Recently in Photography Category

Faith commented yesterday that I had photographed so many sunrises and sunsets. It hadn’t occurred that explicitly to me, but it does seem that I’m obsessed with them. Just yesterday evening I had decided to take a break, tired out from travel. While driving out to get some food, I got into the car and immediately set out to photograph the sunset. It was an instantaneous decision and I found myself on the beaches of Spanish Bay.

There’s a certain calm about these 2 times of the day: the freshness and hope of morning and the contentedness that comes with the evening. I do not view the morning as the beginning and the evening as the end, but the other way round: the evening is when we start taking time on things that really matter, and the morning is the time we part with those we love; a transition from the things we want to do to the things we need to do.

The sunset is also a time that is both private and communal. I’d be sitting in some desolate place, and there would be a handful of like-minded souls. Some with their loved ones, others with their dogs. I bitterly loathe the fact we work such long hours in Singapore. Time with family should be an everyday affair and not confined to weekends.

Dearest Anne and Caleb,

The year was 2003 and Aunty Min and I were students in Tucson, Arizona. In the evening, I drove to the mountains to photograph the sunset, as I often did, while Aunty Min caught back-to-back episodes of “Friends”.

The skies were a flat grey - terrible conditions for a sunset - and it was threatening to rain. Were it not for the narrow mountain roads that made it hard for me to turn back, I wouldn’t have driven all the way to Gates Pass.

Every evening, the carpark at Gates Pass would be 3/4 filled, with families hiking up the trails and couples snuggling up the side of the mountain waiting for sunset. I was the only one there this evening, and it didn’t look as it I was going to see any sunset at all due to the very thick cloud cover. I took a short hike up to the vantage point, looked around a bit and headed back to the car.

“Wasted trip”, I thought to myself.

As I started the engine, the skies glowed a most unreal blue. I grabbed my camera, ran out and took photos from the parking lot.

Like Shawn Colvin’s song goes, “I never saw blue like that before”.

Falling in love with photographing sunrises and sunsets can be fatal. You always carry the fear — that when you finally decide to take the day off, the most OMG moment will hit you in the face and you’re left standing there without a camera.

Thank you all so much for your suggestions on where to shoot photographs in Singapore. Since we don’t own a car, I’ve been slowly experimenting with various modes of transportation to work and expanding the routes, hopefully encompassing some of the places you’ve brought up.

Here are a few shots from this morning, just downstairs from where I live.

One of my personal new year resolutions was to take more photographs. So these days I leave for work at 6:40am when Faith leaves for school. I plonk myself at some spot in Singapore and shoot for an hour before heading to work. It’s been cathartic.

A home in Geylang.

Water lilies at the Singapore Botanic Gardens.

Capitol Theatre.

Do you guys have any other locations you think I should photograph? Preferably between Aljunied and Buona Vista.

Fireworks. Every single night.

There was a thunderstorm behind me, which I totally failed to capture because I couldn’t find a good vantage point. The ranger chased me out of the one good place I found.

I’m partial to the familiar, but my last trip to the United States felt rather uuunnngghhh from a photographic point of view. Same old same old. I was going to SXSW for the second time, then to Tucson where I spent three and a half years, then to San Francisco which has been photographed to death, especially by the very capable dynamic duo of Heather and Derek Powazek.

I didn’t take too many photos this time round, but I’d like to think I took better photos because I know my subject better. I’ve yet to put many of them up.

So little time.

Just came home from the Canon Photomarathon. Wow, it’s been a year since. Just like last year I came away with none of the prizes, but a better knowledge of the world of photography.

One thing is for sure: the gap between the amateur photographer and the professional one is really getting smaller by the day. With almost all the participants hoisting digital SLRs about, the barriers to entry have all but been removed, especially with semi-pro cameras going for less than a thousand Singapore dollars on the second hand market.

Today’s lesson in photography is this: Dress for the part.

The third theme in this year’s Photomarathon was: “Fashion in action”. Given very little lateral freedom to interpret the theme, Ralph and I headed down to the swank Conrad International. In my mind’s eye I had the photo of a lady dressed in an elegant LBD walking out of its entrance. I’d be taking the photo quite a distance away, with the shiny bonnet of an exotic sports car in the right foreground providing a reflective surface for the above-mentioned lady.

Best laid plans I guess.

We then rushed down to Orchard Cineleisure in the hopes of finding some young people dressed to kill on a Saturday night. I spotted a group of girls who looked like they were coming to a Cosplay convention. They had lace stockings, knee-high boots and the works. Having learned my lesson from last year, to be thick skinned about things, I went to them and asked if I could take their picture. They huddled, discussed for a bit, before breaking formation and giving me a “no”. That honestly could have been a winning photo right there.

But back to “dressing the part”. It didn’t help that I was wearing stuff that made me look like I just got out of bed. Coupled with Ralph wearing bicycle shorts from this morning’s triathlon relay, we looked sad-gay. Not happy-gay like smurfs singing in the forest, or cute-gay like Rupert Everett. Sad-gay, like Rupaul and Dennis Rodman’s illegitimate child.

No wonder they said no. It had to be the sloppy dressing. If I had dressed appropriately, it would have been a different story. Might have been. I think.

So now I’m pooped out from marathoning after a night of sleepless in Singapore with Anne the unsleepable. I’m out, cheers.

The most wonderful thing about taking photos of the people you love is that you don’t really have to bother with the technical details. These are the photos you take for your own memory’s sake, complete with half-closed eyes, gaping mouths and the spontaneity of the moment.