NDP Preview 2013

I didn't expect that I will get an opportunity to attend 2013 National Day's Preview! Denise last minute had a spare ticket & so I tagged along with her family and friends! I used both my Fujifilm compact camera (as zoom) & DSLR (as wide angle) to shoot. It was a very hot afternoon and we were blessed with good weather!

Some photos that I took from The Float @ Marina Bay view.

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!  

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!

除夕 @ 春到河畔。。。

We had our reunion dinner wif 2nd uncle & aunt, this year was particularly quiet as 2 of my cousins & their families are in Shanghai & Cambridge respectively.... how i miss my cute nephew & nieces!

After reunion dinner, my parents & I decided to head to '春到河畔2010' for some photoshoots... My assistant for the evening is none other than my dad! haha! The idea was to let him have a feel of the new cam, so he can utilise it for his trip in 2mths time. In fact, i can't even remember when was the last time i visited the annual 春到河畔 @ Marina, cos i fear the crowded venue on CNY's eve! But tis year, i made up my mind to visit after reading the papers abt the 'porcelain dragon'... where a team of artisans from Sichuan flew to Singapore & spent 1 mth to assemble this Dragon & Phoenix using 10,000 pieces of porcelain plates, bowls, cups & spoons! This display is one of the 3 masterworks in Chengdu Lantern Fair as well. 

Upon arrival at 春到河畔, we saw a throng of crowd flooding the gate & thrill-seekers enjoying the spinning rides at the fun fair. As I was searching for a good spot to snap the entrance gate, a tourist approached me to help her grp snap a pic, but her auto mode didn't enable the flash (area too bright). I tried to ask her switch to 'forced flash', but abit eng communication prob...Finally manage a gd shot for them after i pointed to the symbol on her cam....hoho!

As we walked past the entrance, we saw the 財神爺 standing up tall there... then Dad suddenly exclaimed, ''wow! Ang mo 財神爺this year leh!'' It took me awhile to understand my dad's humour lo! cos he rationalised that the 財神爺's complexion look like foreigner & too skinny lah! Wahaha! I was more excited at looking at the Dragon & Phoenix display (龍鳳呈祥). The spotlights which lit up the whole area were way too bright! It made photography extremely challenging as i do not have a lens hood to prevent the flare. Thou i brought my tripod but did not use at all, since it's faster to hand-held & snap. It's really veri tough to capture an all-clear scene....i gave up. Then realise if i move to the back of this dragon display, it's better! Cos slightly lesser ppl & the glare from the spotlight was not so direct.

Another highlight for the event was a dragon made up of malt candy/sugar... these artisans really talented leh! Next, we saw the 許願池, where many ppl tried their luck at aiming their coins at the small bells hanging up there! Mom tried but failed, haha! My fav shot was at 許願池, dun u tink my composure look as if the carp is 'jumping' out of the water? keke! When i kept kana block by ppl, my dad sugg that they stand there & pretend i'm snapping their pic, haha!

I like the area where there were a few grps of animated 'pandas', kawaii! There were pandas playing see-saw, cycling, fishing, dancing & eating bamboo shoots, hehe! As i was figuring out why my shots look over-exposed, a young lad told me that i shld adjust my exposure compensation...oops, forgot abt that as i was tweaking the aperture. The rest of the zodiacs lanterns display can be ignored, looked awful & i barely could differentiate the cow & goat, haha!

At the end of the nite, we headed for mac to fill my tummy (reunion dinner not filling) & yes, the much needed air-con too!