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personal

Bali shorts

Was around in Bali couple of months back for a short getaway. Good food, good rest, and took whatever came along. Here are some images from the trip.

A rainbow during a morning walk. The locals told me it’s a common sight. I thought it was a magical sight. Now I know they live in a magical land.

A temple at Ubud.

Monkey clan.

Monkey clan 2. Taken at the Monkey Forest in Ubud.

Feeding frenzy by the tourists.

Love this moment between the two.

Eat, Drink, Monkey.

They are everywhere. The moment  you put your hands into the bag, they’ll rush towards you, believing that you have something edible in your bags. Sometimes, you don’t even know where they came from. In this forest, your every move is watched.

The comic clouds.

Cactus on the rocks.

A couple enjoying the sea breeze while the rest of the people waits for the waves to recede before crossing the small channel between the rocks.

Apart.

Cliff hanger.

 A couple who walked into my frame. I shot, I showed them and emailed it to them. Sometimes, things just happen.

 






a question of ang pow

When I was younger (way younger), one of the most common topics after chinese new year was to compare how much ang pow (red packets) we received over the new year’s visiting. I have to admit mine was always below average. But still, I enjoyed the part where we opened our ang pows and guess who they were from. Couple of years back when I started working, I decided to donate the money from the ang pows to charity because I felt I was too old (even though I’m not married) to take them. While I still get quite a fair bit of ang pows from weddings, I used to spend them whenever I needed cash.

2 years ago, I decided to keep aside those ang pows and only open them when the year ends. One of the reasons was because I didn’t want to get stressed over the pictures if I knew someone gave me a fat ang pow. The very same reason why I generally do not ask where my couples work or their family background. These information are unnecessary for my work and I do not see how they can help me in my approach on the wedding day. That year, I decided that I would donate everything I collected in the year to charity. Since ang pows symbolize good luck, the good karma goes back to the people who gave them to me.

I remember my mentor once said that we should always give back to the society, through whatever avenues, that’s really up to us.

 

Here’s wishing everyone a Happy Lunar New Year!!

家和万事兴!!

Oh yes, I have to say this too. Have a shark’s fins free New Year!!:D






Lembeh 2011 December

Dr Heng said, “you can go scuba diving now”.

A post lasik dive trip. Why not? I went through my calendar and found a 2 week break that fit nicely into my schedule, so I had them blocked and sent a couple of emails to my contact at Twofish Divers. This will be my fourth time there and my second this year. I’m a little like a whale on migration, always going back to the same area year after year.

Just over less than a year, so much has changed here. I was greeted by many new faces, who would after this trip, become familiar faces that I hope to see again soon. Their way of life intrigued me. It seems like the digital revolution hasn’t really hit them yet. Life revolves around family, the sea and music. Almost every night, they will be singing and playing their homemade instruments. Merry making till the last guests turn in at about 9pm. After which some of them will stay back to have a game of chess or watch english dubbed chinese kungfu movies. I didn’t seem to notice all these ongoings in my previous trips. I knew enjoying the experience is going to be of higher priority over photography this time.

I am happy I learned something new this trip. A change in approach and mentality.

Overall, it was a great trip. A trip that offered me more questions than answers. I am already looking forward to the next trip.

Click the image above to view slideshow






A panoramic attempt

I used to love taking panoramic pictures with my Canon S10 when I was traveling. The nice thing about compact cameras is that they do not suffer from parallex errors like DSLRs. I attempted a quick panorama today at the Marina Barrage and it didn’t turn out too badly. I wish I could’ve salvage the fountain at the bottom, but I guess not this time. Now I just need a spirit level for the tripod and hopefully it will stitch better.



The Singapore skyline from Marina Barrage. All 85 megapixels of it.






A simple review on the Mint floor cleaner

Black Friday in the states is just a day away and I found some interesting deals. One of which is the Mint floor cleaner that I bought earlier this year. I got the idea on getting a robotic cleaner for my home/office when I saw someone trying out a Samsung Navibot at while doing my usual electronics window shopping. Right after that I did some research on different types of robotic cleaners and found the Mint Cleaner.

For more info, you can read more on their website. I will just write on my personal experience with this little machine. This little robot is probably one of the smallest robotic cleaner on the market. This is because of it’s lack of vacuum unit. Instead, it uses a microfiber cloth (or disposable paper towels) to pick up dust and hair and does a fantastic job doing it. This makes the unit extremely quiet compared to the vacuum based cleaners. The downside is you will have to change the microfiber cloth or disposable towels (eg. magic clean or similar) once it gets dirty. The lack of vacuum unit also means it cannot clean carpets. As for wet cleaning, it does an okay job. Due to the weight (or lack of it), it can’t do any deep cleaning. It will remove light stains and get rid of the sticky feeling on the floor, but not major spills or hard to remove stains.

The robot navigates by reading signals from a small external navigation unit. This unit bounces signals off the ceiling and “tells” the robot where to go. It navigates in a rather systematic way, going up and down the room like a minesweeper. Towards the end, it will do a perimeter sweep on the entire area which it just cleaned. For those with many rooms might want to experiment on the placement of the navigation unit to get the best position. It also get around corners and furnitures pretty well (it’s also easy on the feet :P).

I use them almost daily after I bought it in Feb and had not vacuum my floor since. Now the floor feels clean every single day. Before you think about getting it, think if it’s suitable for your lifestyle. If you can afford 2 mins everyday to set this thing up to run and not have alot of carpeted areas in your house, this is probably something that will make your feet happy. And for those who work from home or have pets, that’s even better because it’s really quiet since it doesn’t vacuum. In summary, whatever your Magiclean can do, this cleaner can do it for your automatically.



Personally, I rate this as my best gadget buy this year:) Because it’s perfect for me and it’s fully utilized:D Beyond that, it’s like my electronic pet. Btw, I’m not in any way affiliated to this company, just thought I’d share some experiences since quite a number of people are asking me about them.


Check out their website at www.mintcleaner.com. Also check out the newer model, which has longer battery life and better wet cleaning capabilities. You can also read other users reviews on amazon.com.

To buy from Amazon, you can use vpost, borderlinx, comgateway, etc to ship them over since Amazon only ship them in USA. No power conversions required. I think there’s a pretty good black friday deal now on their website.






Leg nudge

Something random from the wedding I attended last night. My army friend did nudge my legs a few times whenever this rather sexy looking girl walked past our table. I guess that’s the perks you get when you are seated next to the entrance. Somehow, we were always seated at the last tables furthest from the stage in all the weddings of our army friends. It had to do with our “fantastic” performance during our battalion anniversary dinner in our active days. I’ll just say we’re so close to getting restrained by security guards in the hotel. 20 year olds with alot of free alcohol. How time flies.






Sydney part II

Another set of images on the Sydney trip.

Left: Approaching Sydney’s international airport. The land below is the Royal National Park, which we drove through a few days later. We didn’t have time to stop by, but the drive itself was mesmerizing.
Right: On the beach at Port Stephens. On the right hand side of the beach is the sand dune, which stretches a few kilometers.

Left: Wentworth Falls. Taken on the way down to the falls. Definitely not for someone with weak knees. The steps are tight and steep.
Right: Dog’s pawprints on the beach.

I see Anteater.

The Opera House.

From Mrs Macquarie’s Chair.

Strategically chosen seats to catch the sunset on the way home. Oh… and I got all 3 seats for myself. Although I think the A380s are not the best for plane photography because of the huge distance between the double glazed windows.






In Sydney

We do what all tourists do. Visit the Opera House, get a picture of the Harbour Bridge, drink some wine, walk to bushes and get burnt at the beach:) This time, it’s no different, since I’m bringing my dad around. Not quite a photography trip, but I enjoyed it nonetheless. The quality of light in Australia is just amazing. There are times I would just watch and wonder, in my country where everything is imported, including people, why can’t we just import some light from the land of plenty. Oh well, if we could, I’ll like to import the weather too (just the good parts) and make them permanent residents:)

Anyway, here are some of the images I took during the trip.

The Sydney Opera House and the Harbour Bridge… and the moon at 10am in the morning! It was the last day of my trip and I had an afternoon flight to catch, so I decided I should just hang aound the city before taking a train to the airport. And that was the first day that I stepped into the city in the whole 10 days. Been mostly traveling out of the city this trip. I was told that the sun and moon usually meet in the morning for a chat here in Sydney.

Left: wind swept footprints on the sand dunes at Port Stephens. Pretty amazing stretch of sand dunes right beside the beach. Reminds me of Frasers Island in Queensland.
Right: The Three Sisters of the Blue Mountains from Echo point lookout. If this was in Singapore, it’ll probably be called 福禄寿.

Partner or no partner.

No partner? Nehmind… the four legged one makes a good substitute:)

Pelicans at The Entrance. The lamposts used to be straighter.