Sunday, July 29, 2007 . 10:57 PM
Night Shots
I feel terrible. I think it's mainly a mixture of a very long-standing flu, eating too much and not exercising enough. Hahaha. I feel like I'm getting fatter, but actually I'm getting lighter. Maybe I'm losing muscle mass... Sigh.
Went to watch The Simpsons Movie yesterday with Jon Teo... It's SUPER funny!!! I can't remember any other movie that had me laughing throughout the whole show... Except maybe Spongebob lolll... Okay maybe not. The Simpsons humour suits me really well man... I could almost predict every "what's gonna happen next" moment in the movie haha... An intricate mixture of slapstick and lameness... :D
Yesterday was a day of disgust. What really dismayed me yesterday was the amount of courtesy and consideration displayed by the Singaporean pedestrians, on the way to Plaza Singapura from Shaw Towers... Zero.
It strikes me as amazing that no matter how many people there are in one group that is walking along the path, that group manages to distribute itself such that it somehow covers the ENTIRE width of the walkway. Yes, even ONE person alone can do that... Not only CAN, but WILL, given the many case studies I was presented with yesterday. Then after they have done so, they will walk at an immensely slow pace. I mean, it's one thing if you're unable to walk fast, but it's an entirely different thing if you're walking so slowly on purpose, and blocking the entire passageway while doing it. That's just pure "walkway-hogging". Yes, people who want to overtake can say "Excuse me" and get on by them, but isn't it basic courtesy to give way or at least to leave a gap on the walkway for people to walk past if they have to or want to? Then what about people who are approaching from the other direction? Geez.
Then was the MRT. I thought we were supposed to allow passengers to alight first? Not so, as I observed several times yesterday. Before the poor passenger can walk out of the train a huge swarm of people envelops the guy and pushes him back into the train, like a tidal wave crashing against a rocky shore. Some people on the train didn't even give way to the passenger who was trying so desperately to reach the door. Sigh...
Next came the escalators. Everyone depends so much on escalators nowadays... Even when the whole escalator is jam-packed with people and there's a flight of stairs just nearby, the people still choose to wait to take the escalator. o_0 they either are incredibly lazy to refuse walking up a simple flight of stairs, or they have an incredible amount of patience. Also, what on earth (or in Singapore) happened to the "keep left" rule? To allow people who are rushing to get a faster way up/down the escalator?
Oh, that's not all, even in the cinema, while watching The Simpsons Movie, some moron kept on making uber loud comments and trying to guess what was gonna happen next out loud during the movie. It was super irritating...
It's sickening to see how selfish people can get. I'm severely disappointed in the standards of BASIC COURTESY of Singaporeans. All this in just one day!
Okay that's enough ranting for now.
After the movie Jon Teo and I went to the Esplanade to try and catch the last moments of the National Day Parade Rehearsal. Our original plan was to climb up to the rooftop terrace and take shots from there but it was closed for obvious reasons... So we went to the area just next to the water body and started snapping from there... I managed to get some fireworks and another part of the Parade... Unfortunately I didn't have time to change my tele-lens for my wide-angle lens so I was stuck with zoomed-out photos of the fireworks argh... To take proper fireworks shots you need to use long-exposure (otherwise you don't get the lines already), and so a tripod is needed...
This was the "Jellyfish" part of the show... *shrugs* I have no idea. I was eagerly waiting for the fireworks to begin, when suddenly Jon Teo pointed across the river, exclaiming. This looks nicer than the long-exposure shots cos it has less light and thus a better contrast, I feel.
This is one of my better shots of the fireworks... Most of the others had too much smoke and thus the effect was lost. This is one of the earlier ones so not too much smoke there. I used 5 second exposure for this. I would've have preferred a wide-angle shot of the fireworks above the river but I was scared that by the time I finished changing my lens the fireworks would've stopped (after all, it was only a rehearsal... shouldn't waste too many fireworks).
This was after the NDP rehearsal; I took Jon Teo to a building near Funan and although we couldn't gain access to the 6th level open storey, we did manage to snap some night shots from the 5th level carpark. This was taken using 30 second exposure, which gives the traffic lines below... I feel it's nicer than the 60 second exposure pics I took once again cos of the contrast...
I like this pic :)
This is a shot of the Fullerton using 5 second exposure... I was trying to capture the reflection in the river as well but I wasn't really successful with this shot. Jon Teo could do it with his cam but it was more difficult with mine and I think I got it but I dunno haha... Looks about the same :/ but the angle on this is nicer.
There're lots more where these pics came from :D Wahaha... I love night shots!
Jon and I are going to Botanic Gardens next week to spam macro-lens pics... :P Till then...
"You'll Never Walk Alone"
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