Hong Kong Flower Show 2008

Full album: http://www.fotop.net/headless/20080314a

Sisters Island shooting trip

Went to Sisters Island with some Singaporean photography lovers on Oct 27. This is probably my last time shooting in Singapore as I'm leaving this country very soon. This was an incredible experience to me since it was my first time shooting "in" the sea. Well.. not underwater yet.. we walked on the 'sea' when the tide was low and shot. Here's some highlights of the day:

Can you tell what it is?
Highlight this row for answer: Octopus

More photos at my fotop album: http://www.fotop.net/headless/20071027

Taking pics while travelling

People travel because of various reasons, some may go for relax and leisure, others may go for experiencing different cultures. People like me, a photography lover, may also travel to take good pictures.

It doesn't create any problem if photographers go travelling and take pictures of landscapes, buildings, natures.. etc. But more and more photographers like to capture the 'real culture' of the places they travel.. so they like to shoot people's daily life.

To be honest, I do have a desire to take those kind of pictures as well, especially when I saw others' great pictures! However, I do think we need to give certain respect to the people there as well.

This time I went to Laos, one of the famous shooting scene is the morning alms in dawn at Luang Prabang, where you can see monks lining up and ladies giving alms to them. I did plan to go and take pictures at first. But after I read someone's blog, I changed my mind. That person went to see and tried to take pictures of monks lining up.. and one of the monks actually walked out of the camera...

Other things I read from guide books and internet is that in Laos, ladies are not supposed to touch monks, and even when we speak to them, we have to lower our heads.. and tourists never do that, especially when they wanna take photos!

The whole morning alms session is not made for tourists.. it's Laos traditions and it's their daily life. I see no point for us to disturb them. So I decided not to go at all. It's part of their life, not a performance to us.

After I uploaded my pictures on my album, I posted a few of them on an online forum. Of course I didn't get good comments, I guess because I don't have good skills and I don't have good close-ups..

At the same day of my postings, another member posted his serious of pictures taken in Laos. His pictures were great. Lots of good comments. But as I can imagine, lots of them are taken very closed to the locals.

Just imagine... suddenly people from other parts of the world feel interested in the ways of your daily life.. and they started to come to you.. and everyday you've got giant cameras, long lens focusing you.. how would you feel??

Yes, we go to their places, we spend money and they benefit from that. But it doesn't mean that we own that place! Can we give more respect to them?

I really wish they can have their own life back.

Shooting fever

Seems like I've met the craziest group of local photographers since my first gather with them to Pulau Ubin!! These guys are crazy!! But I love them!!

Remember we went out for 6-hour night shooting on Friday night? My upper back was in pain after that 6-hour carrying all my gears walking around the district, leaning forward and backward to get the view I wanted.. But on Sunday morning.. I went out again, with the same group of people! What's more? Since I knew that I couldn't do any studies on Sunday, I stayed up all night on Saturday night.. didn't sleep at all!

Anyway..

We arrived at the Jurong Bird Park exactly at 9 in the morning. The entry fee for the park is S$18, very expensive, so we wanted to fully utilize the opening hours!! So here are some of my takes:

Let me tell you a secret...

Shooting the eagle in the cage w/o showing the cage need certain patient.

What's so funny??


Look at those professionals!!


Taxi~~~ don't want to be shot!

This is a fantastic photo shooting experience. I've learnt a lot again! Now I know how to shoot the bird in the cage, and the owls in the super dark area! And, I've also learnt how to pay attention to other cameras while concentrating on my own shoot, cos you never know who's shooting you!!

When u're attacking someone, there is always someone else attacking u!

We shot all the way till lunch time, and found out that the cafes in the park are SUPER expensive! So, most of us skipped lunch, and continued with our shooting instead.. until 5:30pm .

Just when everyone's thinking that we were heading for dinner, somebody suggested to go up to the hill somewhere near the park to shoot the sunset!! So.. we drove up to a hill nearby.. but unfortunately we couldn't find a place to shoot the sunset properly, instead we shot some nice views.


And finally! After a whole day long shooting.. we went to Marina to have steam bowl dinner! I was the only one taking photo cos everyone was soooo hungry and I was the only "tourist" there!

Notice the butter on the table, it turned out to be a sculpture of durian later after the dinner!

What a day!! My whole body is in pain now! But unlike the don't-know-why backpain I've been suffering in the past few weeks, I love this kind of pain! It reminds me of the wonderful time I had!

The group is now planning for more outings in near future. They are really crazy about that! Some of them are planning for what to do in CNY next year!! And someone also thinking of going to Malaysia for overnight shooting!!

I've promised myself, as long as I'm free, I must join them!! I won't let my mood beat me this time.

To see all the photos I took that day, please visit my online album.

Singapore's night

Went out for night shooting with some local photography lovers I met on a forum last night. We started from 6pm and shot until mid-night. This is my second time going out with them. I enjoyed going out with them very much and we've already planned a few more shooting trips. Once again, I'm proved to be more comfortable with the people who are a bit mature than me. Most (or all?) of them are married men.

Suddenly I'm a Nikon fan...

Wow wow... wow....