What  is ShootUrTweeple ? Organised by Kevin,” … of this tweetup, photography, fun and getting to walk through places where in our daily lives we would otherwise not normally tread…” For me, I totally agree with his view and it gave everyone of us here in Singapore, locals and tourists alike, how often have we walked past or rushed past a street, road to get from Point A to B or from office to shopping or office to home ? Are we missing the little things around us that is rich in history and culture ?

We started off, meeting at Farrer Park MRT Station, meeting many new photographers, bloggers and micro-bloggers for the first time and although I didn’t manage to chat with all, hope to catch up you folks in other tweetup events ! The drizzle delayed our journey into Little India and we being photographers started to entertain and ShootUrTweeple !

The route was pretty interesting, even though I walked around Little India before, visiting one of the Hindu temple around the area for my ex-colleague’s Hindu Wedding and also my previous office being near there too, I had my walkabout experiences around in the area. Nevertheless, how often I walked slowly, enjoyed the atmosphere and culture, looked the different shophouses of different designs, colours and conditions ? They do gave us many different photography opportunities !

Walking, taking photographs, lots of fun and sharing, making new friends. Shot only with my 50mm f1.8, something that I don’t usually do ! A different challenge yet it was very fun for me and got used to it in quick time ! After walking around in different routes, our end point is Zsofi Tapas Bar at 68 Dunlop Street for beers and pizzas. A great place to rest, great ambience, delicious pizzas, friendly staff ! Nice place to chill out for all of the ShootUrTweeple people ! With beers and pizzas, chatting and relaxing !! If not for me having to rush off to the Airport picking up my parents, I would definitely be staying longer !

Do check out more photos here on Flickr ! I would also be adding more fellow ShootUrTweeple blog posts here too !

~ Lennel Tan “#shooturtweeple Little India edition”

~ Smith Leong “#shooturtweeple Awards Night”

Thanks a lot to the organisers, Kevin , Callan for this wonder ShootUrTweeple ! A big Hello to the ShootUrTweeple that I met for the first time too !!

In conjunction with the Chinese Lunar New Year Celebrations in Singapore, there were different events happening across our little country to welcome the Year of the Tiger. Sentosa, a fun destination for both locals and tourists alike, organised a  very brightly lit event known as the Sentosa Lights of Spring 2010, to usher in the Year of the Tiger.

Asked around and managed to find Amanda and Choo Wee to join me for this event, all photographers too ! Met at Vivo City 1st for sunset shots from the 3rd floor viewing deck, the clouds weren’t ideal for a start, cloudy and dark, the sunset wasn’t “dramatic” enough for me … Nevertheless, we did managed to get some nice decent sunset shots especially Choo Wee & Amanda taking many photos at the viewing deck, I just wait for my sunset to arrive

Thereafter, a quick dinner and we were off on the Sentosa Express Monorail to Imbiah Station, alighting and starting our photography walkabout adventure. The bright lights were lit up the hills, bushes, trees and walkways, performances filled the area. This event would last until 21st Feb 2010, do drop by and visit !

Exploring, walking, quite a few different things to see and capture on camera, while we were at Imbiah Lookout, looking at the Tiger Sky Tower, we took a break from the bright lights and shoot the Tower capsule from its journey at the top spinning down and I am pretty sure Amanda and Choo Wee had great fun with that while I didn’t take much due to strained neck from shooting fighter jets at the recent Singapore Airshow 2010 !!

Continuing, moving around, capturing more photos. Lots of fun before taking the Sentosa Express back to mainland and drinks + snacks at Bukit Merah McDonald. An awesome photography trip ending with chit chat and lots of sharing and viewing others photographs !

Do check out my other photos on Flickr !! Thanks for the fun time, Amanda & Choo Wee !

Created with Admarket’s flickrSLiDR.

The River HongBao 2010, an annual event in Singapore for the past 24 years since 1987, is back again at The Float @ Marina Bay, with many different performances and displays to celebrate Chinese Lunar New Year, with performers from Chengdu City coming down during this festive season to perform and celebrate Chinese Lunar New Year to welcome the Year of the Tiger.

This event is something that I always looked forward to, allowing me to soak in the Chinese Lunar New Year atmosphere, lots of photography taking opportunities and fireworks display too ! This year’s River HongBao 2010 is not as big compared to previous years, smaller in overall venue size and there are carnival fun rides there too. However, it didn’t dampen the spirits and holiday mood, along with 5-6 minutes of fireworks to usher in the Year of the Tiger on the Chinese New Year Eve, it was awesome !!

On the Float @ Marina Bay, there were performances and displays, big crowds and lots of photography taking, popular with both locals and tourists alike. Even though it is Chinese Lunar New Year, from the different nationalities and race, everybody is able to enjoy and learn more about the Chinese culture and traditions !

Walking around, it wasn’t too crowded and there were enough space to take pictures ! After taking some photographs, I went to find a position to capture Chinese New Year Eve Countdown Fireworks and I am very lucky that there weren’t too many photographers crowding for a good spot and I found my position, in front of the Bay Grandstand, near to the ramp going down to the floating platform (closer to Esplanade), a highly priced location

Once fireworks started, I had a great time capturing the fireworks and thoroughly enjoyed myself. Overall, managed to get some nice fireworks shots, however, after reviewing my EXIF data and the fireworks photographs taken, there is still room for improvement and I would be able to capture more nice and excellent fireworks photographs.

Do check out my other River HongBao 2010 photographs here on Flickr ! Once again, Gong Xi Fa Cai !

With a Fireworks ushering the Year of Tiger from the River Hongbao 2010 ! Photojournalistic write up would be coming soon !! Wishing all my friends and readers !

Happy Lunar New Year !

恭喜发财！

Thank You All for your support !! Very thankful and appreciative !!

Although I use Flickr Pro to host and showcase my photographs and portfolio, being a photoblogger, there would be times whereby I would love to showcase a certain set of my photographs using an online gallery / slideshow in my blog posts. With the aid of social media network, Twitter, via @Mashable, his site had a post on “5 Fantastic Free Tools to Showcase Your Portfolio” and there were some wonderful tools to implement !

Using Flickrshow, showcasing my Mt Kinabalu adventure in December 2007 -

The Pinnacle@Duxton is the latest addition to the public housing estates in Singapore, next to the heart of Singapore’s Central Business District, with a skybridge on the 50th floor that spans an awesome landscape view of the Singapore Harbour, Central Business District, Chinatown and Western part of Singapore. Today was our maiden visit to the Pinnacle@Duxton, where our Cousin Joel had an apartment there and Cousin Brandon & myself arranged a time to drop by and visit !

When we were up there, the views were absolutely beautiful and magnificent, no wonder they received such good publicity and many photographers wanted to visit the skybridge too ! The blocks span over different views of Singapore and it’s a wonderful location for sunset photography ! The weather today wasn’t that good, there were lots of dark clouds engulfing the sky and there wasn’t much of a sunset. Nevertheless, three of us cousins had fun walking, enjoying and taking photographs

We later visited Cousin Joel’s apartment too and his unit had a clear view of the Chinatown ! Cousin Brandon & myself were sharing with Cousin Joel on the eateries around Pinnacle@Duxton and we promised to come back with a food adventure around his area along with another photography adventure !

Do check out the Pinnacle@Duxton website on the rules and regulations pertaining to Skybridge visit for visitors and residents. Hope you folks enjoy the photographs taken on a cloudy day in Singapore ! A 50th Floor Bird’s Eye View from Pinnacle@Duxton Skybridge !

Created with Admarket’s flickrSLiDR.

Found my friend Jack to take leave from his work to visit the Airshow together on Thursday 4th February and we made our way there to Changi Airport Terminal 3 and took the shuttle service to Changi Exhibition Centre. After registration and clearing security checks, we went straight for the Airshow flying display from 1130hrs to 1230hrs, just in time for the start of the airshow ! The weather was great except it was very hot and sunny ! The airshow display started with our RSAF F-16 in action, followed by training planes, fighter planes and helicopters from different countries, USA, South Korea, Italy, Australia ! The highlights of the Airshow display had to be F-111 and A-10 and they were big, awesome and agile fighting machines !

It was a trigger happy moment for me, my 200mm lense seemed to be a bit short and wished I had at least a 400mm lense Took many pics and enjoyed myself a lot ! After the airshow display, moved into the exhibition centre, enjoyed the cool air-conditioning while visiting the various booths set up by military and aviation companies, from airplane parts to engines, technologies etc … There were also flight stimulators too and it was really cool !

Due to the tight time schedule for both Jack and myself, we quickly walked to the airplane static display and loved the “big birds” parked nicely for the visitors to view, enjoy and take photos There were private jet airplanes on display of different shapes and sizes. Jack and myself were “choosing” and taking photos with the private jet airplanes, our toys for the future

We went up to this Alenia Aermacchi C-27J Spartan too and Jack showed me the airborne drill on the procedure and drills !! Had a great time listening to an airborne trooper and we basically took photos and I managed to get myself in photos !! Going on a Trade Day does have its advantages, the Public visit days would definitely be more packed, however, it would definitely be worth the time spent !

Go visit Singapore Airshow 2010 !! Check out more pics here on Flickr !

Sharing with cat lovers – Singapore Cats (taken using MoreLomo with my 3G iPhone) & I am really enjoying my adventure with my Lomography via MoreLomo !!

A common sight in countries around the world, the bus stop sign, this is our Singapore’s modern bus stop sign

How different or similar is our bus stop sign compared to yours ?

The test shots were shot at f2.8, to observe how powerful the bokeh effect of f2.8.