Halus ebook!

I have uploaded a work in progress of my ebook on Halus.

Halus - Singapore's Forgotten Wilderness

Publish at Scribd or explore others: Non-fiction eBooks

Valley of The Trees 2 and a Folio of Fine Art Prints

Hello again!

It has been some time since my last update. I have been really busy doing research as well as revisiting this valley of trees. There are 19 of them in total. For a photographic project, that is incredibly few to photograph! Some of them are obviously more charismatic than others and they make good images. Some are a little more unique in shape and require a closer study.

Having been to the Valley so many times, inevitably, I noticed how the commonfolk pass them without so much as a glance. People have even climbed down into the valley with their dogs to play. Nonetheless, the trees still stand tall and maintain their dance in the wind.

I feel it is almost my responsibility to speak for these trees. I have been with them in all sorts of conditions, from darkness with celestial creatures for comfort to whiplash rain. Nothing beats the grandure of the early sunrise as it rises over the tree tops and the landscape suddenly becomes awash with light.

I feel drawn to humble things; things that people take for granted. I give a voice to those who have none.

I am releasing a fine art folio of stunning prints for these trees early next year. Whoever is interested in getting a copy or for more information, please email me: inksandpaper@gmail.com

The Halus article I promised has to be delayed for this project.

Valley of The Trees

The morning of 28 of November found me in the valley of Pierce reservoir photographing some interesting trees. No doubt these trees were not sown by the hand of nature; nonetheless they inspire me because of the uncanny order and character they display.

The morning was fine and the skies were clear. The pierce trip was an unexpected one as I had hoped to catch a fine sunrise in a location that I was familiar with: Halus.

This is what I call the classic view of Halus, from the stinking lake of toxic rotting rubbish!

I had been to the valley at pierce once before and I saw great potential for studies of Casuarinas. I decided to take a simplistic view of the trees, focusing (pun not intended) first on a wider perspective. I will make more trips to this beautiful valley (in the heart of a city)!

For now, I leave you with the Trees.

A tight framing emphasises the Tree itself. I think that its sides pressing against the sides of my frame seem to suggest the life-force of the Tree!

A high perspective helped me to put the tree against a smooth background of foilage and emphasise the shadow. The empty space on the right indicates a space for solitude.

I was intrigued by how the branches grew towards the ground.

This dance of the Trees was subtle and quite difficult to anticipate. The quiet-ness of the morning, occasionally broken by the rougue campers, helped to tune my mind to the waltz at hand; the wind being the charming choreographer.

I plan to release a portfolio of fine art prints of these trees soon. Anyone interested can email me at inksandpaper@gmail.com.

I also offer fine art pigment printing services.

The next update will be a full article about Halus, where it is, and why I love it so.

My Rights to Copy(!) and Critter Matters

It seems that the Artist/Photographer' life is shrouded within the evils of aesthetic theft. Not mater thieving (think Ocean’s 11/12/13) which is so artful it must be forgiven and actually appreciated. We are talking IMAGE theft.

Resolution: upload small super de-rezed and compressed WATERMARKED (leaving my footprints everywhere) images.

Let the rat race be-gin.


Discovery of Zion

Now to more essential things in life. Somewhere in September 2008, I was photographing in a stink-hole dumpyard. This fool’s place has even drawn insult from people for wasting battery power (digital has no film) photographing on a pile of rubbish. I’m serious. This place is, or was, a dumpyard for all our rubbish. Abandoned, God Almighty let it flower (literally) into a beautiful place. Well, depending on the beholder’s eyes. I admit that Halus is not the most photogenic location on Earth, but a little quiet contemplation and many visits encourage one to resonate better with this junk hill. Until I made this image I felt I never truly understood Halus’ magic on me.

No magic lasts, especially not those conceived of rubbish. Halus is undergoing change (YES Obama!) that is too much for my eyes. For two weeks I, in desperation, made multiple excursions ending with a late night visit (actually we overstayed) with dear Ian.

I recalled a trail discovered by accident when my Photography Club had a biking trip in Changi. Halus’ demise sparked this ancient memory. Another trip along the same road with X (can I just please use your name?) led us to discover a truly mind boggling untouched area – a little bit of Heaven in sunny (that day was not) Singapore.

Another trip on 17 Nov with Ian gave me that little something to clean up my rusty macro skills. Some flash technique that I picked up during my commercial shooting came into use too.

I think it was worth the 12 (or 13) webs that we swore at. =)

First Trip to Cyrene

(Unless indicated, none of the images in this post have been processed. They are quick grabs straight out of the camera, therefore the poor image rendition.)

A photographic exhibition that Ian, Chris and I held end May 2008 titled Wild!Singapore led us to our coincidentally named fellow nature lover from wildsingapore.com.

After many unforseen delays I told myself that the day has come. I made contact with the Ria Tan of wildsingapore.com.

5 hours later I was on a boat heading out to sea. What I was told - we will jump out of a boat into the middle of the sea.

So we did. Cyrene is a reef in the middle of our port and it is really unique. I don't really understand fully the ecology of the reef yet, but I fully agree with Ria's observation: We have such an interesting justaposition of pristine nature in the middle of a sh*t hole.

When we landed we we greeted by so many sea stars!




And more stars!



So many stars!







There were also urchins:



Anemone Shrimp





And the cute gong-gong LOOK AT THOSE EYES!





Scientists seeking the lost stars:





The yellow flags are planted where ever they find a star, and some have the habit of going AWOL.

And just before we left, I found a flower crab that just moulted. See the second shell? Ria says you can tell from the empty eye sockets that it is not the real deal...

And some ladscapes I am adding to my collection of wild landscapes: (these are edited)

Return trip - before the tide washes us away too.

Hello World

First words.

The first blog I set up was a total failure. Did I mention 4 years ago? html coding freaked me out. I'm not a software developer, not a geek and I hate computers.

The decision to start this is so I can have an online documentation of my travels around sunny (and not-so-sunny) Singapore for my further reference and to you who want to read it.

Aint that what blogs are for?? =)

More coming.