三十晚。明天又是新一年的开始。
我祝大家：新年快乐，身体建康，步步高升，万事如意！

Wishing everyone a Happy Lunar New Year &
All the BEST in the coming Tiger year!

Here are some pictures I took at this year Chinatown lights-up.

No Pain No Gain

2010-02-07T12:53:00.015+08:00

Everyone has a different degree of tolerance for pain. When we accidentally cut ourselves using a knife or handling papers, we could feel a streak of pain going through our body and I believes most of us hatred the feeling of pain.

Can you imagine the pain the devotees went through when they carry the Kavadi during Thaipusam?! They had needles piercing through their skins and tongue and they have to carry the heavy Kavadi and walk a few kilometers from one temple to another. This is really some kind of pain tolerance that only a true devotee could endure!!

I doubt I could ever endure such pain so I rather stick to photography : ))
Here are some photos to share.

A storm brewing

2010-01-24T19:25:00.003+08:00

Last Friday, while I was reading the newspapers, I noticed the sky had suddenly turned dark. The wind started blowing strongly causing the colourful wind-wheels on my window to spin like crazy and the wind-chime ringing like crazy!

I went to the window to take a look and I saw thick black clouds building up in the sky, it looks like a scene from the horror movie! I quickly ran into the room to pick up my Panasonic LX3 camera and dashed back to the window to take some pictures. I only managed to take about 5 pictures, then all of a suddenly, the black clouds disappeared and gradually the sky turned bright again! The strong wind must have blown the dark clouds away. Here are the pictures I took last Friday at around 7.15am.

Dawn of 2010

2010-01-01T11:22:00.008+08:00

Today is the first day of 2010, January 1st. I woke up at 6.30am hoping to capture the first sunrise in this new decade. I packed my Nikon D300 and a 75-300VR lens and proceed to the tallest block in my area, the 25th storey point block, and boarded the lift to the top floor.

When I reached the 25th floor, it was only 6.55am and I was greeted by the moon over the direction of Lower Pierce Reserviour. I took a few shots of the moon hanging low in the sky then went to East facing direction to station myself and waited for the sun to rise.

Around 7.10am, I could see a tint of faint red-glow in the sky but there were thick black clouds blocking the sun. My hope of capturing the first sunrise at the dawn of this decade was shattered by the thick black cloud! I remained at the spot until 7.30am before packing up my gear and headed home.

When I got to the bottom of the block, I saw a beautiful pair of eyes staring at me! I quickly took my camera and took a few pictures of the beautiful cat resting below the block before heading back.

Instead of boarding the lift to six floors as I always do, I took the lift all the way up to 11th floor hoping to see the Oriental Buzzard I photographed in November 2009. As though heaven felt pity on me and to compensate for my shattered dream to photograph the sunrise, I spotted the Oriental Buzzard sitting majestically on the branch of a tree. I quickly took out my camera again and triggered of a few shots before the majestic bird flew away!

As depicted in my morning event, in life we may not have everything according to plan, but it is important to make the best of the given situation and sometimes miracles still happens! Well, this is how I spent my first morning of the New Year. Happy 2010 to everyone!

Goodbye 2009 and Welcome 2010

2009-12-31T19:45:00.007+08:00

A new decade will be dawning soon as we bid farewell to 2009 and usher in 2010! I wish everyone all the best in 2010! May there be peace, good health and prosperity for all of you in the coming New Year! Cheers : ))

GfK 2010 StarTrack Calendar

2009-12-26T12:46:00.003+08:00

Earlier in September this year, I took part in our company's StarTrack 2010 Calendar competition and my photo was selected for the 2010 Calendar. Finally the Calendar is here!

My picture is featured in the December page of our StarTrack Calendar. My two colleagues, Ms. Denise Zhuang and Ms. Sherry Safarina, were very excited to see their faces on the Calendar! Now, their faces will appear around the world because GfK is a global company and the Calendar will be distributed to our colleagues and clients all over the world! As for me, life still goes on as usual : ))

The pictures featured on the Calendar were all very well taken. It is very interesting to see the concept my other colleagues came up with for the Calendar. We now have a wonderful Calendar for 2010!

It's time for Goodbye!

2009-12-25T11:17:00.006+08:00

As we say goodbye to the year 2009, it is also time for us to bid farewell to one of our colleague Alyssa. She will be moving on to do her own business. Although her last day is 29th December 2009, we have taken some farewell photos on Wednesday because she will be back in office on 29th just to clear some administrative work and thereafter she will leave.

Goodbye Alyssa and all the best in your future aspiration!

Visitor from Thailand

2009-12-20T12:36:00.007+08:00

On Friday, an ex-colleague (Maam) from Thailand came over for 3 days visit. Since I was on leave, I went to airport with another ex-colleague (Carol) to pick-up Maam from the airport and sent her to her hotel before going shopping with her.

Yesterday was another day of non-stop shopping and eating and meeting up with various colleagues and ex-colleagues! After two days of non-stop walking around and shopping, my feet are pretty sore now but I have a better knowledge of the shops in Orchard 313, Orchard Central, ION and Vivo City!

I have never imaged shopping could be so tiring! I thought I was a good trekker, since I often walk long distance to various nature parks to take photos but I must I admit when come to shopping, my stamina is lagging way behind my ladies colleagues!

Here are some pictures I took over the past two days with my Panasonic LX3 camera.

Canon EOS Experience 2009

2009-12-15T23:09:00.005+08:00

Last Sunday, I attended the Canon EOS Experience 2009 at the Singapore Grand Prix F1 Pit. Unlike last year EOS Experience 2008 at East Coast 360, participants were not allowed to insert their own memory cards into the new Canon 1D MK IV camera to take pictures. Participants could only try out the camera with it built in memory.

The main differences between the new 1D MK IV and the 1D MK III are the 12800 ISO, the HD video feature, High Speed Digic 4 processor, 16.1 Mega Pixel and 45-points wide area AF. It 10 frame per second continuous shooting with 121 jpeg per burst could easily filled a 4 gigabytes within seconds!

The seminar starts off with Dan Chung, a famous photographer-cum-movie maker, sharing his experience as a photo-journalist covering the Iraq war and other news assignments using Canon equipment. Dan also shared his experiences on making short films using Canon’s 5DMKII, 7D and the new 1DMK IV. He said the 1DMK IV is the best camera for making low light movies beating many high end movie cameras!

During the seminar, participants also get to take pictures of beautiful race queens, cross-play models and Mitsubishi car stunt. Each participant was also given a coupon to make one A4 print of their best shots on Canon new Pixma printer and a delicious buffet was provided to fill the participants’ stomachs! Finally, there is a goodies bag for every participant to bring home.

The following photos were shot on Canon 5DMKII with a 70-200f4 IS lens.

Fountain of Wealth

2009-12-12T12:07:00.003+08:00

Last Thursday. I had the opportunity to take some pictures of the Suntec City Fountain of Wealth from the 26th floor Ambassador Suite of Conrad Hotel while doing a wedding shoot there. I have always view the Fountain of Wealth from ground level therefore it is quite an refreshing experience for me to be able to photograph the fountain from a high view point.

When I was there I also took some pictures of the Pebble Bay area and a sunset towards the western part of Singapore. It is really exciting to have so many different views from a single hotel room!

Here are some pictures taken from the hotel room.

Canon Power Seminar & My 1st Hippo Bus Ride

2009-12-06T13:04:00.023+08:00

Yesterday I attended a seminar organised by Canon and MediaCorp at the Mandarin Oriental Hotel. Canon invited two local DJs (Power 98.7 Daniel Ong and YES 93.3 Mary Bukoh), a MediaCorp artist Tay Ping Hui and their in-house Trainer Jino Lee to talk about their experiences on using PowerShot cameras, like the new S90 and G11.

There is a $10 registration fee to attend this seminar but it is more than worth the cost! Firstly, Canon will donate the $10 to Children Charity. Secondly, I get to see the beautiful places these speakers visited and captured with their cameras. Thirdly, coffee, tea, cookies and fruits were being served. Fourthly, participants also received a copy of Mary Bukoh's Traveling Pictures Book and a Canon voucher. Finally, participants get to hop on to a Hippo Bus for a free ride from Mandarin Oriental to Tangling Mall and return through Orchard Road, Brass Basah Road, Suntec City and Marina Square stretch, and Singapore Flyer then back to Mandarin Oriental hotel.

The weather was quite cooling when we boarded the Hippo Bus around 6.40 p.m. As it was my first time on an open top double decker bus, I was very excited because I could get a different view point for my pictures! It started to drizzle when the bus reached the Orchard Boulevard junction behind ION shopping mall. I continued take taking pictures while the other participants went to the lower deck to take shelter or kept their camera away! When we reached the new opened Orchard 313, the rain got heavier and I'm forced to open my umbrella. It is quite a hassle to be holding an umbrella and battling the wind on a moving open top double decker bus, and balancing myself and shooting with one hand but I continued to take pictures until we made it back to the hotel!

My Canon 5DMKII, the 24-105 lens and the 580MKII flash were drenched in the rain. When I reached the hotel I went to the toilet to get some serviettes to dry my camera equipment and kept it in my dry cabinet when I got home. Hopefully my camera will continue to function properly when I take it out for my next Sunday Canon EOS Experience outing! Yes, next Sunday, I will get to try out the new Canon EOS 1D MKIV camera!

Here are some pictures I took from the upper deck of the Hippo Bus.

My mama's potted plants

2009-11-29T12:07:00.009+08:00

My mama loves her plants. Every morning she will spend some times tendering to the plants and she loves talking about it. Yesterday morning when I woke up around 6.30am, my mum was already outside watering her plants.

I was thinking to myself, I have gone to many places to take pictures, but I have not taken pictures of the plants my mum loves so dearly. Therefore, I thought I might as well go out to wish her good morning and to take some photographs of her plants.

She was very happy to see me coming out to photograph her plants. She began telling how each plant came about and how she nurses some them from a single weak stalk to the current lavishing state. If you are wondering why all the pot-stands are blue in colour it’s because my dad painted them blue : )

Ian Ashwin 1st Birthday

2009-11-22T11:50:00.005+08:00

Last Sunday evening I was at Castle Green to attend my best friend's son, Ian Ashwin, 1st Birthday party. Although there was a professional camera man, using a latest Nikon D300s, to photograph the birthday party, still I couldn't help but to take out my little compact camera to capture some snap shots for my mum to see. My mum really adored little handsome Ian, she just couldn't stop talking about him when my friend, Shaun, brought him to my house on Deepavali earlier this year!

Christmas Tree Kaleidoscopes

2009-11-22T10:05:00.004+08:00

Last week when I was taking photos of the Christmas tree outside ION, I noticed there are some entrances below the Christmas tree. I thought it was some openings for small children to run in and out so I did not check it out.

While I was talking to a colleague back in office, he mentioned that there are some decorations in the Christmas tree and adults could go in too. Out of curiosity, I went back to the Christmas tree at ION again yesterday and I went in to take a look.

Wow, it was very beautiful indeed! The cone was filled to the rim with tiny crystals and there were some bigger crystal balls hanging down. It reminded me of the starry night sky in Bintan or the Kaleidoscope that I used to peep into in my younger days!

Here are some pictures shot with my Panasonic LX3.

A little kindness goes a long way!

2009-11-17T21:47:00.004+08:00

On Monday, when I came to office, I was surprised to find a stalk of Bright Yellow Daisy on my desk and there was a “Thank You” card attached to the flower from our General Manager, Ms. Shirleen Kok. It was very nice of her to buy all of us a stalk of flower for the “World Kindness Day”! Despite her heavy work load, busy schedules and two young boys to care for, she still managed to spare a thought for all the colleagues in office! Thank you Shirleen!

The World Kindness Day falls on 13th November and it started around 1998, but frankly this year is the first time I heard about World Kindness Day! It is very refreshing to see a bright flower on my table after a long weekend (as I was on leave on Friday) and especially when the flower is from my boss!

Well, I hereby wish everyone a belated World Kindness Day and I would like to share my Bright Yellow Daisy with all of you. I hope this Daisy will brighten up your day just like it has brightened up my day on Monday!

If you would like to find out more about World Kindness Day, please go to the following URL: http://www.kindness.com.au/world_kindness_day.htm

My Saturday @ Orchard

2009-11-15T12:52:00.011+08:00

The ION shopping centre on Orchard has been opened for a couple months now. I have always wanted to check it out but I always have some other things came up and I did not make it down to ION until yesterday.

It is very easy to access by MRT. Just take the MRT to Orchard station and you can walk into ION after the ticketing machine. The crowds on the basement levels were overwhelming and I find the layout quite confusing, well maybe I'm not a seasoned shopper! Personally, I preferred the upper levels where all the branded shops are located. There were lesser crowds and it is much easier to walk around but of course the goods are too expensive for me! I guess the shop I enjoyed most in ION is the Prologue book store on the 4th floor. I spend around 2 hours plus in book store to check out the variety of books and stationeries on the 5th floor.

After ION, I went to the more familiar Takashimaya to buy some stuff from ART Friend and then took some pictures of the Christmas lights up with my Panasonic LX3 camera. I use a Cross filter on my LX3 to create the cross effect on lightings and being lazy, I took all the following pictures hand-held without a tripod. Surprisingly, the pictures did not turn out shaky!

Nuremberg Ginger Bread

2009-11-11T21:46:00.004+08:00

About a month ago, my company's HQ in Germany organised a photo competition and all employees around the world were invited to take part in the competition. Twelve photographs will be selected to be featured in our organisation's 2010 calendar. The participating country, whose photo is being selected, will receive some Nuremberg Ginger Bread and some calendars that we can give to our clients.

After reading the terms and conditions of the competition, I began by drafting out my ideas and presented the drafts to my colleagues because I needed them to pose for me. After much persuasion, I managed to get a few colleagues to be my models. I'm really grateful to the colleagues who spend their precious lunch time, taking time off their busy schedules and spending their personal time after work to pose for me! The colleagues who modeled for me were Ms. Jane Lim, Ms. Jessie Lim, Ms. Shirleen Kok, Ms. Denise Zhuang, Ms. Sherry Safarina, Ms. Nancy Neo and Ms. Janice Lee. Thank you all!

I would also like to thanks my Hong Kong colleague, Mr. William Chan, for encouraging me to participate in the competition and then setting the link between the photo competition organiser and myself to get my photos uploaded to the Germany server! Thanks, William!

In total, 16 countries took part in the photo competition and my photo is one of the twelve that were being selected for our 2010 calendar. I'm delighted to receive the Nuremberg Ginger Bread in a beautiful box today. There are assortments of ginger bread in the box. The calendars will be sent to us at a later date.

Here are some pictures of the ginger bread that I received today. If you would like to see the photos I took for the photo competition, kindly go to the following URL:
http://ctsm88.smugmug.com/Friends/Colleagues/9794932_cPHyA#664710492_3SzPh

Christmas comes early to Orchard Road

2009-11-08T14:36:00.006+08:00

This year Christmas lights-up comes earlier to Orchard Road. In the past, Christmas lights-up only come about in late November to early December, but this year the lighting is already up in the 1st week of November. Well, I guess it is because of the APEC meeting being held in Singapore. We would like to showcase our beautiful Orchard Road to the World Leaders who are here for the meeting.

Last night I was around Tangling Shopping Center and I had my little compact Panasonic LX3 camera with me, so I took some pictures along the stretch of Tanglin Road to Cuscaden Road. I will probably go back again on weekend to capture the lighting along the main stretch of Orchard Road from Scott Isetan junction towards Centrepoint because the lighting there is warmer the lighting I took last evening.

Here are some of the pictures I took last evening. Enjoy!

My Day Off

2009-11-02T21:26:00.006+08:00

Last Friday, I took a day off from work hoping to go to explore the Daily Farm and to take some pictures. Unfortunately on Thursday night around 12 midnight, the air-con in my room started leaking! I had to power it off and slept without air-conditioning. I woke up at 6am as it is really warm and I could not sleep well.

As usual, round 6.30am, my mum would go to tender to her potted plants. Recently, she got some fertilizer for her plants that really help the plants to grow much healthier and have more flowers. Even the neighbour's grandfather also stops to admire her flowers every time he walk pass our corridor!

As it was my off day, I decided to go out to see what my mum is doing. My mum was showing me her flowers when I noticed a big bird had just landed on one of the distance tree. I though it was an eagle because it looks much bigger then an average crow. I quickly ran back into my room to assemble my Canon D40 camera and my Canon100-400mm lens and ran out to take some pictures of the bird.

The bird was quite a distance away and was high up in the tree therefore it appears as a silhouette against the sky in my photos with its back facing me. As luck had it, the bird suddenly decided to turn around to face me and with the rising sun lighting up it face, I could now get some clearer frontal shots of the bird.

After triggering off around twenty over shots, the bird finally decided to fly away and I have to go to call my air-con serviceman to service the air-con. Even though, I did not get to go to explorer the Dairy Farm as planned, I'm happy that I had the opportunity to photograph the bird and got my air-con fixed.

I had to crop the photos to enlarge the image and increased the exposure to show more details on the bird. I could not confirm the bird species but I think it is an Oriental Honey Buzzard. If you could identify the bird, please drop me a comment. Thanks!

Asia Auto Salon Race Queens

2009-10-20T22:38:00.009+08:00

As promised in my previous blog. Here are the beautiful Race Queens from the Asia Auto Salon 2009. These Race Queens came from Australia, China, Japan, Thailand and Taiwan to promote their exhibitors' products. There’s also a few popular local Race Queens whose pictures have appear frequently on a popular photo forum - ClubSnap. So who is your favourite Race Queen?

Asia Auto Salon

2009-10-20T21:57:00.007+08:00

The recent Asia Auto Salon attracts many exhibitors from over 30 foreign countries. There were exhibitors from Australia, China, Japan and Taiwan to name a few. There were lots of exotic sport cars, cars' accessories and lots of new gadgets too.

The $15 entrance fee also allows visitor to catch a thrilling drifting demonstration by renowned Singapore, Japan and Australia drift-drivers. As with any other car shows, there were many beautiful race queens, both local and foreigner, there to promote the cars accessories and gadgets. Of course, where there are exotic cars and beautiful ladies, it will attract lots of photographers!

Following are some cars pictures I took at the show. I will feature some beautiful race queen in my next blog. Enjoy!

Pulau Ubin

2009-10-06T22:17:00.000+08:00

It has been at least five years or more ago since I last visited Pulau Ubin. Recently, a friend of mine organised a Pulau Ubin treasure hunt cycling trip for a group of NYP/ITC students and he invited me along. Since I love nature, cycling, photography and mingling with young people, I agreed to tag along.

Pulau Ubin has not changed very much in all those years except there are now more bicycle rental shops and coffee shops near the jetty. There is also a new 7th storey tower and a stretch of boardwalk at Chek Jawa. We were very lucky because the weather held up pretty well while we carried out the treasure hunt games. Just as we were leaving, it began to rain but only for a short while.

Although my team came in second last for the treasure hunt, I really enjoyed every bit of it. And being the oldest guy in the group, I was asked to give out the prizes to all the winning teams. Seeing all the youngsters that were half my age and some much younger, inevitability gives me a feeling that I'm really getting old. The only blessing is I still have the stamina to keep up with them! Guess what? I even received a Certification of Appreciate for participating in the activity!

Here are some pictures taken during the treasure hunt. If you like to see more of the Pulau Ubin pictures, kindly go to my pictures website:
http://ctsm88.smugmug.com/My-Singapore/Pulau-Ubin-13th-September-2009/9825679_FHP3M#667727968_3zPnv

This is the last set of photographs shot on my Olympus UZ570 camera. I have since trade-in the camera for a Canon 5DMKII battery grip.

My 42nd Birthday

2009-10-01T22:52:00.005+08:00

In just a blink of an eye, I'm now into my 42nd years in this world! Yes I'm 42 years old today! Once again, I would like to thanks my mum for the "Big Red Packet" that I received once I got out of bed this morning!

I would like to thanks my sister, all my relatives, friends and vendors (both local and overseas) for all the wonderful birthday wishes smses and emails that I received throughout the day! Luckily, unlike last year, my first Happy Birthday sms arrived at 6.20am this morning instead of 1am plus! Finally, I would also like to thanks my colleagues for the lunch treat!

Well, I am looking forward to have a great year ahead and I wish all of you also have a wonderful year ahead of you!

Hungry Ghost Festival Opera

2009-09-16T22:34:00.005+08:00

Many Chinese believe that on the 7th month of the Chinese Lunar Calendar the deceased will be released from Purgatory to wonder on earth for 30 days. Hence, the lunar 7th month is also commonly known as the Hungry Ghost Festival or Zhong Yuan Jie in mandarin.

During the 7th month, Chinese families would offer food, burn hell money and paper gifts for their deceased family members and other wondering souls, hoping in return that the deceased will not cause any harm to their family members. In Singapore, you can also see lots of Operas and Getai (live stage performances) and dinner with auctions in the housing estates. Usually the first row of seats at the Operas and Getai are reserved for the members of "the other world" therefore no spectators would take the seats in the front row!

It's been a long time since I went to an opera. When my uncle told me there are one staging near his house, I decided to go and take some pictures. I met up with my uncle after work and took some pictures at the opera. Here are some shots from the opera to share. Enjoy!

Kites Festival Singapore

2009-09-07T21:39:00.012+08:00

In the olden days of Singapore, many kids grew up flying kites and shooting marbles as a past time hobby. In that era, there were no computer games or Internet and a television set was to many families a luxury good!

As our nation progresses and our people becoming wealthier, luxury household items of the past have now become a necessity product in our daily lives. Our younger generation no longer grew up flying kites and shooting marbles. They prefer computer games, watching television programmes, and surfing the Internet.

Even though I was born in the sixties, I grew up playing Action Man, Matchbox cars, reading The Hardy Boys, riding bicycle, swimming in our own swimming pool and watching Super Heroes cartoon on television. I do not have the opportunity to fly a kite or play a game of shooting marbles. The closest I get to flying a kite was flying my remote control plane that I received as Christmas gift. I'm not born with a silver spoon but I was lucky to be living with a wealthy family!

I would love to experience the life of living in a kampong, flying kites, shooting marbles and climbing up coconut trees. Hence, when I read in the newspaper that NTUC is organising a Kite Flying Festival in West Coast Park, I decided to make my way there to take some photos.

I was delighted to see a sky filled with colourful kites when I alighted from the free shuttle bus at West Coast Park. As I made my way to the big open field, I was amazed to see so many people with all kind of kites. Some kites were obviously purchased off the shelves and others were home made specialties. There was a inter schools kites flying competition whereby the school children have to design and built their own kites and the kites must be able to take to the sky. There were also other events such as stories telling, kite making and dance performances to entertain the visitors.

I really enjoyed myself, watching and photographing the adults and children running around the field trying to get their kites into the sky and the happy faces of those whose kites were soaring high up in the sky. The kite festival is a great event for the whole family.

Here are some pictures from the Kite Festival. If you would like to see more pictures of this event, please visit my pictures website:
http://ctsm88.smugmug.com/My-Singapore/Go-Fly-Kites/9530473_PgWeL