Pages of INK

Ashley will be turning 4 this coming Fri (22 Jan) and we’re now in the midst of planning her birthday celebrations. First up will be a celebration in school with her classmates, then we will be bringing her to her favourite water playground at the zoo in the afternoon and finally a celebration with the family and care group in the evening. In short, she’s gonna eat lot’s of cake this Friday!

2010 also marks the end of pre-school and the 1st of 3 years of kindergarten. She will be continuing on her education at Chinese Kindergarten which sits on top of Jubilee Church at Outram Road. It is one of the better schools we have researched, and it being a Christian school means that part of the curriculum would be the imparting of Biblical teachings and values. E.g. Love your enemies, honour your parents, do your homework and clean-up your room kinda stuff… (I added the last bit)

Here are some photos from her graduation concert held back in Nov 2009.

Ashley taking charge of introducing her class’ performance. She didn’t get “arrowed” to do it, she volunteered!

Tee-hee, look everyone is clapping!

Everyone trying to hit the high notes for the combined song item.

Complete gallery here.

To top it off, she received very good feedback from her teachers. Direct from her report card:

Ashley is a natural leader. She uses verbal and nonverbal strategies to initiate cooperative activity and encourages peers to participate. She encourages others to share/exchange or assist one another with play materials.

Ashley is always creating something new when they pay. She is an inventor and takes risks in trying something she has never tried before (e.g. celebrating birthdays in the tunnel). Through play, she is developing creativity and thinking skills besides social interactions.

And, here is out favourite Ashley artwork to date – a portrait of the family. That’s her on the left, followed by me, then mummy and finally Alicia. I’m still wondering though why I’m the only one in pink…

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16 Aug 2009 – 2009 has been a really eventful and rewarding year for me photographically. I started the year from where I left off in 2008 – doing test shoots for models, the odd paid portrait shoot and numerous paid and pro-bono wedding gigs. I also made massive investments in gear, lighting and education, with the hope of further honing my craft to a level where I have the confidence to execute my vision without worrying too much about the technicalities. And, of course, to also further enhance the revenue generating capabilities of my passion.

Speaking of revenue, one thing that surprised me this year was that I managed to sell a few canvas prints of some fine art street photographs I took in Shanghai. As a people photographer, I earn from photographing portraits, events and weddings, so this reaffirmed the fact that to be a good photographer, one must really stretch himself to go beyond his comfort zone and train his eye in other photographic disciplines.

Anyway, that aside, I think the biggest highlight for me this year was being invited by Lance Lee, a prominent local fashion and commercial photographer, to participate in a joint fashion photography exhibition with a few other local professional photographers. The T-Show was the brainchild of Luke Elijah, a prominent local stylist, featuring wardrobe from his boutique and shot on location at The Cathay. The experience of shooting for the exhibition can only be described as gruelling and I must admit, there were times I did feel that I was in way over my head. Nonetheless, the experience really thought me how to work under pressure, solve problems on the spot and take control of a shoot.

I’m proud to say that not only did I survive (want to see my scar? ), but I also managed to contribute 6 out of the 15 photos on exhibit. The exhibition is now headed to Hong Kong and the pool of photos has since grown to about 20. Really hope I get the chance to do something again like this next year!

The first group of colleagues – Jowena, Fendy and Hendrik – coming to see my exhibition.

Hendrik trying to look cool like the photo whereas Jowena is tickled by the topless twins!

My long suffering and ever patient wife and daughters finally seeing the fruits of my labour.

Click here for a link to all the photos I took for the exhibition.

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A few months ago, Ashley’s school had organised a trip to the zoo, and this was soon followed by a trip to McDonald’s as a way of making sure children learnt where everything falls into place on the food chain. Not that Ashley really cared as all that mattered to her were the French fries. No surprises if she chooses to major in languages over science when she grows up.

The day started with all of us gathering at her school, and while waiting for roll call, I had a chance to photograph Ashley in her classroom. I also got to know some of her friends and put faces to some of the names she usually mentions over the dinner table.

It then dawned upon me that in no time, she would be inviting friends over for study groups and Wii sessions.

A bit too young for this though…

And so, we waited some more. And got a little bored…

But, finally, we were underway!

Upon arriving at the largest McDonald’s outlet in Singapore at King Albert Park, we proceeded to occupy the most strategic seats in the joint.

There’s just something about munching on a Happy Meal on a Monday. A brief burst of joy to drown away the blues. A mix of melancholy and fond nostalgia as the taste buds are suddenly reminded of a time not too long ago. A feeling that the weekend isn’t really over, though the lingering realisation that 4 days of school remain before the next one.

Unfortunately, there was to be no pictures of the kitchen tour as McDonald’s staff are highly trained to detect any form of industrial espionage. As they quite rightly sensed upon me pulling out my camera, I was really planning to use the pictures of my kid looking around their kitchen as research material for the next McCurry outlet opening in town.

Hamburglar would have been proud had I got away with it.

Nonetheless, it was still all smiles as we wrapped up the trip with a customary pose with the red afro clown himself.

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Date of Birth: 24 Mar 2009
Time of Birth: 13:39
Weight: 3.64kg
Height: 51cm

Yay! It was a very very smooth delivery compared to the first one. Alicia was out after only a few pushes in a personal best time of just under 15 minutes for Zhiyi!

Mission accomplished!

Alicia’s first family photo

Meditating about the meaning of milk.

Here’s where all the babies hang out in between drinks. Alicia is in the middle getting changed.

Visitors

I’d like to say a big thank you to everyone who dropped by and showered Alicia and wifey with gifts and well wishes. Also, apologies that I didn’t manage to catch everyone’s picture (Zhiyi’s colleagues, Allan & Hsueh Ting, Anthony & Canny).

From left: Guoming, Erwin, Thomas, Fendy, Zhiyi, Jowena, INK, Alicia, Doyle, Lloyd and Rajen

From left: Alicia, Zhiyi, Cryst and Gab

From left: Livi, Merv, Alicia, Zhiyi, Tze Wei, Hillary, Yee Leong, Virginia and Vincent

From left: Alvin, Charlotte, Cheryl, Zhiyi, Alicia and Ashley

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As I’m typing this, Zhiyi is now lying in bed waiting to give birth, having fallen asleep after being administered with epidural. Just five hours ago, I got woken up by Zhiyi complaining of pains and how she felt like the baby was going to “drop out”. Barely five minutes after I crawled into bed.

“Maybe you ate something wrong.”
“But it hurts.”
“Yeah, try sleeping it off. That’s what I do.” I mumbled as I started drifting out of consciousness.
“There’s blood!!!”

Groan.

One hour later, after a shower and some frantic packing, we were at Mt Alvernia checking-into a delivery ward. This was followed by a nurse doing some preliminary checks and hooking up the baby heartbeat and contraction monitor. According to her, Zhiyi’s cervix had dilated 4cm. Once it get’s to around 10cm, that’s when the huffing and puffing and pushing will start. In other words, just a few more hours to go!

That’s the baby monitor on the right.

Photonut INK is up to something…

Thumbs up and good to go!

Here’s how I lit the shot: SB900 at 1/128 power zoomed in to 200mm and gelled CTO on a Gorillapod dangling off the surgery lights. I was really scared of getting caught by the nurse so quickly grabbed around 5 frames before she came back into the room.

Everytime is a good time to Strobist!

Dilation History

• 23/03/2009 5pm – 2cm
• 24/03/2009 4am – 3cm
• 24/03/2009 6am – 4cm
• 24/03/2009 8am – 6cm
• 24/03/2009 10am – 7cm
• 24/03/2009 12pm – 9cm

Still waiting…

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One of the "must see" regions in Western Australia is Margaret River, about a 4 to 5 hours drive south of Perth. The Margaret River region, also known as wine country, is home to 200 vineyards and 90 wineries. It’s also famous for its many award wining eateries, sadly none of which we could try as they were all booked out every single day of the week!

Below are pictures taken around the grounds of The Voyager, one of the premium wineries cum restaurants in the area. And no, we didn’t get to eat here either.

View the full Margaret River gallery here.

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Ashley has a new cousin! Her name is Sarah, born on 23rd Sept 2008, 7.57pm weighing a healthy 2.6kg. Congrats to the Poh family! Can’t wait now to see if Ashley will have a baby brother or sister.

Sarah

Ashley: “Wow so small”

Click here for the full gallery.

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This event marks two historic firsts – the first F1 street race in Asia and the first F1 night race ever. Given the scale of organisation and marketing that went into place, I’m sure it must have been a big relief when the first practice sessions kicked off on Friday without incident.

Thanks to Ming, a few of us were able to attend Friday’s practice sessions for free! We had seats at the Padang Grandstand facing St Andrew’s Cathedral. It was quite sad though that Ming’s camera broke down on the day of the race, but on the bright side, it meant that he could enjoy watching the race without distraction.

Merv, Aloy, Zann and Ming

Upon sitting down, the first thing that struck me was how high the fences were – not good for taking photos at all! I tried a couple of panning shots during the afternoon’s practice sessions for other races but even that couldn’t eliminate the distracting presence of fences in the photos.

Porsche Carrera Cup Asia practice session

After dinner, I decided that I might have better luck walking around the track instead. However, I almost gave up when all I could see were the never ending sight of tall fences.

They are everywhere!

As a photographer, one of the most important traits to have is perseverance, and after walking around quite a fair bit and climbing onto all sorts of things like railings and power boxes to gain height (to no avail), I was lucky enough to find a small opening where safety cars drive onto the track to shoot from. Here are some shots taken from that spot.

Ferrari – Felipe Massa

Ferrari – Kimi Räikkönen

McLaren – Lewis Hamilton

Renault – Fernando Alonso

Red Bull – David Coulthard

As I post this, the first ever Singapore Grand Prix has just ended with Fernando Alonso (Renault) claiming first place followed by Nico Rosberg (Williams-Toyota) in second and finally Lewis Hamilton (McLaren-Mercedes) in third.

It was a pretty disastrous race for the Ferrari team who saw Massa involved in a pit stop mishap and Räikkönen crashing out. In a sport where fortunes can change so dramatically, Massa for example actually started the race in pole position, winners are decided not just on who drives the best but which teams makes the least mistakes.

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Feel the power and emotion behind JUMP! 2008 (Jesus U Must Praise!) held at Fort Canning Green on 22 August 2008 in this gallery which features the musicians and singers who made the event such a success. Witness the raw energy in their expressions and gestures as they gave it their all in this intense 2 hours of praise and worship.

Click on this link for the full gallery.

Popularity: 46% [?]

In what must probably be the most spectacular outdoor arts performance I’ve ever seen in Singapore, Studio Festi was in town for the National Museum of Singapore’s Night Festival on 18 & 19 July, and what a show it was!

“Studio Festi from Italy is internationally acclaimed for staging extraordinary large-scale outdoor theatrical performances, including the recent 100-day countdown to the Beijing Olympics in Macau.” – paraphrased from programme literature.

Here are some photos from the 9pm and 11pm performances held on 19 July. And true to an earlier piece of advice, I was down there armed with my tripod an hour before the actual performance. Though I managed to get a good spot directly across the road facing the museum, it also happened to rain; and if not for a kind gentleman who offered to share his umbrella with me, I would have been drenched. If you do visit my blog, I can’t say thank you enough for that kind gesture!

The museum all lighted up and ready for the performance.

Aerial Ballroom Dancing

The opening act featured two graceful ballroom dancers.

I love how she soars across the front of the museum, with her partner longing below.

In the Waters of the Sky

Next up was another aerial performance featuring a graceful dancer and a huge floating ship. What really made this performance magical was the soaring melody of Nessun Dorma that accompanied this act.

The Flying Piano

A grand piano and ballerina suspended in mid-air, dancing gracefully to a tune of the night.

The Progeny of Dreams

A long line of dancers 3 meters then paraded down Stamford Road, stopping in between to show off their magnificent dresses and artistic poses.

Like the Moon

Two dancers float and twirl around a huge moon, while the real moon probably watched from a distance in envy!

Harmony of the Spheres

The final act of the first half featured two giant spheres with dancers suspended from them floating above the onlooking crowd. The crowd was enthralled every time the dancers swooped down on them and reached towards their outstretched arms.

No less spectacular was the 2nd half of the performance that took place on the Campus Green of SMU. This time, the audience was right up there with the various performers stationed around the area, ensuring that nobody missed out on the action.

This performer was mimicking an early day explorer with his long telescope.

There were also two breathtaking dances featuring the contrasting elements of fire and water.

Water Dance

The water dance took place at the center of SMU Campus Green with a dancer performing acrobatics both on and in a huge glass bowl that was filled with water.

Fire Dance

The fire dance was performed by no less than 6 beautiful and exotic looking ladies stationed at different spots around the area who twirled flares, fire batons and fire umbrellas.

The whole performance ended around 1am and although I was exhausted from 4 hours of near continuous photo taking, I really enjoyed the shows nonetheless and hope that they come back to Singapore for an encore performance again next year!

Popularity: 25% [?]