Friday, November 14, 2008

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?







Wednesday, November 5, 2008

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.