Traversing

Traversing the same spaces 

 With my body experiences almost the same things

Just in a different self

And a different time

Photos taken on Cirafilm 800, with Skina camera

7 years

Clementi circa 2011

I am one day late but anyway... Wishing Singapore a happy 53rd birthday! Just want to thank you for the sweet memories, and I'm always looking forward to spending some days back on the sunny island again with my friends. I've become busier now, so I don't go back as often as I did back 4 years ago. But it's alright, I think we're all adults now and we're all busy in our own ways :P

Anyway I was looking through some old photos last night. Because Singapore's National Day always makes me feel sentimental about Singapore hah. As I am using a new laptop, and I didn't transfer all the photos from my old one here, I was digging through my external hard drive to look at some photos that I took while I was in Singapore! Like the photo above, which was shot 7 years ago back in 2011!

Seven long but seemingly short years. And now Clementi has changed so much really. I took this photo from the old Clementi interchange. The temporary one that is. If I'm not wrong, that place has become a block of flats (or is it Condo?). There's a new feature thingy on the MRT line, and a new mall has popped in Clementi. The Clementi mall remains the same though haha.

I took this photo on a Saturday afternoon. I could still remember that afternoon, where I slept the day away hah. If I'm not wrong I overslept and woke up at like 11 AM I think. And I was just feeling really lazy to get out of the house to get food. I procrastinated a lot and eventually pulled myself out of the house to go to Clementi to have lunch. It was a sunny day as you can see, and I decided to bring my lomo camera with me. It was a wise decision I guess, cause now I have this photo!

So yeah, as much as this is a random snap of Clementi taken on a random Saturday afternoon, looking at how much things have changed, I feel kinda thankful to have snapped this photo! Photographs are a testament of a particular time that once stood still. This random moment has given me so much sentimentality and fuzzy feelings. And it definitely made me miss those good old days.

This year marked the 5th year that I went back home for good. Well yeah I do miss Singapore sometimes. I think the thing I missed the most about Singapore is the solitude. I miss the bus rides, the train rides, meeting my friends, going to school, and so on and forth. Life was simple back then, even though ironically I couldn't wait for time to fly so that I can graduate ASAP hah.

Last night made me feel thankful that I shot a lot of photos on my film camera. Not only that they give a whole different feel when you look at the photos again, but they have also become a proof. A testament, about a moment that I once experienced. And most of the time these moments become moments that I will miss in the future. I think I should take more photos now.

Oh well life has to go on. Reminiscing about the past always feels good though.

Film and Festival

 Summer! Shot with my Skina SK2000 on Lomo800 film

So I decided to bring my film camera to We The Fest 2 weeks ago, and well I learned that it was both an overambitious act and also a good decision! Haha. Okay well I've tried doing this when I was in Singapore at Neon Lights last year. And I think it was a good choice because I actually enjoyed the festival more, with less time spent on looking at my screen seeing if the shot I took was good or not.

Which was the same case at WTF! All I did was frame, shoot and pull away the film to get ready for my next shot. Also knowing that I only have 36 exposures made me think a lot about the photos. I didn't happily fire away the shutter haha. But this also brings a bad point.

 Stars and Rabbit

That is I have a lot of blurry shots! Well I did use an ISO800 film. Outdoors (like Stars and Rabbit set) was shot in 1/100 speed. But apparently I still have a lot of blurry shot. And then indoors (Bottlesmoker, Shura, Gryffin) was shot a bit slower, but thanks to the awesome lighting, I manage to snap a few nice ones. So yeah I reckon that I was a bit overambitious to shoot in film.

 Love this shot of Shura!

Nevertheless I really enjoy the process. Shooting film helps to really make you enjoy the moment, whatever you are doing and wherever you are. Digital is also nice because you get to shoot a lot of shots and you're ensured that you'll manage to snap a few good ones. Back in Cambodia, I didn't know that my Sony A6000 has a lousy battery life. So I had to use my film camera to shoot in some of the temples that I visited because I was preserving the battery for the sunset photos in the evening.

 Try going to a music festival with a film camera!

And during those moments where I shot with my Canon Prima, I kinda feel that I enjoy the time more. I get to bask in the temples surrounding more I guess. Cause all I did was shoot and put my camera away. And more things to see, more things to feel as well. I'd love to one day travel with only my film camera. Now that I have a reliable developer here in Bandung (shoutout to Hipercat Lab!).

Alright that's all for today. I recommend you to try going to a music festival/travel with a film camera!

World Photo Day

 Photos from Tibet

So yesterday was World Photo Day (WPD). Thanks Facebook for the notification! I didn't know such a day exists haha. Many photographers and Instagram users are sharing photos and posts about what WPD means to them. They share about the importance of photography, the power of a photograph, and also their wishes for other photographers around the world and for the future of photography.

Well I'm not a photographer but I still enjoy photography. Although I don't take my girlfriend (AKA my camera) for dates as much as I used to, I still take photographs using my iPhone haha. Well it's more convenient I guess. Imagine me lugging my girlfriend to the office everyday. I've always enjoyed photography. Because I love the idea about freezing moments you can never return to.

I'm a very sentimental person. So photography helps me a lot to treasure and save these moments. I wish I could start early back when I was in secondary one. I was only beginning to get interested in photography while in secondary 4-ish. It was when I got my Nokia N82. My phone opened up the world of photography to me. I even documented my trip to Sweden using it! I still have the photos.

Anyway I just finished putting my Tibet photos that I've printed inside the album. Err I actually printed them way back in July haha. But I always kept on forgetting to put them inside the album. Looking at the photos made me feel really good and sentimental inside. All the good and sweet memories of the trip were playing inside my head like a movie reel. Every photograph remind me of a story, or a moment that I experienced while there. Which brings me to my aspiration for WPD...

I think we should all keep up with the tradition of printing our photos! We live in a digital world today, where we take photos in our phones or digital cameras, and then just leave them inside our computer. Well I've been printing my travel photos so far all the way from 2011. And there's really a sense of sentimentalism whenever I take a look at the albums again. It feels so cool.

Like I've always believe, your photos look better on prints, than on screens! :P

I often wonder how I will feel when I look at the photos again ten years later.

Oh well, here's wishing you a happy World Photo Day! Keep shooting and keep showing the world how your world looks like from your lens! :)

Milky Way

Milky way!

Last night was kind of a clear night. And it's been so long since I did some star photography (or astrophotography) so I decided to take my camera out! Set up my tripod, changed settings here and there, and I was so surprised to be able to shoot the Milky Way on my camera! Oh man, it was such a happy moment for me. I didn't know I can do it here in my hometown.

To be honest I've been very skeptical when I see beautiful photos of Milky Way with house/mountains/landmarks in the foreground of the photos. I thought you'll need some powerful camera and a pretty good and clear night to capture it! And also I've never seen the milky way with my own eyes. I did once, in Johor. It wasn't a clear milky way but definitely some strands of it. 

Actually I can see some strands of it in my hometown too. There's this cloud like thing on a certain part of the night sky that I've been eyeing upon. I am not sure if it's the milky way, maybe it's just some mist or clouds heh. So last night I decided to direct my camera in that part of the sky and yup, the above photo is the end result of the shoot! I am quite amazed myself.

It is kind of a crappy photo if you enlarge it. Firstly, the photo was somehow out of focus even though I already set my camera's focus setting to infinity. But somehow it's just a tiny bit out of focus so the stars look pretty vague. I tried to sharpen in in post-process and tweak the brightness and contrast. This is the best way I can salvage this photo. I am determined to take a better photo though!

I've always been fascinated with astronomy. In primary school I took astronomy for that "Young Scientist badge" thingy and after borrowing a pile of books about astronomy, I began to show a deep interest to it. My sister and I even bought a telescope! Err yeah it was those like 78 bucks one but it's pretty good. You can see the craters of the moon. I bought a constellation map as well and tried my best to map out constellations in my hometown. It was pretty fun,

Whenever I look at the stars in the night sky, I'm always amazed by the grandeur and beauty of this universe. I feel really tiny. We all think we are big-shot human beings but seriously, we'll never know who's and what's out there. Are we alone in this universe? I definitely think not. Does anybody else know our existence here? And the questions just go on and on. The universe is so beautifully scary.

After watching Divergent, I wonder to myself if we are actually an experiment carried out by some extraterrestrial civilizations. You know, maybe we are a prototype of a new creature/living thing. Maybe some robot civilizations create us, thinking we might make a great inhabitant of a planet. But I think we are doing a horrible job because we are destroying our planet everyday. 

No one knows really! Just an interesting thought to think about.

Alright stopping here for a while. I'll talk to you soon! :)

Project365 - 2014

Right I was supposed to blog about this like 2 days ago but umm I fell asleep. And yesterday the internet was being a bitch so I couldn't blog. But anyway yes, I finished this project of mine which I started last year (feels weird talking last year when 2014 was just 5 days ago! Haha). Basically I take a photo every day across 2014 and this is how my year (literally) looks like:

Project365 2014 done!

Well I actually feel quite proud of myself for finishing this project. To be honest it's quite challenging to think of new interesting photos to take everyday. And some photos here don't even deserve to be called a photograph. But anyway, to me this project is not solely a "photography" project but also my visual diary. A diary that keeps track of my days throughout the year. Feels kinda awesome to look at a photo and remember what happened on that day, or the significance of that photo.

There are a few lessons I learned from this project.

Firstly I learned to see beauty in everything. Confucius once said "Everything has beauty but not everyone sees it". This is the biggest lesson I learned in this project - to see beauty in everything. But as the saying "another man's meat is another man's poison", what I perceive as beauty may not be perceived to others as beauty. But well I suppose this project is a depiction how my eyes see the "beauty" in everything around me. The sky, food containers, food, animals, roads, random objects etc.

Secondly, I started this project because I want to continue doing what I love throughout the year, although I don't do it for a living. And I actually feel happy to do this! At the end of this project I am happy that I managed to stick to this project till the end, and that I managed to accomplish my resolution of continuing to do what I love. But of course I won't stop doing what I love in this new year. Just that I won't do this project again. I have a new one which I'll tell you soon.

Thirdly, this project is also a platform to keep my creative juice flowing. I am definitely not an artistic person, and my job here doesn't involve arts at all. But I do enjoy being amalgamated inside the "arts" and I want myself to be so, till I die hopefully. Photography to me is a platform to express my thoughts and feelings. It's just like writing, but we don't write with words, and we use photographs instead. And like the saying goes, a picture paints a thousand words. So yup, the project definitely kept my creative juices flowing throughout the year. I have to say it's quite challengingly satisfying.

The first 100 days of the project actually went like a breeze... I felt like "oh I've done this for a hundred days, I'm pretty sure I can do this for another 265". But in reality, it gets tougher! Okay I mean I can cheat and just take photos of skies in 3 consecutive days but I tried my best to take a different object every day. But of course you will spot like a handful photos of skies in that collage. But hey I love skies anyway so yup. At least I don't take a week's worth of skies photos haha.

Well yup, these are my thoughts to this project I did. I recommend everyone to try it. It's pretty convenient now that you can do this because of the awesomeness of smartphones. I mean most of my photos (like 95%) were also taken with my trusty S4. Remember it's not the camera but the photographer! No matter what camera you use, you're still the person that composes the photograph.

Alright, thanks to those who followed my journey in this year-long project of mine. I challenge you to try and do it too! Kinda enlightening once you finished it :)

292

 Asemka

Well today is the 292nd day of the year and guess what, I just came up with a new resolution for this year to accomplish! Somehow I'm feeling excited to end this year hah.

Anyway I went to Jakarta yesterday with my sister to accompany her to the Asemka market. We were there to stock up some of the items for her bookstore. I went to Asemka a year ago too, it's an awesome place to do street photography cause there's too much things going on there! Very good for street-photog material. Above are some of the shots taken yesterday.

After Asemka we went to MKG to do some shopping. I went a bit overboard with the Japanese and Korean ingredients-haul but hey, I can't get all these stuff in my hometown so might as well get them while I was there yeah. We went to catch a movie too, it was "Left Behind" and we were truly disappointed after the movie. I recommend you not to watch it.

It's 12 more days to the end of this month and whew, time just seems to fly rather quickly really. But well, like I always believe, the year will just zoom past your eyes during the last three months of the year. At least this is what I've been experiencing for the past 10 years of my life hah. I don't know, I've went through a lot, and I'm kind of excited to see what this remaining days of the year have in offer.

Alright just a short update for you. Talk to you soon.

Photo

Well as you can see from my previous post, I've been shortlisted (or my photo I mean) for the IFDPC (International Friendship Day Photography Competition) finals! So basically I submitted my photos, let people vote, top 30 photos will pass through the voting round and will be shortlisted for the judges to judge on and choose. And.... The verdict says....

I won the merit prize under the activity category! :D


I feel really happy after hearing my name from the announcer! Well actually I have no intention of winning. I just submitted my photos in hope for people to vote and who knows what the outcome is. Having my photo displayed there is enough to make me happy! Now that I took the merit prize as well, I feel doubly happy haha. It's pretty awesome. It's my first "large scale" photography competition so getting a merit prize is awesome enough I guess! :)

Anyway congratulations to Jasmine as well! Cause she won merit prize under activity too! :D Her shot is really awesome too! Not forgetting, to all winners and contestants of the photography competition as well! In one way or another, we all have contributed to the event and we all should be proud of it yes! :)

Well I've always told myself. Expect nothing, just do your best. In one way or another, something greater will be returned to you. Even though this "something" comes from within you. To me, like joy. After I've heard the result that I won the merit prize, I feel happy. And in the bus, after pondering about more things, I feel even happier. In a way... Like I'm given better and bigger prizes from the competition - Joy, memories, stories.

Let me show you the photo which I submitted, which is also the Editor's favourite.

-Sunset Joy-

For we cherish our hard work and friendship, through the planting of 1133 fir trees in Inner Mongolia, China. With the sunset, joining in the celebration.

This photo was taken by me after we finished digging our holes for the trees. I can remember still, the sky was kinda cloudy and I was thinking "Oh man no nice sunset to celebrate our end of diggings". Then at the end of the day, the sky just turned yellow and quite clear. Everyone decided to get up to the railway track (yup that's a railway track by the way) and I decided to help them snap a shot. And here it is.

You know, when I saw this photo being displayed under the "Editor's choice" panel, I just felt this unexplainable sense of joy and pride. Well not only because my photo has been chosen, but I'm even prouder with the fact that I was there to take this photo, and also to actually know the story and memories behind this photo. A photo is not a photo when there's no story behind it. Well that's what I believe.

I came up with this today:

"It's not the prize, it's not the fame. Not the pride and not the competition that matter. What truly matters is the story and memories behind that the photo holds"

When I saw this photo just now, a wave of memories just rushed through in my head. It was as if the whole scene, in Duolun, just appeared in front of my eyes. Even tough in front of me is this black board with tiny photos on them. I guess this is how much this photo means to me. In a sense, I love this photo because it captures, it freezes, it stops the moment, that moment, we had after we finished digging.

It replays the memories I have about the trip. It restarts the feeling I was feeling during that particular moment of time. It just takes me to a place where I was once at, without moving a single step.

This is the reason why I love photography.

Photographs are boats which I used to sail the sea of memories that time forbids me to travel back. I'm pretty grateful that I have the love and passion for photography. Thankful enough to own a camera to capture these moments which are never retrievable back. It lets me travel back through time, without physically moving. But mentally walking.

Photos in one way or another evoke feelings on me. To me, my definition of a great photograph is something that evokes emotions. Be it sadness, happiness, anger or etc. It touches your heart, not only your eyes and your mind. Well it can keep you thinking, But not all photographs have the ability to touch your heart. 

Here's another photo which was displayed.

-Game of yo-yo in Duolun-

It’s a cold autumn evening. And some kids are playing yo-yo at Duolun in Inner Mongolia, China. Life’s simplest pleasure which is seemingly lost in today’s world. Sometimes I envy these kids, who are able to enjoy such simplest and at the same time, joyous pleasure

This was also taken in Duolun, while I was walking around. If I'm not wrong it was the 2nd day of digging when we went back earlier due to bad weather (which somehow somewhat it was fine and clear in Duolun -.-). These kids were just playing their games of yo-yo and I decided to take a picture of them. They look so happy and blissful. It's just a yo-yo, while kids here, nowadays, indulge themselves in iPhones, iPods, PSP and this and that. 

To me this photograph teaches me something - to not take life for granted. I seriously feel envious of these kids. They are able to enjoy such simple pleasures, while I'm here, looking for those simple pleasures. So I guess, we ought to take some good breaks in life. It's not about being the best, having the best, going for the best. Somehow at the end of the day, simplicity brings us back to where we're supposed to be.

Ah, what a long post huh. Anyway I just want to use this opportunity to thank everyone who has voted for my photo, and to SPP for holding this competition. To all the organisers of the IFD and to all students involved in it. To my awesome GT members for being my models in the first photo, and also for giving me those wonderful memories we all spent in Duolun for that lovely 10 days.

To my dearest girlfriend, A230, for being there with my eyes to capture those moments (muacks). To those kids from Duolun who were playing their yo-yos haha! To Green Desert project by Asian Journeys and SP, for allowing me to step into Inner Mongolia. Without this, I will never be able to take these two shots.

Most ultimately, to Duolun itself. That beautiful town where I shot both of my photos at. Thank you for the wonderful memories you have given me, which I always keep in my heart. For letting me take these two scenes, which teach me lots of new things. 

Thank you.