guardians of bukit brown cemetery

The graveyard run is one of my favourite running routes. I was introduced to bukit brown sometime ago, and often while running alongside glues P & T, I would tell them how much I want to take pictures of the Gurkhas. After about 3 years, I made good on that.

I’ve always wondered what’s the story behind each tombstone when I past each one. With this visit, I paid a visit to Singapore’s largest tomb stone where Mr Ong Sam Leong and wife lay.

In a nutshell, what I really want to do here is share my perception of the graveyard, capture the ‘life’ within bukit brown, the serenity of the lush landscape, and its natural beauty.

full set of photos here

meeting mr brown at MTV EMA bloggers’ preview

I’m a huge fan of Mr Brown and was thrilled to finally meet him in person at a work event. His mother, Mrs CO Lee, was highly instrumental in shaping my growing-up years back in scgs secondary school.

he posted up a pic I took of him and Dora – his prize for the ‘speed quiz’ held at the end of the EMA preview session. Here’s his write-up.

More work pics here!

Tott – tools of the trade

A introduced me to the gracious hosts of Tott. Thanks to them, I enjoyed an eye-opening demostration in dehydrating and espuma techniques by chef Stephan Zoisl of Novus restaurant.

full set of photos here

INFLUENCERS FULL VERSION from R+I creative on Vimeo.

one day, I will shoot & produce something of influence with my 550D.

City Lights

show and tell

“PLATFORM is a gathering of Singapore-based photographers, who use stills, video or multimedia, to tell stories.
But beyond just Telling, we want to Show you our Stories.
Our primary interest is in serious social documentary.”

More here.

new work space

I love the view in this meeting room.

Its a complete contrast from the office’s urban landscape before. I much prefer the serenity of the green.

Can you endure?

I took part in a “marathon”, one that had three themes and no, they are not Swim.Bike.Run or any form of sports racing that I’m used to. This was a whole new ball game.

This is my first time taking part in Canon PhotoMarathon 2010. To be honest, it’s not an event that I would voluntarily sign up for because it involves crazy crowds, the duration was way too long for my liking and this means time away from Toro whom I only have custody of during weekends, plus I much prefer shooting when inspired and not on command blah blah.

I did it because a dear friend and photographer mentor suggested it would be good practice for both Hans and me. So I agreed, nodded my head like a good student and braced myself for a whole day of what may be.

In a nutshell, the PhotoMarathon challenges your level of creativity and originality. There were two categories – student and open. You’re given three themes throughout the course of the day, with each theme revealed in a space of three hours.

You’re only allowed to submit one photo at the end of each three-hour leg. You’re not allowed to edit, photoshop or alter your images. You won’t believe how some folks pass off a photo of an advertisement as their own.

Theme 1: Clarity

Theme 2: Faith

Theme 3: Charge

Two of Hans students joined us for the first theme. As newbies we started off slightly clueless as to how do we begin, what shall we shoot, where shall we go to do that.  You quickly realize the constraints you’ve to work around especially with 1,600 participants in the gig.

1. Large number of participants. This means you’ve to pull an original shot out of your ass if you want your picture to stand out. Place yourself in the shoes of a judge, you’ve to run through 4,000+ number of thumbnails. What would make your shot stand out? Why would someone want to ‘double-click’ for a closer look? How can you avoid shooting a cliché?
2. Time. You need to grab that winning shot within 2.5 hours including travelling time. While you’ll save time by shooting at a close location, many others might do the same and you could end up with similar background elements. Reserve the last 30mins for the submission process. We spent some time in the submission queue for the first theme which snaked around the convention hall. Thankfully the line moved fast as the organizers had a very efficient submission system.
3. Camera equipment. You work with what you have. If you can do in-camera edition eg. Canon 60D hurrah for you. I did double takes at size and amount of gear some brought along, tripods, zoom lens, big flash stuff but being a novice and gear goondu, I wasn’t bothered by the array of cam-bling displayed because I didn’t know better haha.

For the first theme, Hans suggested heading down to the national library to find some ‘clarity’ within a resource centre. The building was architecturally interesting to shoot. I took some shots of reflections off the glass panels while waiting for the library to open but no picture really jumped out.

At this point, I wondered what the hell I got into but decided to grin and run with it and thought, ok if I don’t get a nice shot, I’ll just make use of this time to take shots for my homework assignment with M. This reeks of someone who wears the t-shirt with the slogan, ‘if I can’t win, I won’t play’.

Pottered about the library and got distracted by the number of newspapers and magazines. Spend sometime admiring the Victorian Theatre Tribute and snapped some shots of old book covers with my iPhone. Everything but focus.

Since this is my first time shooting on demand, I had no workflow pattern to follow. But by the third theme, I discovered my modus operandi. I tend to roam about and ‘feel’ for people, moments or interesting elements that catch my eye and ‘inspire’ me. I try not to think to hard about or plan what I want to shoot.

Trouble is, what happens when I feel absolutely nothing? I would be fired if I were a professional photographer.

While this ‘observation’ approach worked for my first theme because I stumbled upon an interesting subject, I had difficulty with the other two themes.

Anyway, here’s the sequence of flow for my first shot.

hans at national library

1. I took a fun picture of Hans standing in the middle of the library. Wanted to document the process. It was only after this shot that I noticed the elderly Japanese man. Unintentionally captured his newspapers at the bottom right corner.
   

   I spy with my eye

2.  Here’s the test shot which was a little too wide, it had too much space and distractions around him. I needed to go tighter.
   

   perhaps this might work

3. I tried to capture him reading without his big glasses. It added a dash of irony. I liked this shot and almost stopped shooting after but decided to play safe and take a few more for variety.
   

   hmmmm

4. His expression was more of a “Hmmmm” than of “OH I SEE. CLARITY. *DING*”.
   

   option 1

5. I waited awhile for this shot as the fella was moving about and occasionally reading with his glasses on. I was kneeling by the side trying to blend in with the carpet, pretending to shoot books on shelves. He finally moved into this position and pushed his glasses onto his forehead. It was a nice moment. I held my breath and prayed he won’t move.
   

   option 2

6. Took another shot just in case. I ended up submitting this one because it looked a little better. Someone later pointed out that the previous shot had a girl in the background. I thanked my lucky stars for picking this one instead. That’s what happens when you’re too focused on your subject and forget to pay attention to what’s around. I’m sure viewing the tiny pic on the small LCD screen had a part to play..

By this time, the Jap fella was on to me. I caught him looking in my direction inquisitively so I scooted off to join Hans.

So.. that’s the story behind of the shot.

For the second theme “Faith”, I submitted a mediocre shot. For the third theme, “Charge”, my brain cells were half-baked. We tried shooting people ‘charging’ down Orchard underpass. Hans managed to capture a shot that worked but to my dismay, I had jack shit and decided not to submit anything.

Would I do this again? Yes. Of course I say this because I haz new camera *beams*. 

photo courtesy of Air Vongxayasy

I’ll recommend participating with a bunch of friends who are interested and passionate about photography so that you can bounce around ideas. It also helps to get honest feedback about your shots. You don’t have to flock together all the time, it’s good to break out and regroup after each theme. Remember that you’re all here to learn and improve on your skills, so treat it as a learning process (unless you’re wear a certain t-shirt with a certain slogan).

More importantly, treat each other as a support network. The event runs from 8.30am to 6pm and then some. It is very draining on your mind, lower back, arms and all. The last thing anyone wants to do is ‘work’ on a weekend so you do need committed friends who will nudge you to pull through. I say this because I wouldn’t have lasted through it if not for Hansel and Mayer’s words of encouragement.

A big thank you!! to my dear excellent photography lessons from my husband Hansel, wonderful and inspiring ex-sailor-mother-photojournalist friend Maye-e, Canon for putting together a well-organized event and of course, to the unidentified Japanese man.  Arigato gozaimasu.

Lazy sunday on our new rug

(I don’t know how to rotate the image oops!)

little miss-matched

IMG_8444, originally uploaded by hanshoots.

good friday at papa palheta with the scotties
bumped into kaif, sarah & their little flowerbuds