OCBC Cycling

Chingay 2010

Went to watch the Chingay with my family and the kids really enjoyed the parade.

Happy CNY 2010

Wishing all a prosperous Chinese New Year!

Thaipusum

Thaipusum is an interesting colourful event for photographers. I started shooting near midnight. Went home to catch a few hours of sleep before returning again in the morning.
And since I bought the 24mm L MK II on impulse in the late afternoon, I returned a thrid time in the evening to test drive the new lens.

CNY Performance

Many shopping centres are bringing in performance artistes from China to pump up the Chinese New Year mood. Here's one from Raffles City:

Lions!

With the new IR almost completing, we will soon have 3 icons of Singapore in one photo frame.









And with the Chinese New Year fast approaching, there will be more lion dances to catch.

Happy New Year 2010 !!!

Happy new year to all!
Went to the countdown celebration and it was extremely crowded. When I arrived by 10pm, I was already late and was unable to gain access to the merlion and areas by the edge of the bay.
And after the fireworks, it took me almost 2 hours to leave the jam-packed area to catch the crowded MRT home.

Sea Games Photo

Here's some of the photos from the Games. Spent most of the time shooting indoor events. Wished that I had more time to photograph the track and field events.

Laos Trip

Returned from the Sea Games trip in Laos a couple of days ago. It was a short trip but the coverage of the games was very intense. There's hardly any free time to do any travel photography. It was a rare trip whereby I did not get to visit any of the tourist attraction in a country I had visited.

Nonetheless I managed to take some pictures around my hotel on the first and last day morning:

New Toys!!!

There are many negative feedbacks with regard to the new EOS 7D. They are all about focusing issues and the camera producing soft images. But I finally took the plunge and bought the EOS 7D yesterday as I was not too satisfied with the noise from the 50D. Used the 7D together with the new 200mm f2 (bought several weeks ago but have not been using it) for a test drive this morning to shoot the marathon. Put the cam on 8fps, AI servo with AF point expansion and shooting wide open. Focus was fast and accurate. Of course there are many cases of mis-focus but I wouldn't blame it on the camera. The blazing speed of 8fps nearly filled my 8GB card within 30 mins. But as the shooting rate increases, so does the trashing rate.


My initial impression of the 7D is very positive. Together with the 200 f2, it will probably be my workhorse for the coming SEA games in Laos. And I've to seriously consider getting a few pieces of 32GB for the action.

BornFire

Bornfire is a street fire performance. The performing artists danced and performed tricks with fire. Upon arrival, I was shocked that the mini outdoor theater was exclusively filled with photographers rather than genuine audience! It was as if it was a photo shot organised by a camera club.

I used a 135mm L lens to shoot throughout the event:

Shortlisted for SEA Games Photo Shoot

Received a call from Straits Times / Canon that I was shortlisted to join the Straits Times team to shoot the SEA Games in Laos during December. This was a happy and sad news. I was happy that my 2 shots had won the favour of the judging team to win myself a Canon EOS 50D with 18-200mm lens, as well as a free trip to Laos to shoot the SEA games. I was sad as this will disrupt my vacation plan with my family.

Should I forgo my prize and once in a life opportunity to shoot with the press or to spend time with my family? Or arrange to have a family vacation in Laos?







I shot both pics during the Great Eastern Women 10k run last Sunday with the Olympus E-P1 with Lumix 7-14mm and 14-45mm lenses.


Another sad news was that my entries in the Vivocity Photo Contest didn't win me any prize.

Not 1 But 2

Received a call from VivoCity again and was told that one of my other photo was also short listed under the professional category of the photo contest. So it was not one but two! The 2nd photo was one of my favourite:




The short listed photos will be on display at Vivocity from next Monday onwards before they announce the winners. I'm keen to see the work of the other short listed entries.

Vivocity Photo Contest

Received a call from Vivocity this evening informing me that one of my photo submission has been short listed in their photo contest. Considering that the closing date of the contest was just 2 days ago, they are really efficient in the short listing process!


20 photos will be short listed and only 3 will get to win prizes. And I'm not too optimistic with my selected entry as it is not my favourite.

My favourites are these 2:

Canon Photomarathon 2009

I went ahead to register and shoot the first theme despite my wife disallowing me to take part. She was complaining that I had been out shooting too often recently such as the 3 days F1 event and she thought I had slim chance of winning any thing from the event.

I rushed home immediately after the first theme Togetherness was announced. I detoured a little and spent about 20 mins shooting the first theme.



I thought it was a pretty good photo and showed it to my wife. She must have thought it was not bad too and hence allowed me to return later for submission and proceed with the 2nd theme MOTION.



I returned home again to shoot and when I showed her the photo and she immediately complained and scolded me for taking such a junk and inappropriate photo.

But by then, I was already half day into the race and decided to continue. To my delight, I was short listed for the first theme. When the third theme ENGERY was announced, I decided to switch my gear from E-P1 to the Canon EOS system. The reason was simply horse for courses.

After I had my ENERGY shot, I returned happily to Suntec for submission. On the way, I suddenly realised that I had shot the photo in RAW. At the same time, I realised that I was also short listed for the 2nd theme! My chance of winning the grand prize for a 8 days Japan trip was high but I need to submit a good pic for the 3rd theme in order to stand a chance. I asked around for a notebook to convert the RAW file to JPG but none was available. Time was running out and I had to call my wife to rush down to Suntec in a cab to pass me my Mac Book to do the JPG file conversion.

While she was rushing down, there was a dragon dance next door. I quickly shot some photos in JPG as insurance. I thought the shots are OK (though not as good as my original shot) and decided to submit it before they close the counter for submission.

My wife arrived and scolded me for submitting such a junk photo for the ENERGY theme instead of waiting for her and using the original intended photo.

True enough, I flopped my 3rd theme. This could have also flopped my chance for a free holiday in Japan!

The consolation was that I won the 1st prize for the Motion theme. :)