Kite Festival & Cosplay @ Marina Bay

For the past few days, I had been looking forward to today! Cos I'll be able to meet Celest & her little darlings for a day-out at Marina Bay's Kite Festival! I have always wanted to photograph her beautiful daughters who are half Caucasians... Hence, I suggested that we bring them out for some fun today.

 

We met up around 5pm at The Promontory at Marina Bay, where INCOME is holding their annual Kite Festival. The event was postponed from July due to the haze situation then. I was surprised that Celest had brought her whole clan, including her hubby, maid, bro & aunt! We found a spot to lay the picnic mats & I like how Celest introduce me to her older gal ~ Rhea. She mentioned that I'm here today to help her take some photos :)

 

I had met Rhea twice & love her sparkling eyes... I dished out the Disney biscuits I had gotten for her & her younger sis ~ Janelle. This is my way of breaking the ice with the kids and being a photographer for young children, you have to make the kids warm up to you. Very soon, I seems to got their trust. Janelle looks very cool & seldom smile but I was surprised that she grabbed my hands tightly as we walked across the grass patch! So sweet... I love little kids in such manner as they do not have any intentions nor hide their genuine feelings.

 

 

We got the INCOME goodies bags which came with a basic kite each for the kids. Celest & her bro tried so hard to fly the kites... but we simply didn't grasp the techniques required! After much efforts & even resorted to tying balloons to the kite, the kite still couldn't take-off! haha! It was super tiring & I was keeping my eyes on the young ones.

 

Huge Kite! (super cloudy after the rain)

There was a brief episode when Celest & her hubby were so focused on their kite, that Janelle had ran off! Luckily, I ran after her as she's just a 2 yr old toddler! Can't imagine losing sight of a young child at such a crowded venue!  *sweat*

 

"Can I play wif your cam?"

So cute!

 

Lastly, I suggested to Celest to buy a proper kite so that we can try again next time. So off we went to buy a 'Rocket' shaped kite! I enjoyed myself with them, playing & horning my photography skills at the same time. All these despite a very bad backache just 2 days before & I even doubt if I could make it today! I felt so blessed that I managed to recover in time & captured some nice shots for my fren & her family.

 

 

After I bided goodbye to the cuties, I proceeded to Marina Bay Sands area. It was the last day of the STGCC event which focus on Cosplay & toys exhibit. I bumped into 4 cosplayers who were shooting. I approached them & took some shots, while also observing how to achieve better photos. It was abit hard for me as I was not equipped with an external flash for the blue hour.  Back inside MBS, I also caught sight of Iron Man & saw the Death Note guy! Yeah! It's such a rewarding day thou I was dead-beat! ^o^

Happy Birthday Singapore!

I had been looking forward to today! I happened to get a pair of National Day Parade (NDP) Preview tickets last minute & it's gonna be my First time watching the parade LIVE from The Float @ Marina. A heavy downpour carried on for a couple of hours & I hope that it will stop in time for the parade at 5.30pm. When the rain turned to a light drizzle, I quickly grabbed my photography gear & tripod to City Hall.

Upon arrival at City Hall, i saw a sea of RED! haha! All the NDP ticket-holders gotta shared the same thinking as me... I reached Marina Square at 4.30pm, however Ruby was late! Alamak! Like that how to get the best seats? Upon Ruby's arrival, we made our way via the check-points at Marina Sq towards The Float @ Marina. Thankfully, there were many gantries set up for the security checks & we breezed past after queuing for 25mins. Upon picking up the Fun Pack (it's damm heavy!), we made our way to get our seats at the Blue Sector.

We were timely to be seated at 5.15pm, just nice for us to settle down before the parade commenced. We opened up the bright red Fun Pack... oh boy! It's really deep & gotta dig right in to check-out the stuff ~ ranging from snacks, 2 bottles of water (explains y so heavy!), Sg Flag, Torch, inflated clappers etc... What's unique in this year's Fun Pack is probably the Singapore Scarf!

The parade opening was unique as we saw Gurmit Singh arriving in a Hot Air balloon! He's one of the 4 MC for the evening. There's Sharon Au & Jean Danker (can't rmbr the last guy) too. There were many student cheerleaders stationed among the audience to lead us in the singing & demonstrated how to utilise the various items in our Fun Pack.  I became very busy hunting for the items in my Fun Pack, while not forgetting to take tons of photos! As I would not know if I would still get a ticket next time, i gotta grab my chance today!

I realised one good point of sitting at the spectators stand is that the MC will cue us to watch out for the air display! This certainly allows me to get ready for the shoots :)

The key highlights of the parade:

The RED LIONS para-troopers!

Time for some self-pics wif my buddy!

(behind us sat ex-mediacorp actress ~ liu qiulian)

The military & uniformed groups contingents being inspected by the President (for the preview, of course there's no Mr. President!)

The Super Puma Fly-past with our National Flag

Air Display by the Fighter-Jets!

21-Guns Salute

Sea display by the Navy

Songs & Dance

Finale marked by Fireworks filling the Skies!

This is damm cool! Looks like 2 angels flying in mid-air?

Using the audience waving their torches as my foreground interest

Cool rite! Fireworks + Light Painting! haha!

This is the Singapore Scarf!

We enjoyed ourselves very much and I'm happy to be able to catch some nice photos & basking in the patriotic ambience! It had also been years since school-days singing the national anthem & reciting the pledge. I always think that i'm lucky to be born in Sg & my grandpa made a wise decision to migrate from China to Sg. Our generation of today should be thankful as we are reaping the fruits sowed by our forefathers. As Sg steps into our 47th year of independence, I wish that as citizens, we can continue to enjoy the Peace & Prosperity of our Nation as One United People, irregardless of race, language or religion. Happy Birthday Singapore!  

Pig Out @ Ma Maison 。。。

It's been a jolly long time since last dine at Ma Maison last year.... when i received the Ma Maison postcard dangling a 15% discount for their Millenia Walk's outlet's anniversary, i immediately dated my buddy ~ Denise to dine there today. It's also timely as her bday is round the corner :)  Both of us are beef lovers & of course fans of Ma Maison's signature hamburger steak!

We were surprised that there's no Q upon reaching...cos usually we had to Q at the Central's outlet. I suggested to swap our usual order of Omu Rice for Tonkatsu... cos i remembered I tried a slice of it the last time & it was really succulent! *drooling* The ala carte version is served without rice, while the set meal comes wif a macha ice-cream we dun fancy... finally, we spotted the seemingly ideal one ~ Tonkatsu Curry Rice. So we query the waitress if we could order it without curry & chg toTonkatsu Sauce instead? We were offered to serve the curry separately. 

When the plate of Tonkatsu wif Rice was served, we simply love its looks & after a few photoshoot, we bite into the crispy-licious & juicy pork! Omg! It's HEAVENLY! We tried both the curry, which turned out to be really nice & not spicy! At the same time, I also had a dose of their in-house Tonkatsu sauce... gosh, i love the mix of both sauces. I explained to Denise why the Tonkatsu is so tasty, becos' there's a thin layer of fat while the batter is juz a thin crispy layer which do not give u a taste of munching flour! Denise love the curry so much that she lap up every drop! haha!

Next, we were served our usual large serving of hamburger steak & after devouring everything, there's a sense of fullness.... However, no matter how full a gal is, we sure have room for dessert to round off the dinner rite? I recommended Denise to try the Strawberries Tart! I tried it once & fell in love wif it. After a brief break, we ordered the Strawberries Tart... Somehow, its appearance stood out among the other flavours. Becos the big red juicy Strawberries wif a layer of glistening jelly sure captured our attention. It looks as delectable on photos as well! We cut it up gingerly & savoured the tart ^o^  Both of us left Ma Maison feeling fully satisfied!

We headed for a stroll on Helix Bridge towards the Art Science Museum. I was expecting to see the sky lanterns on waters as the media reported a few days ago, they placed thousands of lanterns to commemorate Titantic's 100th year of sinking. To my dismay, the lanterns were only available for one night :(  Hence, i only managed to shoot this 'Titanic' display outside the Museum, which is ending its Titanic exhibit this month.

Afterwhich, we checked out the LV shop as we had never ventured inside... Followed by that, we headed to chill out at the MBS' deck to catch the light-show. It's pretty good feeling to relax & chat wif buddy this way & time juz seems to whiz-by! Nonetheless, it's an evening well-spent...

i Light Marina Bay 2012。。。

10 March 2012

The 2nd edition of Asia's First & only sustainable light art festival is BACK! Yeah! Time to practice night photography!  A total of 7 hours worth of shooting on two separate nights... First trip was wif CK & her fren... There was a torrential rain in the afternoon. We were lucky to commence the photoshoot from the Merlion under good weather... Spent a gd 1 hr there to warm up & trying to avoid the crowd... The long exposure outcome was pretty gd! The colours really added a touch of vibrancy on our usual 'white' Merlion!

There's a total of 31 light installations around Marina Bay! We knew that it's quite tough to finish shooting in a single night... From the Merlion to the Promontory @ Marina Bay, the stretch was empty, unlike the first ''i Light'' ... It's quite a distance too! At the Promontory, we caught sight of the "Coral Garden'' ~ made up of transparent cocktail stirrers & draws attention to the neg impact of human practices on the world's coral reefs.  We tried all sorts of angles & got some interesting ones!

I like this Abstract!

At the Promontory open field, there's this multi-screen "After Light'' storybox (NZ) made out of containers... we had to squat at the field for a long time as we waited for all the screens to lit up wif the 'faces'! Btw, the music played was rather errie too! At this time, it's past 9pm & started to drizzle! Boy, my hp's weather forecast app was so accurate! We hang around there & strolled over to the Breeze Shelter... saw a booth which intro 'light painting' to visitors & offer to email their photos too! Then, stilt-walkers dressed wif multi-LED lights greeted us & posed for pics!

We walked past Marina Bay City Gallery & saw this installation "The Gate'' (China) where hundreds of laser beams frame a doorway to create the sense of a symbolic passage & a path to enlightenment. Many ppl were crowding outside & tot that could enter... There were moments of confusion as at 1 point, visitors were let in & the next moment were told that we couldn't enter! It's really hard to get a good shot here!

Next, I asked CK to experiment shooting the LED remote-controlled kites... It's super challenging as the kites were flying high & fast! After some trial & error, I managed to get a couple of interesting 'light trails' pics! It's artistic! The downside was... my arm was aching!

Light Trails

Sg's skyline in B&W ~ shot when i was lying on deck chair!

Colours I see ~ reflections of the deck chairs!

Then, as we strolled further down... we saw colourful deck chairs ~ ''Deck Journey" (Singapore). I love this installation most as i felt so relax when lying on it wif the breeze blowing gently! One can really sit back to enjoy the Marina Bay Waterfront view! The deck chairs were designed in such a way that it would lit up only when someone sit & lean back! I wish this is a permanent feature thou! :-)

Finally, we reached MBS & both of us had the same idea to capture the reflections on the AVALON architecture... This proved how long i had last visited MBS area, the LV flagship store & Avalon were the latest additions!  We spent a long time shooting here & also ended our night at MBS... By the time we finished, it was 11.45pm! Hence, we all went to chase the last bus!

13 March 2012

I decided I gotta complete the whole event within days else i would keep feeling something incomplete... By chance, Wei was able to mit me last minute & I also wish to go shooting wif her for a gd long time! After a gd dinner at MOF, we headed to the Floating Platform...

Beneath the seating gallery were also some installations... we saw the "Urban Makyoh" (UK), where we could shine the torch onto the stencils to create designs on the wall. Wei spent a long time here shooting the stencils' reflective surface instead! Next, we watched the "Key Frames'' (France), where 20 stick-like figures come to life in a choreographed display of light & music... It's fun & humourous!

Juz as we managed to capture a few shots of the "Garden of Light" (Singapore), which is an animated projection on the Art Science Museum's petal shaped dome... The skies broke out in a heavy shower! We had to ran for shelter under the Helix bridge! This was certainly an unforgettable experience! Luckily, the rain stopped after awhile & we could continue shooting. We spent a long time testing the settings & waiting for the light display to come back on. We continued to shoot on the Helix bridge & i managed to discover a nice angle but gotta test my hand's stablity! A high ISO of 1600 helps :-)

Finally, when i set my tripod for a close-up shot of the Art Science Museum from ground level... the projection started again! Juz in time, I managed to capture a series of the light-show & I could feel the power of the sound effects! The thunderstorm sounds so real! We wrapped up our night's shoot by shooting the museum's signage & LV Flagship store... Now, I felt my project is completed!