Photographer

I sold my first photograph yesterday! 17th June 2013 to be exact.

Ju, Sarajevo.

the things, you know

sat here
thinking
again

about
all the things
I haven't
done

things i've done
are far and
few

time is running
out

the croods with the tham

Two men in their early thirties watching a cartoon in a sparsely filled cinema hall on a weekday afternoon. We must have presented a bemusing sight at best and most probably a highly dodgy and concerning image to the parents who brought their kids. And we weren't even sitting in our ticketed seats. I do apologise. So that's me and tham and our impromptu plan after our tennis got curtailed by the sudden thunderstorm.

Then my scheduled dinner appointment in town disintegrated at the last moment, which meant that today I effectively travelled all the way to Tampines just to watch an animation with a married and balding man. Not cool.

like a whore

Today, I swear I'll never be a cheap photographer for hire again.

All the time, effort, money, endless nights.. especially the endless nights - it all count for something, something that shouldn't be soullessly sold away for $60 per hour.

Back in Singapore

I'm home! On 29th Jan 2013, some 142 days after my departure on 9th Sept 2012.
Will write more.

Sleepless, I got out of bed at 6am. The sky rapidly changes hues as the kettle boils. I had some bread with nutella - the father has adopted a somewhat worrying liking to it since my introduction, and made coffee.

I tuned into my favourite radio station, class95, something that i haven't done for years.

From Tarifa

Four months of travelling has brought me to tarifa in Spain, the southernmost tip of continental Europe, across the straits of Gibraltar from morocco where I came from last night.

I'm writing because I miss writing here.

6th Sept Soccer

was good today. Played 7 a side at St Wilfrid and only conceded once in about 10 games - the perfect farewell present to make up for the lack of soccer for the next couple months.
Made two good assists to alex as well. good stuff!

Europe beckons on 9th Sept.

reminiscing about army days

there's something called the Standard Obstacle Course in army which is dreaded by all SAF soldiers, or at least those who experienced the old version where you have to run your lungs out after the final jump from the ramp; many seasoned infantry soldiers from my camp failed to meet the 10 minutes passing mark.

my point is, I once cleared mine in 8 min 49 sec - still proud of it.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=91xC-JiiudM
looks fun and easy in the video till you try it
800m run up, 10 obstacles, 700m run down while carrying the phased-out SBO, SAR 21 rifle and a brick of a helmet which totals to about 11kg.

i also consistently ran sub 9min 40sec for my 2.4km with a PB of around 9min 20sec(??) - nothing ground-breaking but it possibly meant that i was one of the fastest non-smoking runner in my company.

army was painful back then.

edited:
ha! i found this from my old blog
ATEC Combat Load (1st LAW Gunner):
LAW tube - 7kg
SAR 21 Rifle - 4kg
SBO webbing - 7kg
Helmet - 2kg
Total : 20kg

1 x meteor

i saw 1 x meteor during the supposedly awesome meteor shower tonight

18 - Dirk Kuyt

I wanted to put up on fb photos of my little niece's baptism, then i read that kuyt has left Liverpool.

that made me sad.

so i put up my old photos of him instead, because he felt like family to me - the little niece can wait.

my room

if i can't reach it, i won't use it.

To all the things lying around in my room, if i haven't seen you for a year, i'm gonna throw you away.

Seriously.

Much ado about life

In the proverbial blink of an eye, i've slept through a week and done nothing of significance. I hereby declare my honeymoon period over. Period to the period. Period.

The way to prevent a year of decadence, it dawns (yet to catch one, incidentally) on me, is to consistently write on each tiny triumph as they occur - a broken tap fixed, new muscles found, one of the many books read... and so on.

Is it time for a new writing space? hmmm....

Monday

I took it easy today.

6pm is better than 5:20pm for a swim though it's best under the mid-day sun.

The things that i want to do appeared in my mind like a hasty slideshow with timings in overdrive, but hey, we'll get there.

Hello blog!
i will write and write i will.
soon.

fermented t-rex

the whole world has stopped blogging. i am officially a dinosaur. a 13 year old dinosaur.

dude

reading through the biographies and browsing through the photos of a few local photographers, i feel as if i've just started out in primany 1.

each annual attempt to validate my own work leaves me searching, and wondering.. what work?

i am not yet a photographer. i am just a dude with a camera.

i get around

in thoughts
feelings are all too familiar
could this be an endless cycle?

the years gone by

Birthdays over the years
2008 - HK, had dinner alone in a little eatery near Fa Yuen St
2009 - nothing
2010 - Taitung to Hualien, Taiwan, with stupid

Christmas over the years
2008 - alone in sihanoukville, cambodia, in a quiet night
2009 - chiangmai with stupid
2010 - That elephant safari place, Sri Lanka, in an isolated resort with the scb folks

New Year over the years
2008/09 - nothing
2009/10 - Khao San Road, Bangkok, with ass and stupid and surrounded by 2000 ang mohs
2010/11 - on the plane from Colombo to Singapore with Jas and CJ

how $900 became $2972.80

money making is a vicious, vicious cycle

i'm going diving. Anilao, in Philippines. $900
And i thought, what a good place to venture into underwater photography!
so i sussed out a good deal. a little too good to be true. still it set me back by $1770.

however, with big things come big responsibility. i had to figure out some way to secure my entire rig to myself, in the event of inclement conditions in the sea. $75 + $5.50 + $3.50 + $1.80 = $95.80

and because i have more and more gear which requires more and more batteries, i had to go out and get some. $44

and battery chargers, of course. $140

and a long line of power sockets for the many chargers. $23

that's how a $900 trip turn into a $2972.80 hole.

refurnished whims

dive in a flag

travel

do it. shamelessly

talk to people

take photos

write about it