All these while I’ve been shooting for young couples who aren’t related to me, but it never occurred to me to me to take photos for another couple – my grandparents. 70 years of marriage and still going strong. I pray that all the couples that I’ve met will have an equally long and blissful marriage just like my Ah Kong and Ah Po. To quote my alma mater’s motto, “Grow old along with me, the best is yet to be…” Cheers 
– Jin
Filed under: Photography, Ramblings, Travel | Tags: mrt, Photography, singapore, thoughts, train, transit
And so Jin (me) was in transit one day and decided that hey, it’s about time I put away my earphones and pull myself back into the real world. For a few moments hence, I remembered why I put them on in the first place.
With an effort that rivaled the Labours of Hercules, I forced every fibre in my body to refrain from plugging myself back into the rhythmic realm of Led Zeppelin, Saigon Kick, Foo Fighters and every other son of rock and roll.
I began to look around, and it occurred to me then that the MRT is perhaps one of the best places to people watch. A café is static, and it only attracts a certain demographic of people. Trains on the other hand, don’t discriminate. All sorts of people commute with it and it’s constantly moving, with a fresh influx of commuters at every stop.
Being in transit is like being in limbo. There’s not much to do during the time in between from when you got on and when you get off, but sit or stand quietly – if you’re on your own – and reflect. Often, a lonesome traveler’s thoughts are reflected on his face.
I took out my camera and snapped off a couple of shots of this smorgasbord of emotions around me.
I was intending to delete the last image from collection of photos on the grounds that it was too blur, but upon further inspection, something compelled me to keep it. There was just something about this photo that hung on to me as I looked at it more and more. The quiet sadness in his eyes, the look of resignation on his face and the way he clung on to the divider just seemed to speak of a man in need who is presently just drifting by and marking time. There was this whole air of despondancy about him, and it made me sad thinking about it. Perhaps that was what prevented me from deleting it, that it could stir some emotion in me.
That said, I was quite happy with the family shots. It was a delight to see the pure joy the little boy brought to his parents; a private moment that would have been easily missed if I hadn’t decided to ditch my mp3 player.
Not sure if it’s obvious enough, but in Father and Son, the two of them were playing some network game with each other. Pretty cool way of bonding and bridging the generation gap, I would say.
Anway, next time you take the train, spare a few moments to observe around you and see what stories you could find in others while you’re in transit.
Well, had a blast today doing up this shoot for Avocent. The ad was a lifestyle one that showcased the facets of life when Avocent helps you in your business.
Curled up in a foetal position, the old man rests on a newspaper stand while an old lady sweeps on
Stumbled across this poignant scene at Braddell MRT today. Reminded me of the old in Singapore who have no kin to take care of them at such an old age. I drew my camera out of my bag and took this single exposure and it so happened that my mode was on black and white. I guess it’s a period of reflection for me in this cold and rainy season to get warm with the folks and grandfolks. Why don’t you too?
Feng
Filed under: Photography, Travel | Tags: durians, malaysia, malaysia boleh, penang
Well, it has been awhile since we’ve blogged about our adventures. Please forgive us, we’ve just been so busy lately, caught up in a flurry of one activity after another!
E is now a proud new father of a precious baby girl, Donna. As for the rest of us, we’re going to be proud owners of a new office! More about that later once we’ve made the transition.
Recently, we had the priviledge of visiting a durian plantation in Pahang. I must say,nothing beats the taste of a freshly dropped durian than the beating your non-durian aficionado buddy gives you when you burp in the car and there’s no exit for him. Joy. For us at least. Probably a hellish nightmare for him.
I don’t know about you, but it’s never really occurred to me what the whole process of collecting durians is like. To me, when I think of durian and any form of processing, it usually starts with breaking open the shell, popping that fleshy seed into my mouth, licking my fingers and starting all over again.
Not to these workers though. You know that little ditty? Planting rice is never fun, bent from morning till set of sun? At least rice farmers don’t have to trod all over hilly regions searching for thorny fruits. These guys do, and these aren’t kuching kurah hills we’re talking about. Steep and at times, dangerous ones – in the forms of the local fauna.
We went up to one plantation after hearing that they had caught a snake. We couldn’t tell what species it was and we couldn’t speak Thai either, so we left not knowing what it was, only that it didn’t look too friendly!
Another time we were at this shack where they were packing the durians onto trucks for shipment back to Singapore and I over heard one of the workers speaking to the foreman in Chinese that they found tiger paw prints in one of the other plantations.
I guess every job has its occupational hazards. Oddly enough though, we found out that in the 30 years the plantation owner had been in business, not once has any one of his workers been injured by a falling durian! Apparently there’s a saying, “Durians have eyes. They watch where they fall.” Reassuring as it may be, it just didn’t feel safe whenever we heard a loud “thuuuuck!” right behind us, and we had no interest in setting a precedent!
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- Qi An readying for the trek across the plantation
Having seen this, I’d dare say that still cameras complement video extremely well. This was shot on a Canon 20D and the shutter was exposed every 30 seconds over a long period of time. Then, it was carefully stitched together to form this masterpiece. Having said that, one musn’t forget how the music complements the entire video as it clearly shows how music and images can work together to form a multi-sensory experience.
Filed under: Experimental, Photography | Tags: Photography, culturepush, wooden photography, national stadium, stadium, national, youjin, low, oddoneout, timber, lying down, relaxing, creative arts, creative, art, media
Hi guys!
Oddoneout has done it again! This time, by our resident photographer, Youjin. His work was featured on culturepush.com. Do read up more yeah?
Here you go!
Youjin Featured on Culturepush.com
