Another year passes...

As my wife is busy watching that overrated Channel 8 show, I find myself chatting about WW2 with Audrid and reminiscing about a momentous year that is about to pass into history. 2008 marked a number of important changes to me, both on the professional and personal front, and I look forward to yet more changes, hopefully for the better, even though the economical outlook is bleak all round.

While I'm in no mood to detail all the events that has happened this year, I will take the time to thank certain individuals that have made a mark in my life. This is my version of Thanksgiving if you will.

To my wife: Thank you for being you, and for being my best friend, my pillar of strength, my happiness, and being there for me everytime.

To Mel: My brother from another mother. Don't know what life would be like without you and the gang. Don't want to know.

To Allan, Ada, Mat: You guys make me feel lucky and confused. Lucky cos any man would count himself fortunate to have one good friend while I have at least 5, and confused cos I wonder if an asshole deserves such luck. Thank you all.

To Chia Hock, Kok Leong, Dehui, Hiong, Boon, and the SJI/SJAB gang: We're all moving into another phase of our lives, and I'm thankful for the company.

To Dog and Lee Jiing: Thank you both for the great times, and for being the great colleagues and friends that you are. May this coming year be as generous to you as you have been to me.

To Karthek, Raymond, Calvin, Dylan, Nelson, Syu, Mok, Sharon, Linda, and my colleagues at DC GSC: May this coming year be one of glorious triumph rather than near misses. Work sucks, but it would be way suckier if not for you guys. Keep on trucking.

To Dad, Mom, and Sis: May God keep you safe, healthy and happy.

To my sis Jacqueline: 2009 will be a good year, and both the wife and I look forward to the big event :)

To my old friends from WoW: Man I miss you fags. May God watch over you all.

To my other friends whom I missed out: Thank you for your friendship and support, and forgive my fading memory.

Now I gotta go recover a little from the massive headache this cold is giving me...you guys have a fantastic 2009. God bless!

Photo of the Week - December 31st, 2008

"Probably the best Zone in the World", 1/100s, f/5.6, ISO 250
Canon EOS 50D with EF 24-105mm f/4L IS USM @ 32mm

A Different Kind of Advert for the Canon 50D

Photography Notes: The Most Important Piece of Equipment

Joe McNally is one of those photographers that most aspiring photographers love to be, having worked for LIFE and Time magazines among a slew of other prominent gigs. Which makes the video even more illuminating. In my short time dabbling in this hobby I have seen, and been a victim of, the "this next lens will make my shots better" mentality. No doubt photography is a gear-centric hobby, but is there ever a "most important" piece of equipment that will make your pictures stand out from the crowd?

Personally, I think so, but it's not something money can buy. That most important piece of equipment is something we already have; we just need to cultivate it. If you haven't watched the short video yet, please do so. The beginning bit is a little fluff, but the second story McNally relates is simple, pointedly sharp, and enlightening.

Obligatory Christmas Post

Nothing quite like blogging when you're bored shitless at the office. I would've chosen to play my PSP, but it ran out of juice, so here I am with some updates.

I have finally posted my Taiwan vacation "review". It took quite a bit of work to get it done in a photoblog-like style, so any comments are appreciated. Speaking of photoblogs, I realise that I do owe myself a photo of the week, which will be up soon.

Last Saturday I was invited to cover SJAB Zone 3's NCO Passing Out Parade, which was a blast. I haven't met up with Derek, my old partner-in-crime back in my old life as an SJAB officer, so that was a bonus, on top of the whole experience of covering a fast-paced event like this one. I also brought my colleague Raymond along; he is one of a number of recent DSLR "victims", and it was quite an experience for him as well. I've begun to process the shots from that event, and should have that done by next Monday.

One thing I have yet to start on is processing my cousin's wedding shots. I will probably need to get my monitor calibrated first since those will actually be printed, and I'm not actually looking forward to spending that cash on a Spyder or an Eye-One. But that may have to be done. We'll see how that goes.

A couple of friends also landed in hospital in the past fortnight or so, one for a traffic accident and another for pancreatitis, and thankfully both of them are recovering well. Even so, it's never good for the heart to receive news like that, and hopefully everyone I know will be in the pink of health at least for 2009.

I also got a chance to hike through MacRitchie Reservoir and Treetop Walk last Tuesday, and my calves are still screaming in pain now. More than anything, I need to do something about my level of fitness in the next year. I have a plan, and hopefully it pans out. More news soon.

Here's wishing all my brothers and sisters a blessed Christmas and a great year ahead.

Taiwan Trip 2008 Recap

Sorry for sitting on this for two months, but I have good reasons to:

1. My exams were at the end of November, and I had taken ample leave to try and tackle the papers, which meant that between post-processing about 2000 shots from the trip and studying, I didn't have much time to reflect upon it.

2. A lot of time was spent catching up on the crappy goings-on in the office.

3. A lot of time was spent on photography. Good times.

4. A part of me was in denial about ever returning to this goddamned country (ie Singapore). My soul has been in Taiwan in 2006 and it doesn't want to come back. And I can totally understand.

5. Allan and Ada. Yeah yeah, this is so expected, yet so unexpected.

That said, I still wanted to post on my experience of my latest jaunt to this island that captivated my imagination and the people who won my love and admiration. Singapore could be like this, and so much more, but I'm digressing. Let's move onto the meat.


















This trip, in stark contrast to last year's, was an exercise in moderation and restraint. It was enjoyable obviously, and we definitely got to see and experience more than on the previous trip. I refuse to characterise the previous trip as "in excess", but we definitely did the same thing multiple times. This time, we did almost everything we did last year once, and many other things we never got to try.

Mel joined the party this time round, and further boosted the "good company" factor. Having good travelling companions can greatly improve your travel experience, and in my case, I was lucky to have fantastic travelling companions in my best friends. What more can a man ask for?


















That was rhetorical, by the way.

So, on with the usual not-so-short-and-sweet summary, Cliff Notes-style.

- Alishan. We struck jackpot when we booked a 2D1N stay with Charlies at the Small Swiss Homestay. He was knowledgeable and hospitable to a fault, and both he and his friend Mr Hsu made sure that we enjoyed our little tour and hike through an old Alishan town named Shizhuo and the Alishan Scenic Area itself.



The homestay is one that stresses on being quiet, and I enjoyed the peace amidst the idyllic backdrop of mountains and green tea plantations. It is a huge departure from city life, and I recommend that people try it sometime. You can hear yourself think, and the clean air provides a great incentive for introspection. The scale of the mountains reminded me of how insignificant I truly am in this world, and gave me a refreshing perspective.

The only bad bit came when we ran into a bunch of Mainland Chinese tourists in the Scenic Area; they were loud, obnoxious, and totally justified why I rank Chinese tourists as the worst of the lot to run into. There is a reverence about the mountains and forests, and they totally wrecked it. Thankfully, the beauty of the landscape cannot be overcome.

We left Alishan with a heavy heart. The whole experience was uplifting, and it might have been different (read: less interesting)if we had stayed at a different homestay, but I would definitely put this as a highlight of the entire trip.



- Hualian. We were in the area for 3 days/2 nights, and it was both enjoyable and infuriating, thankfully not at the same time. It's a great little town, though the bubble tea was not of the same quality as those in Taipei. We stayed at a homestay aptly named Bear Forest. As a lover of stuffed toys, that was as close to heaven for me as anywhere else. The bears were so cute, and their numbers were many. And they even had two cute toy poodles around the house. They had a balcony right next to our third-storey rooms, where we spent both nights chatting and drinking and stuffing our faces with Justice Bao. Or Gongzheng Baozi. Whichever you prefer to call it. More than anything else, I miss that place.



We also took a tour into the famed Taroko Gorge; the scenery was outstanding, and I cannot do it justice with my limited photography skills. Words cannot describe its natural beauty, and if you have never been there, you should try to, at least once in your life.



What I did not enjoy was my "job" as the translator for the "tour guide" who took us on the Taroko tour. I can understand him not speaking a word of English, but telling me that my friends may not understand his Mandarin and asking me to translate and not even bothering to talk to anyone besides me on that tour was horseshit. This for me was definitely the worst bit of the tour.

- Taipei. I love this city, and yet I've never really written about why I love it so much. But I will leave that for another post. This time around, the only gorging we did was on the bubble tea at Legend, and since it's liquid, it wasn't really gorging. Oh and shopping, which was the only reason for us to be in Taiwan in October, where the heat really got to me. I don't think I have ever bought this much in one day of shopping, but this time at Wufenpu I went on a spree that I am unlikely to repeat. I shopped like a woman! If we hadn't though, I would have brought Allan home in a bodybag.



No more going to Taiwan before November bro. I frakking mean it.



There were three things that really made our stay in Taipei worthwhile, first of which is our trip with Mr Fu. We went to the National Palace Museum and to a hotspring this time, and while a hotspring dip is great, the museum was a real awe-inspiring, jaw-dropping eye-opener. It was a shame that we spent less than two hours in there, and we understood why it is regarded as one of the four greatest museums in the world, and why some people would spend two days there. The amount of exhibits was great, and as it was a collection of Chinese culture, made me feel the entire weight of my culture and heritage. I marked it as a place I would definitely visit again.



Another was the mass protest march held by the (now opposition) DPP. Protests almost never happen here in Singapore, for reasons that I will not go into here. Back in 2006, Karen and I also went to watch a protest against then-President Chen Shui-bian, and what was true then held firm till today. The taiwanese people have a voice, and a freedom to use that voice.

While some do not agree with their topics of opposition (I know I don't), they are free to express their displeasure in an organised fashion. Any ideas that mass protests invariably lead to violence were dispelled then and now.

Some have commented that their politics is "messy" or "chaotic". My only response is that if the people do not speak up, or have a culture of not speaking up, then their country as a whole, the society and its people, will not grow, learn or mature. The grand experiment of democracy is beholden to that right of expression, the rights of the common man, and I'll be damned if that is forgotten or barracked as "irresponsible".

The third highlight was our visit to the jazz club/restaurant Brown Sugar. According to Ada, they've moved and renovated since her last visit about 6 years ago. Now the place is posh and pretty big. As luck would have it, we managed to hit the joint on the day Huang Xiaohu was performing, and for the price of a slightly more expensive dinner, we were treated to one of the best strutting her stuff on stage. Her performance was powerful and kept us captivated throughout, and her band backed her up very capably.

We even managed to squeeze in a karaoke session at Party World, which was another eye-opener. The place is like a hotel! I also managed to get some time to have lunch with a couple of Taiwanese colleagues, though I think my local colleagues will be happier if I actually took pictures of the two beautiful ladies whose company I had the pleasure of enjoying over lunch. No loss to me though :)



























That's about it. This is a very long post as it is, so I'll let you guys off here.

To-Do List

Just a list of stuff I need/want to get done by the end of this momentous year; more of a reminder for myself, but also a little preview of a few posts on the site.

- Finish up and post up my Taiwan vacation "report", along with a few posts that are long overdue
- Calibrate my monitor for photo editing/printing
- Finish processing the photos of my cousin's wedding (which won't be posted) and the shots I took at Malacca (which will be!)
- Get out for a night shoot with my tripod
- Learn to use my external flash effectively
- Get a bounce card made for said flash
- Start studying for my CCNP cert again
- Learn how to use Lightroom and Photoshop CS effectively
- Plan for a New Year's Day party at my place
- Get started on building up a portfolio

That's about it. That'll keep me busy for the next 12 days.

Photography Notes: Don't Be Lazy!

This is one of the first and most important lessons I've learned since picking up photography, but it took me some time to actually absorb. This is a hard one to drill into my head as it is just so convenient to zoom in or out with the kit lens and thus neglect to look for a better angle, a better view, a better perspective, and ultimately, a better shot. The proliferation of cheap zoom lenses that are packaged as a "starter kit" for DSLRs, along with their plummeting costs, is a factor, but it only encourages the inherent human laziness.

I realised that talking about "laziness" in broad strokes is, well, lazy, so let me expatiate. I was out one day shooting with Lee Jiing, near the Old Parliament House (now known as the Arts House) area, when we came across a few abstract statues. Naturally I took some shots, most without really thinking about how to present the subject. Needless to say, I trashed every one of those shots when I got home and went through them on the monitor. He though had at least two interesting shots, and he took fewer shots than I did!

There was this Japanese lady, obviously a tourist, who took just two shots of the sculptures, but did so only after several minutes of scouting. I did not notice her until he pointed that out, saying "Her shots will be nice". I'm willing to bet her two shots are better than the slew I took that day.

On another occasion I was out shooting with Karen, en route to the teddy bear exhibition, when we came across a sculpture at the MICA Building. While she stood back and just fired off a few frames of the entire sculpture, I chose to look around it for better light and a better angle, and fired off only a single frame. The result?



It's not great art, but it was something different. And a shot that conveyed my impression of the flowing lines and contrasting shapes. And, dare I say it, a better shot than a touristy impression of a not-so-impressive sculpture. All because I wasn't lazy, and set out to try and get a creative composition. I could have stood back and took a photo of the whole sculpture, and crop out the frame to suit, but that is also lazy. I chose to "crop with my viewfinder", and got a shot I was happy with.

Before you take a photo, it pays off to put in that little extra effort. That might be the differentiator between a mundane shot and a great one. And that is a lesson that I will keep to heart every time I touch my camera.

Photography Notes

Everyone knows by now that I was bitten by the photography bug a few months earlier, and after investing into some good equipment I am learning how to shoot good photographs from my generous colleagues and friends. Most notable are people like Lee Jiing and Andrew, whose generosity I have felt in their dispensing of both technical and artistic technique to a newbie like me. I suppose technical hobbies like digital photography has an appeal for geeks like me, but even I was taken by surprise by the enthusiasm I developed.

Perhaps more importantly, this hobby has allowed me to reconnect with people who matter to me and develop new friendships with others. My wife is, fortunately, also a shutterbug, and since we both got our cameras we have been spending quality time together sharing this hobby. Sure beats an uneventful day on the couch watching crappy TV shows. In my recent Malaysia trip I also had a chance to go on a shoot with my Dad, who is also a Canon user. The experience was very pleasant indeed.

In an attempt to constantly improve, I've decided to blog more about photography, and will post more about the little notes and tips I've picked up along the way from the far more experienced photographers. This will help remind myself of what I've learned, as well as document my journey through the exciting pastime. I'm also going to post at least one photo a week as a little project, because photography is about doing. Besides, it's a terrible waste of good equipment if I talk and not shoot.

Hopefully it will be meaningful and enjoyable to some of you.