K1 Grand Finale Day 2 - 27th July

After my adventure with vintage cars at the Raffles Landing site, I slowly made my way to the Singapore F1 Pit Building. The weather was a bit hot and I just pop into shopping malls along the way to enjoy the cooling air-conditioning.

There were supposed to be people joining me today but in the end, I went alone instead, I would still continue to go ahead and enjoy my photo taking and sports cars adrenaline high octane action.

On the sunday, there were more people coming to this carnival, there were more activities especially catering for the children, there were many of them at the Tamiya mini-racing cars, kiddy rides, drawing and colouring competition. Besides, there were super car sprints too, nice to see sports cars doing time laps on the F1 track, especially watching my favourite Skyline GT-R, the latest version in action ! Go-Karting was just as popular and there were also more people watching the show cars on display and many photographers catching the action at the various locations at the Singapore F1 Pit Building.

Back to drifting, more action, seems like people who signed up for the drift clinic and trying out their sports cars on drifting. Maybe I was there at the wrong time, not much information was broadcasted to the public on the drifting segment.

Being a sports car fanatic photographer and a public viewer, the drifting event segment wasn't well lay out, I understood the need for safety distances and barriers, always posing a challenge to take photos from such constraints. Moreover, it probably doesn't give enough media coverage to the drifters too..... Oh yeah, I am a drift fan.

Overall, this carnival was different from the car events I been before, it's great to have different types of racing, sports cars, go-kart and saloon cars events catering for the young to car fanatics to families. It's a good build up to the upcoming Singapore GP.

Do drop by my flickr site and view the K1 Grand Finale photos !

Singapore Heritage Festival 2008 - Vintage Cars

In conjunction with the National Parade month in August, Singapore had been organising for the past 5 years, an event that attracts both the young and old, locals and overseas visitors. The event is our Singapore Heritage Festival.

There are many different events happening at the Singapore Heritage Festival 2008, do drop by their website and read about their various events and activities. Do join in the fun too !

As for me, being a photography and car lover, the vintage cars from Singapore and Malaysia and other countries too, came together as part of the Singapore Heritage Festival Vintage Cars Grand Prix and Concours display at the Raffles Landing site on 27th July 2008. I was a bit late therefore, I couldn't catch them racing in action on the road (within speed limits).

I remember viewing the vintage cars at the National Museum Singapore and could identify some of the vintage cars. However, there were more different vintage cars on display at the 2008 event ! Sometimes, they do not need more words and introduction, admiring their classic beauty and racing power of the vintage cars are an art by itself.

Do drop by my flickr site and enjoy viewing the vintage cars !

K1 Grand Finale Day 1 - 26th July

After exploring the Singapore Garden Festival at the Suntec Convention Centre, I went down to the newly completed F1 Pit Building behind/beside the Singapore Flyer for the K1 Grand Finale Carnival Day 1.

There were 2 days of events and I went on both days. As I reached at about 4pm++, some of the earlier events had already passed. There were many different types of events happening concurrently and I felt that it was a rather family-oriented car carnival, with kiddy rides, playground for young children, go-karting on the F1 track and pit stop area, drifting for drifters, sports cars display and Audi R8 sprint ride for children 7-12 years old.

Met Collin and Isaac at the event, we went around exploring the F1 pit building area. I was very excited walking around, it's not often you can explore such venues, and F1 is coming to Singapore very soon, a Night Race too ! Collin and Isaac went to queue up for Go-Karting while I walked around the pit area, looking around.

When the 2 of them finally got onto their Go-Kart, I was there to snap photos at them and I was laughing at Isaac, who can't put on the safety belt and harness on the Go-Kart (I would reserve this hilarious drama to a specially dedicated post for Isaac) ..... Haha ....... Well, soon, they were driving away on the pit stop and F1 track, short distance with fun !

Thereafter, continued exploring the Tamiya mini racing car toys booth and mini racing cars circuit. Isaac played around the remote control cars and got himself a mini racing car from Tamiya !! Drifting was around the same location and we watched some nice drifting action taking place.

On the saturday, there weren't too many people there, marketing was done by K1 Motorsport and there were different types of car related events inside the Grand Finale itself. As for sunday, which I would write a separate post on, was better and more people arriving, especially the young children.

I am a car fanatic and photography crazy, it's a 2 hit combination. Looking foward to the upcoming F1 Singapore GP.........

It's Cars and more Cars !

Singapore Garden Festival 2008

In the month of July and August, they would be the 2 months whereby we would be to participate and enjoy many different types of events in Singapore.

One of them was the Singapore Garden Festival, well, before I write further, I have to thank my cousin Ching Ching for giving me a weekend ticket to the Singapore Garden Festival, the Singapore Garden Festival really blew me off, 2 floors of the Suntec City Convention Centre and the whole convention hall space was occupied.

The exhibition on the 6th Floor were divided into:

Level 6

Landscape and Fantasy Gardens

Featuring creations by local designers and top award-winning garden designers from around the world including Australia, Germany, Japan, Malaysia, New Zealand, Singapore, Sweden, South Africa, Thailand, United Kingdom and United States of America.

Floral Windows to the World

Featuring colourful and vibrant cut-flower displays and floral masterpieces with stunning set design and lighting by floral designers from Belgium, France, India, Norway, Macau and more. (Information and Link from the official website)

It was a real eye-opener, t here were so many many beautiful landscape designers from different parts of the world, that graced this wonderful event and showcased their world class landscape designs and horticulture. I really had a wonderful time taking phot os, there were some outstanding displays that caught my attention -

(1) Touching the Tulip by Nico Wissing

(2) Painting with Nature: An Everchanging Landscape by Dimitri Xenakis & Maro Avrabou

(3) Seeking Shangri-La by Peter Cheok

(4) IMBIZO yase Afrika by David Davidson

The above were my personal favourites and there were still many world class displays there too, the whole 6th floor of the convention hall was filled up and I was moving very fast to move around the various displays to take as many different photos.

I used my EF 17-40mm F4 L initially to capture most of my "landscape" photos first before switching to my EF 70- 200 F4 L for my "portrait" flowers photo shoot, trying to produce macro flowers using my telephoto lense ;)

Thereafter, I went down to the 4th floor and it was another set of flowers display -

Level 4

Singapore Orchid Show

Showcasing Southeast Asia’s rich and diverse heritage of orchids. A dazzling display of the most diverse botanical family and the most important plant group in the international floriculture industry.

Garden Fiesta

Offering educational, recreational and entertainment activities catering to the public, families, serious gardeners as well as hobbyists.

Vibrant MarketPlace

Offering a wide array of plants, gardening and landscape products and services, and arts & craft – all under one roof

Clarin s Learning Garden

Here, children will get to learn through fun and games to love and respect Nature by being more aware of and making every effort to reduce their carbon footprint.

It was simply orchids and orchids, well, majority of them;) ..... It was a venue whereby I was asking myself, there were so many different breeds and varieties of orchids ? I threw my

self a challenge, to take as many different photos of the orchids on display there.

It had been quite a long time since I went to take photos of flora and fauna, used to love taking photos as it gave me a very quiet time to enjoy and improve my photography while enjoying the beauty of Mother Nature.

Do drop by my Flickr Set for more photos !

After an enjoyable photo taking session, I proceed on to my next event destination, K1 Grand Finale Day 1 at F1 Pit Building, with Isaac and Collin.

Stay tuned !

Summary and Preview of my upcoming posts

Today, on the sunday 27th July, I went for a day of automobile photos taking. Firstly, it was the Singapore Heritage Festival - Vintage Cars, followed by K1 Grand Finale Day 2 at the F1 Pit Building. 

Many posts to write, more photos to upload onto Flickr. A preview of my upcoming posts would be as follows:

- Singapore Garden Festival 2008

- Singapore Heritage Festival 2008 - Vintage Cars

- K1 Grand Finale @ F1 Pit Building

- Ray's Last Minute Birthday Gathering

- A possible special post for Isaac. 

This would most probably be the schedule blog postings here (subject to changes and last minute introduction of new stories and events !)

Thank you all for your support and readership ! Remember to bookmark here !

Quick summary of friday and saturaday events

It had been a hectic and fun friday and saturday for me. Different activities, would be planning to write up about them soon -

Friday 24th

(1) Ray's last minute birthday gathering (waiting for pics from his hp cam)

Saturday 25th

(1) Singapore Garden Festival

(2) K1 Grand Finale Day 1

Stay tuned, folks !

Professional Interior Designer

A home is a very important part of our life, it's where we sleep, wash up, eat, cook, host parties and many other interesting activities in your home.

Whether you are a new homeowner or an existing homeowner, do you face dilemma when you wanted to do renovations for refurbishing an existing home or planning to come up with something different when you purchased your new home? When it comes to interior design for your home, it can get really frustrating, working with different groups of people, therefore, you will want a professional interior designer that understands your styles, tastes, needs, desires and requirements for your home and not those of the interior designer. 

I have the recommendation for you, Kajagamdesigns, Interior Design New York, they are the great interior design consultants, helping you the homeowner, to formulate designs that suits the homeowner's personality, style with the professional flair from Interior Design in New York City. They would sit down, listen to you the homeowner, and work closely with you on your whole interior design planning. For existing homeowners, do take this opportunity to have your kitchen and bathroom renovated, they are the experts in Bathroom Remodeling in New York City,  if you are planning your entire house renovation, look no further, Kaja Gam Designs is your professional interior designer solutions and services provider.

A new home with an awesome interior design and planning handled by Kaja Gam Designs, or a wholly renovated existing home, it will definitely make your home more cosy and comfortable for yourself and family. The warmth and love of the family in a home with the interior design matched to your personality, style and preferences by Kaja Gam Designs is priceless. 

Another Weekend of Photos Taking

Today is the start of another new weekend. 

It had been a hectic week for me, handling different business matters and client servicing. This weekend of photos taking would be good for me to de-stress before going back to my work flow and routines again.

Some insights of the photos taking opportunities of events

- Flowers

- Vintage Cars

- Go-Karts

- Car Carnival

Bookmark here ! Coming to my photojournalist blog soon ..............

A Perfect Internet Web Design Consultant

Folks,

Do you currently own websites for personal and businesses ?

Have you ever encounter website design headaches, whereby after scratching your head, you still can't come up with a good website design for your website ? Do you have an excellent website but it is not getting the international readership that it really deserves ?

If you faced the above issues, look no further, introducing a perfect internet consultant known as Diggy, a web design company ! Established since 1997, they are a highly experienced Internet Marketing and Website Design Company with an excellent track record, with more than 1000 websites produced by their dedicated and talented staff. With their vast years of Website Design and Internet Marketing experience, they would be able to grow and expand your website along with backend support in the areas of database management and development and hosting facilities.

Choosing Diggy the Web Design Company is the way to go !! They are highly experienced, your one stop solution for your Website Design needs, personalised service, excellent quality of service provision, technical and Internet Marketing expertise, all these wonderful points at a great value of money !!

Whether you are a personal account, small business, medium to giant corporate entities, Diggy is the perfect solution to growing your website, marketing, business, sales, productivity, management of your sites and customised web development projects.

Look no further, drop by into Diggy the Web Design Company now and contact them for their Website Design and Internet Marketing customised solutions !

Studio Festi @ Singapore Night Festival ~ 19th July 2008

The National Museum of Singapore organised its first Night Festival at the National Museum of Singapore and Singapore Management University Campus Green, with a dazzling and extraordinary performance by Studio Festi from Italy, with the theme of their magnificent performance, Dancing Sky.

I rushed there after taking the first set of fireworks from the Esplanade Bridge earlier, met up with my Cousin Ching Ching at the Singapore Arts Museum before crossing over to the SMU Camp us Green, even though we were early, it was getting crowded with many people, we just made our way and could only stay on the Campus Green side, apparently, was quite a great view of the various performances actually.

When the performances started, the people there were given an awesome display of artistic aerial performance, fitting to their theme, Dancing Sky. For greater details of the various different performances, do look into the National Museum of Singapore website and have a deeper understanding ........

Meanwhile ........ let my photos speak

After a first half of fantastic action, the performances from the National Museum of Singapore turned towards the SMU Campus Green, where we were standing, therefore, we turned around and enjoyed the second half of the Night Festival........

It was a very enjoyable night for photo taking, do drop by my flickr site for more photos from my time enjoying Dancing Sky at Studio Festi.

A Wet Rehearsal on 19th July 2008

For those readers who had been following my photoblog postings, I had been attending the NDP 2008 Rehearsals, taking photos from different locations and angles. Personally, I found it to be very interesting, great opportunites to take photos, examining and analysing different shooting locations for the various performances from the land, air and sea.

There is always something new, something different. Before this rehearsal, it came to my attention that my friend was part of the Guard of Honour marching contingent. Decided to meet my old friend and catch up with him at Suntec City before the Ceremonial Flags uncasing ceremony. Took some photos for him, chit chat before he went to prepare and I went down to get into a position for the Ceremonial Flags uncasing ceremony, that was available to be watched by members of the public.

The uncasing ceremony is a very important and solemn ceremony for the military forces and especially during our National Day Parade, whereby we would be to view the various military formations. As I was brought up in a environment whereby I learned the importance of maintaining and following traditions, since my scouting days. The Ceremonial Flags uncasing ceremony is very important and solemn, I strongly urge the public viewers to show the utmost respect for the ceremony when the ceremony is being conducted.

Thereafter, I walked over to the Esplanade to catch the pre-parade segment, and I realised that if I wanted to catch the pre-parade after catching the Ceremonial Flags uncasing ceremony, you might be missing out on them if you do not walked fast enough over in time and it might be very crowded on the actual day itself.

The weather was very dark, a wet weather evening. The F16s Black Knights air display was changed from the past few rehearsals and it was a very refreshing, new and challenging perspective to take photos of them in top class action, given the dark gloomy rain clouds.

While waiting for the fireworks to arrive, the rain started pouring down on us, it wasn't heavy rain but the winds were a little bit strong and blowing into our face, I was at the Esplanade Bridge and I was quite wet eventually. A lot of people started leaving due to the rain, I persisted, praying for rain to stop. It didn't but I continued and took the first set of fireworks. By then, I decided that I needed to pack up and rush over to SMU & National Museum for the Singapore Night Festival and I needed to get myself dry first.

And off I went ......... to the Singapore Night Festival @ SMU and National Museum ........ coming up in the next post !

Stay tuned !

Upcoming Posts + Photos of my New Working Desk & Books Collection

Folks,

I had a wet saturday while I was taking photographs outside. In the upcoming posts, I would be writing up on my adventures at

1. NDP Rehearsal 2008 on 19th July 2008
2. Singapore Night Festival - Studio Festi from Italy, on 19th July 2008

However, just to show my new working desk that I recently changed, the office work desk is purchased from Solos (S) Pte Ltd, do drop by their site and take a look at their wide range of office furniture products and design planning!!!

And last but not least my personal books and CDs collection !

Stayed tuned folks !

A Cleaner CMOS Sensor

On tuesday 15th July, I decided to send in my trustworthy Canon EOS 30D for a long overdue servicing...... Sensor Cleaning.

My flickr friends were highlighting to me on the apparent increase in number of dust, spots and dirts. I went back to my trustworthy retail outlet, The Camera Workshop, and sent it in for sensor cleaning. For my international readers, The Camera Workshop is located at 3 Coleman Street, Unit 01-27/21, Peninsula Shopping Centre, Singapore 179804. The place where I got most of my camera stuff and accessories.

Finally on friday, 18th July, I collected back my Canon EOS 30D and lady boss showed me 2 photos, before and after cleaning........ well ........ I was amazed and shocked at the number of dots on my sensor (probably 20++) ........ In conclusion, a must do servicing.......

Looking foward to Saturday's photo taking events ....... Keep a lookout here !!!

Giant Love Heart

I had been taking the Giant Love Heart, produced by our awesome and talented F16 Black Knights, trying to get it as beautiful as possible.

iWalk, U2, a fellow travel blogger, suggested on my flickr that "it is the best moment to say "I Love You" to your girlfriend...... "

My dear readers, when you see the Giant Love Heart, remember to say the magic and beautiful words and spread LOVE to everybody !

Upcoming Travel Photography Competition & Exhibition

The Singapore International Photography Festival is scheduled to take place from 8th to 31st October 2008 and in conjunction with this event, there is a fringe event known as "Asia Mosaics - Travel Photography Competition and Exhibition". 

For more details and information, do drop into the official websites here : 

- Singapore International Photography Festival 

- Asia Mosaics - Travel Photography Competition and Exhibition

For my fellow travel and photo bloggers in Asia, do consider taking part in this event !

I am thinking of entering this competition, I feel it will be an excellent event and competition to test myself (in travel photography), ever since I was introduced to photography at a very young age by my dad and turning more serious into my hobby about 3 years ago. 

Folks, if you drop by into my Flickr site and find outstanding travel photos in my collection, that you feel I can submit, do feel free to drop me your views and recommendations !

Good luck with this competition folks ! Last but not least ...... Enjoy taking many many travel photos !

Poll Needed : Which Fireworks Photo You Like Better

Folks,

During the past 2 saturdays, I had took fireworks photographs and I would like to run a poll of your opinions on which fireworks photo do you prefer .........

I have attached the map for reference (From Google Maps)

View Larger Map

(a) Fireworks Photo taken from the Esplanade (in front of the Stage@Powerhouse)

(b) Fireworks Photo taken from the Esplanade Bridge (Esplanade Drive) 

Just to get a feel which location should I choose to position myself for taking photographs (fireworks especially) on NDP 2008......... 

Do drop by my flickr site for more photos for comparisons and analysis ! 

A Different Shooting Location - A Different Perspective

On 12th July 2008, it's National Education Show 2, another fun filled day of NDP 2008 rehearsal. I decided to drop down again and this time round, I decided I needed a different shooting location, to have a different perspective.

The location I decided to set up my camera and location was on the Esplanade Bridge, with a wide angle view of the Esplanade, Marina Bayfront and Merlion Park. I happened to bump into another fellow photographer, Billy, whom I met at Vivo last week.

A fresh challenge, different views, lovely opportunities. The weather today was excellent and the show was a lot more energetic and exciting, building up to our upcoming nation's birthday.

Presenting to you, some of the selected photos of National Education Show 2, from the Esplanade Bridge.

Do check out my other photos on my flickr site !

Hope you all enjoy it ! Counting down to NDP 2008 !