Sugai Buloh Visit

This morning I went to Sugai Buloh Nature Park and took these shots. Hope you all would enjoy them.
I realized taking nature not only you need long range lenses but great patience and luck too. By the way, I do not have the desired lens and do not have patience. Therefore, hardly could I get number of good shots, in terms of clarity, sharpness and good posture of the animals.

A series of Posters

Recently, I decided to add some values to the photographs that I have taken during a trip to the zoo. I designed and added some captions on the shots. Hope they would touch you or amuse you.

Zoo Visit 2010

I went to the zoo today (2nd June 2010)with my colleague Daniel Lim. We spent more than 5 hours walked about and took lots of photographs of animal. Daniel is trying out his newly bought Canon 70-200 L lens. I am targeted at taking animal portrait. My gears were simple: One Canon 7 D body, a 75-300mm zoom USM IS lens, a 24-85mm USM lens, one 2X Kenko converter, one set of Kenko extension tube and a spider tripod.
Below are some of the photographs taken there.

Those days in Buona Vista Secondary School


I taught in Buona Vista Secondary School as an art teacher for more than 15 years. It was a memorable time for me, as I had lots of committed students. They loved art, and performed well. We used to work in the Art Room until sun down. We paint, draw and create art works for leisure purpose when we finished the assigned projects.

Students found out my birthday through the school admin and celebrated my birthday at my place. This photograph was taken during one of the birthday celebrations. Sad thing is, someone in this photo is no more with us. She has completed her life journey very much sooner than us. Some of this students still contact me these days, they are all in their forties now. Time really flies.

Happy Vesak Day 2010!

Sunda Woodpecker

A pair of Sunda Woodpecker were nesting on a dry branch outside of my office. My colleague Daniel noticed them and inform me. I packed my photographic equipment and set up the shot. The results are partially displayed here. As I do not have pro lenses, I used 2 tele converters with a 70-300mm zoom to take some of these shots. Therefore, they were not pin sharp. Worst of all, with the tele converters, the auto focus function of the lens was disabled. I got to use manual focusing. Hope the viewers here could understand all these handicaps.

Sunda Woodpecker is one of the common woodpecker resident in Singapore. But this is the first time I witnessed them, furthermore, when they are nesting. It is something that I am very pleased in my shooting adventure. There is very little information on this type of woodpecker on the Web. I welcome bird specialists to enlighten me on this bird's behavior, habitat, eating habit and so on. Comments are welcome.

This is the sharpest shot displayed here. : )

From a Chinese Poem

一上高楼万里愁　蒹葭杨柳似汀洲

　　溪云初起日沉阁　山雨欲来风满楼

　　鸟下绿芜秦苑夕　蝉鸣黄叶汉宫秋

　　行人莫问当年事　故国东来渭水流

《咸阳城东楼》唐·许浑

山雨欲来风满楼

每一次看到这句诗时，总会想起大雷雨前的那种寂静。静得令人心懼。就如人生某些时刻面臨的机遇轉变时刻。心裡有莫大的压力感。那日回家途中看到大片烏云覆頂，心遂起一种莫名的恐懼感。某些大事是否要发生了嗎？心里好生納闷。

Zhou Xuan's Chinese Oldies: Liang Tiao Lu Shang (Two streets)

在早晨走的一条路上
只看见行人 只看见车辆
我带着跳跃的心 慌慌张张的向前闯
在晚上走的 一条路上
只看见灯光 只看见月亮
我带着空虚的心 冷冷清清的向前望
这条路是太凄凉
那 条路又太紧张
找不到更好的地方
我天天在这两条路上

这是周旋的一首老歌。第一次听到是在我六七岁时，当时的‘丽的呼声’播出的。长大后，越听越有味道。希望诸位会喜欢。

A Poem in Chinese

盯着笨鳥来看的人 (荒缪小小说） 谢 清

他從心理卫生医院出来之後，便直往庞物店去。二话不说便买了一头笨鳥回家去。因为心理医生对他说，他有极端的自卑感，得多多学习与人溝通之道。最简单的方法便是找个对象练习练习。於是他想到要买一隻笨烏。因为他非等闲之輩，仍是社会里有头有面的人。他又如何能让人知道他患有自卑症呢。买一隻笨鳥至少牠不会四处向人爆料!

半年后，他病情惡化。竟然在家里築起一个大鳥籠，把自己囚在里面。家人看不下去，叫心理医生上门会诊。大夫看了他之後，大搖其头。不妙不妙。医生说。由于他一直在看着他的笨鳥，不幸被该愚笨的鸟感染到；同时整日只和笨鳥接处，忽略了周遭的人与事，最终只看見自己。於是建起自己的世界，终日自以为是，天下一切，唯我独尊! 医生奈心的和他的家人解释。

我们以为您给的药，不是很有效嗎? 他的家人问医生。应该是可以控制的呀。医生说。你们不会给他其他的刺激吧? 医生问。没甚么特别呀，只是买了本書给他打發時间罢了。什么书? 医生紧張的问。就是那本暢销書：‘那班盯着羊来看的人‘，而且是翻译本呀。家人说。唉呀，这就糟了。医生急着说。他可能就是被它的内容控制着了。医生这时己满头大汗。这書内，有隻心魔呵!医生喊着说。那我们该怎么辨? 医生想了一想，说：先把他的鳥心态治好再说吧。医生建議：找个著名的獸医来看他吧。我是医人的，无法治鳥病。

医生说完后，就回去了。留下一群不知所措的家人，傍恍無助。

This short story is influenced by the following title. : )

Weilian's(伟联） unnamed song

Kelvin Tan Weilian is always a fascinating person to me. He could be visually impaired. But he tries his best to have a life as normal as us. Whenever I heard of his singing, I used to get emotional. Maybe this is why he gets his popularity so easily. He is talented in interpreting feelings and emotion through his singing.

I found this new song from YouTube, he has given it a name yet. Just share it here with all of my friends.

Lovely color in the morning sun

Beautiful and fruitful Sunday Outing

This Sunday morning the weather was extremely sunny, the color temperature was good to take photos. I packed up all my photo gears and went to Japanese Gardens. To my surprise, I only spent less than 2 and a half hours, and gotten quite a few satisfying shots.

I share my captured shots here. Comments are welcome.

三年离别又相逢

This is a Chinese oldies, popular in the 60s.

Cartoon

Recently got the urge of drawing cartoons. Continuously for three days, I have been drawing them. Here are two of them. Sometimes, a picture really says a thousand words. Hope you all enjoy them.

My relief sculpture



I made this piece of work when I was in NAFA years ago. The subject was my 6 year old son, Kelvin. Mr. Wee Beng Chong (黄明宗） was my tutor then. I enjoyed his lessons as he was very flexible with his teaching method. He allowed his students to explore ways and means in sculpture. This piece of work is under his supervision as part of the class assignment.

At a blink of eyes, my son is 22 now. Time really passed fast.

A short Chinese Poem

路

越走越曲的路
终点有些什么在等着？
一路的凄沧
满眼的荒凉
罢了，罢了
酒酐后
摔落
一生悲喜与离合
悄然逸逝

Golden Years

Life passed by at a blink, suddenly you would find that you were at the other side of your journey. Look back, there were lots of things you wish you would not do it. But everything would be in the history then, nothing you could do about it, but to regret or to forget.

The photo below reflects some of my feeling stated above.

流水年华，这词真说得体贴。人生转眼就快走尽。回望过去，一切成败， 已是烟云。今早，看到一群银发族，站在一棵布满黄叶的大树下聊天。心里感慨万千。