So I reached England the morning after my birthday, after having the longest birthday of my life (it lasted more than 24 hours because I crossed the international date line while it was still my birthday). Thanks for all the birthday wishes and presents! Although I'm sorry, I couldn't bring some of them with me. I simply had no space.

( London :D )
( and then Oxford )

 because it's always more interesting to do other things that you really shouldn't be doing when you ought to be concentrating on productive things.

In this case, it isn't exactly productive per se, but it certainly is worth money. I'm supposed to be marking papers but I have no mood for it.

( So, tada, photospam time! )

Yesterday I woke up at an extremely ungodly hour to take a really long walk down to the lakeshore, to take a ferry to Toronto Islands.

Wow, it was really, really nice. The snow and the cold has kept everyone away, so the place was pretty much deserted for most of the day. I stayed there for around 10 hours, and when I left at 4pm or so, I saw a few photographers coming in... and I was like aww too bad you missed it, because the clouds were coming in and the sun had gone.

Along the way I discovered that Lake Ontario's surface does actually freeze, and the pack ice is really cool, especially when it's covered with snow, because the contrast against the dark water is just awesome. The ferry actually forced its way through the ice, breaking it as it went through, leaving ice shards everywhere. Apparently it refreezes at night, and the next morning they have to break the ice again.

Let's just say I'll most certainly be going back, perhaps when the temperature really drops on Thursday, because other than the pack ice, there will be really nice icicles on the islands. The high for Thursday is expected to be below -20 degrees, and well, we won't go into the low.

School started, and has been on for a week now.

I feel that I should be doing a lot more than I currently am, but my roommate evidently doesn't think it's time to pick up the books yet.

Oh well.

I started the new year by shooting 2 rolls of film as quickly as I could, and then dropping it off for development really fast too. But then, I forgot to collect it till today.

Above is one of the photos from one of the rolls. I like my new 85 f/1.8 lens.


In other news, I applied for the Summer Abroad programme at Oxford University. Hopefully I shall get it and go this summer. Sounds awesome, and I worked out that it is actually cheaper than summer in Toronto, believe it or not. It helps that the pound is comparatively weak now, and expected to get weaker.

So, if you're in England this summer (especially late-July and the whole of August), let me know! I'm considering going earlier to travel a bit around Europe before starting the programme, but I've got to be back in Toronto for school second week of September.

And finally, the trees are bare. It's slightly gloomy and dreary and bleak right now, and I'm highly tempted to pair the following picture up with Thomas Hardy's 'The Darkling Thrush' poem. But I need to get rid of that person for it to suit.... darn.



It's actually a reflection in a puddle in Queen's Park.

Queen's Park is the park just next to my residence, and I can view it from my window because the trees outside are completely bare. It's surprising how things change so much when the trees all lose their leaves. It feels really empty.

I suppose I'm just waiting for things to get white and stay white.

I upgraded my flickr account today to flickr pro, because I really need the extra space! The 200 photo limit was a bit too little for me.

Anyway, I was sifting through my harddrives to find something else, and I realised that I left all my edits and selections from my Cambodia trip in Singapore. Argh. I have the original files here though, so I did a re-edit of some of the stuff in it, and I kind of really like this one above.

In other news, I am very sian, and every Monday and Tuesday night I am even more sian than usual because there are tutorials to prepare for. There's this annoying participation mark which I fully intend to get, so I've got little choice but to actually know stuff inside out. Oh well.

It is kind of cold now, the temperature is actually ok, still above freezing point, although the weatherman says it'll snow later today again. It's the wind that's really bad, the temperature can be 3 degrees but the windchill makes it -7. And it blows right through you, making any attempts at keeping warm rather futile.

edit: just checked the weather report for tonight and tomorrow, and looks like it's snow all the way.


Hopefully I'm not stuck in some classroom while it's snowing outside >.<

Also, I just downloaded the new Nikon D300 firmware update, and hmm, it is kind of nice. It brings the D300 up to date with some (not all, unfortunately) of the features that are present in the D700, but one thing that I really wanted still isn't there, and that is the capability to program the function/preview buttons to go straight to liveview. The D700 can do that and I'm pretty sure it's entirely a firmware issue, so I don't know why Nikon can't just release an update for that.

Days are getting real short, and time is flying. I'm into my second month here now, but the first went past a whole lot slower.

Anyway, sort of can't wait for it to actually start snowing properly, and I also can't wait to get back to Singapore next May. Hopefully there'll be some people back in Singapore by then too.

The autumn colours have finally appeared in Toronto, despite the extremely wintery temperatures having persisted for quite a while now. In fact, going by the weather report, I'd better enjoy my single digit temperatures while they last. Apparently next week's highest temperatures are in the range of zero.

The colours are really damn awesome. And I get really high jumping in leaves, and yes, I know that that sort of activity is usually reserved for kids below the age of six. Unfortunately, I have never ever been overseas at this time of the year, (blame MOE's holiday timing), and as such have never expeirenced autumn or spring. So it's the first time, and I really like it.

I followed up my Singapore cemetery visits with a visit to a Canadian cemetery. Boy are the two different. The Singapore ones, while incredibly peaceful and rather pretty (by Singapore standards anyway), absolutely pale in comparison to the Canadian ones. Searched up google maps to find the nearest cemetery, and off we went.

Destination was St. James Cemetery, and, we walked the whole way there (and back). It's rather far actually, but public transport costs too much.

Had to walk a big round to find the gate to enter the rather nondescript place, and wow.



Awesome.

After I'd finished admiring the cemetery and the peacefulness of it all, Riverdale Farm was the next stop.

Riverdale Farm, as the name suggests, is a farm. In the middle of the city. It's really quite cool, it's got all the animals and it's free admission for everyone. So there were lots of kids there and everyone was happy because it was a nice and sunny autumn day. (That sounds so storybookish.)

Anyway I tried to avoid taking the usual boring photos of the animals, and opted for something a little different. So below is one of a father and son playing with the autumn leaves.



And then after that headed to Salad King for Thai green curry which absolutely rocked! The place's called Salad King even when it obviously doesn't serve any salads or anything resembling salads. Apparently, the previous shop there was called Salad King and really did sell salads, and when the current shop took over, they just couldn't be bothered to change the sign, so it became known as Salad King. There is this perpetual queue outside, and from what I hear, it doesn't diminish, even when it's snowing. I think the food's good, but not that good.

And in other news, I got back some of my tests/assignments, and at the moment I have a damn high GPA. Hmm. An unbelievable 4.0. But I'm pretty sure that will drop once the rest come back.

Had my first lesson in university today. Second year Eastern & Central Europe History. It doesn't seem to be particularly hard, but maybe I'm speaking too early. I think I'm the only first year student there, which makes things a bit intimidating.

I also had first year political science today, and I think I am really going to enjoy that. Tomorrow is psychology.

I do like Toronto, and although I'm walking a lot everyday (to give you an idea of the size of my uni's campus, it's served by 5 subway stations on 2 seperate lines, and has dunno how many libraries - something in the region of 30?) and running up and down 4 stories because my room's on the top floor, I still think it's really nice and the weather is just awesome. The flowers are so bright too, but I can see that they're beginning to die, and the trees are beginning to turn to red and yellow. Summer's over! I'm quite happy about it but I think the Canadians aren't.


My residence building in infrared.


I wonder where the bees go in winter.


I think this is slightly depressing, but beautiful at the same time.

Despite having insane amounts of freedom, I'm not even trying to do anything that I didn't do in Singapore. I haven't drunk a drop of alcohol even though I'm of legal age over here and most of the kids here aren't. I know they envy me because I can get alcohol and nicotine anytime I want, but I don't want, and they don't seem to be able to understand that.

And I'm generally just avoiding thinking about how far away Singapore is, how I am absolutely alone in this weird place, and what and who's in Singapore, because if I do then I'll really miss it. I know I will end up thinking about it eventually, but until then, I'll stave it off by just not thinking too hard.

Tiptoe

I've got less than a week left in Singapore, and I suddenly have everything to do.

I got my driving licence yesterday though, so yay.

Some stuff from helping Matthias out at a wedding on Saturday with Azlan and the D700:

National Day makes Saturday feel like Sunday.

I wanted to shoot the fireworks because I felt patriotic I'm leaving Singapore in two weeks, and it'll be nice to have a nice (cliche) view of Singapore for me to stare at in the middle of the cold Canadian winter.

Was lazy though, so I opted to shoot from my dad's office. At least it's a unique view.

As everyone knows, the Singapore Flyer is in the middle of a big lallang field. Well, at least that's what the photo makes it look like.

I wasn't really feeling emo, but I felt an immense need to churn out an emo picture.

Taken at Choa Chu Kang cemetery.

Today's Youth Day, so my mum's at home to terrorise me. She made me pack up my primary school stuff and throw away nonsense and things. In the process, I came across my old primary school exam papers and their incredibly nice marks, as well as several projects.

One of them in particular caught my attention, it was about my primary school (Tao Nan) and it's history and stuff, and I did it in P2. What was interesting was that there were a bunch of photographs taken by my 7-year-old self, showing my primary school as it was in 1997.

My primary school underwent a major 'upgrading' when I was in P3. And that was the end of the gloriously large field, the canteen, the school hall and well, practically everything including the classrooms. They changed a lot.

I suspect that the photos were taken using a Kodak disposable camera, probably using ISO400 film, as I somehow doubt my parents would have trusted me to carry their camera to school. Also, the weird crops and cut-offs and stuff was due to the fact that I took digital photos of the prints which were pasted in a book for the project.

This probably wouldn't make any sense to you if you weren't from Tao Nan School, but nonetheless, I'm going to post the photos.

Ok, I did an edit of my photos gathered from visits to several of Siem Reap's markets. As a tourist, of course I visited lots of tourist markets, obviously created for the perceived fulfillment of tourists like me, and containing 50 stalls selling exactly the same thing at Cambodia's favourite price of US$1.

These photos aren't from the tourist markets. Those places are too clean, too sanitised and way boring. These are little slices of the 'real' thing, all taken in and around the markets meant for locals, where they buy everything from food to clothing to cooking pots. They're basically  really big wet markets, and the stalls simply spill out onto the streets. I'm almost entirely certain that the concept of 'rent' doesn't exist.

I just got back from Cambodia earlier today.

I did visit tons of temples, and I'm not even sure I remember which one is which anymore. They all do kinda look the same after a while.

There were also the local markets, which I found particularly interesting, but terribly dark. I was shooting ISO1600 at the minimum in there.

But for now, I'll just concentrate on one particular place I visited, a lake called Tonle Sap, or Great Lake.


Looking at this photo, you'd be forgiven for thinking that Cambodians lived a relaxed life of luxury. But the truth couldn't be further away.

Tonle Sap's reality is a picture of devastating poverty, lacking sanitation and pretty much all hope of anything better than this.


Against the light - a Cambodian family traveling across Tonle Sap by boat.
An unexpected photo, because it broke most common sense photography rules, such as, you do not shoot directly into the sun.


A girl sitting next to her boat.


Window of one of the boat-houses.


Temporary houses near Tonle Sap.

I really didn't realise how absolutely idyllic the photographs looked until I saw all of them together on the computer.

So, for a reality check, here are some of the more realistic ones, the ones that show what is really going on:


Children waving from a boat - it isn't as innocent as it looks.
They're doing it in the hope that tourists give them a little money.


Living conditions.


Many young boys jump into basins like this and paddle around Tonle Sap, it's their form of transportation, and also to beg for money. This particular boy is a landmine victim, and there are a lot of such victims around. In the countryside, you constantly pass fields that have the sign DANGER: LANDMINE AREA. A deadly relic from their years of civil strife.


Cambodian children begging by the roadside near Tonle Sap.



Yes, Cambodia is a very pretty place, blessed with nice people, great  natural scenery and blue skies.

But beneath all that lies something else, a country deeply haunted by its very dark past, and highly uncertain future.

The above was taken yesterday outside Kallang MRT, and it's from my first shoot of sorts with my new AF Micro-Nikkor 60mm f/2.8D. It cost me $520, and I'm beginning to think the optional metal hood is annoying.



In other news, my housing at Toronto's confirmed, meaning that they guarantee that they will give me a place to sleep no matter what. But they didn't say where. Hopefully I get the nice pre-war building that's modeled on Oxford/Cambridge! It's really pretty and right next to the park.

On Labour Day, M and I decided to do some exploring and things, first to Choa Chu Kang cemetery, and then to the abandoned KTM Railway tracks.

This time I went to the Protestant section of the cemetery, the last time it was the Catholic one. It was a lot more subdued, and well, here's a photo.



And then it was lunch and the railway tracks.

The railway is really interesting, although we did spend a lot of time wondering if any snakes were going to jump out at us. And I spent even more time trying to balance on the rails.




Illuminosa - KTM bridge

Now the black and white image... I liked it enough to put it on flickr (you won't find the other 2 images there, not anytime in the near future anyway), but I didn't expect the rest of the flickr community to love it. So it got really good response.

There's another extremely similar photo with a silhouette of M walking on the bridge, but well, I decided that it wasn't as nice because it wasn't symmetrical. Maybe more photos later.

I finally made my selection for the Singapore Young Photographer Award 2008, and here they are:



In the end, I decided to go for an all monochrome set. A slightly unusual choice in a competition of colours, but we'll see.

Also, a completely and truly Singaporean set with all photos taken in Singapore, the oldest being only a year old.

Top row, from left:
Loyalty (Still Life), Destructive Potential (Night Scene)

Second row, from left:
Practice (Still Life), The Mitre (Architecture)

Third row, from left:
Mortal (Abstract), Come Around (Architecture)

I went to Choa Chu Kang cemetery today to have a look around, and I must say, it's a pretty nice place. I wouldn't mind being buried there when I die, provided the government doesn't exhume my grave within 5 years of my death or something.

But it really made me think - the cemetery, is it for the dead or more for the living? I'm inclined to think the latter.

Anyway, here's a photo from today:



For all who need comfort, for all those who mourn
All those whom we cherished will be reborn
All those whom we love but see no more
They are not perished, but gone before
May they rest in peace, and rise in glory.

-Rest in Peace by Libera

Today, I took a long MRT ride to the other end of the world.

While I was there, I did a bunch of new shots, and I also redid my shots from my previous trip there. Goodness, it was significantly easier to achieve them with a DSLR as compared to the compact which I had with me when I last went in September last year.

So here's a photo from the Japanese Garden: