My One Year Anniversary since ...

Before this day end, I like to take a minute to mark this special day. Today marks the first anniversary since I leave Motorola. Well, by doing a simple comparison to one year back, I am not much better off now but I am a much happier man. Well, push on and complete my Masters on time then. Cheerz.

All set for the Trip

Well, I have apply for leave from my work, apply for ETA for the Australian Visitors Visa and book my air-ticket online already. All is set for my maiden back-pack trip to Australia soon. Really looking forward to that day. :)

Of Chances and Choices

Happen to see this post on HuiRong's Blog which I think it is very meaningful so thought of sharing with my readers.

When we meet the right person to love, when we're at the right place at the right time, that's chance.

When you meet someone you're attracted to, that's not a choice. That's chance.

Being caught up in a moment (and there's a lot of couples who get together because of this) is not a choice. That's also a chance.

The difference is what happens afterwards.

When will you take that infatuation, that crush, that mind-blowing attraction to the next level?

That's when all sanity goes back, you sit down and contemplate whether you want to make this into a concrete relationship or just a fling.

If you decide to love a person, even with his faults, that's not a chance. That's choice.

When you choose to be with a person, no matter what, that's choice.

Even if you know there are many people out there who are more attractive, smarter, and richer than your mate, and yet, you decide to love your mate just the same, that's choice.

Infatuation, crushes, attraction comes to us by chance.

But true love that lasts is truly a choice. A choice that we make.

Regarding soul mates, there's a beautiful movie quote that I believe is so true about this: Fate brings you together, but it's still up to you to make it happen.
I do believe that soul mates do exist.

That there is truly someone made for you.

But it's still up to you to make the choice if you're going to do something about it or not.

We may meet our soul mates by chance, but loving and staying with our soul mate is still a choice we have to make.

We came to the world not by finding someone perfect to love...BUT to learn how to love an imperfect person perfectly..

IR Outing #5 @ Fort Canning (24th June 2007)

Today is the 5th IR Outing at Fort Canning, as you can see, it is Fort Canning again. Well, I am really running out of place to hold my IR Outing. That is another reason why the IR Outing is moving so slowly recently.

Anyway, I woke up very early this morning so that I can go to Merlion Park to shoot sunrise. Here are some of the shots taken during the Pre-dawn hour, as you can see, the Merlion has not even started to "work" yet.

Pre-Dawn







As I was shooting halfway, out of sudden, Edmund (eawtan) appear out of nowhere. He is here to shoot sunrise too. Guess he is not expecting to see me there so early too. Anyway, both of us started our first round of shooting at Merlion Park. Here are a few shots after the sun has risen.

Dawn





At around 8am or so, we make our way to the Mac at Funan for breakfast as that is the meeting place for today's outing.

Here are the list of people who turn up for today's outing.

1. Francis247 - aka me
2. Montmelo - Leon
3. Iodion - Kenneth (Kenneth is using a Canon 400D, he is currently schooling in RI)
4. u2nofear - Jackson (Jackson just gotten his IR modified cam back from Deadpixel, hence he is doing a test run today)
5. teerex - Lee aka IR Moderator
6. thl - Tan
7. binarydotcom - Yip
8. eawtan - Edmund
10. Max2.8 - Max (Max just join us very briefly for a while before setting off with Teerex for another location to shoot)

Anyway, I didn't shoot much today as I was a bit tired after 2 continuous day of waking up early in the morning and also just sleeping for less than 5 hours a day, maybe that is why I don't have any inspiration to shoot. Here are some of my snapshots for today. Enjoy.

IR

Sunrise @ Punggol with Sengkangese Csers

Was out with King Tiger and a few other Sengkangese Csers at Punggol End for a Sunrise shoot today. I was busy trying out my ND400, so I didn't get much good shots. Just to share a few taken today. Enjoy.









Poem Version



A tower nine stories high begins with a mound of earth.
A journey of a thousand miles begins under one's feet.
(Found in Dao De Jing Chapter 64)

The complete Chapter 64 in the Dao De Jing 道 德 經 is as follows:

What stays still is easy to hold.
Without omens it is easy to plan.
The brittle is easy to shatter.
The minute is easy to scatter.
Handle things before they appear.
Organize things before there is confusion.
A tree as big as a person's embrace grows from a tiny shoot.
A tower nine stories high begins with a mound of earth.
A journey of a thousand miles begins under one's feet.

To act is to fail.
To grab is to lose.
Therefore the wise do not act and do not fail.
They do not grab and do not lose.
In handling things people usually fail
when they are about to succeed.
Be as careful at the end as at the beginning,
and there will be no failure.

Therefore the wise desire to have no desires.
They do not value rare treasures.
They learn what is unknown,
returning to what many have missed
so that all things may be natural without interference.

其安易持,其未兆易謀.
其脆易泮,其微易散.
為之於未有,治之於未亂.
合抱之木,生於毫末;
九層之台,起於累土;
千里之行,始於足下.

為者敗之,執者失之.
是以聖人無為故無敗,無執故無失.
民之從事,常於幾成而敗之.
慎終如始,則無敗事.

是以聖人欲不欲,不貴難得之貨;
學不學,復眾人之所過.
以輔萬物之自然,而不敢為.

M10-L Ball Head

I was down at TK Foto to buy my last camera accessory for the year (I hope, hehe).

Before the 7% GST come into effect on the 1st of July 2007, I decided to purchase this ball-head that I have been eyeing for quite some time. I need a good tripod head to go with my Gitzo Carbon Fiber Tripod. The current ball head that I'm using can't really take the weight of my dSLR and lens hence it creeps.

Now that I gotten the ball-head, I am more or less complete already. Hope to deliver more good shots then. Guess if Ah Kai and Stan never ask me out for a night shoot later, I might turn in early and go out early for a shoot tomorrow. Alrightly, time to go. Good night.

CommunicAsia 2007

I was down at CommunicAsia 2007 at Expo today to see the latest in infocomm and broadcast technology. I did bring along my camera to take some photos, but some how, I was not in the mood today, so I didn't snap a lot, well, it is really very little. I got less than 10 shots and I can't believe it. Maybe I am just feeling too tired or what, I just couldn't bring myself to start shooting. Hmm...

Anyway, this is the one and only shot I taken of the beautiful Yiming.

No Photos this Week again... Oh Well, maybe just One

Hate to break the news but there will be no photos upload for this week. The weather last Sunday was quite bad so I stay at home to do some photoshop for the model shoot that I did on Saturday.

I was going through my whole lot of photos for the model shoot, well, I couldn't decide which one is good because I haven't been shooting portrait for more than 3 months and I am really losing that human touch. Quite stress now actually because I will be covering Ben and Charlotte's ROM in July and I am doing it alone. I guess I need more practise.

Oh well, I was also trying out some different photoshop effect for the first time. Till now, I love this one the most. Hope that you will like it too. Cheerz.

Lessons in Life I

Alright, no photos for now but just to share some thoughts that is on my head for the last few days. Well, it is not much of a thought but more like sharing my point of view of certain things that I come to realize, I called them Lessons in Life.

Rainbow

For the last few days, due to the weather, I was very fortunate enough to catch a glimpse of the beautiful rainbow, a pity I didn’t have my camera with me to take those shots.

As I was admiring the rainbow, I came to realize one thing. Rainbow can only appear when there is sun and rain. When it is a sunny day, it is all bright and beaming, when it is a rainy day, it is all dark and gloomy. There is no sign of rainbow when the weather is in these 2 extremes.

Same thing in life, when your life is all smooth sailing and peaceful, people tend to take these good times for granted and take it without effort, when your life full of rough edges, people tends to grow depress and down and feel miserable about life.

When life is good, people will learn to realize the values of things and treasure it after they encounter some down period. When life is bad, people will learn to see hope in everything after they experience the warmth and see the way out in hopeless situation. This is very much like seeing a rainbow only when there is sun and rain.

Hence in life, it is very normal to have ups and downs. All you need to do is to press on and you will be able to see and appreciate the rainbow. So, hope that the rainbow in your life will appear soon.

Connecting the Dots

The next story I am going to share is about connecting the dots. I remembered posting a speech by Steve Jobs about his life story and connecting the dots. Well, I will just share my thoughts about connecting the dots.

For the last few days, I have been doing some investigative work in Clubsnap and some how, I was able to connect the dots on how things happen and how things are related. It just strikes me that I can connect the dots rather well.

However, when I look at my life and where I am heading to, I don’t seem to be able to connect it, or in another words, I cannot find where my next dot is. I was rather stressed and down for not been able to see where am I heading to next.

After doing some deep thinking and reflection, I came to realize something. It is usually easier to connect the dots when looking backwards instead of looking forward as we all are still looking for the next dot to move to. It is only after certain things had happen that we can understand the rationale behind and see the bigger picture.

The next dot in life is always a mystery, no point for us to worry about it, but the thing is to be ready and take it as it comes and understand how this dot is part of the roadmap to a bigger picture.

Dawn @ Changi Boardwalk

Realised that I haven't been posting much coloured shots on my blog. Anyway, just to share a few of my sunrise shots taken at Changi Boardwalk with Edmund last Sunday.

Come to think of it, I thought of starting a Dusk to Dawn collection for my own photography project. Hmm...

IR Outing #4 Re-run @ Changi Boardwalk (10th June 2007)

Today is our 4th IR Outing for this year. Due to the poor participation 2 weeks ago, this outing was postponed to today. As you can see, the outing is moving very slowly this year.

Not that I am not organising due to my schedule but it is more like the regulars are not as active as before. Maybe because of the locations as most of them had tried shooting the same place for more than twice already and I am running out of place to hold my outing.

Anyway, the turn up today is good with quite a few guest appearances. The weather is good too but just that it is very hot, all of us are literally "cooked" under the sun. Here is the list of attendance for today.

1. Francis247 - aka the author for this blog
2. JimDavis - George
3. Montmelo - Leon
4. u2nofear - Jackson
5. Photographique (didn't turn up)
6. uzume002 - Marcus (Marcus is using a Canon 400D. A pity that there is no Canon Regulars with us today, so we can't really advice him well on how to do IR on Canon system)
7. binarydotcom + friend - Yip and Kok Seng (Yip is using a D40 and Kok Seng is using a D70s. For Yip, it is very hard to set the White Balance for D40 as the hot mirror is too IR sensitive.)
8. Jay - Jerry (A retiree who using a L1 to shoot. Besides photography, Jerry also like to play golf too, so he can tahan the hot sun)
9. StanGetz - Stan
10. Hosea - Stanley
11. eawtan - Edmund (I met Edmund early in the morning to shoot sunrise, gotten a few shots, but yet to process them)

Alrightly, here are my humble shots.

Night Photography @ Turf City and Old French Embassy

It has been long since I last do any night photography which involved Star Trails and Painting with Lights. Very glad that Stanley and Ah Kai asked me along to join them last night for a night shoot.

First we went to Turf City which is along Bukit Timah area where we met a group of stars enthusiasts from Singastro there observing the stars. We look into their equipment and learn about a thing or two about Astronomy. After that, we continue with our own shoot. Here are a few shots taken.







As there is not much subjects to shoot at Turf City, we decided to change to another location at around 1am or so. In the midst of thinking where to go next, we decided to head to Newton Circle for supper so that we can last throughout the night.

After supper, we drove to the Old French Embassy and do some Light Painting on this beautiful old structure. Here are a few shots taken.







I am not uploading these shots to Clubsnap as I don't want to end up having too many people visiting the place and turn up to be another Istana Woodneuk which is now very inaccessible as too many photographers are visiting that place.

Anyway, hope to be able to do more light painting again as it is really fun. Cheerz.

IR @ Changi Beach Park

Wanted to wake up early this morning to shoot sunrise at Changi Boardwalk. Although my alarm clock rang at 5:30am this morning, I still failed to wake up until 7 plus in the morning. Seeing that I had once again missed the opportunity to shoot sunrise, I gave up and decided not to do any shooting today and continue with my sleep.

I continue sleeping until 8:45am or so when I heard a beep on my mobile phone. I check and saw a SMS from Edmund (from my IR Group) asking me if I am at the Changi Village Hawker Center. I was surprise as there is no IR Outing today and the proposed IR Outing at Changi Boardwalk is supposed to be held next week.

I presumed that Edmund got the date wrong, but since he is at Changi Village Hawker Center already and I haven't met him for a long time, I decided to go to take Bus 109 to Changi to meet him for a shoot.

The weather is good and we chat and shoot as we moved along Changi Beach Park (I don't want to try Changi Boardwalk as I will be going there next week). Here are a few shots from today's outing. Enjoy.