"#FREE MY INTERNET" Protest

Singapore media regulators at Media Development Authority (MDA) on 1st June 2013 imposed new licensing rules on 10 news sites run by Yahoo’s Singapore unit and two domestic media companies, requiring them to apply for individual licenses, furnish a “performance bond” and comply with government orders to remove any objectionable content within 24 hours.

A week later, advocacy group #FreeMyInternet organised a protest at Hong Lim Park which attracted approximately 2500 attendees. The protest was part of an ongoing campaign calling for the removal of the new regulations and amendments to the Broadcasting Act made by the MDA.

The #FreeMyInternet protest was preceded by a blackout of more than 150 participating blogs and a petition to rescind the new rules which has garnered more than 4,000 signatures. More report here.

I was there to witness and to support and to take pictures. I did not stay till the end anyway here are just a few shots I took on that eventful day.

Street Photo - Ice-cream Boy

Ice-cream Boy

Seagull 205 RF on FujiFilm Neopan 400. Developed in 1:1 Kodak D76 for 500 seconds and scanned on Epson V700 with minor cropping and tonality adjustment in post.

Street Photo - I Love SG

I LOVE SG

Seagull 205 RF on Kodak Tri-X 400. Developed in 1:1 Kodak D76 for 500 seconds and scanned on Epson V700 with cropping + minor tonality adjustment in post.

Urban Landscape In Whampoa

Slanted Tree

I have been staying in Whampoa Drive for most of my life and it's a pretty small housing estate area with a small bus interchange terminal, a not-so-active Community Center, two hawker centers (one opens in the day and the other in the night where a number of food stalls selling good food) and a wet market, where all are just a couple of blocks away from my place.

If one looks closely and observe well, one can discover a number of interesting things in this small neighborhood. Well, in my case, I noticed this small little slanted tree, shown above, during my bus trip from Toa Payoh towards the bus-stop where I would alight. And I thought to myself "how come I've never seen this tree before?". So this morning with warm morning sunlight shining upon this open field where the tree is rooted right next to St. Michael bus interchange terminal. I walked there and made a few shots with my Seagull 205 RF as well as with my Samsung S3 mobile phone camera.

More pictures to show after the jump.

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Street Photo - Snowman by the Red Altar

Snowman by the Red Altar

I was walking across the loading bay area between Peninsula Shopping Center and Funan DigitaLife Mall when I noticed this snowman positioned right besides a red colored Chinese altar. Without hesitation, I took out my phone camera and made a couple of shots. We don't really get by to see such scenario so I think it's worth to capture it before snowman is gone.

I posted the same image on my Facebook page with post and 16x9 pano crop in Snapseed app. Resized in Photo Editor for easy online post. However I did another proper post-process and cropping in Photoshop CS5 and this is what you see above.

Street Photo - Outside The Cafe

Outside The Cafe

Seagull 205 RF on Kodak Tri-X 400. Developed in 1:1 Kodak D76 for 500 seconds and scanned on Epson V700 with minor tonality adjustment in post.

Street Photo - On Reading...

On Reading...

Seagull 205 RF on Kodak Tri-X 400. Developed in 1:1 Kodak D76 for 500 seconds and scanned on Epson V700 with cropping + minor tonality adjustment in post.

The Return of WOCA 120G!

It's been a long time since I last loaded a 120 medium format roll film into my WOCA 120G plastic toy camera, which is similar to my HOLGA 120GN as shown above. The last time I uses my HOLGA was in 2012, which I was taking some shots of an old school playground which had long been demolished. The results from that outing was pretty bad I must admit. I believe it got to do with the overcast weather on that day. Despite of the 2 lighting modes - Cloudy (f/13) and Sunny (f/20), a shutter speed of approximately 1/100 second and a mounted flash light, these plastic toy cameras still require a large amount of sun light to make a proper exposure. With that said, choosing the right film speed is important too. 

I really like these two new models over those other fanciful models, mainly because the lenses are made of glass. The lens on the original Holga 120S (which I used to own one) is plastic. Well you'll see the results from WOCA 120G after the jump.

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Penang Street Photo - On Reading...

Old Gentleman On Reading...

During my Penang trip last December, a local friend brought me and my friends to Penang's popular hang-out place for local artists and many expatriates and tourists. The place is called ChinaHouse. 

It's cozy and has good atmospheric decors. We walked through from a pub, which is the back part of ChinaHouse, to the main front cafe, and in between it's this nice quiet garden with red strips of fabric hanging on the surrounding trees and a miniature house placed on the edge of a pond (as shown below).

In the garden, sat an old gentleman who was enjoying his book until we came along and disturbed his peace and pleasure which I believe he found it annoying. He had the whole garden for himself. Anyway, he carried on his reading.

As the saying goes "At the right place at the right time." Everything came into place as the lighting was great and I took a few shots of the quiet wall-mannered gentleman who was so engrossed in his reading that he didn't know I was taking his photographs.

Seagull 205 RF on FujiFilm Neopan 400. Developed on Kodak D76 1:1 for 500 seconds. Scanned on Epson V700 with tonality adjustment and cropping in post.

Penang Street Photo - Kek Lok Si

Kek Lok Si

While visiting the famous Chinese temple in Penang, Kek Lok Si (极乐寺), I was wondering around and in hope there's an interesting subject set against this colorful temple. In my mind's eye, I pre-visualised a monk or nun is sweeping in the yard. Well it turned out that an old civilian man came down from the stairs and started sweeping. Without hesitation, I took a few frames and this is the best shot.

Nikon FM10 on Tamron 17-35mm | Kodak Portra 400 color negative | Developed and scanned at Whampoa Kodak Colour Centre, along Balestier Road. No further color adjustment and cropping in post. Below is a monochrome conversion for a different visual effect. I think the color version works great.

Street Photo - Three Burmese Monks

Three Burmese Monks

Nikon FM10 on 50mm lens, shot on Kodak Tri-X 400. Developed in Kodak D76 for 405 seconds. Scanned on Epson V700 with minor burning and tonality adjustments in post.

Street Photo - On a Raining Day

On a Raining Day

Seagull 205 RF on Kodak Tri-X 400. Developed in 1:1 Kodak D76 for 456 seconds and scanned on Epson V700 with minor tonality adjustment in post.