World in Monochrome!

The usual places between work and home.

The Worse Saturday

What can be the most rewarding push, after a long week of working? Of course, the weekends! But what can be considered the most demoralising things to happen on a long waited Saturday?

a) No programmes?
b) Brought a lot of work home to do?
c) Nagging Mum?

Yes, I always thought the above are quite demoralising for a weekend. But I think the worse could have happened, was to be Mobilized!

Mobilised on a Saturday, especially when you have already plan your activities and this silly sms caught you attention just when you are about to leave your house.
“This is your detachment IC, you should be expecting a call by 12pm. Unfortunately, you are required to report to Selarang camp FBO.”

While I am now blogging this in my no.4, I am all depressed once again!

I hope i will make it in time home for F1 at least.

Sunflowers, Butterflies & Bees

I am putting this series up using my lensbaby, apparently i would have felt more comfortable shooting with no pressure.

This series wasnt meant to be included, so happened, that i got all frustrated with getting some expressions that i decide to walk the garden and take some nature shots.

If you have seen it, u shld know where it is!

So do enjoy:)

Lets welcome my new baby

Looking for a lens that is cheap, fun but with some quality?
I spotted this lens while browsing thru the forum..

Its a tiny mini lens that everyone calls it a Lensbaby. Yes, that is the name of it.
Lensbaby v2.0

Its a 150% manual focus lens with no assist from the camera. Basically you are fiddling with your fingers and testing how good your eyesight is.



I had a few tries and this is the best i got out of it...yes..i find them super duper impressive!
Note that the blurry is from the lens itself controlled by its manual aperture..nothing to do with processing of the pictures with some effects. What u see is what came out of my camera!




I am preparing to use this lens to shoot some shots on expression but apparently, those that i have gotten are a little blurry..

Tomorrow i will be making another trip for some photography and hopefully i find some nice decent shots to submit!

Busy MacRitchie

Fionis called these few shots super gloomy...
haha..











anyway think im cleanin up my lens this week and prepare to get my winning shot in the coming competition with the "Queen of Prosumer aka 12x Zoom champion". Its a challenge that i received and after changing the theme for 3 times, finally we decide to go for an easier theme. "Expression" is the theme and i think its really tough to find that one expression to win her. I know she already has lots of shots and idea in mind.

MacRitchie Reservoir

After last week encounter with the many “mosquitoes” photography trip, i decided to select a venue that is less adventurous. (Thank God, i was not infected with dengue fever.)
I did a search at flickr and i discovered that MacRitchie Reservoir seems to be a nice place too.

I think it was my first visit to MacRitchie Reservoir since the day i was born. Seems like there are still many places yet to be explored and Singapore isn't really that boring after all.

Okay unlike the past, this round I will be posting my behind the scenes pictures taken from my PROSUMER, giving informations on how I take these pictures so as to allow people to understand how fun it is to own a DSLR and the various things that you can do with it.

These shots are taken at Sunset with my ND8 filter but it was only then that I noticed the lowest aperture my Wide angle lens could go was f22. Without a further ND 4 filter, I could only allow my shutter speed to go as slow as 1.6 seconds before everything gets blown off. The result? I couldn’t get a really smooth water reflection that looks like a mirror with this speed.

And it might be due to the aftermath experience with the disgusting pervert on bus that affect my common-sense to wipe my filter clean before using which resulted from a fair bit of specks on the image which I further removed using software.

Some shots before I go on..




As I am still using an old model DSLR, there is no live view or any swivel LCD screen that enables me to take picture from various angle. In such cases, I had to either kneel down on the floor or base on trial and error if I want to go low.

Making use of whatever tools I had and blocking everyone’s path with my setup.


The Result…


Most of the pictures were taken with tripod, a decent tripod that only allows for decent height from knee onwards. There are some that allow you to start as low as your feet and it cost a huge difference.

With the nice skies, I did a HDR on this shot..something different from the series processing.


Okay, we all know that Photography is all about patience and luck. It is always common for people coming into the frame, but this family is like trying to be funny, I am not sure if they wanted to be in my pictures or what, but they were idling there for so long doing nothing. It was only when I took some pictures below of them before they decide to leave. By then, the sun had already set. But it was good, with the darken surrounding, my shutter speed could go slower and made the water look more smooth.


Some pictures from the above..


It was quite an experience from this trip. Oh by the way, there isn’t any mosquitoes there.

I met a Pervert

I was on my way from airport to tampines to get my fish food after work today and i took bus 27, which was pretty crowded. What happened was after the bus reaches the first stop at tampines, quite a few people got off the bus that was when i managed to find a seat(left)beside me.
I noticed beside my seat (right) was an indian guy and a very pretty chinese lady. I saw the indian guy was like trying to zip himself n i tot i saw his "ahem". I was traumatised myself...cos it was the first time i saw such things happening.

I tried to look again in case i saw wrongly and he was always using his bag as conceal.
When i saw it again i was very sure he was masterbating himself beside the girl.
I was shock but i know i had to do something so I told a Chinese uncle about it.

He just told me to not look at him...n some murmur which i don know wat he was saying..i told him to look at this indian guy so i can at least have another witness as i wasnt sure if the girl beside knows wat was happening. She was looking out of the window most of her time.

The Chinese uncle just refused to turn around to see... I tried signalling to the girl but caught the attention of the indian guy. By now, the bus was again crowded. I think i saw him trembling and immediately he picked his bag and ran off...i couldnt react well...i stand up and the chinese uncle immediately took that indian guy seat which I don know why.

I look at the girl who was still looking out at the window and i asked the chinese uncle to check if the girl is alright. I later got off the bus and I felt so useless. I couldn’t react fast enough in such a situation that allow this pervert to escaped.

I always thought if I met such a situation I would do this and do that..but when it really happens, all I could do was to stare at the ah neh hard.
Haiz..I am not calm enough to react.

"Really too much"

Hey wait…Just before you think that I am going to complain about some terrible people in my organizations, NO, it’s all about me.

My conscience pricked me this evening. While I am now still rushing my unfinished work where the clock strikes 6pm, I decided I should blog this. See how serious I am that I am taking time off to write this despite my left brain is calling me to just finish my work and go home.

I have a friend who has gotten me a gift from Japan and despite how mean and nasty I have always been in my language, she gotten me something I always yearn for! Well although it’s not a surprise, it’s not a cheap gift either.

Past few days, I was so irritating to ask her to pass me at my convenience and guess what?
While she was on an urgent but not so urgent leave today, she offered to drive her lousy car with the long long never seen “P” Plate to my workplace to just pass me my gift.

I am so touched…

Being always so “nice”, I even asked her to come a little later so I could catch a free ride home. Tsk..

I’m totally disgusted by my behavior immediately when she told me she was near to accident at the airport there with a cab. I know she is a poor driver..but if the accident really happened due to the reason she was passing me my gift, I would have felt so bad. CHOY!

Nonetheless, I am so grateful to have you this friend…and because of this, I am going to find you a gift from Shanghai that goes for you when you visit, Paris, Milan, Switzerland, US, Hongkong and Hokkaido, you will get one for me.

Thanks Petty!

Just see how lucky you are to have me as your friend!

The Life Endangered Precious Picture...

I did something silly today. Or should I say courageous, adventurous and Brave but idiotic.
I went into the Sand Quarry nearby lake. The one opposite Bedok Reservoir with lots of fencing and blockage citing Dangerous. I often saw many people going there for fishing but today there was none. I walked in slowly using my tripod to clear unwanted animals and traps but little did I know that the most scary thing was mosquitoes. I was attacked and ambushed by lots of them. My insect repellent failed to work there. It was a mass attack, every second there was at least 1 mosquito on my body.

Since I was there and already bitten, I couldn’t leave without a picture. The place was so eerie even under broad day light. To be frank, this was the most natural lake I ever saw in Singapore. I quickly mounted my camera on the tripod and I didn’t even have a chance to screw in my ND filter and do 5 second exposures shot. I couldnt even wait for the sun to set lower.

I pressed the shutter once and off I ran with my camera still mounted on my tripod. All my areas were bitten but they spared my face. Thank god.

Just one shot with no checking and here while I wait for any dengue reaction…this is the precious shot I took!

Only 1 picture with 2 processing...if i had a long exposure..everything would look smooth.



A blueee purple feel...from day convert to nite....


If anything does happened to me, this should be my last shot. haiz

Coco Chanel

I think its a rather nice movie...forget what some others might say how dry or boring it is...go catch it. Inspiring.

Actually, i didnt know it was a french movie but it didnt bother me. I was watching it with a group but seated alone...so gentlemen of me to offer the best seat for Fionis since its the first time she joined us for the movie.(Despite the earlier accusation that i spoiled her camera)
But so not very nice of her to ran off the moment i turned towards her after the movie. I didnt even get the chance to signal and there she just dived down into that empty train station which i guessed, she might later exited the station on the other exit to prevent an embarrassing scene.

I wasn't up to anything pranky seriously, i just wanted to tell her that the train services should have ended. Anyway, i think i know the reason for that rush...the clock strike 12am the moment she disappeared....Now who is the "Cinderella"?

Not sure if its my luck..after the hot drink at Mac cafe, the girls then told me, actually i had a choice to go off straight after the movie cause they got no intention for supper too. Argghh!!!

Me and Vince walked awhile before scurrying on a cab home..the streets are pretty quiet at night!

Start with a lousy week and end with a happy Friday!

Hey by writing the above title, i really mean it when i said Happy Friday although it’s only thurs today.
How good can you get your week started with a ridiculous accusation from absurd senior staff that all the most should exercise professionalism?
Difficult, real difficult! People are getting more and more difficult to deal with. No wonder all the freshies are leaving.

Ermm don understand what I am writing? Its okay, I am only ranting over all these little displeasure that hardly comes back in my current workplace. No choice, the only listener of mine is stuck there in Japan...
Remembered back in the DHL days, politics, stabbing, complains and scoldings are so common that we count each day lucky without facing any of those above.
Now, in my current workplace, we are so pampered with none of those happening in my day to day life. So much so, when it really does happen, we get so tense up over it. Well, we do need a little of such to remind ourselves that life isn’t always so relax and everyone is friendly.

Today was fun, it has been so long since I last play “truant”. Yes, given the opportunity that It was my turn for a banking trip at Tampines, how come me and PngNi missed the chance to take a short break..haha…well, it’s alright to go for a short meal after we finished the task. Woah..the “mee sua” at tampines one basement is really nice.
It’s definitely alright to take a short walk through the malls since the day is hot and we needed some aircon.
Of Cos it’s alright to buy some stuff along the short walk through the malls since it doesn’t take much time to make payment.
Well we don go back empty handed with just our stuff…we gotten a dozen and a half of J.CO donuts for our colleagues…erm no its not counted as a bribery..no definitely no..

When we are back in the office with the donuts, I think everyone started to volunteer for a banking trip..suddenly you see the change of enthusiasm among them compared to past trips.

I got to admit that this company has its strength and charm. PngNi told me that she is going to stay put here till the day she retire as a taitai. We too agree that everyone who left always has the urge to rejoin the company especially when the new culture is harsh on them. In here, we are all so protected, so pampered.

This rekindle my memories when I first joined,
I cannot believed that everyone minded their own business so much so that most of them just have their lunch themselves. If I didn’t know they were in the same office, I would have guessed they didn’t know each other.
So unwelcome and so lonely then


And I learn to break the silence and started knowing them. Well Finance wasn’t the same after we started going out for lunch together and having activities after work.


And then, I started to venture out of Finance and knowing even more people. Now it has populated to even new staffs as soon as they joined.

I really don know when I will be leaving here. Not till I find one that is nothing worse off than here. Meanwhile, please don stress me further and start asking me about my plans and correcting my directions. Because I just don’t know yet.