My favorite photos.

This set of 3 photos were taken while on assignment for a magazine, covering the last Chingay to be held in the day - Chingay 2002. After so long, the 3rd picture ranks as one of my most loved, it was chosen to be the cover picture for the article.

This picture was taken at Suntec City on New Year Eve 2001, for an end of year article for a publication. Though it didn't make it to be the body pic, it was published. Like it because while everyone was flowing around, the ice-cream stand was sharp and became the anchor element that makes the composition good.

A true old-time herbalist residing in Pulau Ubin, he was to be one of the features on a series of articles i was writing about olden day professions survivng in Singapore. Unlike the rest of the people featured, this guy couldn't care less about the camera. I was there chit-chatting with him, and he just ignored the camera totally, which gave me this pic with a totally natural pose.

This was an article on rickshaw riders in Singapore, and in the day, when there are no customers, the rickshaws are parked around the Smith Street Centre in an orderly manner, while the riders take a break. What made the 2nd picture stand out was the old man in the far background - he was a rickshaw rider, and he was looking at the tool of his trade. There was a certain jadedness in his look, which the picture probably doesn't communicate very well, but I can remember clearly, hence the favorite.

This was taken under very special circumstances in 1998 - I was an illegal immigrant in Johor at that time. This was the photo that gave me a story idea - the children you see are Orang Laut people, translated as Sea People. They sparsely inhabit the coast of Malaysia and the Riau Islands in Indonesia, and I had to cross over illegally in a speedboat in order to get to their village (which was otherwise inaccessible). Apparently they had never seen a digital camera before (I was using a Sony Mavica then, carrying around a bajillion floppies.), and it was tremendous fun for them to be able to see their ownselves immediately (things we take literally for granted now). Oh I loooove working with kids!

This was taken during a wedding shoot for a client. Now, when most couples get married, after the groom charges into the bedroom to unveil the bride and sit on the bed taking well-wishes and posing for pictures, most of them are too flustered/excited/scared and literally just sit apart on the bed like some zoo exhibits. This particular couple was very comfortable, and very in love, and their hands naturally found each other...


Ah, my good friend James, and his lovely wife Trina. You know how you seen wedding albums of seriously dramatic poses, in nice backgrounds and everything - you've seen one, you seen them all. By virtue of me being his pal, I was able to take some light-hearted simple shots, and what turned up was this simple picture. Yet no poses, no pretenses, just two persons in total innocent love. A far cry from the usual mass-produced studio shots, but much more genuine.

This was a photo that was taken while writing an article focusing on historical buildings in Singapore. I could not enter the building to find out what was it for, and that lady refuses to tell me why she was outside. But the fact that she was sitting on the right, and that wooden door was on the left, made it a nice picture of contrasts and aesthetics. I like it purely because of that.

PORTRAITURE

That cute lady you see down here is Huimin, one of our friends in Brisbane. She asked me to take a graduation cover shoot, and it turned out she was absolutely lovely to work with. Naturally photogenic, initially she was very camera shy, but as the shoot progressed through the day, her fun side started emerging, allowing the second photo to be taken. I love that photo, the dynamicism of the shot, her i'm-on-top-of-the-world pose yet a totally fun smile.

Ah that supermodel-ey friend of mine, Hasmidah. While Huimin was camera shy, this lady practically wanted to hog the camera! -laughs- She was in Perth studying, and I was in Brissy, and we congregated in Tasmania for a backpacking trip. This picture was unedited, and it was absolutely the perfect lighting up in Cradle Mountain. This lady, have star potential. I was just chatting with her, and suddenly I decided to take a picture, and she just naturally gave that smile and that half-turned pose. And that deep blue Tasmanian sky behind her? Absolutely engaging.

This is one of those photos I often set as my desktop wallpaper - especially in times of work stress. ;) It was a picture of a rather elderly lady friend of mine in Australia, and she just loved sitting on the bench and watching the ocean.

Looking at this picture just makes you straightaway imagine that you are sitting on the bench beside her, watching the azure scene, hearing the waves crash, and tasting that salty wind. Aaaahhhhh....

How can I leave out a picture of My Favorite Person (TM) ever? It was the first time I actually decided to shoot in black-and-white, dialing the camera to total BW settings. Usually if I want BW, I'll just post-process it in Photoshop. Using just natural lighting streaming from full-length glass windows in our apartment - what turned out was a series of photos that were least to say, stunning.

ANIMALS

When we got back to the log cabin from an evening walk and opened the door, Hasmidah and I gave a horrified scream... we were under attack! A pack of wombats, numbering about 10, were raiding all over the cabin - on top of our backpacks, on the dining table, in the kitchen sink. The food that we have set aside for dinner was totally gobbled up, and our backpacks were in danger of literally being torn apart. We had a hard time chasing these little fellas out, they seemed to like us (or rather our food) alot. On account of them being SOOOOOOOOOO cute, i gave them quite abit of our food, considering that we could buy more the next day. Now, from that photo above, wouldn't you agree they kinda look like Ewoks? and how can anyone hurt an Ewok-like rodent, ooohh yoou fuuzzzyy wuuuzzyy liiittlle thhhiinngg.

Seagulls, seagulls everwhere. Not a drop to land on your head you pray. There was a seagull colony (do we call them colonies?) in New Zealand, and these birds with their beady eyes were literally throwing a rave party on the sun-kissed decks. There must be hundreds of them, and this makes the cut as one of my fav pictures because it's sharp, the details are excellent thanks to the lighting, and it's a nice composition with two of these fellas inside.

Trekking through a coast area in New Zealand (forgot the name of the place - South Island, East Side, starts with K), Bel and I almost stepped on a sleeping seal. YES! These idiotic mammals were tanning all over the place, and this was one of them, she/he was just lying down there. I did went up and prod it to make sure it wasn't dead, and it didn't even stirred (it was breathing though, I checked.) Again, they are just so darn adorable, that's why the pic made the cut.

This was taken on a lurching ship during a whale-watching trip in Queensland. Several people threw up on that trip (thanks Pauline, for reminding us what we ate for breakfast), and i fired so many shots, but this was the only one that turned out nice. For one thing, you could never tell when the whale was gonna surface.

Most people get their dogs from the pet shop, or the pound, or from friends. Not my silly mutt Cookie - she has a heroic rescue story to tell!! A native of Pulau Ubin, she was born sometime in the Chinese New Year period of 2006 to two of the dogs that I was feeding - Razor (a ridgeback, rare breed) and Shylock (a white-brown mongrel, with a steady personality). From the litter, 5 puppies were born, but Cookie was the Chosen One, destined to bring horror and pain to our lives. These two pictures were taken while we were at the Ubin village, and Cookie had already begun to feel a little bit sleepy, snug in my camera bag sleeve. ;) She totally ignored that young lady who was coo-ing to her for about half-an-hour, and at that point in time, I knew this dog was going to have a totally independent streak. I should have heeded the early warning signs, that Cookie will ignore all your orders and charge straight at our food as she grew up. But she was tamed by...

... my beloved lady-of-the-ladies at home, Baobei. This photo was taken just about a month before Baobei died, and her fur needed to be shaved because she was developing a skin condition (from old age). How I missed her, she was always lying on my bed, and keeping her eyes on me. Before she died, she was in my room waiting for me to come back home from work. Once I saw her, and gave her a ruffle on the head, she gave a sigh and died on the spot. Shit, tears come to my eyes again writing this... but I know she's doing good up in doggie heaven. Baobei, we love you then, now, and forever always. And that's the reason this is one of my most treasured picture.

LANDSCAPES

The thing about landscape photos is that... basically it's just aesthetics. I'm just gonna state the place, and leave it as that.

I had fun with this one. Imagine you are trekking up at 6,000 feet, the sun scorching down on you, and a backpack full of chocolates weighing your every steps down. You look up, saw a plane (yes there's a plane in this photo, however small), and you just know you got to get that shot.

My favorite-st photo!!! Aaahhh the serenity of the place, the mirror surface of the lake. the twin peaks ablaze with the fire of the setting sun. I could stare at this shot for the longest time and not get bored. Seriously, everyone have to go to Tasmania at least once - that place is AMMMAAAAZZING.

MISC

Random shots that I have no clue whereelse to slot them in.

Took it at Bel's lab using one of the high-powered microscopes. Now, this is MACRO!

Had to do a still-life for a photojourn class assignment. This was it, nothing much to look at really, but just that it was a really nice chessboard, and the studio environment hastily setup in our garage one day before the assignment was due was improvisation at its max (2 Ikea table lamps, 2 flashes, 2 styrofoam boards, and lots of taped up printing paper).

Taken in City Link, Singapore, waay waaaaay back. It was supposed to be for an article on the sterility and business atmosphere of Singapore, but that article was canned. I still like this shot - to me, it represents everything that Singapore stands for. White-washed, faux avant-garde decor, throngs of people, and transactions taking place in the middle of everything.

Was crossing some sand dunes in Tasmania (forgot the name of the place, heck it was just sand everywhere), and came upon this junction where all kinds of footprints intersected. At this point in time, Red Riding Hood would probably ask the bird "Gosh, Grandma! What big feet you have!!"

token macro flower shots - a dime a dozen out there on the internet now. These were taken with what I regard as the most capable macro camera ever - the Nikon Coolpix 900 series. That is almost close to 10 years now, and the first photo was made into my first namecard which was a sort of mini-rave amongst my business contacts - everybody wanted two.

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So there ya go! There's alot more photos which I consider to be aesthetically pleasing, or nice. However, over the years, I found myself wanting to take photos that tell a story. With the digital explosion, the availability of good lenses (Nikon trinity set and Canon L lenses), the accessibilty to photographic techniques and knowledge on the internet, pretty much anybody can take good looking-pics. Photography used to be bluddy expensive (I cringed everytime I shot over 10 rolls on the F3 for a single event). Now? it's sooo cheep.

What matters, is that the pictures have a story to tell. And those are the pictures I truly enjoy.