Upcoming Reports and Postings

Folks,

I haven't been able to post and write up on my latest adventure with my DSLR and Macbook yet, many things on my mind to complete and write up, planning to deliver excellent quality photos and journalistic reporting and content here ! 

Nevertheless, do look foward to the following : 

• Singapore Toys & Comics Convention 2008
• Special Report on Star Wars Collection @ the Singapore Toys & Comics Convention 2008
• Updates on photographing high speed flying action
• My Latest Toy - Macbook Update

Meanwhile, do drop by my flickr site to take a look at the photos first ! 

Mustang Singapore by Grinder-Man @ Flipside Festival

After watching a great acoustic guitar unplugged performance at the Esplanade Concourse, I went out to the Waterfront Canopy to catch another performance, that was something mysterious to me based on the brochure and description on the Esplanade website.

Well, I was blown away by their intriguing performances, unique and very different from the various artists performances during the Flipside Festival at the Esplanade. There were lots of movements, artists with their black boxes on their heads, in perfect choreography and movements, knowing their routes, movements, dances and actions.

The Hardwarezone Forum link gave a very good description of the Mustang Singapore performance, " GRINDER-MAN is an art performance group that creates audacious happenings combining contemporary art and continuous motion in locations ranging from art museums and galleries to concert halls and clubs. To date they have performed in New York, Singapore, Israel, Sweden, Rome, Cologne, and Paris."

Well, further research into this awesome group, led me to their website and it dawned upon me that it was an international performing artist group. It had been some wonderful weeks of artistic performances and I was glad to enjoy and view different world wide artists performances during the Esplanade Flipside Festival 2008.

Do drop by my flickr site and take a look at my other selected photos of Mustang Singapore by GRINDER-MAN !

Jack, Rai & Alvin performing at Esplanade Flipside Festival

I was at the Esplanade again, walking back after catching a sneak preview of the upcoming National Day Parade rehearsal and I was there to watch a wonderful performance by Jack, Rai and Alvin singing Superhero songs.

They were really awesome and the trio really mesmerised the crowds there, especially with their many different songs.

The trio sure give the Flipside festival a different touch and feel from the various different types of artists performances !

Updated 26th June - their official website is at this LINK ! 

Sneak Preview of an Upcoming Event

On the 21st June, I was finishing my window shopping at Suntec City and Marina Square, decided to cross over to the Esplanade to catch a glimpse of any rehearsals for our upcoming National Day event in August 2008.

I had to confess that I wasn't disappointed and it was a mini-preview with the performances, parade, Black Knights display was really awesome ! I had a great time and very challenging time taking photos of the high flying and octane performances by the Black Knights !

For the photographers planning to capture the Black Knights performance, I would like to share some challenges I faced -

• Changing background lighting from sunset to low light, must be ready to change your ISO accordingly
  
• Very fast action, fast lense needed
• Another DSLR with wide angle lense or digicam - to take the beautiful photo of the heart shape formed by the Black Knights, it is very challenging (not ideal) to change lenses when you are capturing the Black Knights in action
  
• Your position on the parade itself, don't be under the trees at the Esplanade, you would miss the action

Besides, I also caught a glimpse of the fireworks firing points and zone of the fireworks display in the Marina Bay and CBD skyline. It was a short display of fireworks but I was very happy to be able to view it !

Looking foward to the next few rehearsals and honing my photography skills to capture high speed flying performances ! Do drop by my photos site and have a look at the other rehearsal photos !

The BIG NAZO Creature Show

Last week, I saw some great performances by artists at the Esplanade, the Flipside event, in conjunction with the Singapore Arts Festival. The puppet performance was intriguing and on 14th June, I went back to the Esplanade after my event shoot at Vivo City and caught a very different puppets performance.

This time, it was people dressed in giant aliens costumes, singing lovely songs, some great oldies that I recall e.g. Satellite of Love, dancing around, cracking jokes and providing lots of fun and laughter to the crowds. It was an awesome show, felt great to see another wonderful artist performance, I always admire and like such different shows by people from all over the world, coming to Singapore to showcase their work.

Well, hope you folks enjoy watching the giant aliens in action !

Creatively Thai 2008 Street Fashion Runway @ Vivo City

On 14th June 2008, after finishing my advisory and consultancy appointment with my client and his family at Vivo City, I went to walk around and discovered a fashion showcase event in the Central Court and South Avenue on Level 1.

Being curious, I decided to pop down and found about this fashion event called Creatively Thai 2008, showcasing young designers from Thailand with their unique and eye-catching designs. Moreover, on 14th June itself, there were 3 street fashion shows on 1pm, 4pm and 7pm, with models strutting down the stage showcasing various different fashion designers awesome designs.

Somehow, I didn't know about this event until I was inside Vivo City, well, can't resist the chance to do fashion photo shoot, therefore, I caught the 4pm and 7pm fashion show. It was very nice to see a new and unique style of fashion designs, although I am not a fashionable person at all and my selection of clothes would probably be classified as poor..... LOL .... In between 4pm and 7pm, caught up with Raymond and had coffee and snacks while he tried out my Macbook without much songs or photos added. Would let Raymond try out more when I get my transfer of data, information and stuff transferred across from my old laptop to new Macbook.

Anyway, back to the fashion show, at the 7pm time slot, it was getting crowded and I didn't manage to get a good location to position myself, end up standing behind photographers and some of my photos were blocked by their heads, DSLRs and flashes ! Nevertheless, I still managed to get a few decent shots and it was enjoyable.

At the end of the show, I managed to get to know photographers there who were also photographing the 7pm fashion show, nice to chat with you George and the other fellow photographers there too !

Oh, this event was jointly presented by DEP - Thai Trade Center, Singapore and supported by Vivo City and the best surprise for me was having a chat with Thailand Tourism Embassy staff who were there for the 7pm fashion show ..... Nice to talk to you folks !

Hope you all enjoy the photos and more photos can be viewed at my flickr site ! Let's support the fashion designers from Thailand too !

2 photos - Alumni Lucky Draw Gifts & A New White Toy

Recently, I went for networking events with my University of Queensland Alumni and I was very lucky, winning a pair of wine from Symphony Hills.

Thereafter, on Friday 13th, I finally purchased my long awaited Macbook, sitting side by side my trustworthy and semi-retired laptop (soon to be full-time desktop).

Well..... it's Apple Time ! Currently exploring and learning new cool stuff in my macbook ...... bringing my photography to a new level and producing my portfolio album (finally) !

Updates

The last week had been a busy time for me, bought my new toy on friday the 13th, it is white and  really beautiful....... 

It is a Apple Macbook ! Anyway, still have a lot of things to be done for my macbook...... 

Nevertheless, it has an awesome program for photographers like me, the iPhoto, simply wonderful, useful and awesome, looking foward to post processing my selected photos for my photography portfolio.

Back to photography, on the weekend 14th June, I was at Vivo City, meeting my clients for a business appointment, after the appointment, I saw that there were a fashion event called Creatively Thai 2008 and stayed back behind to take some photos before hopping over to Esplanade for another segment of the Flipside festival.

Do keep a lookout, would be uploading and writing up about the posts of the interesting events in the next few days.

Photos uploaded

Hi folks,

I had uploaded some of my recent postings photos into Flickr -

(1) Little Feet Theatre
(2) BAM (Canada)
(3) Ojarus (Japan)

Do drop by the above 3 links and take a look ! Hope you folks enjoy viewing the photos !

Little Feet Theatre @ Esplanade

Do you like watching puppets performances ? Well, I do recall watching a few different kinds of puppets performances from different cultural groups and styles, it was fun and enjoyable especially when I was younger.

After watching Ojarus and BAM, I proceed to the concourse inside the Esplanade and waited on the sofa while waiting for the next artist performance, Little Feet Theatre by Veronica Gonzalez from Italy.

It was a very fun and lively puppet show by this beautiful lady using both her arms, feet, hands and head. She gave a wonderful smiling performance, getting the crowds excited and the children glued to their seats mesmerised by her awesome performances.

With different suitcases for different skits, we were shown to a great level of laughter and excitement, made me feel young again and enjoying myself in this form of artistic performance. A great Saturday evening of watching different artists performances at the Esplanade........ enjoyed myself .......

Explosion ! by BAM (Canada)

Folks, if you recall in my earlier post, after viewing the performance by Ojarus from Japan, I walked along the Esplanade waterfront and walked towards the Stage@Powerhouse, waiting for the next artiste showcasing their acts.

They were known as BAM from Canada, a great bunch of guys, really funny and entertaining with their drums and acts. They were crazy yet hilarious and there were lots of cheers and laughters, as their performances captivated us and captured the crowds support and cheers !

A really unique performance, great to see them in action and their drums performances, something different from traditional drum beats and performances. It's a wonderful time for laughter and stress reliever for us, and it is really great that Esplanade has brought in many different and awesome artists to perform in Singapore for their Flipside event in conjunction with the Singapore Arts Festival.

Ojarus @ Esplanade

With the Singapore Arts Festival going on currently, the Esplanade in conjunction with the Singapore Arts Festival, organised Flipside, many different events across the various Esplanade venues from 29th May 2008 to 22 June 2008.

On 7th June, I was waiting for the performances to start and sitting at the cosy sofas at the concourse area. Suddenly, I saw Japanese clowns with their painted faces and gear, moving out and starting their entertaining performance.

It was really hilarious and I had a fun time watching their performances as they walked from the concourse to the waterfront canopy. On their way there, they made fun of many people there, providing great entertainment for all.

At the waterfront canopy, the crowds started to gather and watched their performances, laughing at them making fun of themselves and people there. A good stress reliever and always love the to watch artists arriving from overseas performing in Singapore.

Dropping by the Esplanade

The Singapore Arts Festival 2008 is currently going on and there are many performances and events held at different venues across Singapore.

The Esplanade is a key venue for the Singapore Arts Festival 2008 and while I was at the Esplanade and nearby areas, I went around and enjoy the Marina Bay scenery. Well, the sea was brownish due to the heavy rainfall in the morning and afternoon, many activities could be seen on the floating platform, with their lights switched on.

Folks, especially for my international readers, they are preparing for our National Day Parade 2008 in August....... for my local readers, something interesting for our NDP 2008 ......... Do keep a look out !

After enjoying the scenery and taking photos, I went around and inside the Esplanade for the Flipside events there held in conjunction with Singapore Arts Festival 2008 ........ Do pop by in the next few days and read about my write ups !

Don't Leave Home Without It !

Folks,

I had been an avid traveler + photojournalist, visiting many different places and countries around the world and currently planning more places to visit.

Therefore, I would like to share with fellow travelers on the importance of Travel Insurance, something that they must have it before traveling for their holidays or business or work. There are 2 travel insurance portals that I found really useful, do consider them when you planning your next travel trip.

Looking for travel insurance? Apply online and receive a free no obligation quotation today!

Purchase your travel insurance online with Direct Line

Wish everybody a nice and wonderful holiday, take lots of photos !

Sundown Marathon 2008 Finisher

On 1st June 2008, at 0000hrs, I embarked on another marathon run, known as the Sundown Marathon, it was an awesome run, my account and experience while running was penned down in here, do drop by and take a look.

At the end of the run, it was really exhausting, however, I am really happy that I have COMPLETED SUCCESSFULLY my marathon run (even though my timing wasn't as good as my previous 2 marathon runs) ! Added another medal to my 2 full marathons finishes ......... Another breakthrough !

Visiting DSG Group Camp 2008 - 31st May 2008

The Dragon Scout Group held their annual group camp again from 30th May to 2nd June 2008 and 3 of us old boys, decided to pop down and visit them at the group camp on 31st May 2008. This year, they decided to change their usual camping grounds and went camping at the school field instead.

Nevertheless, it was a good change in my opinion and refreshing too, something different and unique from the usual camp sites the group usually goes to. It was great that Zhigang and Junjie went down with me and we had a fun time revisiting our wonderful scouting memories, stories, catch up with our senior Hongliang, who is one of the 3 teachers in charge of the scout group.

With 4 old boys walking around the field and visiting the various patrol camp sites, it brought us back many fond memories of our scouting activities and camping days. Hongliang asked the patrol leaders to show us their campsites and gave us an insight into their gadgets and camp craft. Given their special theme for this group camp, being environmentally friendly, it was a great achievement with limited resources !

I reckon Zhigang and Junjie had some fun, asking questions on the designs and practicality of the camp craft designs, it was deja vu for us visiting our patrol campsites that we once used to lead and I was happy for both my fellow mates to be in touch with their roots and juniors of Dragon Scout Group. Zhigang and Junjie were also introduced to some of the senior ventures and leaders too, brining more old boys closer together.

Had dinner there, tasting the food cooked by the senior Ventures, had a great catch up on our former seniors of DSG and many different topics for discussion and chatting, lots of memories and chat exchanged.

It was a short visit, nevertheless, very fun and enjoyable.