Tree of love...

I'm bad with names:



as usual, click for a larger image.

I'm busy. just put 10000000 "very"s in between the two words.

I guess it's about time to announce this:

I AM OPENING MY OWN STUDIO!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

more details soon. very exciting times ahead, and... i HAD to do it in the chinese eighth month. well done for timing, EXTREMELY well done.

congratulations to my bro Adrian and Wendy on the birth of their LOVELY daughter Alethia. This is more than 1 week ago news, but haven't had time to blog at all. Bro, sorry about not being able to come and see you all more often, missing your graduation and collection of new car (triple happiness!!!!!), but u're always in my thoughts!

Song...

THAT song was the march in song for the solemnisation for the couple that i shot today... was stunned momentarily when i heard it, from the first bar of the piano...

if this is a sign, it's TOO obvious! but it's a good one. sometimes, just take it at face value, there's nothing else telling me to do otherwise.

ok, back to earth, here's the pudding:





clickable.

She cried...

and i smiled.. =)

on another note:

(yes the above will not be elaborated on more, dun any of you ask!)

major plans SUDDENLY on the way to lift up my career. of course there's no sure formula for upping ur career, esp if it's ur own business, sure got risks and i think this would be one of the biggest i've taken since i started out. and not yet quite thought through, so nothing's confirmed, but it's getting me excited.

sometimes, nike works, sometimes it doesn't.

NIKE: JUST DO IT. (tick)

i've been light-hearted recently...

and.. DON'T YOU JUST BLOODY LOVE THE SONG ON THE MONTAGE????? damn nice, simple lyrics, vocals vs piano, no other crap involved. song and life, can be that simple and in harmony. no, it's not that my head is in the clouds, some of us just forget that POSSIBILITY.

TWELVE - video

Something I cooked up.. hope she likes it.

edited - some browsers have this playing automatically and so the music just keeps repeating, so here's the link instead:

http://www.ej-images.com/fj/FJ_twelve400.wmv

TWELVE

I present... "TWELVE":





















larger images here.

Can't sleep

Woke up to some knocking noises on my window.. but not sure what it was, and haven't been able to go to sleep since... wierd. in case anyone wonders, no i don't see/hear/feel that kind of stuff... and i don't think anyone walking past would have knocked on my window loud enuff to wake me up. some friends have actually done that (intentionally!), they'll know how hard it is...

maybe too excited about tomorrow's (today's) shoot? *shrug* i'm never nervous when i shoot, not even if you're the queen of england... btw, she DID come to toa payoh a couple of months back! =P

i guess it's more the pressure to perform.

No updates recently...

Been busy planning for some shoots, and also a new website to be up. splash page can be found at www.ej-images.com.

Hope the (relatively un-)planned shoot tomorrow will turn out well. went recce just now, and now my car looks like a 4WD. a real one, at least the "covered with mud" part....

Breathe

Mark shared with my this video from his archives and i found it on youtube. it's BRILLIANT!!!!!



there are other versions of the same song, different mtv, one a church wedding, and another developed for swatch (the watch brand). if i find it i'll post it up, they are damn good too...

Final Fantasy

Someone described this shot as something from Final Fantasy. maybe... so what do you think?



clickable.

Shervon

This is possibly the first post i have used one of my friends' names as title!

Had a wonderful fish head curry with her tonight, we ate at around 10pm after delivering some photos to dennis (if you consider 1000++ photos "some"). it's now 5+ am and i'm feeling just a tad hungry, not bad, it lasted a while, i did eat ALOT tho!

I remember when I was hung up over cheryl when i first got back at the end of 2001. shervon found me my first job in singapore even BEFORE i returned from australia. heart broken, in a "foreign-familiar" place, new job, new life, i was totally beaten. my break up with her was chronically acute. shervon was one of the few that helped me recover. those overnight phone calls, then reach work the next morning (we were colleagues then) stone like shit... ahhaha, then lunch time she would ask me, what do you want for lunch? i said "happiness", and she said, downstairs sold out liow, anything else u want? and this is like our daily ritual, this conversation. such wonderful memories amongst tough times.

i remember she was going thru shit too, i think it was Nat. so two lonely pple having a shit time and making each other worse by chatting on the phone but not sleeping. ahhaha....

then after that we both quit our jobs and partnered to do graphic design and print services. had our office, had an opening ceremony invite pple come and eat catered food somemore. we were BOSSES. man, if i start talking about that period in our lives, u would be bored, so, suffice to say, it was ALSO a memorable time in my life.

btw, if u haven't already figured it out, the business failed, badly, i might add, but the friendship grew stronger!

after the business, we didn't really see each other all that much, i went to work in banks, and she went to job hop (still doing that now mauahahhaa) then i turned full time photog and even busier, didn't see her much at all, sometimes months at a time.

tonight i realised that our friendship is still strong. she is ever supporting and encouraging in whatever i do, and has a level head that enables her to trudge thru this world with amazing resilience. she has this "quiet strength" that perhaps even she herself doesn't realise. it's been this strength that's not all that visible, but certainly the basis of our friendship over the years. anyone that knows me well knows that i'm not the best "glue" when it comes to friends, i can get a little apathetic at times.

shervon, this is for you. altho i dun say it much, or at all, u are a great pal and i wish the best for you. i'm still looking for that "happiness for lunch" and when i do get it, rest assured that you will certainly be a big part of it. i'm also wishing sincerely for your happiness, maybe u can have it for dinner instead!

take care always, and feel free to use all the "credits" that has accumulated over all these years being an excellent friend!

*hugZZZZ*

Third entry today?

better make this fast, i have a shoot tomorrow.. promises to be really fun, i hope!

i am waiting for a few things to happen. and it's taking TOO LONG to materialise. of course it requres effort too, but still i'm not a very patient person when it comes to... well.. watever, i'm just impatient!

i would like to list all the stuff that's pending, in the pipeline or just plain in my head, but then i did say i have to make this a fast one.. so.. laterz~!

All I Wanna do is Make Love to You

Jas brought to my attn an old favourite of mine (thanx!!)



In case anyone wonders, i'm in no way advocating one night stands, but the lyrics are very clever. excellent rock ballad from ages ago, u can tell from what they are wearing!!

A love letter

Something that I remembered recently when looking for quotes on the net, i loved it so much when i watched the movie that i wrote it down and stored it in a txt file, now dunno where it is liow, but it's available online.

My Dearest Jocelyn,

It is strange to think, I haven't seen you since a month. I have seen the new moon, but not you. I have seen sunsets and sunrises, but nothing of your beautiful face.

The pieces of my broken heart are so small that they could be passed through the eye of a needle. I miss you like the sun misses the flower; like the sun misses the flower in the depths of winter. Instead of beauty to direct its light to, the heart hardens like the frozen world your absence has banished me to.

I next compete in the city of Paris, I will find it empty and in the winter if you are not there. Hope guides me, that is what gets me through the day and the night. The hope that after you're gone from my sight, it will not be the last time that I look upon you.

William Thatcher / A Knight's Tale

One man show...

yeah man.. feeling the weight....!

I'm dying... part 2

the title says it all... AGAIN.

i'll try to write a bit more tho...

had a nice unplanned session with mark (he left early) gerry and charles today talking about teaching photography all the way to being a sound man (i guess they are "related" still about "multimedia" in a way). Was just supposed to deliver a CD to him (Mark), then he said he was meeting the guys so i joined in, and 5 hours later, i'm posting in my blog. i always say, u can't really plan life.

altho i do remember one thing mark said two nites back after the Clarin's shoot having dinner. Once you're married and with a family you wouldn't be here. priorities change and you'd probabaly go straight home and have dinner with your family. i agree. the more poignant statement was: your life is not yours anymore, priorities change.

not that i have experienced it, but it's true, and so it should! while initially it feels like you're being robbed of your own life, but i subscribe to the thinking that life isn't complete until you have someone to share it with, and at some stage, offspring from that wonderful relationship. i did frown at that part though, not because i don't wanna have kids, but becos of the society they would grow up in. it would be such a joy having children, but such a frightful task bringing them up. not so much in the physical way, but in this society that is so different from the one i was brought up in. i guess there's no point speculating about it now, i'm sure the time will come for me to have the courage to bring life to this world. in a way, i view today's environment as detrimental to the nurturing of a human being, and the only reason why i am doing well is becos i am already an adult. pessimistic? i dunno, it doesn't matter wat the terminology is, i guess.

and why am i talking about this when it's not a constant thought in my mind? (contrary to my description of this blog : seeking wife, i don't think about it all that much) i don't know, becos the thing that's been constantly on my mind is how i would further my career. in all aspects, business-wise and artistic-wise, but recently it's more on the business wise. a new website is to be up, and as mentioned above, would consider going into teaching since there are real opportunities (basically if i said yes, i would start teaching almost straight away that kind of thing, if you're wondering what, photography lar, what else?!?!). plenty of projects to embark on, culminating in a new website for a more commercial approach to photography, leading to income generated to fund a studio in 2008. Rosey is coming soon (i hope!!!) and will be looking forward to working with her with numerous fashion/people type shoots. weddings will be on-going, shooting less with higher rates; i am trying to find ways to get myself shooting overseas for weddings, and i MAY start travelling to experience (and shoot) cultures different to my own. one problem there, i hate travelling alone, so i'm not sure how that'll work.

so many things to do, so little time, energy. i'm glad tho, there will be a neverending list of projects, improvements, refinements to do, and this i believe is due to passion and dedication. these nouns only existed in my life not too many years ago. it feels great to have a purpose, but not so great to not be able to fulfill them because of inadequacy. laziness, poor planning, lack of foresight, etc.

so much for dying, still can tok so much cock.

on an ending note:

MAI HUM MAI HUM MAI HUM MAI HUM MAI HUM MAI HUM MAI HUM MAI HUM MAI HUM MAI HUM MAI HUM MAI HUM MAI HUM MAI HUM!!!!

man i almost died when i heard it. hurt myself pretty badly too.

Sydney - in shadows, and others...

it was a BRIGHT CLEAR DAY and look how the images turned out. =)

the power of imagination, (or watever other big word u fancy):



















larger and more images here.

double edged sword

have i used that as a title b4 in this blog?

anywayz.. recently i had this feeling (no offence to all couples and pple that i've photographed), that ALL my photos suck.

ever feel that way? u pour everything in, and stand back and see that u've made a mess of the floor.

the flip side is, u will wanna keep pouring, and hope you make less mess, but first, clean up the shit.

sorree if i'm being a little abstract tonite, but i need to kick myself. no one ever kicks me anyway. pple encourage, but some kicking can help.

hahah.. anyway tonite, i think i'm gonna process some of my sydney photos.. i saw some keepers the other time when i went thru them briefly...

Haven't been blogging for a while...

Not sure why, guess got nothing much to say. Aussie pics are in cold storage, i probably won't have time to do them at all, i can't believe it, it's 7th month and i am busy!!! hmm.. it's a good problem to have i guess.

anywayz, not feeling very wordy tonite, so here's some pics i'm particularly proud of shot a few days ago:

they are in no particular order, and are clickable:

Anastasia Ho!

Yeahhh my neice...

and yeahhhh i FINALLY managed to get online... kaozzzzz

anywayz... here we are, she is so beautiful!











managed to walk around sydney city and took some pics.. but i guess i'll process them another time.. see u guys back in sg soon! =)

pre Australia...

4 hours to my flight.

I really hate travelling alone. no, i don't mean being bored on the plane either. i just sleep until the crew wakes me up. yeah.. sometimes when the plane lands i'm still sleeping. i'm blessed that way....

anyway, yes i hate travelling alone. it kinda epitomises the lonliness.

and i feel like i can't get away. maybe it's the last few weeks of stress, leaves me feeling like i've forgotten something, it's like, there's no way i managed to get so much done in that time, there's SOMETHING i forgot lor. but 4 hours to my flight, i don't think i can fix that now, even if i do remember.

packed my camera, not hoping to get any great shots but i'm sure i will. not being proud here, but that's what i do, if i can't take great photos, i'm in the wrong trade. although, if my mood doesn't pick up, i'm not sure i can live by that statement "i take great photos."

or maybe BECAUSE of that statement, i better get in the mood. bah.

not sure if the service apartment booked has internet access, if it does then i'll update with pics. there won't be excuse of not having enough time, i think i'll have SO MUCH time there it's not funny. as i mentioned i wanna try writing.. let's see lor.

now i'm thinking should i bother shooting in RAW. i think no need lar. i have all the time in the world to get my setting right, wat for need RAW? 10mb file vs 2mb file.. ok nvm, i'll decide when i get there.

i guess i'll catch a couple of hours sleep then adrian's coming to pick me to the airport. good man.

next post from me, it's gonna be "G'Day Mate!" as the greeting....