Trip to Sri Lanka

I just got back from Sri Lanka about 5 days ago. Beautiful place, people and culture. As with any tourist area you visit in cities, there are bound to be bad experiences with touts and people who will try to scam you of a dollar or two, but the reason I am writing this blog post is to share some images---shot on my mobile phone---mobile photography, iphoneography, androidography or which ever name it goes by. Of course I brought along the good old Minolta plus a little extra: Minolta Autocord.

Sri Lanka is an island country called the 'Pearl of the Indian Ocean' because of its natural beauty. It is also known as 'The nation of smiling people'; I can attest to that. You can walk with a smile carved into your face for an hour and almost everyone will be smiling back... maybe they just think of me as a crazy smiling man. They have 8 Unesco World Heritage sites---a big fucking deal if you don't mind my french. So, I enjoyed and had a wonderful time snapping away.

I tried to use my mobile phone as a restriction for certain times just to shake myself off the comfort zone. I have a couple of images that I really like.

Sri Lankan Rail runs along the sea in the east coast

A view of their train interior

Man on top of Galle Fort Wall

Sri Lankan fisherman

There are more, but since I was rotating between a film SLR and my mobile phone, I could not shoot a cohesive series on the mobile phone. Yup, lame excuse, but true. A shameless plug, but you can follow me on instagram: @bumphotographer

Street Opera Documentary

Cantonese Opera Singer getting into character before hitting the stage

Things of old, caught between the past and skyscrapers---I love to document them. You can see from the subjects that I've had chosen to photograph: Little India, hole in the wall shops, wet market, and now chinese opera. I live in the past, where the grass is greener on the other side. Eventually, I will become a grumpy old man regaling the wonders of the 'good old days' to punks who would rather be partying in a floating disco wearing spandex and google glasses.

Photo #012

Photo #011

Yup, the dog again. This time with the neighbor's dog.

Sure, another picture of the pet. She's not just a pet though. She's FAMILY.

A Photo A Day #010

Dog in a box

Well, I don't really post a photo a day, but I do try to take a photograph a day. Guess I'll have to change the label name.

A Photo A Day: #009

Bus Advertisement

A Photo A Day: #008

Maxi-cash, Little India

A Photo A Day: #007

Little India

A Photo A Day: #006

12/02/2013: Provision Shop, Little India

A Photo A Day: #005

07/02/2013: Shiny! Shiny! :)

Who doesn't like shiny stuff. I go 'OOOoooo' whenever I view this image. 'SHINATOWN!' Yeah!

A Photo A Day: #004

07/02/2013: Rows of chinese lanterns

There's a lot of old people in Chinatown. Some of them are homeless, some living in rental flats with somewhat dreadful conditions. There's a lot of tourists too, more tourists than old people in fact. The lanterns are for the tourists---not the old folks. You feel like you're trapped in a time warp. Maybe they are just waiting for them to go before tearing the odd studio apartments down. I'm passed the taking of old, homeless people phase---unless I have a statement to make and it's a particularly compelling image. Someday...

A Photo A Day: #003

02/02/2013: A lightbox advertising studio photography services

Year 2013, I don't get how people can run a studio with "1980s lookish" theme and be profitable. I've walked passed during their business hours. Apparently, it is all the RAGE! with transient workers from Bangladesh, Sri Lanka, India, Pakistan, etc. You never know what you might find in Little India. I should really learn something from them---I am Serious. See that? Serious with a capital 'S'.

A Photo A Day: #002

02/02/2013: Pigeons in the morning

Woke up at 2 in the morning and just could not get back to sleep. Worked a little bit, that's the bad of working from home---poor discipline. Since I bought the NEX-6 about a week before, decided to take it for a spin in Little India. Reach the Tekka Market before the sky started to brighten up. A wonderful morning with little traffic and people. Just birds and the odd soul or two.

A Photo A Day: #001

05/02/2013: View from the kitchen window

It's been raining almost every day since December. It can get hot on some Lunar New Year months, but this year, it has been raining the week before the New Year starts. Since, water signifies 'wealth', I take it as a good sign. Hey, it's best to be optimistic no? Better to be a happy fool in my book.

A Photo A Day

I'm a lazy person. Every time something starts to resemble work, I bail. That explains why this is my millionth blog in 10 years. Hey, doesn't mean I don't try.

Alright, the idea is simple. Take a picture everyday, till I drop dead with the camera in my hands. Now, that's a tall order for any conscientious and prolific amateur/professional photographer---like scaling Mount Everest for a bummer like me. It does not mean I will post everyday. Making it out to be too much of a chore will only cause me to abandon this mighty endeavor. I will however, attempt to take a picture a day; be it my lunch, flowers, vase at home or brick walls... maybe not, but an image that means something to me; my streets, my home, etc.

In short, "Take a picture a day, but post/blog whenever I feel like."

A Much Needed Day Out

A nice piece of blue sky in Singapore!

So the Mrs. wishes to go out on a 30 degree celsius day. The dog came along and totally disgraced herself by avoiding the Sun and hiding in our shadows.

The Mrs. and I haven't had a day out like this in months---shooting weddings can be pretty life-sucking in general---I still enjoy it, no matter what the big guns of commercial photography says. A great day for personal photography work, however, the females decided that there was too much insects, blood and sweat on a weekday like this. It gave me much joy to bust out the medium format Mamiya, just to make a family portrait of us three. The films are ziplocked away in the kitchen cabinet though, till the day that I can have some me time to develop them.

It felt wonderful to be in the Sun on a Monday afternoon---almost the whole stretch of beach to ourselves. I love working for myself, even though the money can be tight at times. Make more money, less time; or more time, less money.

I made my choice 3 years ago.

The dog drops her jaw after a 100 meters march

Dog hides in our shadows for some few degrees cooler while we fight the heat

The Mrs. and the dog

Galaxy Nexus: Black and White of Wife

Took a picture of my wife in bed. Did not have time to bust out the 'serious' camera. I like it though.

Wife in bed

Black and White #002: Dance, Dance, Dance

"Dance, Dance, Dance" Minolta X-300s, 50mm f1.4, Tri-X@3200.

This was taken before Christmas in Singapore, at a busy road crossing of Orchard road. There were scores of Christmas shoppers waiting to cross the road. Cars with their ultra-bright headlights. They seemed like they were dancing. Lights and Shadows been done to death, but I still love the effect. It felt like everyone was doing their own little dance in perfect synchronisation.

Sometimes, you just have to forget what the critics say and shoot the your streets however it makes you feel.

As 2011 winds down and 2012 arrives, global recession might just be round the corner; we just have to take a look at the fellow country men we love, the streets we photographed a million times; and realise that life goes on. We can make things better if we just look around and care a little more.

Alice Cooper in Singapore 2011

Black and White #001: Sex in the City

"Sex in the city", Canon Canonet QL17 GIII, Tri-X pushed to 3200. Singapore, Chinatown, 2008.

I took this picture while waiting for the bus to arrive. Singapore's Chinatown is a tourist spot, yet at the same time, there are older folks living alone in closet-sized one room HDB apartments. As they are often lonely, you will witness grandfather looking men with women young enough to be their grand daughters clinging to their wrinkled arms.