Bodhi Night 2010

I am not an event photographer, mainly because it isn't the area which I prefer to cover, which is to say anything that doesn't move. So when I was asked by a friend on whether I was interested to help out with the photography for this major event, I was a little hesitant at first. But then I remembered how the event was like the year before (when another friend asked me to help), and add to that the fact that I needed more practice with event photography anyway, I decided to go for it once again. So it all happened last Saturday, with me being at Clancy Auditorium from 830am in the morning to cover their final rehersals and the night itself. And overall, it was a tiring but fun day (and night), even though it was their event, and I was just one of the photographers.

(Above photos are from the sketch, full album in Facebook )

So would I want to cover the event again next year, if asked?

Well, why not?

Cupcakes Galore

Clarissa and her friends were holding a cupcake sale to raise funds for the RSPCA on Friday, and I made an impromptu decision to bring my camera along to, perhaps get a few shots... And boy was I glad I did that.

The cupcakes were made by Clarissa's friends Michelle and Martina (Cupcakes by M), and were not just a feast for the eyes, they were pretty much just a feast overall, tasting as nice as they did. Being free that afternoon to stand around and perhaps help out a little, I ended up buying 4 small cupcakes, a large one, and a brownie.

So much sugar, all for a good cause :)

Back to blogging, yet again?

It has been around 6 months since my last blog post, and after looking at the wonderful and inspiring blogs of some friends, I have decided to return once more to blogging. Or at least attempt to, anyway.

For once, rather a completely restarting a new blog, I'll be continuing on with my previous Photoblog, which ran out of steam earlier this year.

At the moment, I'm still trying to see if I can transfer that entire blog to this new one, though I have not really decided whether I'll switch permanently to Wordpress or not as yet.

In any case, the photographic journey continues once again...

Back in Sydney

I'm back in Sydney for a new semester...

Hope to have time for more photos :)

2010 : A New Year

Happy 2010 to all!

May this year be better than 2009 :)

Vivocity Fireworks - Year III

As December arrived, it was once again time for Vivocity's Anniversary celebrations; this year being their third year. And continuing the practice of previous years, they did it once again with a spectacular fireworks display of many different colours and styles.

Here are some of my better shots from the event. (The top photo is published through my Flickr; I was trying out their 'Post to Blog' function. It's rather troublesome though, and I re-edited it anyway.)

Also, I shot this series of fireworks in portrait, as I wasn't sure how high they would go. In the end, I overestimated the height by far... Shooting in portrait format ment that parts of the fireworks got cut off at one side as well, and I had to do quite a lot of cropping to even out the composition of the shots.

The first time (that I remember anyway) seeing fireworks in pink.
Very pretty.

And fireworks in purple, which I don't think is too common a colour I've seen either. But it looks nice too.

Anyway, if you've noticed that the photos of this post look sharper and clearer than those of older posts, thats because I experimented with linking over the images directly from Flickr, rather than using the usual (but easier) method of uploading to Blogger/Picasa.

Bonfire Festival 2009

I found out about this event from CS, about two days before it was scheduled to happen, and even until the day itself, I was uncertain if I would be interested to watch and photograph it.

I decided (at the last minute too, I may add) to go take a look at something I've not seen before, and I'd have to say that I was very much impressed by the spectacular performances.

Above and below are some of my better shots from the event.

Flash!

Just bought my 580EXII. Now to learn how to use it well...

Back in SG

I'm back in Singapore for the (Australian) summer holidays...

This blog, unfortunately, is piling up on updates that I should have done months ago, but did not do due to busy schedules in uni. Hopefully, I'll update all the posts soon (Yes, there's a lot of them...)

Post-exam City Walk

Finished my final paper for the exams (and the semester), and the first thing I decided to do was to head to Sydney CBD to take photos (Okay, actually I decided before the paper...).

Took the bus to Circular Quay, without any clear plan of what I was going to do, except may wait for the sunset. After hanging around the area for a short while, taking random shots of the Opera House, I decided to go round the corner to Dawes Point and Millers Point to take a look (and take photos) of some of the stuff I had learnt about in GEOS 2641.

By the time I was at Walsh Bay, the sky was already rapidly becoming overcast, but I just decided to continue walking around and taking photos until the rain came.

From Walsh Bay, I headed to Millers Point, and finally found out where Barangaroo was.

Millers Point was a pretty interesting location, with all its gentrified Victorian housing (I think its Victorian anyway, lol), tucked in a quiet corner not 5 minutes from the CBD.

While looking around the place, the rain finally came. I sought shelter, then decided to walk down to Darling Harbour to get a bus to return home. It was a really long walk...(Route taken: Circular Quay - Dawes Point - Millers Point - Darling Harbour)

Sculptures by the Sea

Went down to Bondi with the UNSW Photoclub for the annual "Sculptures by the Sea". There were many interesting works of art; in fact, the event itself was interesting, as it used the beautiful coastline from Bondi to Tamarama as an outdoor art gallery.

One of the funny exhibits that I really liked was the one that looked like actual direction signs. Including the one below:

There were many other pieces of artwork, but I won't be posting them here, mainly as I don't think my shots are nice enough to reflect how the actual artworks are like.

A facination with waves...

Over the months, I went to Coogee Beach and the coastal walk several times, and I kept attempting take photos of the waves ~

Ōceanus

Enérgeia

Aequor

This one has a faint rainbow in it:

Hope to take more (and better) photos of waves ~

SSA's "Dinner and Dance"

The SSA's annual Dinner and Dance event was held at the Sir Stamford hotel at Circular Quay. While called a "D&D", it wasn't really one. Rather, it was more of a high-class cocktail dinner.

Sample of the type of food served:

Wasn't a totally fun event, but it was interesting enough (It had a "Masquerade" theme). I suppose many of the people who went (not that there were that many in total) continued the event afterwards by clubbing or drinking, so it was probably more fun for them.

Masquerade theme:

I did not take many photos, as I didn't have the skill to take good shots of indoor events with relatively dim lighting...

Fieldtrip to La Perouse - GEOS 3921

The field trip for my GEOS 3921 module was to Congwong Bay, La Perouse, south of Sydney. Once again, it was interesting, as I had not been to the place before.

Went down to the beach area to learn about foredune systems, vegetation types, weed management, etc...

I found the place to be rather scenic.

From the beach area lesson, we went inland and learnt about mid- and hind-dune systems and associated vegetation and management issues...

After that (which was actually the majority of the field lesson itself), our lecturer took us to look at the Henry Head fortifications, which were part of the WWII era bunker system of the area.

The track there was quite far, but quite scenic at parts:

The ruins itself were quite interesting (to me, at least):

...and the view from Henry Head was also very nice.

Fieldtrip around Sydney - GEOS 1601

On 19 SEP 09, I went fot a near full-day field trip for my GEOS 1601 module, which went to several different parts of Sydney. For me, it was an interesting learning experience, and very useful as well, being an international student who was new to the city.

The locations that we went to were (chronologically): Sydenham, Ashfield, Fairfield, Cabramatta, and Pyrmont. Of all these places, I had only been to Pyrmont before, so everything else was new to me.

The top photo is a panorama of the Pyrmont waterfront, formed by combining 12 photos. I think it was the best one of the entire field trip (I also used it for my GEOS assignment, and it did really well :D ).

Bottom photo is another panorama of the Pyrmont waterfront (in the other direction).

(I think I liked Pyrmont the most, so both photos in this post are of the place :P)

Skies of Dust

When I woke up early this morning, I found my room bathed in a strange orange glow. Curious, I went to look out the windows of the apartment and this is what I saw:

The entire place was shrouded in orange, and the buildings that were further out could not be seen at all. The wind outside was also really strong (It was literally howling). Later on, I found out that the city (and surrounding regions) had been covered in what I would like to term a 'dust storm'.

See here for a news article on it.

By afternoon though, the skies had cleared, and my favourite blue skies were back. Many of the vehicles on the roads however, were covered in a thin layer of the red dust (To think of all the cleaning the owners have to do).

Such an interesting day (with regards to the weather, that is).

Floriade Vistas – A trip down to Canberra

From 11 - 13 September, I went on a trip with a groups of UNSW Photoclub members to Canberra for the Floriade Festival (Among other things).

There were really quite a lot of flowers to be seen and photographed (though not as much as I had imagined).

The three days was pretty fun, and apart from the Floriade, we visited a twilight market, a museum, and Australia's new Parliament House, which was rather impressive looking, I'd have to say.

Day View:

Night View:

Before we left Canberra on the third day, we also visited the Telstra tower, which gave us panoramic views of the city and its surrounds (Click the thumbnails for large images).

Busy, busy, busy

Due to me being busy with this or that and mountains of endless schoolwork, I seem to be neglecting the blog again...

Hopefully I'll be able to do proper updates soon (Starting with the many overdue posts).

Flowers in the West

On 05 SEP 09, I went for a Tri-alliance photoclub outing (UNSW, UTS, USYD) to a park in Concord West.

The outing started out on a funny note, as we missed the train that we were supposed to get on at Central station as we were waiting for one guy, not knowing that he was waiting at a different part of the station, and had to wait for the next train, which was half an hour later...

At Concord West, we spent quite some time walking through the suburb to get to the park, whic hI found to be a rather random place. But happily, I did get some nice photos of flowers, even as we rapidly lost sunlight (The longer days of summer had yet to arrive)...

While at the park, we also saw some curious (and probably hungry) Cockatoos wandering around...

UNSW SSA BBQ

On 01 AUG 09, the UNSW SSA held a 2nd semester BBQ at Coogee Beach, to welcome new students (Like me).

So we ate, and we talked, and I got to know a few more people. (I have, unfortunately, forgotten most names already, with the exception of those whom I've added as friends on facebook.)

I'd have to say that I'm getting used to the fact that in Aus, they hold their BBQs in the day, unlike what we do in Sg, which is to do it at night.

Anyway, I 'unoffically' got the job to take the group photos at the end of the event, so here they are:

(Do click on them to see larger images)