60th SCC International Rugby 7s - 27th October 2007

I am suffering from Post Rugby World Cup 2007 after Springboks won but I was saved by the Rugby 7s competition organised by Singapore Cricket Club.

The Singapore Cricket Club International Rugby 7s competition had always been a world class Rugby 7s event and there were many great teams invited from many different countries coming down to Singapore for 2 days of great rugby action and festival.

I was there on the 27th October, Day 1 of the competition and had lots of fun taking high speed and crunching rugby sports action. It was another wonderful sporting event for me to hone my telephoto and sports photography action further. Since I was sitting behind the goal posts, my telephoto lense has its limitations. Nevertheless, I learned to appreciate my EF 70-200mm F4 L even better than before and I am looking foward to bring sports photography to newer heights.

Ladies and Gentlemen, presenting SCC 7s Rugby 2007 :

Oriental Rongatai vs Singa Lions

Ponsonby vs Mendee Minjals

Davetalevu vs Impala

I was planning to go on the 28th October for Day 2 but I was too tired after finishing a hot 15km New Balance Real Run in the morning. I looked foward to more sports action photography whenever the opportunities arises. Disappointed not to catch further adrenaline sporting action but I was very happy with my action photos from Day 1.

More photos of the various competing teams would be uploaded shortly. Do stay tune !

p/s: I would send in selected photos for the SCC 7s photography competition for the Action category. It would be updated and uploaded at a later point in time.

Excuse me, are you an Artventure ?

The Esplanade is currently organising a visual arts display of a very interesting nature, by a young group of artists and the event is known as Artventure. It is an exhibition by the various different talents of young children in the fields of art and craft.

I was immediately captured by their artwork of toys, drawings, crayons, art and craft, paintings and dolls etc etc.... Probably the reasons (excuses) would be I have way passed my childhood days and I missed the carefree days of playing with toys and trying extremely hard to compose and do up a piece of art and craft work or painting (I am terribly lousy in art & craft work) and I am also feeling young at heart !!!!

There are many beautiful artwork on display by these talented children. I would prefer to showcase their artwork through my photographic eyes to do the talking.

Folks, do drop by the Esplanade, visit and admire the artwork done by the children, give them your support (turn back the clock, bring back your childhood memories too !!!).

Balinese Dances Performances in Singapore

Beauty of Balinese Dances ~ Legong and Taruna Jaya

A week had passed and life in Singapore is work and work and work, besides training up for the 42km Singapore Marathon in December 2007. Soon, I was back at the Esplanade again, watching the performance known as "Beauty of Balinese Dances ~ Legong and Taruna Jaya".

The DA:NS Festival had come to an end on 21st October, even though I was only able to catch two of the dance performances, it was an enriching and cultural learning experience for me with the opportunities to take more photographs. I would not consider myself an artistic person, nevertheless, I do appreciate, understand and learn about different races, people, cultures and their arts, an area that I developed when I was studying in Australia during my tertiary days whereby I mixed with many different nationalities from all over the world.

Back to the Balinese Dances, it was a beautiful performance, you can see their passion and love for their culture from the moves and eyes of the Balinese performers. I was only able to capture photos from the 1st performance time slot from 1815hrs to 1845hrs, nevertheless, it had left me a great impression, the charms and friendliness of Balinese Culture.

After the performance, I went down towards the basement and found a interesting and unique display of art works known as "Artventure". Do keep a lookout, coming in my next photojournalist reporting..............

DA:NS Festival @ Esplanade - 13th October 2007

Sayaw - Dance of Philippines ~ Sayaw Sa Bangko, Binasuani & Oasioas

The DA:NS Festival is currently being held at the Esplanade from 11th to 21st October 2007, there are many different events related to dancing and getting people to love and participate in dancing of various forms and cultures. Please visit their DA:NS Festival homepage for more details of the fun and events that were being organised.

I was there to watch a traditional dance performance from Philippines, who were performing on 13th October. There were other countries performing as well on other days, do visit the link on RASAS - Traditional Dances from Asia for more information of the other traditional dance performances by other Asian countries.

It was a great performance by the Philippines dancers and it was really enjoyable for dancers and spectators, with the crowds participating with the performers, learning Philippines traditional dances. It was really entertaining and it was a fun time shooting photographs of this wonderful dance event and watching their performance.

Happy viewing folks, a great day of photography for me !

A rugby union match @ The Padang

I was walking down from the City Hall area, walking towards Esplanade via the Padang. It was a beautiful evening and the Padang surroundings were peaceful without the hassles of traffic jams.

From far, I spotted rugby union action ! Being in a rugby world cup carnival mood, I was thrilled to be watching live rugby union action again. Haven't been watching rugby union matches live since my maiden visit to a Rugby Union Test Match in 1999 when the Springboks was playing the Wallabies in Brisbane.

I sat down for a while to enjoy the sports action but my sports photography instincts, spring me into action. I set up my DSLR with my telephoto lense, with AI SERVO settings with 5 FPS High Speed action and started snapping away. I confessed this sports match was my 1st in sports photography (took racing cars before though) and it wasn't that good, need to master my telephoto lense better and further.

Some rugby union action photos:

Rucking !

Mauling !

Second Rowers fighting for the ball in a line-out

After the match, I walked towards the Esplanade, turning back, I saw the beautiful Supreme Court Building in the evening light with the Padang in its foreground.

By the way, Singapore Cricket Club Rugby 7s would be in action on 27th to 28th October. Do check out their official website ! Time to hone my sports photography skills !

Super Imports Night Roadshow @ Cineleisure

In November 2007, from 8th to 11th at the Singapore Expo, there is a sports cars exhibition for all sports cars enthusiasts:

Super Import Nights -- Hot Babes, Wild Rides

I am looking foward to this event, always been a fan of sports cars, modified, racing cars (F1 & JGTC), heavily influenced by Formula 1, Initial D & 2 Fast 2 Furious.

After the fashion shoot at Takashimaya, I walked down to Cineleisure and looked around the some of the sports cars on display. A glimpse into the fun we can expect during the event:

Do check out their official website (from the link above) for more information. It's time to be a sports and racing cars events (& also portraits) photojournalist.

Fashion photoshoot @ Takashimaya

The Singapore Fashion Festival 2007 is currently running at the moment and there are various fashion show events being held in different shopping complex.

I made my way down to Takashimaya for their 14th Anniversary Fashion Show and managed to enjoy and take a fashion photoshoot that started at 5pm. They have other shows before that but I did not manage to be there in time for all the fashion shows. Some of the brands on show at 5pm were Reebok, Kappa and Billabong. I am getting a stronger interest in this field of photography especially after getting hold of my telephoto lense Canon 70-200 F4 L USM, it gave me another perspective of photo taking and enjoyment.

I confess that my usage of my telephoto lense is still limited and I have not fully master this superb lense yet, thus some of my photographs were disappointing (blur due to handshake, weak handling, poor decision of shutter speed selection).

Presenting some of my "just passed" fashion shoot photographs:

Thanks for viewing, folks !

13th October 2007 - Day summary of my photojournalism

13th October 2007, Saturday - Today was a busy day of taking photographs for me, this was my photojournalism schedule.

- Birding at Bukit Timah Monsoon Canal (near Coronation Plaza)
- Takashimaya 14th Annual Fashion Show ~ 5pm show
- Super Import Nights Roadshow @ Cineleisure
- Rugby match @ Padang
- Da:NS Festival ~ Sayaw -Dance of Philippines @ Esplanade

I had a fun time with my DSLR, although, I still need to brush up on handling my 70-200mm F4 L, still have blur photos due to physical weak handling of the telephoto lense. I would be writing up on my adventures in the next few days.

Well, to kick start, first and foremost, I was on my way to meet Cousin Ching Ching for lunch at Bukit Timah and I was crossing over the overhead bridge near Coronation Plaza and I spotted birds in the monsoon canal, looking out for their prey (fish).

The migratory birds would be arriving soon from the Northern Hemisphere and I look foward to visiting Sungei Buloh to do birding photography. It had been some years since I visited Sungei Buloh.

Many photography plans/projects/visits on hand, I would update on my blog here when my plans started rolling off. Do keep a lookout for the next few days on my photo taking adventures.

85th Anniversary Book - Scouting Items Photoshoot

The Spirit of the Red & Green scarf, guiding us to go ONWARD !

Dragon Scout Group is currently in the process of preparing, collecting and writing up on the 85th Anniversary Celebrations book, the final jigsaw puzzle for the 85th Anniversary celebrations in 2007.

I am involved in this project as a photographer and we came down together on a saturday, taking out scouting items from different eras to be photographed, whereby some of the photos would be selected for the final prints to be displayed inside the 85th Anniversary Book. There would most probably be another photo shoot because we had a lot more many different kinds of scouting historical items inside the scout room.

Let's take a peek at some of the possible photographs that could make it into the 85th Anniversary Book........

DSG Red & Green Scarf beside the National Scarfs (old and new) and Scarfs from other countries.

Hardworking DSG 85th Anniversary Book Committee Members

Flags of our Gan Eng Seng School Dragon Scout Group

Showcasing the rich history of Dragon Scout Group

If you like to know more about Dragon Scout Group, please proceed to the following links:

(1) Dragon Scout Group homepage

(2) Dragon Scout 85th Anniversary Campfire and Dinner Celebrations

Happy reading folks !