kevin365

In all fairness, given good weather, you just cannot take a bad picture in Mongolia. I was outside in a summer camp covering Tiger Translate. The sky was a deep blue, the bluest blue my eyes have ever laid on. And the grass was a beautiful green. Rolling hills surround the capital city of Ulaan Baatar. Sheep, cows and horses dot the landscape. You just cannot take a bad picture in a place like this, even on your iPhone.

I hope the natural beauty of this country remains unspoiled and unchanged forever.

See what we were up to in the summer camp, in my post here.

THIS is really big for me, going for Tiger Translate happening in Mongolia. It is the one time I am not just a quiet and distant observer of the art but now I get to participate, mingle and communicate with some of the world’s leading artists, the likes of whom I might not get to meet on a regular day back home in Singapore. I’m totally psyched!

Tiger Translate Exhibition based on the theme "Balance" now on in Mongolia

From Left to Right: Ben Frost from Australia, Liv Carle Mortensen from Denmark, Pure Evil from UK

I am looking forward to meet the 3 international artists in attendance; Pure Evil, Liv Carle Mortensen and Ben Frost. Pure Evil and Liv have both worked with Mongolian artist in Tiger Translate London and Tiger Translate Copenhagen respectively in 2008 and 2009. The transformed London cab Pure Evil sat on was one of his collaborative efforts with the participating artists in Tiger Translate London. It will be awesome to see him interacting again with 4 of the finest Mongolian artist on the Mongolians’ home turf in the next few days. I hear that even the Arts Council of Mongolia is promoting this event on a national level. I believe the synergy and the level of participation will be immense! Check out the videos from those years here and here.

Tiger Translate is an initiative started by Tiger Beer in 2006 to bring some of the best minds from the East and West. Offering an international platform for emerging artists to showcase their work in various media: visual art, photography, music, etc. Tiger Translate is a global platform, committed to bringing contemporary Asian art forms to rest of the world, vice versa. Tiger Translate has been to London, Copenhagen, Hanoi, Sydney, just to name a few places.

The theme changes every year. This year, Tiger Translate looks at the theme balance , an essential part of Asian values and principles.

Asian and Western artists were paired to create artwork very much from scratch; Asian artists were asked to develop and create an artwork based on theme of Balance and what it means to them. After which, their Western counterparts would then re-interpret work of their respective partners to create their composition of balance. Below is a sample of such a pairing and their work.

I just can’t wait to be there! Personally, I have always been a keen observer of alternative forms of art and music, open to pretty much anything. Now I get to be immersed in both over the course of 5 days, with a taste of home-grown brew Tiger Beer in an exotic place like Mongolia. I expect an environment full of creative energy and good vibes all round.

Brick (Singapore)

C86 (UK)

The creative team at Tiger Beer came up with another brilliant idea for collaboration. Taking original pictures and added a personal touch to them. Below is a sample of such a work between Singapore’s Sin Kok Wai and Jason Raish of South Korea

Sin Kok Wai (Singapore)

Jason Raish (South Korea)

I will be watching closely over the proceedings of Tiger Translate starting 31st of August through to the 4th of September, beginning with the top 4 local artists’ collaborative work with their international counterparts. As I’ll be writing for blankanvas, the main focus is to share my experiences on Tiger Translate Mongolia plus the lowdown on the international artists as I get to know them better. It is also a great opportunity for me to capture the more intimate moments of the event.

On kevin365, I will be focused on photoblogging. Hopefully not to only capture Tiger Translate but as much of Mongolia as possible in these short few days. Consider this an introductory trip before my next excursion there in the future.

On a final note, it is heart’s intention for the year to travel far more than I did the last two years hence I jump at the chance when I was offered a great opportunity to go Mongolia for this Tiger sanctioned event. Mongolia, being rich in culture with a unique beautiful landscape and people, is a country I planned on visiting while I was still in Nepal doing my trek. Big thanks to Pat Law and APB for presenting me with the chance. Stay tuned as I report live from Mongolia over the next few days!

In less than three days, I’ll be on a plane with my wife to Melbourne. We’re literally flying into the month of May as we head down-under. This trip has been one in the planning since late 2009. I’m glad we made it this far. So effectively my wife and myself will be away from the 30th April evening to 17th May morning. This trip will be especially special for myself, since I’m celebrating my 30th birthday there, plus an early 4th wedding anniversary for my wife and I.

The trip’s primary objective is to help a good friend with his pre-wedding photography. First off, they wanted something that most Singaporean couples don’t have for their pictures; an uncommon location. Secondly, relatives of the bride-to-be live in Bendigo, Victoria, not more than 2 hours away from Melbourne City, in short, savings on accommodations.

And at least for us, the secondary objective is to do some sight-seeing while we’re there and to take that long vacation that I’ve personally have been pining for. On the second leg of the trip, another couple will join us 4 in Melbourne after we’re done what the photos we need to capture in Bendigo. It’s been ages since the last time I went to Melbourne and certainly look forward to seeing that city and spending some time there again. For the few days we’ll be in Melbourne, all 6 of us will be touring the city and the vicinity before the first couple we came to Australia leaves first for home. During which more casual shots will be taken.

On the second leg of the trip, we’ll head down to Sydney with the second couple. And I believe it is the first time we have ever set foot there. We being all 4 of us. I am looking forward to doing the tour at Hunter’s Valley and staying a couple of nights there while we are at it. We are going to take the opportunity while all my gear is with to take some shots of this couple who have been married for just over a year.  We are also excited at the chance to visit Hillsong church, personally more so for me because most of my christian rock music in my iPod originated from them.

In short, there will be plenty of picture taking and I will be lugging along my recently acquired MacBook Pro 15″ i7 to process some of the pictures as I go along and this also allows me to blog as often as I can. Memories like these are definitely worth recording as much as I can, when I can.

I cannot believe it is October already. How time flies. And surely time will be swift when we are having fun with photography tomorrow.

So I am organizing #ShootUrTweeple for the second time with the assistance of Debbie. Brewerkz has also kindly given us a promotion deal for all participants of this walkabout, happy hour pints (4.99 – 6.99) for everyone! Please also give the food a try, a couple of things on the menu is more than decent.

Objectives of this tweetup, photography, fun and getting to walk through places where in our daily lives we would otherwise not normally tread. The Challenge, fixed focal lengths cameras (i.e. cameras without zoom or zoom lenses), the use of available lights and reflectors (two will be provided for, if you have your own portable one, bring it along), for people on Digital Cameras, DO NOT preview shots until we are at Brewerkz, yes you heard me, no deleting, no viewing, switch off your preview if you can. Why this rule? Very simple, not knowing the outcome of your shot forces you to shoot with greater attention to detail. Composition, focusing, aperture and shutter speed settings will become a primary concern as you take your time to frame your shots. I hope everyone will follow these instructions, trust me, it will be worthwhile.

DO bring along sunglasses, a bottle of water and wear comfortable walking shoots. Ladies, avoid anything that will kill your feet please. It will be quite a walk. Please also be mindful of your belongings and beware of pickpockets, Singapore is safe but low crime does not mean no crime. Watch out for each other please and mind the traffic. Heh.

Here is brief of what is to transpire tomorrow, the pictures below show the route and what people will potentially see as we walk through areas that we would otherwise never (or seldom) walk. Click on the various links below, they lead to pictures of areas described in the post.

Meeting Point

Meeting point. 2.30pm at Tanjong Pagar MRT. Head towards the pedestrian tunnel that leads to EXIT G. I will be hanging around Joyous Pastries waiting for people to arrive and we will move off at 3pm sharp. The exit will take us to the walkway leading towards Amoy St Food Centre. Walking right up to the back of the food centre we will see the passage that leads us to Ann Siang Hill Park.

At Ann Siang Hill Park, this is the 1st point we are going to stop and explore areas in and around the park. Things you will see; a set of spiral stairs, backyard with short banana trees, long covered walkways. 15 minutes to explore this area.

From there will be move down to Rouge Hotel and slip in the backlane and back on Ann Siang St. We will continue down this sloping road right through where the road meets Club St.

We will then make our way across to Chinatown using the pedestrian crossing found there. Right across the street, there’s a 7-Eleven, feel free to get refreshments here at this point.

Walking along side the Indian temple, we will proceed up Temple St and right up to the street meets up with the Chinatown Night market. Please feel free at this point to photograph the people and the stall owners. It will also be a good idea for you to perhaps interact a little with the owners. Just in case they do not want to be photographed. Most are quite obliging and they will smile for you too. Walking right through the short section of the market will come to a cross junction at Smith St.

Heading towards the main road (New Bridge Road), we will turn right walking towards Chinatown Train station. From here we will proceed towards Hong Lim Park. Will cut through the park and the Speaker’s Corner over to the other side where North Canal Road is.

Walking on North Canal Road, we will be heading towards the big sculpture of the Bird in front of UOB plaza. We will hang around here for 15 minutes. This place will be a good opportunity to photograph each other in around the area. Portraiture! Setting sun at that time will brilliant, coming in from the direction City Hall. We hope to hit this area by 5pm.

After which, we will head towards Penny Black found along Boat Quay, and head down Boat Quay via the back alley. An area where people seldom walk through. Please watch what you are stepping on. The lane is actually not too dirty or infested with pest but there are still puddles of unidentifiable liquids that you wouldn’t want to touch.

At the end of the lane we will loop back around and walk through to the tunnel that will lead us straight to Brewerkz. Take some time to perhaps take some shots around the tunnel and the bridge. After which we will tend adjourn to Brewerkz for our pints. Happy days.

At the end of this walkabout, I would like you all to give us your feedback. Leave a comment right here in my blog. Thanks and please pray for good weather!

My bad for not updating for the entire month of August there. Been extremely swamped with work, it does seem like the economy is turning around. Actually, come to think of it, I should devise a writing schedule for myself just to keep myself writing a bit at a time regardless of workload.

Anyway, the month of August right up to today has been lesson after lesson in lighting, either portable or studio. Having acquired Pocket Wizards (PW) FlexTT and MiniTT totrigger my 580exII made all the difference in what I can do. Unfortunately, the PW are affected by the radio noise that my 580′s put out. Reducing it to less than 10% of the expected range and unreliable triggering. There are ways to mitigate this interference; namely to mount the PW away from the flash head and connect them via a offshoe cord. This helps to retain the ETTL functionality by the way. And also to wrap the head in a RF absorbent material like VeilShield. I am expecting more lessons my way.

A buddy of mine has been kind enough to share some valuable insights on shooting studio portraits. I just love the way he works; fluid, interactive, every move sure and calculated.

Laura

Web design is all fine but I think I just rekindled an old love, photography.

Kicking Around

There is an attractive force that comes from an environment such a school. I remember that day when I stepped into Ngee Ann Secondary; the atmosphere felt different, the mood was different. Positive and hopeful. Youthful energy reverberated throughout the grounds. At least I thought so; the teachers, some had tired faces, and it is no doubt from all the paperwork they are charged with.

I remember being in school back then, a school not so dissimilar; running around after classes have ended, playing ball games, chasing each other around. Such is this capture. It brought back memories. And how appropriate and ironic, that I should remember my younger days in the company of an old friend.

Click for Larger View in Flickr

This shot was taken after I was done covering N.E.mation for Ellery. It was late in the afternoon and the sun was already coming down. The afternoon had been rather cloudless and hot resulting in an unobstructed shower of orange sunlight. A glow that is visually warm and somewhat comforting. You know that the day has ended.

As I sit down and pen this entry, my eyes begin to water and close. It has been one heck of week. Mostly doing stuff to occupy my senses. Visual, tactile, aural.

I’ve been avoiding projects that bore me lately and opting to fill my time with things that do not necessary make more money for myself. That may not be good since I am a business owner and making money should be intrinsic in all I do. Perhaps what I do now will eventually make some but I cannot guarantee much. Anyway, I am happy though at the same burden by the things that I have avoided to do this week.

Let us see what we have done this week, shot for a friend at one of his workshops on Tuesday, Wednesday helped set up part of another friend’s solo exhibition debut, Thursday spend a couple of hours in the evening shooting for tattlermag.com at Oosh.

I shall have to make up for the lost time very quickly. Though, I know myself; the more someone tries to push me along in one way, the person will more often face resistance (albeit silent one) than not. So I pray that I have the strength and focus to finish what I need to do and get it over and done with. Anyway, I am thinking of abandoning the moodstats, it is not working out for me. It is somewhat tedious and not necessary an accurate gauge. Perhaps a photography daily, one starting on 1st August would be more appropriate for myself at this point.

On a side note, I bought my Pocket Wizards Mini and Flex TT, my sister will carry them for me. Hopefully.

I had a good time last night at Zsofi Tapas Bar with my new found friends, my wife and Ellery. It comes to no surprise that I enjoy doing the whole social thing, it was something I’ve always wanted to do since there was IRC. Meeting new people and making new friends, keeping them, it is all intrinsic and integral to my being.

Twitter has become the new IRC. Amazing has quickly people get together over common interests. At first it was over beer and then it was over photography. So much interest was generated, that the media picked it up. There will be more, I promise. In fact, something is in the pipeline.

I had a brief moment to talk El last night; he sent me a worrying sms earlier that day with regards to Jay. He dropped the bombshell, and apparently they are in a bit of a spot. Details of which I shouldn’t share but all I can say is: what the hell went wrong? But honestly, I wasn’t all that surprised. Shocked, yes. Surprised, partly. Is it due to her age perhaps? She is just turning 23.

I hope that all will be well and that is just another bad dream.