Photographer

The other day, I was waiting to shoot a concert for a K-Pop girl group performing in Singapore and started to have an interesting conversation with the Media Relations Officer in charge.

This conversation has left me feeling very uncomfortable and til today, 2 months later, I can't really swallow it well. 

I asked her if they hired freelance photographers to cover events like these and she mentioned yes.

Then I went on to ask her, because I truly am curious about market rates now... I being a photojournalist have totally lost touch with the outside world.... 

And this was the reply I got. 

"OH... we don't pay photographers. These photographers want to shoot for free. But in return we give them free tickets for the show." 

Immediately I start to justify this for the photographer. I don't know why I did , but it's in my nature to give people the benefit of the doubt. 

Maybe they are FANS. Maybe they really love to be part of the action and like most of us when we were young, we would "pay our dues" just so we can gain experience and get a portfolio together.....

Then she started to justify this out loud. Which made things worse. I started to feel a little insulted...

"These photographers are passionate... they are very passionate about what they do. So they don't ask for money...They just work for passion...."

This got me thinking...

Where does this leave us, us, who do shoot for a living. We definitely don't do this for the money. Photography is just too painful to reap monetary benefits from. It doesn't happen that way. Not in this line of work. 

I am a photographer and I take pictures for a living and I AM passionate about my craft.

But now everyone that owns a camera or a Digital SLR, is a "professional" photographer.

Being brilliant at Photoshop does NOT make you an amazing photographer. 

They want to do the job so they undercut everyone else by doing it for free. 

This spoils the market. 

And it spoils the companies out there who just want mediocre coverage without spending a cent.

I know I said this before, that we all were in that situation before where we would gladly intern for close to nothing (pay) just to gain experience.. but even that was to gain experience to then move on into doing this professionally. The problem with this is that clients would always expect these types of trade-offs. That's really sad. I'm not insecure about my works or my ability as a photographer but it does get frustrating when you meet people out there who hold little respect for the nature of this type of job. Hirers and photographers together. 

I had an interesting conversation with Stuart Franklin the other day at the launch of the Magnum exhibition and he was talking about how in Europe, Photography as Art was so niche that it was almost unseen by the commoner. Photographers are King in the European world. Advertisers, creative directors work around a photograph... Whereas here in Asia, where everyone owns a camera.... our craft has been widely accepted which is awesome, but at the same time, cheapened. Perhaps this is a problem arising from middle class societies where everyone has a camera, and photography has become so available that no one respects this form of visual communication anymore. On one hand its a good thing that visual literacy has spread so widely across our country but how do we strike a balance and educate people about the difference between a picture with soul and a snap shot?

It seems like we are shifting toward photographers becoming a service desk and worse still a free service. 

I really hope that non of the people I know do this...only because this will not help the industry and the good efforts of many photographers out there who are trying to save this trade from becoming just another shallow means of communication.

Nate's Swim Class

Many of you have been asking me or have been curious as to where Nate is having his swimming classes. 

He's been learning his swimming from David Lim aka Yellowfish who is great with kids.

Mind you, they start off with fun lessons, water play and water confidence - which the younger and newer swimmers will love - but the moment they improve and move on to a more intermediate stage, its a different thing altogether. It's great, don't get me wrong.. but the lessons focus more on strokes and laps, technique and mileage... everyone knows that the more you swim the more efficient a swimmer you become. 

It's great because he is tough and stern/firm with the kids, which is, I feel, altogether important because sports is a balance of fun and discipline. It's also an important trait for a coach to have when dealing with a group of children at the pool, potentially hazardous. 

Now nate swims in the Olympic sized pool, doing 50-meter laps at a go.

He struggled for a bit when he first moved on from baby pool to big pool but now he is enjoying it so much he gets really disappointed when classes are cancelled due to bad weather conditions.

The thing about kids is ... that they are survivors. Throw them in the deep end and soon they'll be threading water. (: no punn intended.

He is now water safe and well, needless to say fit.

So for those of you who are curious, his website is HERE

Happy Birthday Suri

One year old.

Suri was born just a couple of days ahead of Nelly.

Managed to take the kids out for an artsy party where the most challenging part was for nate and I to paint with Nelly on me, but we managed to come up with a pretty neat rendition of IronMan. 

Fun stuff, Fun idea for a party.

Thanks for the fun Hans and Ching.

Gardens by the Bay

Here's a fun little time-lapse I made a couple of weeks ago. 

It's a video of the changing of the Gardens by the Bay's flower bed in the Flower Dome. 

They change their theme every quarter of the year and this time round, it's themed "Autumn Harvest".

Everything in the flower bed is real.. the pumpkins, the cabbage, the wheat etc.. except for the chickens, rabbits and scare-crows naturally...

Enjoy.

Autumn Harvest at the Flower Dome

1 October - 27 November 2012

The Flower Dome welcomes a season of plenty as the Flower Field transforms with splashes of orange, yellow and red in the latest Autumn Harvest display. Catch this bountiful harvest of crops and visual feast of Sunflowers, Marigolds and Lavenders; spot the cute and cuddly rabbits as they tend this garden of abundance!

Gardens by the Bay website HERE

Hello!

Been a while since I had time to blog.

All is good, the children are growing and i am too... older.

We finally kinda got into a better routine and everything is going like clock-work.

Nate's struggling so much with the Chinese Language and even scoring full marks for most of his Chinese Spelling tests.

We have been working really hard and the results speak for themselves.

And now we are approaching the end of the year.

Nelly turns a year old in 6 days and Nate starts his formal school life in a couple of months.

Wow. Life is good.

Breathe.

Ahhhhh Feels So Good

Recently, i've been using the opportunity to squeeze in a swim while Nate has his own swim lessons.

If i'm hardworking, i'll clock at least 1.5km but today, I stopped after 1.2km because I could no longer ignore the multiple bandaids and mirky pool water... Alas.. School Holidays.

Felt good if you block all the info out anyways... 

Have you completed your work out?

Press on! (I say to myself as well)

Nate my Hero, the sweetheart

Thanks to Aunty Joyce who captured this moment of Nate..

Check out the way he looks at his sister... with that endearing look of love and approval and admiration.

That's Nate.

He's been the best big brother I could ever imaging. Always smelling her, kissing her on the cheek and looking for her the moment he wakes up. I couldn't have asked for a more beautiful spirit.

Photo Credit to Joyce Fang.

WoopeeDoo

Last week, I was walking along Marina Bay looking for pictures during lunch hour when I came across my ex-sailing team mates and my coach, then.

They were taking people who signed up with Audi out sailing as part of their new Audi car launch, the whole outdoor adventure experience.

I couldn't resists a sail around the Marina Bay, with my old pal Yurii whom grew up with me where we would sail in the Optimist dinghy when we were all of 8years old. Man.. I haven't sailed since the 2001 SEA Games and it sure gave me an adrenalin rush... albeit in the calm and shifty winds and waters of the bay.

It was nice to see the bay and the financial skyline from a different perspective and not to mention, I was doing this all while sailing around... Awesome way to end the week for me. 

The sunburnt nose and spliced finger which dripped blood all over the boat was all worth it.

Like a good friend of mine, Ilene said, I looked so happy like fish to water... 

Indeed (:

Couch Potatoes

We're following the Olympics..
And quite engrossed in it!

The Time Has Come

Remember long ago, when you hear parents talking about the worries and stresses leading up to the day where you Register your kid for Primary One?


I used to hear about it every year for almost my whole life because my mom was a Primary School teacher ...all my life. 
She would come home with stories about parents standing in line, balloting, crying because they missed the 1-KM radius by a wall separating their homes and their neighbor's home from the school of choice...
She would also come home with stories about parents begging and lying about their residential address.
Of course I would tell myself that this was a whole world away from me and I think because of this, I have become very detached from the idea.


I have basically blocked it out from my system. Eyeball rolling everytime I hear about it..
I also heard about how parents buy homes just to live close to a school so that they can have a better chance of enrolling their child in the school of their choice.


Phase, 2, Phase 3, Phase 2A, Phase 2B... shoot me now.
I used to brush it off and think...Pffttt! Buy a HOUSE? just to be near a school?

well well well... Guess what?


And then one day, I had no choice but to grow up and have a kid... maybe in the other order of things.
But just like that, with a blink of an eye, I became a parent and my kid is suddenly 6-years old.
When children turn 7, its compulsory to send your child to school (for those of you who don't live in Singapore and if you live within a 1KM radius of the school, you get priority... if it's over subscribed, you end up balloting for the slot).


So I ended up becoming one of those parents who bought a home, but only because we needed to move out at some point but the greatest consideration was where we wanted nate to school at, and well, everything worked in terms of location for work, lifestyle etc. (but still i found myself becoming one of those parents). I'm proud to say that I've been pretty realistic about my son's abilities and his strengths which made choosing a school pretty easy (at this point) - almost to the point where I wonder if i'd been lazy. I had just one major requirement. To enroll him in a mission catholic school or one which had the foundations of a Christian school.. Unlike some parents, they volunteer at schools to secure a place, they donate money to the school as insurance and they stalk forums and study the school history and results through the years. - not judging them in fact i admire their abilities to do their homework...I confess I haven't done any of that. In fact, i've been so detatched from this that I had to look up the opening hours on my mobile phone that same morning for registration. I hope this is not going to bite me in my behind.

Then, yesterday, I found myself in a Phase 2C category, going to a school and filling up a form.
Now, i'm just keeping my fingers crossed that I don't become a crying parent desparate because I haven't researched other schools. I'm also telling myself.. hey, everyone is going to that super duper high flying school down the other road, so hopefully we will have a space in this school of my choice.
 
The feeling was surreal as I sat in the chair in a classroom, with a flippy table thing, in an AVA room, trying to get the spelling of all our names right, as I felt like I was undergoing some sort of examination myself. It's been a long time since i've sat in a classroom.

Now i'm just going to have to wait for the results on Friday and hope that it all works out.

Biggest lesson learnt here from "school" is Never say Never because we can't avoid certain routes that life takes us down.


Whatever the outcome and whatever the school, I know that i'm still going to have to do my best to give nate a strong family life, help him with his studies to the best of his abilities and if he does really well in something, sure great! We will nurture it. If not, no drama, life goes on. Try another method...


Let's see what happens on Friday.
GULP!!!


 

Who's Your Hero?

On father's day a couple of weeks ago, our pastor talked about the importance of fathers in our lives, our children's lives.
He also mentioned that a good question and gauge would be to ask your child "Who is your hero?"


Fathers play a silent but strong role in the family unit.
I appreciate my husband and my father for their love even if its one that's not as physically evident because of the different roles mothers and fathers take on for most asian families, as a woman's.


So, who's your hero?

Busy June

This past month went by so quickly and yet at times it felt like forever. 

You get these months during the year where work just comes at you like a boulder down a mountain, gaining momentum as it makes it way down. The good thing about it is, you're kept on your toes and it makes you feel alive. The hard part is keeping everything in perspective while going with the flow.

I'm glad to say, things are looking up and about 7months post birth, i'm slowly but surely, getting back the momentum of life pre-pregnancy.

Last month was filled with events that needed to be covered every single weekend. And they were assignments which lasted over 4-5 days. Ranging from Sport to Ministerial Meetings and Bollywood stars.  Some experiences are new, while some are familiar to previous years...

The kids are great. They're growing really quickly. 

The hubby was promoted from the rank of Capt. to Maj. in the army. We're so proud of him.

It's already July and the first half of the year has gone by so quickly...

Thank God for his grace and mercies every single day.