Wood Street is usually a quiet place as the clock moves closer to midnight. But not this night. There was an unexplainable electrifying feel in the air, never felt before this part of town. All of a sudden the air density dropped, as if the oxygen was being sucked out of Mother Earth. A strong gust of wind swept across the land, blowing over a trash can, and shuddered the window stills along the street. There was a flash of light followed by a loud cracking sound, and out of nowhere you see it…
The machine moved with purpose and intent. Slowly towards its mission objective. It turned into Carpet Street, then paused and became silent. Almost like it was pondering its next move. Just seconds later, something stirred in the shadows. The machine roared back to life, and all of a sudden, streaks of laser beams shot out from the front of the machine!
To be continued…
5:15am on a Saturday morning, I dragged Warden from slumber and got our asses down to the Singapore Botanic Gardens. It was around 6:30am when we reached there, and day was about to break. We were pleasantly surprised by the number of people who were there, most of them for their morning exercises. Apart from the people, the morning air was refreshing.
One of the coolest places in the Botanic Gardens must be the Cool House (no-brainer duh!). It resides in the Orchid Garden and thus you need to pay S$5 per adult to get in. In it, you may find some interesting fauna, covered with dew (Made in Singapore. no doubt!). Some of the rare and beautiful varieties of orchids are kept on display in the Orchid Garden, and tourists are guided to specific “photo spots” where they can take photos with their family and friends.
My mission for the day was clear – I will grab every opportunity to get up close and personal with any plants and any thing that breathes. The Botanic Gardens gave me just that. After walking around for about 5 hours, Warden and I finally retreated from this little expedition. And we had barely covered three quarters of entire place! No choice, but our stomachs were protesting and needed to be satiated.
I was so excited today, not because it is a Saturday, but because I had decided to go out there and take some shots of the fireworks. And I decided to do this by skipping a colleague’s wedding dinner. I did my research (here) and found out the exact spots where photographers go to take pictures of the fireworks. But since I had really no idea where to go, or if those spots could be easily reached by foot, I went for a recce trip as early as 5pm. Somehow, I got my buddy Wilfrid to go along too, but he could only join me after 7pm. This will be the first time that we go on a night shoot together! So exciting!
Taken with Nikon D90 and Tokina 11-16mm f/2.8
After wandering around Raffles Place, shooting at everything I can find, I made my way across to One Fullerton. I almost got the shock of my life when I got there. The place was packed with tourists and photographers, some of which had already positioned themselves with tripod at various strategic spots! Kia su man… never mind, if you can’t beat them, you jolly well find your own spot fast!
By 6pm, I had happily set up my tripod on the bridge that joins One Fullerton to the Esplanade. The pleasant surprise came when parachutes came floating down from above, and luckily I still had my Nikon 105mm VR on the body. After that, there was some pause of inactivity and it was getting darker. So I changed lens and happily attached my Tokina 11-16mm wide-angle lens. Then came the choppers from right behind where I stood! Argh! I should not have changed lens!
At 7pm, I was messaging Wilfrid that he was missing all the fun, and he reported that he was driving and there was a jam! Luckily, he did not miss the fireworks.
Taken with Nikon D90, Tokina 11-16mm f/2.8
There were two rounds of fireworks and since this is a rehearsal, the duration was pretty short. I started waiting some time after 6pm and the fireworks started around 8:30pm, and within like 5 seconds, it was all over! Ok, maybe 5 minutes. All the time while the fireworks was blazing the skies, I was frantically trying to frame the shots, and make sure that I did not overexpose the shots (some of which I actually did in the end). Photographers, I found out, have little time to really admire the view. Perhaps the reward of that is the prospect of getting a beautiful shot for keeps.
Taken with Nikon D90, Tokina 11-16mm f/2.8
It was over lunch with colleagues that the topic came up. Four of us settled down at a table and I started munching on my food. Then one guy started talking about the price of a particular HDB unit that he has recently viewed around the area. He said the price was ridiculously high at S$600,000+ for a 5-room flat. That was a fact. Nobody argued that it was overpriced for a unit of that size, but the price was in relation to the proximity of the location to the city-center.
View outside, taken with the D90, Tokina 11-16mm f/2.8
The conversation thus swayed to the merits of being the first owners if you purchase a HDB flat directly from the government, versus buying from the resale market which is hugely inflated. The theory is that you can probably make some money a couple of years later if you are the first owner. If you bought a resale flat, you may hope to break even after taking into account the interest rates for the loan and the renovation fees. I just munched my food and stared at my colleagues. The weather was hot and humid, and perspiration was forming on my forehead.
A Thai colleague contributed and put things in perspective. He claims that with S$500,000, you can buy a very very very large private landed property over in Thailand. Munch… munch… munch… I went.
The conversation continued as the guy who first started the discussion shared his conspiracy theory. He happily claimed that the government has a need to keep the prices of the HDB flats high, because they must force the citizens to to incur debt. Without debt, Singaporeans will have no motivation to work hard and generate wealth for the nation. Thus, the longer the loan period that a person takes to purchase a flat, the happier the government is. This prompted one other guy to say, “After all this time, I feel like I have been working for free because after purchasing my current place, my bank account is empty”. Erm… that coming from a guy who just bought a new place, drives around in a Continental car, and probably makes somewhere between S$9,000-12,000 per month (excluding his wife’s salary)!
I had finished my meal and was just staring at these people. I could feel the perspiration dripping down my back. The guy was just slowly feeding on the bowl of laksa in front of him. At that point in time, I just wanted to shove the laksa down his throat and get out of the heat.
I cannot remember the last time I stepped into a cinema. I know it must have been years ago. It could have been some time before I got married. It took all the draw of Harry Potter and the Half Blood Prince to bring my physical presence into Lido 2 last night, with Warden. Of course the free admission ticket to the gala event given to Warden helped immensely.
I have never picked up a Harry Potter book, and never quite understood all the hype with the book launches around the world. But the movies were pretty interesting and well done to me. Though I did missed the last 2 movies in the series. It does not matter. The stories are unlike the Lord of the Rings trilogy where you really need to watch them in sequence. I must say the little kids have grown up quite a bit since the last movie (the Prisoner one) I watched, and Emma Watson (playing the part of Hermione Granger) has blossomed into quite a pretty young thing.
This particular dose of Harry Potter features the darker side of things. There is Draco Malfoy who seems very much troubled in this movie (maybe something I missed from the previous 2 movies?), the weird hex that was cast on one girl, and the ever-foreboding Serenus Snake. Death, altered memories, shame and storing of a wizard’s soul in magical items called a Horcrux is all explored in this movie. As usual, Rupert Grint acting the part of Ron Weasley, provided much of the humour in the show. Without divulging too much details, his performances as a love interest for Hermione has always been rather witty and interesting.
In comparison to the earlier efforts, and in terms of storyline, this agrees with me more as we see a shift towards a movie that is more “adult”. One of the scenes reminds me of a rehash of Lord of the Rings, especially with the very convincing Michael Gambon as Professor Dumbledore. I did enjoy this movie tremendously, and stepping into a cinema brought back memories of why I enjoy the big screen so much in the past. A good one!
I was not feeling too good this morning, so I hopped down to the clinic, got some meds and my MC, and stayed home to rest. Resting at home is seldom is about tucking myself under the bed covers and dreaming of riches. It is usually about staying away from air-conditioning and stale air in the office. Plus photography…
I grabbed my trusty Nikon D90 armed with the Sigma 24-70mm f/2.8 DG glass, and mounted it on the newly acquired SLIK tripod. I wanted to try out different lighting conditions, using different placements of the Nikon SB-900 flashgun. In the end, since there is only a single flash unit, I decided to use it to create back-lighting for this golden kiwi.
The fate of the kiwi is now unknown. The next 2 images came from objects in my toolbox. Since the drill is rusting, and I do not foresee using it, this seems like an appropriate time to put it to good use.
Hope you like them.
Not many of my friends knew about this event, nor seem interested afte I told them about it. The Night Festival promised a weekend of outdoor extravaganza of live music, dance and outdoor performances – at least that’s what the brochure and website said. Warden and I were there some time after 6pm, and joined in the festivities after dinner. Many of the outdoor performances did not start until 7:30pm, and thus we walked around investigating the sculptures and hunted down the exhibits.
We hopped into the National Museum, to see what the buzz surrounding it was all about. Admittedly, it has been years since I last stepped into the museum. Free admission! What’s not to like about the museum? Well, for one because of the sheer number of people, you have to queue up to enter some of the galleries. Some Singaporeans do like to queue, but not us.
After mingling among the crowd for a while, it felt like the museum was getting really crowded. Then we found out why – it was raining cats and dogs out there! The outdoor performance must have been a wash out 
Luckily, I did took a shot using the Tokina 11-16mm wide angle lens just before we entered the museum. I do like this glass a lot. Not sure if it was purposely manufactured to be so, but it does seem to retain colors of the sky better than my standard lens. Wonder what will happen if I introduce an ND filter to it…
The weather did pick up a little and the rain subsided to a drizzle when we continued our tour at the Singapore Art Museum (SAM). Here, I actually found a photography gallery from ClubSnap! Very nice picture, especially some of the magnificent landscapes.
The last act of the night that everyone was waiting for was probably the Loop of Fortune. Scheduled to start at 10:30pm, Warden and I were waiting amongst the crowed when a sudden downpour drenched the party. Many people who were without umbrellas ran for cover, while some waited staunchly, refusing to give up their places near the performance. We waited under shelter and the rain clouds did finally cleared. The performance resumed at 11pm and finally ended amidst an explosion of bright fireworks and sparkles. Quite a sight to behold if you are right there in front of the action.
No, not me. I have a friend, and colleague who is going to get his head shaved in support of the Children’s Cancer Foundation. It’s an initiative called Hair for Hope (HFH for short). It’s a wonderfully worthy cause and I like to spread the word around. Do drop by the site to support anyone of your choice, either to donate some money or just to drop the volunteers some encouraging messages.
http://ccf.org.sg/hfh/webApp/shaveeBIO.php?shaveeId=884
Great stuff! I’m looking forward to seeing his shaved head come Monday morning.
I went out on a spending spree and finally got myself a much-needed tripod. Alan Photo did not give me any good advice on a choice of tripods, and the sales guy actually told me once to go back after doing more research on the Internet! I went to Cathay Photo at Peninsula Plaza, knowing that their staff are highly knowledgeable and they have a wide range of tripods on display.
When I reached the shop, I looked around and told a friendly sales person that I am not sure which tripod to get. He patiently asked about the current gear that I use, and if I intend to use longer telephotos in the future. He showed me two tripods, one from Manfrotto and a second from SLIK, and explained to me the pros and cons of each. He honestly told me he skipped Giottos because the price may shock me (which was probably an educated guess based on my gear).
In the end I chose the SLIK PRO 714CF II Tripod with a KangRinpoche ballhead. It is light-weight due to the carbon fibre material used, it is relatively shorter than some of the pro tripods I have seen, and the legs extend easily by twisting the catches.
Lovely tripod. As you can see from my previous post on light trails, a tripod is a must-have under low light situations.
