Tuesday, September 30, 2008

I got Nico Rosberg Autographs !!!

The Singapore F1 GP was over, however, there were still some post activities happening around Singapore.

I was informed by my friend that Nico Rosberg, our Formula One First Night Race, 2nd Place Winner would be at Besk Denki at Ngee Ann City for an autograph signing session ! Since he had placed himself in Singapore's F1 history, I wanted to get his autograph !!!!

Getting quickly into action, I searched my Friday Practice photos and found a decent photo of Nico Rosberg Williams F1 car in action ! I immediately did a bit of post processing and printed out into postcards for Nico Rosberg to sign !

Thanks to my old friend, I managed to get 4 autographs, kept 1 for myself and gave 3 away. 

Would be sharing on the challenges of F1 night photography soon !

Saturday, September 27, 2008

300th Post : Reporting on Singapore F1 GP - Friday Night Practice

Before I started writing on the Singapore F1 GP Friday Night Practice, I would like to thank all my readers and supporters first. This is my 300th post !

Back to Friday 26th September 2008, the 1st day of the Singapore F1 GP event, a great carnival that I was looking foward to. Met Jack and walked towards the Marina Square Shopping Centre via Suntec City and entered from Gate 7, around 3pm. Everything was wonderful, even at that time, there were already a good crowd starting to stroll inside. 

There were support races to grace the Singapore F1 GP event, by Formula BMW, Porsche and Aston Martin in the afternoon from 3pm to 6pm, and the crowds were given some great practice driving sessions and how potentially loud the sound of the powerful engines would be. The weather on Friday was good, sunny and humid without the rain and thunderstorms. 

Met Michelle, fellow UQAAS Committee member, walked around the various locations of the race circuit. From the One Fullerton at Turn 13, we walked towards opposite Victoria Concert Hall at Turn 11, had to walk a longer distance due to diversion. Along the way, did a bit of shopping and sightseeing at the merchandise store, that's the F1 carnival for you !
After watching the support races, we walked back to the Padang and saw something Uniquely Singapore, tables and chairs on the road, with food stalls beside it. You don't get much opportunities to have such open air dining in Singapore anymore ! We sat down, bought our drinks and dinner, prices are a bit steep though, had a nice cold beer with compliments from Jack, chatted and shared about cars !

After dinner, we all proceed to our grandstand seats, Jack & mine at Marina Square. The F1 Practice session had begun ! The sounds and roars of the F1 engines were really deafening and we forgot our ear plugs. Due to the driving lines of the F1 cars, our seats views were blocked as the F1 cars were driving very close to the edge of the safety barrier in front of the Marina Square Grandstand, as they need to do a right angle 90 degrees at Turn 16, driving into Esplande Waterfront and Bay Grandstand.

After enjoying the deafening sounds, watching how the F1 cars were driving, I was convinced that the Singapore F1 GP circuit is fabulous ! The F1 drivers who had doubts initially, doesn't seem to show it as they were driving pretty good in a totally unknown circuit in night conditions ! 
After the 1st practice session, we decided to walk around the circuit again, revisiting the locations that we went earlier today in the afternoon and captured different views of the F1 cars in action. It was a very big test of my photography skills till date, night shooting conditions under ample lighting conditions, very fast flying F1 cars, wire fence barriers that makes it very difficult for photographers to shoot. 

Soon after, it was time to call it a day. The F1 cars went back for rest and analysis, while we made our way home to rest from a long day of fun and cars. 

Do check out some of my Friday Practice photos here

Thursday, September 25, 2008

My 299th Post is a Summarised Update

The last week till date had been very fun and hectic and roller coaster. This was the storyline

- Super Import Nights (pre-preparation and Day 1)

- University of Queensland Alumni Association of Singapore ~ Wine Symphony Function

- Super volatile financial markets turmoil and shocks, more time had to be allocated to this area and provide advisory to my clients during this last week

I had yet to write up my photojournalistic reports on the Super Import Nights and UQAAS Wine Symphony Event, only posted links to my Flickr site for selected photos from these 2 events. 

Other areas need to blog would be introducing The Wine Symphony and upcoming events !

Sorry for the slow reporting, meanwhile, check out my photos !

Saturday, September 20, 2008

Photos from UQAAS Wine Symphony Event 19th Sep 2008

Check out my University of Queensland Alumni Association of Singapore Wine Symphony Event on the 19th September 2008 !

Hope you all enjoy viewing the photos and I would write on our wonderful networking event and The Wine Symphony in the next few days !

Friday, September 19, 2008

Photos From Super Import Nights 2008 !

Check out my Day 1 photos of Super Import Nights 2008 !

Hope you all enjoy it ! I would be blogging about them in the next few days !

Saturday, September 13, 2008

Mid Autumn Festival @ Radin Mas Primary School

During these few days, there would going to be a number of Mid Autumn Festival celebrations happening around our different neighbourhoods.



On 12th September, Radin Mas Primary School and its neighbourhood Bukit Purmei and Telok Blangah Rise, had their Mid Autumn Festival Celebrations at their school compound, with a great carnival and the students setting up stalls for games and drinks.

The Radin Mas Cub Scouts were also involved and had 4 tables to set up their stalls, being the Big Brother Scouts, Gan Eng Seng Dragon Scout Group, from the young to the Old Boys (a few of us), came down and helped them in the running of the drinks, food and games.



It was a fun time, they had their MP to grace this event and they had a big lantern there too ! We bought some food and drinks from the Cub Scouts too and they all had a fun time too !

 

The simpler things in life can be so much fun ........ like the young kids ;) 

Friday, September 12, 2008

My Top Photos Collection !

I had just done up my Top Photos Collection from my Flickr site

Do drop by and take a look !


Thank you folks for all your support !

Tuesday, September 09, 2008

My Blog is "Attacked" - Read from Firefox

In the morning of 9th September 2008, my blog here faced a situation that I haven't encountered for a long time. My blog was redirected to a lottery site after it finished loading.

Till now, it was a very frustrating, tiring day for me to work on finding out the roots of the problem and I haven't rectified it yet. Viewing from Safari and Internet Explorer had issues while Firefox now currently had no further issues.

I would like to sincerely apologise to my readers here if you were re-directed to another page and I am still trying to find the solution to it. Update you readers soon !

Monday, September 08, 2008

Mid Autumn Festival by the River - 6th September 2008


After my adventure at the NBA Madness that was held at Marina Square, had dinner with Ray and Vik before we all split up to do our own stuff.



For me, I had planned to visit Mid Autumn Festival by the River, whereby the lanterns and lights were on display beside The Central and opposite Clarke Quay, along the Singapore River. When I reached there, there were quite a crowd of people of all ages, both locals and tourists, soaking in the event.



The Mid Autumn Festival is a significant day in the Chinese Lunar Calender, with history and origins from folklore, myths and history. Wikipedia does an excellent job to summarise on The Mid Autumn Festival, do drop by their site to read on the different versions on the history of The Mid Autumn Festival



Another key component of this wonderful event is Mooncakes, whereby there were many different varieties and styles evolved over modernisation and they were getting more interesting, I am not the biggest fan of Mooncakes, however, if I had the opportunity, I would do a special blog post on the various mooncakes. 



Back to the festival, there were many different light ups along the river, 12 Chinese Zodiac animals, deities, myths and folklore, history. It was a great family festival and if you are touring Singapore, do drop by and take a look ! There was also an awesome performance by a Shanghai Martial Arts Performing Troupe, that I didn't manage to get information on, performing outside The Central shopping mall. When I was there, it was raining heavily and I couldn't manage to get a good location to take nice photos of their wonderful performances, in the midst of difficult conditions and non-ideal shooting location.



Do drop by my flickr site for more photos ! 

Oh, let's start counting down to the 15th day of the 8th Lunar Month ! Bring out your lanterns and start lighting up the sky !

Sunday, September 07, 2008

NBA Madness 2008 Singapore - Marina Square



It was a normal internet surfing at the local photographers forum known as ClubSnap and I came across that NBA is coming to Singapore !



The event was known as NBA Madness 2008 and Singapore was one of its destinations, for NBA to showcase its sports to the other parts of the world. Actually, basketball here is very popular, nevertheless, it was a great tour and exhibition by NBA.



A great carnival, with games for the young and old, saw the NBA the Larry O'Brien Championship Trophy, slam dunk, dribbling and shooting competition, NBA stars coming down guest appearance. I went down for a few hours and only caught the Orlando Magic Dance Team performing, beautiful ladies that lights up the carnival and part of the slam dunk competition and the dribbling, passing and shooting competition. 



Didn't stay longer than I would usually do, went out for afternoon coffee with Ray and Vik after that. Do check out some of my other photos here ! Hope you folks enjoyed the NBA Madness 2008 too !

Oh yeah , I am a LA Lakers Fan ! Remember "Show Time" by Magic Johnson ? ;)

Saturday, September 06, 2008

For a Weekend Laugh!

That was a special blog post by my friend Raymond, who helped me with an awesome and hilarious marketing of my personal blog and flickr.

It all started with this photo.

Do drop by his special post and have a read ........ and have a great laugh !

Have a nice weekend !

Friday, September 05, 2008

My Latest Hi-Tech Toy !

This is a little bit late post on my latest high-tech toy from Apple .................

Presenting the Apple 3G iPhone -





Having lots of fun with it ! Love it to bits ! Do check out my personal review here on my personal blog !

Thursday, September 04, 2008

Nike10k+ Human Race 2008 ~ 31.08.2008

On 31.08.2008, there was a worldwide event known as Nike+ Human Race 10k, coming together for a noble cause and healthy lifestyle. My philosophical thoughts could be found here at my personal blog.

My photo blog would be presenting to you memories and photos of the running event and carnival -



My Goodie Pack



Starting 



Ending

Do check out my other photos of The Human Race here !

Were you at the Nike+ Human Race 10k  in other parts of the world ? Was it a fun run with a great carnival in your city ?

Let's all not forget the blessings given to the organisations supported by The Human Race !

Wednesday, September 03, 2008

RSAF Open House 2008


The RSAF Open House 2008 was opened to the public from 30th August to 31st August 2008 and the visitors were treated to a great show of aerial display, fun games and carnival, informative display on the modern 3rd Generation Army and Airforce, and last but not least, the displays !


I reached there with my cousin aroudn 1+pm, the weather was good, sunny and bright, although with dark clouds looming in the sky. After clearing the security entrance, we were greeted by the "veterans" of the RSAF, the retired air warriors of the 1st and 2nd Generation. I forgot to take photos of them, I used to train in the UH-1H years ago !


Moving down, turning to the main ground, we were welcomed to the main showground ! Many different fighter jets, transport planes and ground military vehicles were on display. There were many people around especially families with children. They were very keen to sit inside the fighter jet to get a feel of it and were queuing up for it, so were the helicpoters, the Apache AH-64 and Super Puma. Other performances included the arming display for the different fighter jets, precision timing and teamwork.



Inside the hangers, it was turned into an exhibtion ground, showcasing the latest technology used in the RSAF and the history and development of the RSAF, brought back memories when I was a small kid looking at the fighter jets flying in the sky during major events such as NDP. There were also a great sense of pride when I saw how our RSAF had become a global citizen, helping countries around the world in humanitarian relief missions. We had grown a lot in the past 43 years !



The weather soon changed, strong rain and winds hit the RSAF Open House, luckily, we were resting in the stadium gallery, away from the rain. It was heavy and I was afraid that the aerial display would be cancelled. However, it stopped in time and the aerial display proceeded a little bit later instead of the usual stipulated timing.



The aerial display was an awesome performances consisting of

(1) Parachuters arriving from the sky
(2) Operational readiness by the figher jets squadorn
(3) Cooperation of armed forces and fighting machines (fighter jets, apaches, super puma, chinnok, charlie 130)
(4) Fighter Jets flypast



I had a great time photographing the aerial performance ! Although I was blocked by my fellow visitors, missed out some good photography taking opportunities.

Do check out my photos collection at Flickr !

Hope you all enjoyed my post and also enjoyed your trip down to the RSAF Open House 2008 !

Tuesday, September 02, 2008

F16 Black Knights at RSAF Open House 2008

For the aviation fans, this year 2008 was a great to take many different photos of airplanes. One of my memorable photography moments were taking our F16 Black Knights during this year's NDP 2008 rehearsals.



I was there at the RSAF Open House 2008 on 30th August 2008 and Black Knight 1 was on display ! It definitely attracted a huge crowd and many of the F16 Black Knights pilots and ground crew were there and they also had a booth to showcase their videos and the names of the performance patterns that they adopted.



Do you remember the HEART shape a.k.a. the LOVE produced by the F16 Black Knights during NDP 2008 ? It is called FLAMING HEART ! They had the performance patterns printed nicely on the boards,  do drop by my photo collection of the F16 Black Knights and see the names of their performance patterns !

Keep a lookout for my post on the RSAF Open House 2008 !