Eye e City 2007 - Preliminary Selection

This morning I went to Bras Basah Complex for Eye e City Preliminary Selection of my photographs. Well I always want to have control over my own work and I know what I wanted and got the kind of pictures I wanted, so I selected the "best shots" in advance last night. I did all the essential write-ups for the selected photographs as well. This year Eye é City committee launched a new challenge, A Visual Retrospective of the Year - an open call for a set of photographs reflecting and depicting the year's events and happenings, I confidently took up the challenge Participants of Eye Challenge should submit a set of photo-essay (4 - 12 frames) taken anytime during the year, but at least one frame captures on the last day of the year. The participant is free to decide on the scope and subject of the photo essay.

Below are the photographs I selected i.e. 2 individual single shots and a set of 5 photos with photo-essay. The topic or theme for the Retrospective challenge I chose was Singapore National Stadium. Yes, I dug out all the photos I took within the year 2007, and I remembered I made lots of photographs of our National Stadium. Well, most were taken in medium format with my TLR camera. Nonetheless, I did take a roll of 35mm color negative with my Nikon FM10, night photography at the stadium. I did attend the official closing ceremony event held on 30 June 2007, Saturday. I was lucky as my friend got an extra ticket to the event and I was delighted to accept the offer. So here is the set of photographs of our National Stadium. Pleasant viewing and reading.

Sun Yat Sen Nanyang Memorial Hall

The Sun Yat Sen Nanyang Memorial Hall (Chinese: 孙中山南洋纪念馆). also known as Wan Qing Yuan(Chinese: 晚晴园), and formerly as Sun Yat Sen Villa (Chinese:孙中山故居) is a double-storey colonial villa at Ah Hood Road, off Balestier Road. The villa is now a museum commemorating Dr. Sun Yat Sen who visited Singapore eight times between 1900 and 1911.

The museum is closed for renovation since 1st May 2007. I was walking along Balestier Road and thought of dropping by to check out the venue. Of course, the main gate is locked with a notice signboard hanging on it. Minutes after I took this shot, a lorry pulled up right behind me. They are the exterminators, coming to "smoke" the mozzies. So I have to leave.

Unchanged Melody - Mr. Chen, a construction worker

This is Mr. Chen from Jiang Xi China. He works as a construction worker at a nearby construction site that builds new condominiums named Pavilion (in the background). I happened to bump into him while I was walking up to this grass field area right behind the old Balestier Road Market (defunct). As I walked towards Mr. Chen, he looked up at me and said with a smile, "Taking photos?" in Mandarin. He sounds friendly and I replied, "Yes I am." He stood up and started to chat with me.

I asked Mr. Chen what is he doing on this grass field. He was told to patch up the whole field with new grasses, to make it more greener. Later on, we talked about his homeland, China, and his hometown, about life living in China and Singapore, work, etc. He has been working in Singapore for 2 years. The construction company he's working for employs mainly Chinese foreign workers. After our 30 - 40 minutes conversation I asked for his permission to take photographs of him. He was shy and kind of reluctant at first, so I convinced him that I'll print and send him the photos as his souvenirs. He gladly agreed.

Photo-essay: Unchanged Melody - Mr. Jimmy Chin, an iron welder

Mr. Jimmy Chin, the iron welder at work

Conversation with Mr. Jimmy Chin

Mr. Jimmy Chin's hands

Mr. Jimmy Chin and his workshop

Eye Challenge: A Visual Retrospective of the Year (2007) - Singapore National Stadium

Bridge to Stadium

Ticket Booth

West Entrance 1

West Entrance 2

Soccer Match

Spectator

The Kallang Wave

Lights Off For Countdown

Fireworks

Ice Cream Man

Last Glimpse 1

Last Glimpse 2

The Singapore National Stadium (Chinese: 国家体育场; Malay: Stadium Nasional Singapura) is located in Kallang. Opened on 19 July 1973, the National Stadium was used for many sporting, cultural, entertainment and national events, such as the Southeast Asian Games (when it was hosted in Singapore), the Singapore Armed Forces Day, the Singapore Youth Festival Opening Ceremony Parade, and the finals of the 2004 Tiger Cup. The National Stadium has been the venue for the National Day Parade 18 times (in 1976, 1980, 1985, 1986, 1988, 1989, 1991, 1992, 1994, 1996 to 1999, 2001 to 2004, and 2006).

Plans have been made to demolish the stadium in the second half of 2007 but due to some reasons, it was delayed. The stadium has to make way for the new multi-purpose Singapore Sports Hub which is expected to open in 2011. Before its closure, the Singapore Sports Council organized a photography competition to commemorate the stadium.

On 30 June 2007 a closing ceremony titled Field of Dreams - A Tribute to the National Stadium was held at the National Stadium. 45,000 people attended the event, together with our President S.R. Nathan, members of the Cabinet, and Singapore athletes, past and present. Before the ceremony, a soccer match featuring ex-internationals from Singapore and Malaysia like Quah Kim Song, T. Pathmanathan,Samat Allapitchay,V. Sundramoorthy, David Lee, Dollah Kassim, Soh Chin Aun, Santokh Singh, Chow Siew Wai and K. Gunalan was played. was played.

The match was followed by the highlight of the evening, an international friendly match between ASEAN champions Singapore and the Asian Cup bound Australian team, the Socceroos. Next was the countdown to fireworks and an all-night dance party with Zouk's DJs. The closing event certainly relived many fond memories for many Singaporeans, especially to all soccer fans.

As for me, the stadium certainly attracts me to take photographs with some of the night photographs I took in early April 2007, including the closing ceremony event in June. On the last day of 2007, I took the last few photographs of the day for the last glimpses of our National Stadium.

Eye e City 2007

31st Dec 2007, the day Eye e City held its annual documentary photography event island wide. I took part for the 3rd time and I must say it was a tremendous year for me, and I certainly looking forward to this wonderful new year!

Back on track, I got plans on subjects I wanted to photograph. Howsoever, it turned out more challenging than I expected. I did some evaluations on some chosen subjects, whether they are the ideal ones in this documentary event. Well it's not necessary to work things out this way but personally I just wanted to focus more on the more important aspect and objective of this event. Well I don't try to sound too seriously or stressed up. It's the way I work things, doing my very best each time, and to improve and learn from each experience.

For this year's event, I covered mainly in my neighborhood area i.e. Balestier area and Whampoa Drive area. The farthest place I went was National Stadium, where I took a few last photographs before it's gonna be demolished and make ways for a grand new one. In fact it wa a good time for me to take a closer look around my neighborhood. So here are the 27 photographs I took. Pleasnt viewing.

The new Whampoa Makan Place

Reconstruction of shop house 1

Reconstruction of shop house 2

Balestier Road Market (defunct)

Mr Chen, the construction worker 1

Mr Chen, the construction worker 2

Mr Chen, the construction worker 3

Mr Chen, the construction worker 4

Mr Chen, the construction worker 5

Mr Chen, the construction worker 6

Mr Chen, the construction worker 7

Protected Tree 1

Protected Tree 2

Reconstruction of shop house - behind the scene

Mr Jimmy Chin, the iron welder 1

Mr Jimmy Chin, the iron welder 2

Mr Jimmy Chin, the iron welder 3

Mr Jimmy Chin, the iron welder 4

Mr Jimmy Chin, the iron welder 5

Wan Qing Yuan - Dr Sun Yat Sen Memorial Museum.

It's closed down for a major renovation since 1st May 2007

New Connector

Last Glimpses of National Stadium

Last Glimpses of National Stadium - West Entrance

Racer on Mini-Motor Racer Bike

Family Outing on New Year Eve

A Plate of Satay

The Last Stick of Satay

Happy New Year to all! Happy 2008!

Well it had been a great 2007 and a busy one udring the year end period. The last blog I posted was in November 2007. Whoa! so much to catch up and post up more blogs here. Well I'll try my utmost best to post more in this new year. I would like to thank all readers for yr support and patience in reading my blogs. I greatly appreciate. I hereby wish everyone a Happy New Year and may all yr dreams come true this year.

New posts coming soon! Cheers!

Kelong

© 2007 Martin Liew Photography

My first roll of Fujichrome Velvia 50

Production of Velvia 50 was halted at the beginning of 2005 when vital raw materials used in the production of the emulsion became unavailable. The re-launch of Velvia 50 is a further illustration of Fujifilm's continued commitment to the production and promotion of professional film.

I read about the news in a photography magazine, in which Charlie Waite, one of the renowned British landscape photographers, reviewed and compared the new with the old. Here's his verdict:

My conclusion is that the new Velvia 50 is by a whisker slightly warmer, albeit aided and abetted by magenta. I made an image in a lit landscape setting (old Velvia) and intentionally in the same place with a 50% overcast setting (new Velvia) and was keen to note the changes. I concluded that I would be more than happy to live with either and it would be churlish to suggest a marked difference between the two. Resolution and definition is unchanged - still terrific.

Likes: Fine grain, punchy colors, terrific resolution and definition, extra warmth

Dislikes: None really, but I will be intrigued to see how new Velvia 50 performs with extreme backlit greens, which is about the only area where the old Velvia was weak.

So I bought myself a roll (120) to try out. The price is $8.50 per roll (120 format). I'll put up the images I made, soon. Do come back and keep a look out. If you'd like to know of my updated posts, do let me know so I can add you in my mailing list.

Vespa Scooter

Vespa Scooter

© 2007 Martin Liew Photography

Came across this nice looking Vespa scooter in Aljunied Crescent, while I was on my way to Kampung Senang's 8th Anniversary Senor Citizen Day celebration. Initially I spotted its tail behind one of the HDB void deck pillars. Out of curiosity, I walked up to take a closer look. And there it is!

Overall the lighting was just nice and look at that front tyre - so clean, good as new. The varnish on the scooter body is clean and shiny too. This image was made on Kodak UltraMax 400 color negative in Nikon FM10 with 50mm f/1.8 lens. I converted it to B&W in Photoshop. The original body color on the scooter is coffee color.

Best of Friends

Best of Friends

© 2007 Martin Liew Photography

I was volunteering at Kampung Senang's 8th Anniversary celebration, as a photographer doing event photography. This is one of the many images I took on 3 November 2007, Saturday. After a nutritious lunch (FYI they were having organic food for lunch), the old folks retired to their own lodgings. As I was mingling around the area, I stopped to view some of the images I took earlier. In that moment, I noticed these 3 persons coming in my direction. Without hestitation, I lifted up my camera, composed and took this shot. It happened so fast that I hardly have enough time to do the essential camera settings, not to mention composition. In a closer look, you'll notice that the friendly and cheerful Filipino was posing for the camera with a Peace hand-sign. Before she was putting them down, I snapped. Though the result is not desireable for me, but I still love this beautiful image.

This is what I called Friendship. I think the man behind her, is visually handicapped. Look at their facial expression. It was that precise moment that I was looking for in such event i.e. friendship, warmth, harmony and happiness.

This image was captured in a wide angle frame and was later cropped in Adobe Photoshop. B&W conversion with basic tweaking on Level and Curve. Basic burning on the fore & background, so as to minimize the messy scene and maximize the focus on the main subject. Captured with my D70s on Tamron 17-35mm @ f5.6, 1/180sec. 'A' mode.

Mamam Beach II

This is another photograph I made at Mamam Beach. It was a challenging scenery to work on. Again I took many bracket shots and using the same treatment as I did for the first photograph in Photoshop.

The sky was the most tricky part to handle. As this was a test shot, using my HOYA ND-400, I intended to play around the images in Photoshop, with as minimum as possible in manipulations. If I'd shoot film, I'd apply more filters at the time of exposing, especially the most indispensable ND Grad filter. It helps to cut down lotsa light from the sky, so as to bring out more clouds details and balance out the brightness and contrast.

Of course I still have to apply the darkroom technique i.e. burning & dodging, thereafter. Well I'll definitely go back there for another attempt. Hopefully I'll make it more successful in both digital and film.

Mamam Beach @ Pulau Ubin

I paid a visit to this beach in Pulau Ubin last week. It's one of the popular campsites on the island, located in the northeast area. I brought along my HOYA ND-400 filter lens to try and make a few images.

The weather was good. It was overcast through out the whole day, with minor dark clouds passing by. Well, fortunately without any drizzle or rain. It was the perfect condition for the kind of photography I wanted to make. Note that the sea water is blur due to the wave motion and long exposure timing. At the time of exposing, there was sea breeze which resulted to the motion blur of the palm tree leaves on the top frame.

For this scenery, I made many bracket shots with my D70s on Tamron 17-35mm wide angle lens, mounted on tripod at waist level. Focal length at 17mm. I combined 2 of the best exposed brackets in layered format (*.psd). Converted to black & white in Adobe Photoshop CS2, with standard burning technique on the foreground sand and sky, to bring out more clouds details.

As it was a test shot, I shot in JPEG Large format. In my future attempts, I'll be shooting in RAW format. More images coming soon.

Manfrotto moves

Manfrotto has redesigned one of its best selling professional tripods by making some adjustments in its operation. The Manfrotto 055XPROB now features a center column that can be moved to its horizontal position without having to be dissembled. By simply extending the column, it can be released and swung into its horizontal position quickly and easily.

Chinese Tea Master

The Chinese Tea Master is at work. I made this small series of photographs about a week ago at Geylang East Home For The Aged. They were celebrating Mid-Autumn Festival in the neighborhood of Aljunied. This is an annual event and it was my first time taking part in voluntary work for the organiser, Mr. Walter Lee who is the person in charge of all the event set-up and co-ordinations. Briefly speaking, I got to know Mr Lee during my first particpation of Eye The City 2005 in Bencoolen Street. Last year I was asked to help but unfortunately due to the serious hazy period, I fell ill and unwell. I couldn't make it as I had promised Mr Lee. Well in a word, I felt bad about it so this year I made a point to come back to help him taking photographs. Of cuz for the cause of good deeds.

As everyone was preparing and setting up for the evening program, I wandered around taking photographs. They have games for the kids on the opposite side of the main stage, which is about 50 meters away. I'll post up some of those fun photographs soon.

In between these 2 areas, there's a short passage where they have had stalls on Art & Craft and Gardening. I will also post up some of the photographs here. Well I don't think I would want to put up any of the main stage photographs as they aren't as interesting as the photographs I took of the others.

Coming back to these 5 photographs, I consider them to be my favorites and best pictures for that day. It was a pity I didn't get to know more about the Tea Master, but I'm sure one day I'll do a short interview with him and more better portraitures of him as well.

© 2007 Martin Liew Photography.
Nikon FM10 on Ilford XP2 Super • Tamron 17-35mm

Sleeping Dog

It was an early Sunday morning when I came across this sleeping dog lying confortably by the backdoor. Sleeping very soundly. Zzz...

River Cleanliness

I was walking around the Esplanade Garden and saw this boat anchored at the Signapore River. The man was using the sea water to clean up his boat. It's unlike those tourist boat, which in fact its purpose is to pick up trashes found on the river. Somehow there are always rubbish dumped into the river and eveyrwhere, of cuz by inconsiderate people, be it locals or foreigners.

It's really good to live in a healthy and clean environment, but it's so often been taken for granted by every single being living in this small country. Sad but true.

F*#K BUSH!

I came across this shop along Bali Lane. It was a Sunday so the shop is closed. As I looked into the shop window, I saw this written note pinned on the wall behind the cashier counter, that says, "If violence is wrong in America, violence is wrong abroad." - Malcolm X. I guess this message is going against the US President George Bush for his decision to go to war in Iraq. Recently Bush has decided to withdraw all his troops there. Well that's politics.

Stamford Raffles Has Something To Say

Sir Thomas Stamford Raffles has something to say here.

"A country that forgets itself is a sad country."