Singapore Art Museum

Here are some pieces of art that I found interesting during my visit to the Singapore Art Museum.

Urchin-like creations made from industrial materials like nails, screws, buttons, hooks and other similar things.

They look more interesting when they are all put together like this.

Miniature panoramas from pencil lead by Frayn Yong. The attention to detail and precision is quite admirable. And I like how all the panoramas are presented on the wall. The platforms create abstract shadows when they are photographed (see bottom right photo below).

These are a kind of fruit with hard shell. It was unfortunate that I wasn't able to get its name.

A small white room with wooden branches with messages written on white and green tags, answering the question, "What would you like to unearth?"

This is a hand drawing of the Singapore River. It aims to show the the history of the river through the memories of people who have visited it in the past. There are white cards that are provided, each has two sides for two memories to share: a real one and an imaginary one. I think it's a wonderful way of presenting art because it involves the visitors and the personal stories make it somehow more attractive. It was fun to read those stories written on the white cards.

An installation called "A Day Without A Tree" shows us what happens when the world runs out of trees and everything around us melts due to climate change and intense heat of the sun.

These are pieces of jewelry made from acrylic.

My favorites are the photo galleries. Here are some that I find very nice.

Below was an artwork made of acrylic, ink, cotton paper and molded abaca.

It presents positive and negative space and the whole piece can be interpreted as both earthly or celestial.

And the most interesting thing I found were these: sculptures of animals made from the artists dead skin.

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Fall in Love with Batanes

In every plane ride, I always take a window seat and I tell the airline staff upon check-in to give me a seat either at the front or the rear but never in the middle, because that's where the wings are. The obvious reason is that I want to be able to look out the window and see the world amongst the clouds.

Sometimes, there are places when you just know it. The moment I peered down the plane window and saw the waves of lush green hills and valleys bathed in the beautiful morning rays of the sun, I knew it was going to be amazing. And amazing it was.

Visiting Batanes has only been on my list just recently. It had been a spontaneous plan, one that took form in my head while spending free time online at work thinking of ways to make good use of the then upcoming Vesak Day.

For those who are not aware, Batanes is a group of islands, a province found at the northernmost part of the Philippines. It has ten islands and only the biggest three are inhabited, namely Batan, Sabtang and Itbayat. Basco is the capital of Batanes and is in the island of Batan. It is where the airport is as well as most places that will remind you of human civilization.

So, I hopped on a plane, with my usual companions: backpack and cameras, few clothes to last me three to four days, comfortable footwear and some sunnies. I was ecstatic to leave bustling Singapore for three and a half days, so prepared to marvel at the beauty that awaits me.

I have dedicated an entirely different blog post on Basco, because the charm of how life is so simple and quiet there deserves a spotlight on its own.

Moving on. So here I was, at the northern-most province of the Philippines, on an island 101 miles north of mainland Luzon and about the same distance south of Taiwan. A year ago, I never even thought I would visit this place, let alone go all by myself. It was quite exhilarating, the feeling of going somewhere you have never been to before. The mystery, the uncertainty. Oh, what if something goes wrong? Oh, but what if it surprises you in all the good ways! Truth is, I have always thought that the places less traveled are the most special ones.

On each of the three days of discovering places in this province, I had a guide with me. Of course, there would be nobody to stop you if you wish to explore the islands on your own sans guide but it is still recommended that you have one because as Ryan (popular tour guide) has told me, it might be difficult to find your way around. Even though national roads are well-paved, there are places where you don't see any vehicle pass by for a long time and even lesser people to ask in the event you get lost in the middle of nowhere. But I don't claim to be all-knowing about this subject so please correct me if this is wrong.

It is obvious by now that Batanes is popular for how different it looks from the rest of the country. And by that, I mean the wide expanse of green hills, meadows, valleys and such with the abundance of cows and goats grazing on them. The very first place I went to was Vayang Rolling Hills. Pick a spot and picture yourself standing there. You can practically just slowly turn around and never lose sight of the green landscape that surrounds you. They are nothing short of beautiful, but mind you, there are areas that you walk on wherein one wrong step and failure of balance will literally send you rolling all the way down the hill. It's no mountain but it's still highly-elevated. You might bump into one of the grazing cows (or their poo) along your way down. It's not a happy thought, but yes. It is a sight to behold.

Dark clouds loom from a distance.

Vayang Rolling Hills

Back from Batanes

I took another opportunity to see a new amazing place over the weekend and flew about four thousand miles both ways, Singapore to Batanes. It was somewhat planned over a short notice, just a month prior to travel dates. But it was a place I wanted to see, and with a long weekend that was coming, who was I resist temptation? It's true what they say: "Travel is one thing you spend on that makes your richer."

Everything could not have been more perfect. The forces were with me during that time and it definitely was one of the best trips I have ever taken so far. Going alone was a great decision. I expected so much before going there and I tell you, Batanes did not disappoint. Exceeded expectations and should be a must-see for anyone who loves nature and/or landscape photography.

I have yet to go through all the photos I took and hopefully I can give justice to the place but here is one to give you an idea how incredibly gorgeous Batanes is.

13 Things I know at 31

Last Wednesday, the 23rd, I turned 31.

Thank you to every person who made me smile and made me feel so loved on my birthday. Nothing is more appreciated than sincere greetings and well-wishes by every person who made an effort even just to type "happy birthday" on social media and personal messages.

I made two wishes this year before I blew my candle, so... crossing my fingers that they will come true in God's perfect time.

I was also in the mood to design something from some bits of lessons I have picked up in the past.

To view the individual images, click here.

On Becoming An Instagram Suggested User

I have always looked at Instagram as an outlet for creativity as opposed to others who see it as a photo journal. I signed up for an account years ago because I've been one who gets constant surges of creativity and inspiration. That, plus I love square photos (it gives you that bit of a challenge in framing, don't you think?).

In three years, I watched my photos evolve. At times I cringed at old posts and have deleted a number them, but more or less what you see in my feed now documents some of the highlights of life's journey in the past 150 weeks. I have gained followers and I am thankful for each one who has been showing my photos some love, may it be a "like" or a comment; it means a lot to know that somehow people are able to appreciate and recognize these square representations of my world.

About three weeks ago, I woke up to a message from Instagram telling me I've been listed as a suggested user. The Suggested User list normally shows up when you sign up for a new account.

My initial reaction was, "Wait, what? Is this some sort of a spam thing going on?" And if my memory serves right, I remember even blinking twice just to make sure I wasn't imagining it. It seemed like a big deal, up until a few days after.

To be honest, I never really thought of myself being remotely close to being a suggested user (what i did wish was to be featured in Vsco's featured photographer list). I do not know Instagram's criteria for choosing suggested users but hey, somehow they noticed me minding my own business so that is still very flattering. Thank you, Instagram!

One may feel a bit overwhelmed when you get a huge wave of followers, from a measly 400+ to reaching 6,900 within two weeks. I would be truly happy if even half of these users even care what I have to post. I mean, they are strangers, after all but it would be at least good to know that you can connect with most of them in the creative aspect of photography.

Anyway, I think my feature has already expired because the "wave" has subsided. But now, I feel though that I've become more limited in what I can share. Before this, I still felt okay sharing some personal photos and the occasional self-portraits. Since the week of the feature, I don't think I can even post something that relates to my personal life, and sometimes I miss that.

The photo sharing will continue, yes, but maybe just nature or landscape images for now. The only good thing I am taking in from all this is how the people at Instagram are able to recognize my photos as worthy of more audience. I don't want to sound ungrateful to any of the new ones, but I think quality still prevails over quantity.

On a side note, I've had five photos that had been curated and featured in Vsco Grid. I admit this makes me way more proud than the Instagram one. The Grid is not as widely popular as IG platform but that doesn't matter to me. Vsco has always brought about so much inspiration and influence in my vision. If you take a look at the Grid, the photography you see there are more inspiring, artistic and unique. I've always aimed for the rare and special so to see some of my photos amongst the work of creative others from different parts of the world and for the people at Vsco to recognize that, feels good and motivating. It proves I could rise at least a bit up from the multitude of others in this field who settle for mediocrity. Thank you Vsco. Truly an honor.

Mount Pulag and the Sea of Clouds

Mount Pulag has been an anticipated goal since the beginning of this year. It never came upon me how much I would want to go to a place (or any place for that matter) just to see a spectacular show of mother nature, that is to witness the infamous "sea of clouds" at the peak of this mountain.

For those who are not aware, Mount Pulag is the third highest peak in the Philippines at 2,922 masl. It is located in Province of Benguet in the Philippines.

May your trails be crooked, winding, lonesome, dangerous, leading to the most amazing view.
May your mountains rise into and above the clouds. - Edward Abbey

Adventure Awaits

I've never been this excited in months (or years, maybe?) This may also be the first time I have ever enjoyed packing. This is a good sign. Looks promising.

This weekend, I'm going on a hike to climb my second mountain for the year! Big fat Yay!

I am very anxious, but looking forward to seeing mother nature again and God's beautiful creation. I don't know what else to expect except that it's going to be really cold (and I have low tolerance to low temperature). Here's to hoping I make it without injuries. I'm very hopeful to see this amazing world from a another "angle."

So after wrestling with the bag, I finally got everything in. It actually doesn't feel that heavy. But I'm sure I'll be able to feel the weight after hours of carrying it on my back.

Adventure awaits. See you when I get back!

Bay East Panoramas

I think I had never visited the Marina Bay area as often as I did in the past month. I went there for three consecutive weekends and, no offense to anyone who might simply love this place... but as beautiful as it still is, it doesn't qualify to the list of places I never ever get tired of coming back to no matter how many times I've seen it.

One time and I went there to tag along with a friend from Cebu who was visiting, and twice I went there to take long exposure shots of The Gardens. I never got things done during my first visit. Despite the fact that I went there by myself with nobody in control of my time but me, sometimes I still cannot get over how bad this habit of mine is, (eternally late). I promised myself to be there by 2pm but my lazy ass got there at five... thirty. So naturally, the sunset shots I wanted to take were no longer possible as I had to find the spot I wanted.

I made up for the shots I missed during my second visit. This time, I found the place to setup my tripod to get the angle I had in mind, that is, the Garden domes, the Supertrees, the Marina Bay Sands and the Singapore Flyer in one frame, with a body of water in the foreground.

Before I got to Bay East, I had to pass through Satay by the Bay and Marina Barrage. That was actually an area I saw then for the first time. At Marina Barrage, there were quite a number of people flying kites, which kind of surprised me (in a good way). It was nice to see that people still fly kites today seeing almost everyone is into gadgets and all. It was a great place to take pictures, but I was late for my sunset shot so I had to just walk past, hurriedly, almost running actually.

Sunset , I heart you forever!

I arrived at Bay East a bit late for sunset. I was lugging around my camera and opening my tripod while walking. Along the way, I already found a few other people taking photos with all their gear set up already at the perfect spots.

I wanted some photos for my Instagram so I also took snaps with the 4s.

This time, I tried shooting RAW. I seldom shoot RAW because I never felt that I needed to. I'm really pretty much satisfied with jpegs. This was processed using Lightroom 5 using a computer running Windows, never been a fan but it will suffice. I did wish the foreground had been smoother and had appeared more mirror-like but I guess maybe you need filters and other accessories for that.

Singapore skyline, sunset in single frame

six-frame panorama, photo merged in Photoshop

Evening shot, seven frames

I also went back to the Supertree Grove just to take panorama frames of the trees. No more light show when I got there. I think you might already know why.

ten-frame panorama, Sigma 18-200mm f/3.5-6.3

That day, I took about 125 frames for the skylines and Supertrees, all 125 had already been filtered because I never keep scrap photos in my camera. They are simply a waste of precious disk space.