Photoshoot with Photographic Society of Singapore

After three weeks sitting in a classroom listening to the basics of photography and how to use an DSLR (which, to be perfectly honest, I'd read about on countless websites previously) finally we had an outing at the Singapore Botanic gardens on Sunday. The flip side to getting out of the classroom was the unfortunate 8.30am meet time! However it was good to be out there before the heat picked up and the Filipino home helpers took over the place with enormous picnic spreads on their traditional Sunday day off gatherings.

There is a real range of characters, knowledge, and skill in the group, and it was good to get to know people better outside of the classroom vibe.

It was back to the classroom today for the post session critique. These are my images I selected for discussion.

Greetings

Pre splash

Beautiful morning today so had a second attempt at the Greetings Card effort Moyu imagined.  Much better conditions todays and we managed to get down early enough before the family crowds inevitably took over.  I even managed to get a few lengths in before it because impossible to steer around the flip flops and inflatable toys.  Then settled into a fine Bacon Sandwich from Kith Cafe.  And all this by noon!

Beach Road Street Food

Street eating on Beach Road

Headed down to Beach Road for some street food on Wednesday after a third failed attempt to buy Puyo Puyo for the Wii, and a partial success in returning one of the two massively overpriced Hoya Filters I'd bought the weekend before - to be fair this was an honest mistake from an otherwise excellent camera shop. 20 bucks for all you can eat (and cook) BBQ and hot pot,  and (relatively) cheap beer.  I think the best thing about living in Asia is the propensity people have to eat out.  It's much less of a pavala and far cheaper than in Europe.  Singaporeans say 'Have you eaten already?' more or less as a greeting.  This does have the downside of making the whole thing far more functional, but ironically I look forward to eating a good meal had home with a bottle of wine as an event!

s$20 but you have to cook it yourself

I'm quite used to cooking for myself in various Asian eateries over the years, but I found the buffet layout of mixed raw & cooked meats, fish and vegetables a bit daunting at first.  The guide signs 'BBQ only' on various pots of meat were all I had to go on.  It was important to remember to 'sterilise' the chopsticks in the soup when switching from cooking to eating; however I noticed a lot of locals weren't doing that - tough stomachs!

Taking shape

Sofa and armchair arrived today from OM in Liang Court. Bed next week. Starting to resemble a home! still need a few extras such as lamps, coffee tables, etc waiting for the contractor to fit a ceiling light and replace a fan. The study is lagging far behind...

Project By The Pool

Time to try out the new tripod by the pool... The most glorious weather for days coincided with Hari Raya Haji holiday (the official date was yesterday) so perfect lighting but unfortunately perfect swimming weather for everyone else living at the Watermark , so space and time was at a premium.  Fortunately this isn't the UK, so we had just a few curious glances at the huge apparatus, and not the protectionist paternal glare I'm used to when taking photos where children like to play.

We decided given the contraints to use the session as a dry run.  But I quite liked this result:

Moyu mid air

It's not perfect, to shoot this fast to capture the water 'balls' we had to up the ISO and open the aperture.  Hence a lack of sharpness (notice the focus on the ledge where she's jumped from where I'd manually focussed.. )  A few points for next time - use the bigger new prime, try to find some better light, lose the ISO to keep it clean, and experiment with flash against continuous bursts...  Here's waiting for the next sunny morning....

Halloween

Halloween in Singapore gave the locals a chance to dress up and loiter around Clarke Quay.  For us it was a day of shopping desperately trying to find a suitable stick / cane to complete the look of Alex from Clockwork Orange.  Apparently bowler hats now only come for women, and the late addition of the boots helped the look.  Yes that's my cricket jock strap, but I chickened out from wearing the box... The red braces aren't authentic but a good chance to wear an old gift from my brother Jonathan, and match Erik's face quite well!

Mr Black & Mr White

The staff and resident band Deja Vu at  Highlander got into the mood, all dressed as pirates.

Razlyna & Iskandar of Deja Vu - familiar tunes, unfamiliar look

Clearly my look was lost on the majority of the crowd, however Erik walked away with Third place and s$100 of vouchers, so we're sure to be back again.

Deepavali (Dewali)

Today is Deepavali which is the Hindu 'Festival of lights'. It's also a public holiday due to the large Indian (Tamil) population of Singapore (around 400-000 - 10%).

We are off to ION for lunch, then on to Little India to see what's going on for Festival

Entree

I realised today that recently I'm using social networks exactly as a photo blog.  Perhaps to keep people informed of what I see around me, perhaps because I'm missing home, but definitely because I like to keep in touch and share the photos which I enjoy to take.

It's 4 months in Singapore now nearly, 1/3 of a year of my life away from home.  Certainly it's about time I recorded the experience.  This things don't happen to everyone all the time.