Joce's Smoke

In helping out with Joce's art project, I also get to exercise shooting and to produce some interesting shots too, so it's really quite enjoyable for me as well. Aside from the staircase I shot last post, I produced the photos below with 3 PAs today helping to set up the make-shift studio in a storeroom(credit goes to Steph, Han Solo and Joce) for setting up the scene in lieu of proper equipment. I'm not used to machine gunning a scene but that was necessary today as the smoke output is often random and getting something interesting is normally a matter of luck really. I took a multitude of photos but as many of them are repeats I'd rather not post them. It's mainly for Joce to sketch after all.

Ok here are two interesting ones.

My favourite's first as usual


And I really love the horizontal movement of this one, plus I think it resembles a dragon of sorts, doesn't it? I've got another jellyfish too that's quite cute if you wanna see it.

Sky Screw

My take on the Bugis Spiral Staircase, which I finally got to shoot since I followed Joce down to Bugis today to shoot some images of incense at a temple, which unfortunately could not be carried out as no photography was allowed at the temple. At least came back with this one. Heh. Check back soon, I have a good feeling about Cho's shoot tmr.

Sentosa with the Yaggers

Went to Sentosa with some Yaggers today heh, after a retarded taxi joy ride where the bugger didn't know the way, so it cost me a whopping 20 bucks. Damn, I really need my own transport. The goon ended up dropping me off at Palawan beach instead of Siloso like I wanted but eventually I got to Siloso by taking a short walk. It was actually a good thing because I managed to get an ice cold drink to ward off the blooming heat at the Palawan 7-11.

I wound up using a Nikon D40 kit today, the cheapest DSLR set up available on the market today, which I highly recommend since it only costs $900 for the body AND lens; definitely cheap by DSLR standards since some of my lenses cost more than that second-hand. I borrowed the cam from my uncle, since my 5d took a trip to Laos with my parents. I could have rented, since it's so cheap nowadays, but I wanted to get the D40 out for a field test, since I've heard so much about it. The functions is has is actually incredible and Nikon's policy of not crippling their budget equipment held true all the way. Things like spot metering that Canon conveniently leaves out on their cheaper bodies were a welcome sight, as was the full +- 3 stops of exposure and flash exposure compensation, which doesn't even exist on my $4k+ 5d. The large LCD was a joy to view the photos with and using the camera was in all, a very positive experience. The D40's AWB and exposure isn't quite spot on though, and I had to make quite a number of corrections in the later stages. However, the output from the camera met my stringent standards, which some more costly set-ups don't even do, so kudos to Nikon for this release. The kit lens only costs a paltry $100, but the quality it produces is real solid stuff. Naturally it's not as good as the lenses I use for my Canon body, but in most cases there I paid more than 10 times what the Nikon kit lens costs, but they certainly aren't 10 times as good. If you're thinking of getting a prosumer, run out and get the Nikon d40 now! It makes great photos, nuff said.

You can actually see Nikon's colour difference from Canon, but I still prefer the Canon colours since Nikon tends to render skin tones a bit greenish(Canon renders theirs more yellow), which you may pick out from some of the images here where I failed to correct the colour bias(it's not always possible to do so). I used the same technique to achieve the blue sky here as I used for the POP post 2 posts down, however, this was all done with the 90% smaller onboard flash the D40 had, so I wasn't able to make the sky as dramatic as in the POP post. However, some may prefer the more "natural" result due to the lower flash output.

Ok nuff tech stuff said. Photos from here on out.


Pick of the Day: A Light moment with Nicky, just after he got buried in sand to the neck. We gave him an artificial body with abs and boobs too(Joshua made sure they were D-cups, well now we know what gets him going)!



By the time I got there, they had started to go on rides at the Sentosa Luge. I managed to catch them on their second round in the waiting area. Here's Ian with Esther in the background.



And here's Esther again, being herself.



We later trooped down to the beach to cool ourselves off in the water; the guys did anyway. Here's some shots of the gang at the beach, sans me as usual.

Back Row From Left ( Joshua, Hubert, Deb, Esther, Sarah) Middle (Ian) Front (Nicky)


Back Row From Left (Joshua, Hubert, Ian, Nicky) Front Row (Deb, Esther, Sarah)


I guess you know who they are by now.


The guys then proceeded to bury Nicky, and Deb later came to help out


Hubert goes "huh?" when I distract him from his work


Deb comes over to lend a hand, or just to laugh at Nicky.


Here's Nicky as he rises from his imprisonment to hit the water with us to cool off.



Riding Joshua, and accidentally squashing an all important part



Ian assaulting Hubert


Ian, who can't get enough of the sand


Deb and Hubie pose.


And more of Ian's antics, as Joshua watches on.


Joshua and Ian chilling out



We then went into a photo spree, where we kept taking random shots; lots of fun though.

Four


Airborne


This is random beyond random.


*Great photos are not made by great equipment, they are made by great subjects! Thanks guys for the wonderful time, really enjoyed myself =)*

Punggol Shoot, Stone Soup

Went on my first AG outing with the photonx ppl, and man was it a great experience to finally use my new gear in the field, although I only used the 16-35. Hurhur. I'm a UWA lover, what can I say? Anyway, shots were great, and it feels good to be shooting again, although my dad has now hijacked the 5d for 5 days and I'm without a camera... Boo.. Ok so it's my fault I sold the back-up. Fine. Hmph.

Ok anyway, here are the shots.

This is my pick of the lot, and here it is first, as I usually present my images from a shoot.
As Night Swallows Day



City Lights


Stone Soup


Wind


Shore


Log


And a black and white...

Storm

POP lo...

Ok finally got down to writing this post! And also sharing with you all some photos of my section/platoon mates, whom I actually quite miss now that BMT is over. Although Tekong life kinda sucked, I admit I will miss the extremely pretty sunsets and sunrises, where the colours are out of this world. It isn't uncommon to see purple, turquoise, red, yellow and blue hues all coming together to form a sky that looks like a panel out of a kaleidoscope.

Life as a private doesn't seem all too different really, but the anticipation of where I'm going next is killing me! My IPPT has been considered a fail due to various unfortunate circumstances, where I was absent for all 3 re-IPPT tests, due to air force medical, sickness, or just plain bad luck. I probably will become a man though, haha, which is actually what I was hoping for if I didn't get the pilot thing. During the air force medical though, I found out that I have a number of issues, one being suspected glaucoma; I may become blind, lol, and the other being blood in the urine. I've scheduled an appointment with a urologist to get it checked out but I'm quite apprehensive because they have to stick a probe up your pecker and that sounds like a world of hurt. That's just 4 days after I get my ear lump cut off, so I'm gonna be in a hell lot of pain once I go into the new unit. I hope I get a good posting! The blood in the urine can be used to down pes also, according to the polyclinic doctor, so might give it a shot if the posting sucks hurhur. PLEASE PLEASE PLEASE GIVE ME A STAY-OUT VOCATION!

I think I'm finally beginning to get used to army life, where I really don't care what happens, what they do to you, or what they say anymore. Everything just whizzes by you, and you can do a 1000 push-ups and still be laughing. It's insane really. Well anyway, here are the random pictures from my POP. There are some pictures here courtesy of my dad(those with me inside), who did ok when given the right settings for the camera.

Rodney airbone


My Platoon


Rodney flying, again


My section


My wifey Zhi Huang. Hurhur. I can't remember the last time I carried someone like that. It's been long. Long. Very long.


Section 4, with Daniel


Section 4


Some of Section 4


Section4 with Daniel again


Section 4


Marcus airborne


Bed buddies Rodney and Reagan

OWLFC Outreach Project

Ok I know I left halfway, and didn't quite document the whole thing, but I snapped enough images to roughly document the whole event. I attached myself to Joshua's team, so most of the photos you'll be seeing feature either Joshua or Daryl, because that's the entire team. Having done Sharity Gift Box in the past with the BB, this door-to-door giving spree wasn't really all that new of a thing to me. I don't think we succeeded very well as after clearing our planned area, we had only given out about 20-30% of our hampers; problematic. I think everyone did their best though, so kudos for the effort. I picked some images to give a rough idea of what we did, although I must say first that the packs were, umm quite a bit less than the giant sharity gift box ones I used to give out.

Passing out the gift packs in a human chain


En route to the site


Packs at the site. These are bundles of 10 by the way, individually, it's just a 1kg bag of rice and a 5-pack of maggi mee.


Joshua the happy trooper


Quite a number of the houses were empty, which I didn't expect, but it later made sense that people so strapped for cash would be still slaving away on a lazy saturday afternoon. Anyhow, although we didn't give out much, those residents that accepted our gifts did so quite cheerfully and willingly. I avoided photographing the residents out of courtesy for their privacy, which is why you will see none of their faces here. They were mostly suspicious that we were trying to sell things, but once they heard that the goodie bags were free, they quickly brightened up.

SUCCESS! After knocking on countless doors without receiving any response. Happy new year auntie!


Joshua examining the new year decor of a unit while waiting for a response from any would-be occupants.


Me entertaining myself while waiting for business



As I viewed the place though, I couldn't help being reminded of a prison, due to the design of the doors and the sheer feeling of claustrophobia that the drab, cramp corridors gave. Here's roughly what I felt; dark, dank, miserable. It's quite a sad existence that we often overlook. The apartments seemed more like cells than homes.