Evenings at Punggol

These photos were snapped on Saturday (24th May) when the skies were brilliantly coloured a few days in a row. My family, consisting of my dad, mum and grandma, got into the car and we drove down to Lorong Haulus, at the West end of Pasir Ris. The intention was to get to Punggol without ever leaving Pasir Ris and without using the expressway! I first 'discovered' this place I went cycling with Ian's CG to Pasir Ris from Punggol! There is a red bridge that joins the lands across the sea.

As we made our way across the bridge, the sky did not fail to impress! Nature's Mirror shows the beautiful reflection the lake gives.

Nature's Mirror

Being there around evening time, we were privileged to catch the sunset! Every sunset gives me the feeling of seeing God'd glory in the painted tapestry right there. The first one also juxtaposes trees from nature and urbanism with construction in progress. 

The second one reveals to you what I actually could see from the end of the Waterway. 

Sunset

Sunset Over Punggol Waterway

And then turning around, we could see the afterglow spreading across Pasir Ris, from the Punggol side! The red bridge there is what connects the lands.

Fiery Afterglow

After the sun sets, the sky darkens and we have a short period of deep blue skies, commonly dubbed as 'Blue Hour' by photographers! The street lamps give sparkles to the long exposure.

Punggol Waterway - Blue Hour

Now we turn around once again and observe the bridge in the night time!

Pasir Ris - Punggol Connector

These pictures were taken from Sunrise Bridge. You might be wondering why on earth I'm at Sunrise Bridge during sunset! Well, basically, Sunset Bridge is at the Seletar side of Punggol, which is the other extreme end! I would go there during sunset next when I decide to cycle in Punggol again!

Vantage Point of Sunrise Bridge

Just for fun, since I was wearing what I wore to Bertrand and Jie Ying's wedding that morning, here's an OOTD of me:

Outfit of the Day : Florals

Who says photographers must be stereotyped as being boring and always wearing black? :P

iPhone-ography

As a photography enthusiast, I do wish I could bring my DSLR out with me all the time, but it's way too bulky to carry along! The next best device I could carry is my Canon S100, my handy compact camera. However, it lacks the instant photo sharing capabilities. How awesome would it be if there were instant photo editing apps and all on the camera? I've come to realise many a time, there is value in the instant real-time uploading of photos, especially in social events.

Nothing can replace my trusty Canon 70D but this post will show you that gear isn't everything. What matters is being able to see 'the moment' use the right technique to capture it! I'm not claiming to be a pro at it, but let's see what can be captured with a phone camera! Technology has improved so much within the past few years that I'm truly amazed too. The aperture of phone cameras have been getting wider and wider, allowing for the 'depth of field' effect, as well as allow people to shoot under low light conditions. The limits are, of course, having a lot of noise in low light pictures.

I would honestly like to get a Nokia 1020 to have a handy phone camera in the pocket all the time - This is the best phone camera I've seen and tried, and the Nokia Pro Camera app really gives the user all the controls - Shutter speed, ISO, exposure, white balance etc, but of course, no control over aperture. However, I got an iPhone 5S for a hoist of other reasons, the first being that I wanted the choice of apps, and the second being that the Nokia 1020 was sold out in the Singtel store, and I needed to re-contract so I could upgrade to a 4G one. But let's not complain and let's look at the iPhone 5S camera!

Photos From the Last 2 Months

I spent a long time searching for the best camera app to buy, and I decided to spend $2.56 on KitCamera, which gives me control over exposure, white balance and shutter speed. The camera apps on iOS are very limited because the camera API (the developer's access to the iPhone camera) is very limited. Tsk, Apple... But anyway, the app offers frames, filters and different fun 'lenses' that change what you see and can give things like a tilt shift and fisheye effect. Plus, you can preview these 'live' when taking the photo and still change it later on as it uses 'non-destructive editing' - Edits are not permanently burned into the photo!

Admittedly, I don't use it all the time, especially in bright daylight, but it's useful for doing long exposures! There's even a BULB mode for the shutter! I haven't used that to do a long exposure yet though, so wait up and I'll try that soon! Let's look at some photos I've snapped within the past 2 months. I didn't go chasing for these pictures. These are things I came across while going about doing my own things!

Sunset Afterglow at Dhoby Ghaut (ISO 125)

I snapped this afterglow outside Dhoby Ghaut MRT on my way to meet Ian. I snapped it in a total rush as I was due to cross the road with the green man glaring at me! I used KitCam to snap this and the automatic settings proved to be sufficient. Honestly, if a sky is truly pretty, a decent software should be able to capture it! (:

I did some perspective correction in Lightroom though, because I shot it with a bottom-up angle. Didn't change the colours though!

The rest of the photos were snapped using the native camera app.

Meow in the Meadow (ISO 200)

This cat resides in the park next to my block and it often likes to lie in the grass patch. I thought that the tall grace would give a cute little curtain and depth effect, so I whipped out my phone to snap it. I'm pretty sure my 70D with my Siggy or a telephoto lens would do a better job blurring the foreground, but the phone did it rather sufficiently.

Dover Road from the SUTD hostel (ISO 40)

This was snapped the week after I first bought this phone. It really works best under bright sunlight, as do all cameras. Lightroom informs me that the ISO was 40! The detail of the leaves and windows of the buildings in the background is pretty impressive to me, considering how small the sensor is!

Causeway towards Malaysia, From Marsling (ISO 320)

I snapped this picture from the 26th story of a HDB at Marsling. I went there for an extended family gathering, which took place at the BBQ pit just next to the block. I was constrained by the walls on the left and right of this scene and had to crop out what I wanted. I wanted to try doing a long exposure using KitCamera, but I had nothing to use as a tripod and I can't hold my phone steady on a handrail. The picture is okay as long as you don't zoom in! Once you do, you'll see all the noise and the inability of the sensor to capture all the details. Good for Instagram and Facebook only.

I am coming back here with my 70D one of these days!

Overlooking the Causeway and Malaysia (ISO 500)

Okay, this is the noisiest photo I have in this set. Of course, iPhones aren't exactly built for night landscape photography! But this is a good test shot for composition, since I intend to come back here soon with my DSLR! I wasn't there to shoot; I was there for an extended family gathering!

Kiseki Restaurant, Benjamin Cheong's 21st Birthday (ISO 64)

I find that the phone camera shines in social gatherings in the sense that it's sufficient to capture group  photos and it helps me to instantly satisfy the photo cravings of my friends!

This are my 10S55 VJC classmates, all gathered for a birthday party!

But what's a phone camera always used for? FOOD PHOTOGRAPHY HAHAHA.

Dessert Buffet at Kiseki (ISO 64)

I picked all these cakes at the Kiseki buffet and thought they looked pretty, so there we go!

Eggs Benedict from HATCHED (ISO 40)

Mixed Fruit Tart from Fruit Paradise (ISO 100)

Well, it's sufficient if you're not aiming to do all the artistic blurry effects! What I've found is that the capabilities of a phone as an instantaneous sharing device, as well as being lightweight and what we carry everywhere is sufficient and the rest depends on how you take the picture! Most of the time, I am not worried about going out without my compact camera or DSLR (especially for social events), because simply carrying my lightweight phone simplifies life, and makes it easier when I want to ask someone to take a group photo for me.

So cheers to that and have an awesome lightweight day out with your phone!

SUTD Term 5

On Tuesday, at 5pm, the results for Term 5 were released on MyPortal. There I was, on the train on my way to one-north, almost forgetting about the release of results till 20 minutes before 5pm, when my whatsapp started buzzing with people saying that results would be out soon. The train was pulling through Buona Vista when I logged into MyPortal ... and I got the shock of the day!

BEST RESULTS EVER IN MY ENTIRE UNI LIFE! Praise God for everything!

Term 5 has really been one of the best terms in my entire SUTDent life so far! Not just because of the results, honestly, that's a real added blessing and bonus, but because of how the entire process was. It was a term where I know made it through with the love and assurance of God, no matter how tiring things were. That sweet assurance of waking up each day remembering Christ's love for me, mornings and evenings of talking to Him, resting in reading His word and remembering all that as I did my work and projects. Things weren't perfect, and I'll admit that it's really really difficult to battle the sin of pride and wanting to rule over my own life, absent of God, but through the struggles and encouragement from seeing how others walk this journey, I'm assured of Romans 8:28, "and we know that for those who love God all things work together for good, for those who are called according to his purpose," and my hope is to be aligned with His purpose, no matter how much of a struggle it is. The study of Romans this term has been really a blessing and Romans 5 is the chapter I hold close to my heart!

One thing I've learnt from the people around me this term, especially from the friends I've been working on projects with together, is how gracious and generous one can be to fellow friends. That's a very practical way of showing love in friendships. Especially in small things like treating each other to food, extending good opportunities to others, helping others buy takeaway food, and simply not being calculating in one's behaviour. We often forget that when we think about ourselves and what we deserve because of our own efforts, that we deserve exact fairness. But the small things count, and if we have the means to love another in a practical way, why not! Jesus did that too in His life here in both big and small things like feeding the 5000 and turning water into wine (without the host knowing). All these had eternal purpose, but on the level of loving others, that definitely constitutes as showing love! And if we can't even love our fellow human, how can we say that we love God?

That is what I've seen through living life on campus, despite being stuck there and doing so much work everyday!

Summer Plans 2014

So you might be wondering: With four and a half months of holidays, what am I going to do?
Let's look at what I have done so far in the past three weeks!

What I Have Been Doing (In Order of Occurrence)

1.  Bowled with the SUTD CF-ers

And I managed to get a bowling score of 120! Who says that not having enough arm strength plus not being able to bowl in  a fancy way is any way disadvantageous? :p

2. Served as an usher for a concert for the first time - Prem1ere 2014, the SUTD Performing Arts Concert

It was an interesting experience and I saw much uncouth behaviour from the attendees that don't don't have respect for the performers. There were still people streaming in late, more than 45 minutes after the concert had begun and they bashed through the doors like it was their right to mightily walk into an ongoing concert. Perhaps it's because I've been in different performing arts CCA since I was 13 and am used to what concert etiquette should be.

Anyway, I do wish that I could have been performing myself this time round, but choices and sacrifices had to be made this term to pursue my other interests!

3. Adventure Cove with my boy

So we finally got to play at Adventure Cove! We haven't had a proper full day out for the entire term and it was certainly fun to play without any subconscious worries. We even tried to do do funny OOTDs (to imitate a certain model) but I'll only post the nice one which wasn't taken with that intent :D.

We even got to watch The Amazing Spiderman 2 and it was interesting, though, expectedly sad. I really love full days out with Ian, whatever it may be! And then at Daiso, we found materials and an idea struck for a Mother's Day gift!

4. Made a Mother's Day Gift

I proudly say that I made this with my own two hands! Everything was bought at Daiso (except the photos, of course). But I couldn't have done it without the help and additional resources from Ian! I spent the entire afternoon at his house trying to make this. He made something similar for his mom too. He had awesome ideas, such as using magnetic strips to attach a plastic cover in front, such that it can be opened at will, yet keep the dust out most of the time.

5. Sent Gabriel Off For His 3-month Internship in France

Waiyong, Ian, Josh, Keith and Gabriel
Credits: Ian's Nokia

So this lucky Gabriel gets to spend about 3 months in France, interning at Ingenico. He's gonna learn a lot there, especially through the experience of living on his own! I'm pretty excited for my Europe trip in June too. But once that's over, that means my internship will begin. That's both exciting and a drag. It'll definitely be exciting because the internship is at Frost & Sullivan, and I'll be working on a consultancy project there with the Public Sector Division of the company. The drag part is due to having to actually work for 10 weeks, after 2 whole months of playing!

The card we gave him! Ian drew the Eiffel Tower really well here.

6. Got Trolled 

"That is undoubtedly a slice of watermelon!"

Ha ha ha! Look at Bert's gleeful expression. So he loves to bless us with huge portions of fruits :D. I love Sunday afternoons where my friends are free to have lunch and aren't rushing off to do things! It's been a long time since I've gotten to talk to them properly.

7. Botanic Gardens 

I got up really early and went shooting with my dad at the Botanic gardens, and most of it was in the Orchid Garden. The main purpose was to test the new Canon 10-22 lens where appropriate to use a wide angle lens!

Gleeful New Toy

I will probably write a dedicated post to this under a #photography themed post together with the photos of the plants and the garden, so watch out for that! In any case, I really love going out, look at nature and capturing pictures of creation!

8. Perfect Fifth 2014

Already wrote a post about it below (:

9. Random meet-ups

Fruit Paradise (Tampines Mall branch)

Last sunday (two days ago), I met up with the BMC guys for fruit tarts. Actually, I was supposed to meet Ian, and then Abraham came too, and then they ran into Sam and Bob at the mall, so there we go! I love hanging out with these people and they're really, really, really funny.

10. Classical Piano

Natalie is back in Singapore, having gotten her Masters from Leeds! We had our first lesson (in a really long time) yesterday and I feel really happy that my sight reading is not too bad! We started on an Argentinian folk dance piece, which is coincidentally one of the alternative Grade 7 pieces. But anyway, I won't be taking any ABRSM exams in the near future. It's just not viable in terms of time, and I'll end up spending all my time trying to master just 3 pieces for it. What I really want to do is to learn a repertoire of classical pieces for my enjoyment.

I proudly say I can still play the Hyden piece I learnt from the Grade 6 book, and half of the Elegie from there. I didn't take the exam because SUTD life really robbed me of such time and I spent all my other time mostly on my fifth rows, church and family.

11. Dramas & Novels

I've been watching My Love From The Stars, an awesome Korean drama about an alien who got stranded on earth for 400 years since the Joseon period, initially jaded by human nature, changes upon falling in love with an arrogant top actress. It's essentially a love story, and the cinematography, the way the story is told simply conveys the emotions that very few dramas can encompass. Of course, it helps that the actors are really pretty, including the male lead. Let me quantify that I haven't watched a drama in full for a very long time, and I practically don't watch anything at all during school term time. I'll only spend my time watching dramas that I think are worth watching, during the holidays!

As for novels, you'd probably know that I'm an avid reader of fiction and I love adventure type of books with elements of fantasy. That includes post-apocaplytic settings, the wizarding world, a place where magic and superpowers exist, or anything to do with secret missions. That's pretty much what my dreams (while sleeping) have been including and I wake up wondering what just happened.

So this month, I've been reading the Divergent trilogy and I'm currently at the beginning of the third novel already. It's set in post-apocaplytic Chicago, where society is split into 5 factions based on the disposition of the people: Abnegation, for the selfless; Amity, for the peaceful; Candor, for the honest; Dauntless, for the brave; and Erudite, for the intelligent. At the age of 16, the people are expected to choose a faction they have an aptitude for. Each faction embraces a certain ideology and method of doing things and they serve in different occupations. You can already see things like narrow thinking and predictability coming into play, and how this is used to control the behaviour of the people.
I'd say that the writing is of pretty high quality and the themes of control, freedom, human nature in relation to developed tools, warfare and ideology is pretty well done. I love it how the author writes the five faction system to be so ironical in their ideologies and corruption. Of course, it's an exaggerated way of showing the difference between thinking for oneself logically and blindly following what's been taught to a person from young.

It's worth reading, just like the Hunger Games. It's in no way a rip-off of the Hunger Games as it explores theme of control in a different way. I'm thankful for epubs and iBooks, because I read this whenever I'm sitting on the train or bus!


Final Thoughts:
Though I'm pretty satisfied with the break I've been having so far, there's so much more I can be doing! I don't have that much time till my internship begins, so I'd better fulfil the dreams I have for this summer as soon as possible!

Things I Intend To Do:

To Do Consistently

1. Spend more time with God, especially through reading the Word and becoming more conscious of how I treat others around me. It has been difficult getting back into reading the Word consistently, especially since many things around have been extremely distracting. Especially waking up late in the mornings after sleeping late. 
2. Be more intentional in caring for my family and friends, and spending more quality time with them. 
3. Find ways to cheer on my dear Ian, who is on a 16-week internship! 
4. Build spiritual friendships with the few people that I can do so with.
5. Talk to my SG girls more often.
6. Eat healthily and run at least 3 times a week.

The Summer Wish List 

1. Record covers of songs with the new Audio-Technica USB microphone I bought! Possibly film a music video as well.
2. Do conceptual photography and think of a theme to do a photoshoot of others (or of myself ahahah) in! 
3. Bake (Not limited to):
• Tiramisu
• Cupcakes
4. Learn how to cook really zai dishes from my mum and grandmother. That includes going to the market for shopping!
5. Perfect the classical piano pieces I'm learning now. 
6. Meet up with old friends

It's time to start planning a schedule to do these things! So what's the first thing I'll do today? 

VJ Guitar Perfect Fifth 2014

I returned to VJC for Perfect Fifth on Tuesday (14/05/2014). It's the third one I've attended ever since I graduated from JC and I certainly felt old stepping back there! During the past 2 years when I visited the campus, whether for an event, concert or open house (only in 2012), I still felt like I knew the place, but that feeling's completely gone now. Nonetheless, it was fun seeing my fellow alumni and then watching the current guitar ensemble perform! In addition, I had a nice dinner at Thaipan with a mix of people across 3 batches. I'll be posting quite a number of photos because there's time to do so right now.

VJ Guitar managed to achieve a full house this time round and I could see the fun they were having during the concert, certainly, with the style of Mr Gaspar, the conductor! The senior ensemble even managed to do an rendition of Let It Go from Frozen and it was impressively arranged by their student conductor. Their technical skills as an ensemble have the potential to be improved vastly, but I'm honestly glad that they're having more fun rather than stress! The small group pieces were cute and they had very entertaining antics such as wearing shades to act cool, having 3 people play the same guitar with one person singing and kicking a cajon simultaneously

Senior Ensemble

Crazy Antics - Playing a guitar behind one's back

3 People, 1 Guitar - Tristen is singing and preparing to kick the cajon

I snapped the three photos above using my iPhone and they're actually not bad, considering the distance I was from the stage! The last one is definitely noisy because I zoomed in. Next up, the fun bits are in having some fun after the concert!

Best place to take a picture together - Outside the PT

Audrey Yew - Awesome to have her as a dear sister in Christ, and also a fellow guitarist! No one can tell our age gap. Right? :D

All alumni that visited

Selfie with the fun people

In addition, I saw with my very own eyes, for the first time, all the colourful paintings that have been applied to the walls, doors, and even the pavement in the campus. It does make the campus look brighter and more fun, though painting minions on the walls outside the classroom does make it look like Victoria Kindergarden instead of a JC. 

The reason why I treasure my VJ Guitar days so much is simply because I was there for the fun and to play the guitar. It's also because of guitar, that I'm where I am now, thanks to a fellow guitarist that convinced me so well to choose SUTD over other universities. Here, I learnt to be determined and to press on even if my skills weren't the best. I learnt how to lead a section properly and build relations with people - something that I couldn't do that well in TMS Choir. I felt the pride and joy when we unexpectedly managed to retain the Gold award for SYF, despite the odds against us, and despite personal barriers like breaking a nail on the crucial finger right before we went up to play (I used my second and fourth fingers to pluck instead of the usual second and third). Lastly, I met interesting friends and inspiring musicians right there.

I shall end off this little recap and reflection with a picture of the painted pavement, which actually captures the lyrics of the entire school song. Nil Sine Labore!

Thy triumphs see and victories we share yet

Introduction

Welcome to this new space!

For good ole' friends who used to read the blog I've kept from secondary 1 till now, you might be wondering why I'm moving to this space instead. That blog documents my entire secondary school life and most of my JC life too. Plus bits and pieces of my first two years in SUTD. However as time went by, my frequency of publishing posts dropped to the point where you could probably count the number of posts published in a year. There are a few reasons I can attribute that to:

1) SUTD life was really intense - Little time to sit down and blog. Living in the present took precedence.
2) I didn't have much of a target audience, except just for private records and for close friends.
3) Updating posts with a whole spew of pictures took forever to upload and publish.

The old blog will be left as it is as a beautiful archive for me to look back. I decided that overhauling that blog's template and all would erode the original essence of the memories of my younger self, so the most viable option would be to start on a clean slate. The old blog, a distant memory, is actually one of the best gifts I could give myself someday, even as the memories of the past decade begin to become fuzzy. There are many memories from my first two years as an undergraduate that I failed to capture, but I believe that unlike my younger self, I really don't need to describe every single detail of it because of the sheer intensity and lack of focus in such a writing style. Thankfully, Instagram, Facebook and Adobe Lightroom generally archive that all for me, minus the personal thoughts.

Looking back, I do see how much I have grown and changed and I strongly feel that my life in the twenties will be exciting in a different way. Therefore, moving forward, I plan on blogging regularly about pivotal events and my thoughts on various things. Look forward to posts about faith, photography and life! (: