Golden Cross-Back Dragons

Had a chance to view these beautiful golden dragon fishes (arowanas) up close in two very big glass tanks and wasted no time in capturing their grace : )

Sunset @ Seletar Reservoir

A hot and sunny afternoon at the seletar reservoir ends with a fascinating perfect sunset...!!

Inaugural F1 @ Singapore... Nite Race!!

We went... soaked in the vibe... witnessed drama... and became part of history...!!

Mid-Autumn @ Singapore Chinese Garden... Kitty Land!!

Haven't been to the Singapore Chinese Garden for many years (like 20yrs?) and only very little trace of childhood memories remained...

Mid-Autumn @ the central

Heard from dad that there were many nice colorful lantern displays lining the banks of Singapore River on the side of the central shopping mall. Decided to go with my girlfriend and enjoy ourselves ; )

Gone To Seed

Gone To Seed... that's the topic chosen by last week winner, Fay, for this week's Creative Minds Photography Contest. Well... here's my upload:

It was the mid-autumn festival last weekend and mooncakes was one of the many festive goodies. Sweet, rich, dense and baked in the round shape of the moon.

This one is vegeterian and full of seedy goodness... almond seeds, sunflower seeds, sesame seeds etc. Gone to seed... gone to stomach : )


Shooting Notes & Details:
Camera Body: Canon 40D
Lens: EF 100mm f/2.8 USM Macro with Hood
Mode: Av @ 11
ISO: 100
Focusing: Manual
Tripod: Manfrotto 190XPROB
Ball-Head: Slik 800 Quick Release

Found this little red seed alone on the ground... scratched and bruised yet still vibrantly red. Most probably travelled a long way from its mother plant... and fulfilling its destiny one day. Ain't we the same?


Shooting Notes & Details:
Camera Body: Canon 40D
Lens: EF 100mm f/2.8 USM Macro with Hood
Mode: Manual - Av @ 11, Tv @ 125
ISO: 100
Focusing: Manual
Flash: Canon MT-24EX Macro Flash


Hope I get first and then we can all play Black&White!! (My suggested topic for next week) :D

Mid Autumn @ Chinatown

Had a fun evening walking along Chinatown with my girlfriend and snapping up the brightly lit Mid-Autumn Festival decorations along the streets...

Lost Beetle

It came crashing onto my keyboard... in the wee hours of the morning. i was going through the many pics i took at chinatown last weekend with my girlfriend.

Dazed and disorientated, it tuck its feeble wings, steadied itself and started to explore its surroundings.

My SG F1 PaSS!!

"WoW!!"... that's my first impression after i opened the envelope and starring at the little black box...

Operation Smile - WAFF Carnival

Everyone should be gifted with a beautiful smile... : )

How The Blind Take Photos

The news header caught my immediate attention as i was doing my usual news header "surfing" of a newspaper yesterday.

The Blind... taking photos? Hmmm...

Blessed with the gift of sight, i guess i will never be able to fully comprehend the blind world, not to mention how a blind can actually take photos with a camera.

As i read the news story, i was touched by the effort of Mr. Hiroshi Suga (an award winning Japanese photographer) and how the blind students developed their own methods to overcome their disabilities. i can imagine the many possible doubts, rejections, scepticism or maybe even cynicism when this whole thing first take root.

"Eyes of the Heart"... these kids have it and its time i start to discover my own eyes within my heart. So often we see with our eyes but not with our hearts, speak with our mouths but not with our hearts and hear with our ears but not with our hearts.

Gotta use my eyes of my heart the next time i shoot... join me :)

First Attempt At Commercial Shoot

Finally back from my 3 weeks Call Of Duty to the nation and here's the pics that i shot for a friend's herbal drink stall (located at Holland Ave) a few days before entering in-camp:

Shooting Notes & Details:
Camera Body: Canon 40D
Lens: EF 100mm Macro f/2.8 USM
Mode: Manual - Av @ 16, Tv @ 250, ISO @ 100
Flash: Canon 580EXII + Canon MT-24 Macro
Diffuser: Gary Fong Universal Cloud
Mode: ETTL

This is the first time that I used the 580 + MT-24 flash combo. Spent quite a fair bit of time trial & erroring. The 580 was mounted on a monopod stand off-camera above the subject, with the MT-24 on camera providing fill & shadow play.

All the product ingredients were painstakingly cleaned out & arranged, and were shot over a few days. Some were rejected by my friend and were re-shot. Submitted all to istock but only got 2 accepted - The rest did not meet their lighting requirement. Will learn from this and improve along the way : )

As for my friend? He's a happy customer when he saw the final printout result (slightly larger than A0 size). I haven't got a chance to see it myself but according to him, passerbys were asking where he got the pics when he's carrying the printout home from the printers... i'm happy : D

Small Spider Lunching On Fly

_MG_5215 - Spider Eating Fly On Leaf, originally uploaded by -AroFarMeR-.

Took these macro spidey pics some time back just around my place but haven't had the time to process them. This big one gave me a shock when i saw it... i nearly walked into it:

It took me a while to notice that there was another small orange spider sharing the web with Mr. Biggie. Mr Tiny wasn't obvious at first sight... it even looked like Biggie's wrapped up food when it was all curled up.

The interesting one is a small spider which i found on a leaf. He was eyeing a fly that had jus landed on the leaf. In a split second, he jumped forward, caught the fly in his powerful jaws and hurried away under the leaf to enjoy his lunch... under the leaf to be safe from predators.

I guess i was lucky to be trailing him when he was having lunch becos he moved much slower and stopped more frequently which allowed me to snap him... with his lunch still in his jaws:

Shooting Notes & Details:
Camera Body: Canon 40D
Lens: EF 100mm Macro f/2.8 USM
Mode: Manual - Av @ 11~16, Tv @ 125~200, ISO @ 200
Flash: Canon 580EXII
Diffuser: Gary Fong Universal Cloud
Mode: ETTL
Ring Light: MCGILL MCLS-1 Macro Ring Light

This is the first time that I used the MCGILL MCLS-1 Macro Ring Light in the field. It is NOT a flash - it is actually just a small fluorescent tube powered by 6 AA batteries.

The light is not as powerful as a dedicated macro flash but is sufficient in already well lit areas where you want that extra brilliance on the subject. Just check out the circular catchlight in the spider's eyes:

Grain Beetle... amidst my china barley : P

_MG_1076 - Grain Beetle, originally uploaded by -AroFarMeR-.

Surprise surprise... to find our little pesty friend alive and kicking in a sealed packet of china barley which my friend bought.

The china barley is for me - to shoot his herbal drink stall "Barley Drink" pictures and out tumbled the tiny grain beetle as i poured out the content.

i thot it was dead at first sight, all wrinkled and motionless... but as i was preparing the china barleys for shoot, this tiny black spec suddenly moves!

Quickly, i got my macro lens and trailed it. It went around and occassionally spreading its wings. i guess it's warming up... after spending who knows how long in the sealed pack!

Finally, with all its bodily juices pumped up, it spread its wings and took off...

Farewell... and good luck ; )

Help!! I'm Cornered!!

"Help!! I'm Cornered!!" exclaimed the House Lizard. He stayed still... very still as any movement would bring more attention to himself and reduce his survival chances drastically. He is now in bare territory, without the cover that had hidden him comfortably.


Just minutes ago, he was safe there... lying in the dark, until a bright light came on with a gigantic strange creature running in who made some splashing noises, filled the space with pungent odour and kicked his cover abruptly... revealing his concealment.


He ran... with all his legs, trying to find a possible escape route but alas, the pungent odour must have got to him, for he was disoriented and couldn't get out. All these while, the gigantic creature just sat there watching his every move before making a final loud splashing noise and went away.


"It's gone. I'm safe" he thought to himself but security was short lived as the gigantic creature returned with a strange big black thing that looked like a very big eye. Big Eye was trailing him, nailing his every move with a "cliiiiccck" and blinding light that added to his confusion.


He can only stay low in the open and bid his time. Trapped and Cornered.


Suddenly Big Eye wasn't trailing him anymore - "Now's the CHANCE!!" He scrambled towards the crack that he had noticed while bidding his time... and he's gone.

Formula Drift SG

What a HOT SUNNY DAY at the inaugural FORMULA DRIFT SINGAPORE event held on Sunday 27 April 08 at the Singapore Airshow Grounds in Changi!! By the time me and friends left the place, we were totally TOASTED!

But it was worth it, to be able to see top class drifting action from the Pros and our local guys battling it out. The top spot goes to Team USA's RYUJI MIKI with his RX7, Team Malaysia's TENGKU DJAN and his AE86 claim the 2nd spot and Team New Zealand's MIKE WHIDDET got the 3rd spot in his RX7.

Wanna know more about the event n what's drifting? Check these out:

Formula Drift SG - http://www.formuladrift.com.sg/index.htm
Straits Times on Formula Drift SG - http://www.straitstimes.com/Video+News/Singapore/STIVodcast_4086.html?playid=4086&type=Singapore

It's my first time trying my hand on sports photography – also virgin use of my Canon EF70-200mm f/4L IS USM at a motorsport event. The IS (Image Stabilizer) works GREAT... you can just feel the gyro working and stablizing your viewfinder vision... neat especially when panning n hunting the drift machines.

However, the LCD didn't provide much help in determining picture quality becos of the glaring sun but luckily all my pics turn out good and i'm happy. I have also tend not to trust the LCD nowadays becos I had instances where it looks great on the tiny LCD but blurred when view on my monitor. .. haiz.

Should i use ONE-SHOT or AI SERVO auto focusing mode for this kind of event? That was the question ringing in my head when I was out there in the field. I tried both and find that both seems to work quite well. I do get some blurry shots in both modes and I attribute them to my poor handling skills – Don't blame the equipment for yr poor skills... read it somewhere online... Hahaha.

To see more of the action, go to: http://www.flickr.com/photos/tsaiek6654/sets/72157604798059443/