Disturbing Content

45 min of Sungei Buloh with Dad

nobody@vox.com(Disturbing Content) — Sun, 22 Jun 2008 23:02:34 +0800

Here's what happened. Neither my Dad nor I have been spending much time anywhere else other than with Mum. I really badly wanted to bring my Bigma somewhere but I had no time.

01 sungei buloh with dad entrance

So we compromised and agreed to spend 45 min at Sungei Buloh before rushing off to the hospice.

04 sungei buloh with dad view from bridge

So here's how all the shots were taken. I rushed into Sungei Buloh (with Dad walking briskly in front of me) and shot everything and anything that seemed interesting or potentially interesting in 45 minutes flat.

06 sungei buloh with dad muddy birdprints

I didn't think and I didn't compose my shots. Take this heron for example. I just aimed my red squares at the fella and shot myself silly.

08 sungei buloh with dad little egrets

For the little egrets, it was something like:

Dad: "LOOK!"

Me: [SNAP SNAP SNAP SNAP SNAP SNAP] "OK..."

Few hours later at the hospice, I reviewed the photos and thought: "Wow... this turned out quite ok"

10 sungei buloh with dad dash dot pretty

This butterfly was on the leaf for probably less than a minute. By the time I located it on my lens, it stayed on the leaf for less than 5 seconds. SNAP SNAP SNAPPITY SNAP. Shoot first, think later and I guess the results weren't too bad.

14 sungei buloh with dad butterfly

The Blue Glassy Tigers were very common in Sungei Buloh. They were flitting about together beautifully. A Singaporean family went by and they hardly noticed. The mother was busy talking shop on the mobile and the rest of the family was trailing behind looking bored and hot.

15 sungei buloh with dad king of road

We had no time to be hot and bothered. I was swinging my Bigma left right and centre till my Dad said (quite accurately) 20 minutes later: "Time to head back!"

16 sungei buloh with dad hopper

At the turning point, I shoved the Bigma back in the bag and whipped out the Tokina wide angle and shot everything in sight, including stuff I would not normally shoot with a wide angle lens. E.g. below...

19 sungei buloh with dad new leaf

Most of the shots looked something like this (along the short trail we brisked on).

20 sungei buloh with dad stick in the mud

But others were a lot more interesting...like this boy who looked like he was trying to draw out the scenery.

26 sungei buloh with dad no camera

Along the way, Dad was tempted to explore some of the other roads we skipped but we were left with about 15 min to get out of Sungei Buloh.

21 sungei buloh with dad where are we

It was just as well. The morning sun crept its way up and made the sky and water beautiful both in reality and on camera. And it just so happened that the entrance area looked a lot better (with the sun up) during the time we left.

32 sungei buloh with dad bare beauty

34 sungei buloh with dad breathtaking

35 sungei buloh with dad reflecting

37 sungei buloh with dad

And here are some obscure shots... why not... since I was shooting anything and everything:

40 sungei buloh with dad pierced

41 sungei buloh with dad suspension

See here for the remainder of the collection:

Read and post comments | Send to a friend

Moon on June 21, 2008

nobody@vox.com(Disturbing Content) — Sun, 22 Jun 2008 01:03:40 +0800

Moon june 21

Read and post comments | Send to a friend

Day Dreaming

nobody@vox.com(Disturbing Content) — Wed, 18 Jun 2008 22:08:30 +0800

Abundance

Bridge over untroubled waters

Calm without the storm

Read and post comments | Send to a friend

Tattered Inhabitants

nobody@vox.com(Disturbing Content) — Mon, 16 Jun 2008 22:17:43 +0800

Oversee

Tattered guardian

Blue October - Untitled Track:

"So what

So long

So sad

I wanna be strong

Don't try to take this from me

I've already spent living half my life undone"

Read and post comments | Send to a friend

Monster Lens Virgin Shoot

nobody@vox.com(Disturbing Content) — Sun, 15 Jun 2008 23:18:41 +0800

Not satisfied with just a smashing Canon 40D, I went and got myself a smashing mother of all telephoto lenses (at least to me) Sigma 150-500mm.

And went out to the training grounds with a monopod... presumably to take photos of birds with it. Only to realise I do better without one (either monopod or tripod.. both are not reactive enough)

01 ellen happiest moment

I realised the following things when it comes to birding:

1) Can't wear headphones and listen to music cos you can't hear the birds

06 i can see you

2) Can't stop to set up gear to photograph the birds (switch lenses and all) because birds stay in one place for less than 5 seconds and less than 1 minute if you're fortunate.

11 red eyes 2

3) Can't use tripods and monopods because they're too restrictive in terms of movement

09 red shoes

4) Can't make a sound. The moment you get near a tree full of chirping birds, all of them hush up (and I guess... they stare at you nervously from amongst the thick foliage)

14 eye contact

5) Go where the people aren't. Was trying to take photos of a couple of birds in the foliage when a group of tourists went past:

Tourist 1 (screams): "AHHHHHHHHHHHH!!!!!!!!!!!!! LOOOOKKK!!!!! A PRETTY LITTLE BIRD!!!!!!!!!!!!!"

Tourist 2 (screams even louder): "LET'S TAKE A PHOTO OF IT SHALL WEEE??!?!?!"

[Birds fly away before they go deaf. Birds who fail to fly away in time collapse on the ground and die from massive quake vibrations]

Tourist 3 (shouts in amazement): "HEY!!!!!!!!!!!! IT FLEW AWAY!!!! LET'S CHASE IT!!!!!!!!!!!!"

16 yoga by the lake

Some tourists are even better:

Tourist 1 (SCREAMS upon seeing me take photos): "WOW!!!! WHAT A BIG LENS!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!"

[Birds fly away and this time they migrate to Canada]

Tourist 2 (shrieks): "BUT THERE'S NOTHING HERE!!!! TAKE WHAT?!?!?!?!"

18 hunting

If you stay away from the noise, you will be where the birds are because they instinctively move away from loud unfamiliar noises also... (unless they're a pigeon or a mynah... or better still... a crow)

21 curly nose

Butterflies and squirrels are also noise and people-shy. So I had to wait a long time (wait really still and quiet) before I managed to spot one squirrel and several butterflies.

15 stalking the stalker

Read and post comments | Send to a friend

Just Eat on Friday the 13th

nobody@vox.com(Disturbing Content) — Sat, 14 Jun 2008 01:28:45 +0800

Monkey face

After spending about an hour hiding under my blanket because it's Friday the 13th, I went to the hospice to learn that someone had passed away in the afternoon. And Friday the 13th is also the reason why I'm only posting this at 1:10a.m. in the morning on the 14th. *paranoid*

Good job pete

I dropped an expensive earring in my parents' bedroom and couldn't find it like 5 minutes before we were leaving the house to go to the hospice. It's Friday the 13th! I screamed to my Dad, that's why everything is going wrong. My Dad said it doesn't work that way and tripped on his own feet at least 3 times while in the hospice today.

I said hysterically: I told you it's Friday the 13th! And my Mum ordered: Stop saying that!!!

Hear no evil

Friday the 13th or not, I met up with Karen, Serene and Peter for dinner at First Thai where I met their friend Richard of no consequence. Then we decided to throng into the IT fair at suntec city because:

1) I felt it was good training to carry a full sized tripod, a 40D and a wide angle lens into an angry impatient mob

2) I also wanted to buy a portable hard disk

3) Peter wanted to get a laptop

4) Karen is still thinking hard about money

5) Serene is just so serene (despite the crowd)

Decisions

I wanted to set up tripod and wide angle lens to take photos of the angry IT fair mob but I was afraid they'd:

1) Stampede on me

2) Stampede on me and then continue to stampede on my friends

3) Stampede on me, stampede on my friends and take my Canon 40D, Tokina wide angle lens and Slik tripod

It was Friday the 13th and I felt it was such a terrible day that such an unfortunate thing was likely to happen. As a result, there are no photos of angry mobs in this post.

But I can safely say that more than several large screen plasma TVs and one entire DVD home entertainment system made their way out of the fair before the night was over.

Free agent

I managed to get a One Touch Maxtor portable hard drive just as they announced: "The IT Fair will be over in 30 minutes. [Empty your purses now!]"

I wanted to buy this...erm.. I forget the brand hard disk just outside the fair and Karen said: "Oh great, then you can tell people you went to the IT fair ... AND... bought a hard disk just outside the fair AND so you didn't actually go to the IT fair."

So I bought the Maxtor from the Seagate booth so that I could prove to people that I was able to penetrate the angry mob crowd with a full sized tripod, canon 40D and one large Tokina wide angle lens (plus a huge handbag).

Kaya gu you

I wanted to get the portable photo studio for shooting product shots but I realised (after a few hushed polite suggestions from Serene and Karen) that I could easily make me poor self a makeshift one out of white cardboard.

Nonetheless, I made the guy assemble both portable studio sets so that both Peter and I could go trigger happy on their model red car and then go back to Purvis Street to have ice milo and kaya gu you loti without buying any of the sets.

Why? It's Friday the 13th. Nobody (or at least not me) makes big buying decisions on Friday the 13th!

So serene

I wished I had removed those chopsticks before I took this photo.

Goodnight.

Read and post comments | Send to a friend

Karen's Makeover

nobody@vox.com(Disturbing Content) — Thu, 12 Jun 2008 22:43:09 +0800

Some shots taken for fun.

Read and post comments | Send to a friend

Craters

nobody@vox.com(Disturbing Content) — Thu, 12 Jun 2008 21:33:32 +0800

Moon in june

My second attempt to shoot the moon....

Read and post comments | Send to a friend