Two Days
Wednesday and Thursday this week have been rather hectic days for me. It came packed with plenty of activities and leaving with it much afterthought as well as ponderings-to-be-continued. Overall, just another week passes me by in the blink of an eye, the exception being that I'll be working at the base this weekend. Then again, isn't almost every weekend a working one?
Originally, I wanted to meet up with my good friend NICO to do our swap of camera bodies on monday. But due to reasons of emergency, he was unable to make it. Thus I ended up meeting him on wednesday, of all places, a hospital. One of his family members underwent a serious operation. So I guess it isn't easy. I guess the only consolation was that it was at Mt. Alvernia hospital? Probably the most peaceful hospital I've ever walked into in my whole life.
I was quite surprised to walk inside the hospital's lobby only to find a signboard with the words "Chapel" printed on it. A hospital with a chapel? Wow, that's really a first for myself. Interesting to note was that most of the wards, besides being assigned the regular hospital ward number system, was that most of them carried names of the various Catholic Saints. And the other one up was that all the pathways throughout the hospital was air conditioned - unlike the open air corridors of NUH and SGH. I guess the hospital really does live up to its name to be one of the finest in the country.
Everytime I walk into a clinic, or a hospital, which I do many times a year. I feel ever so inspired to undertake medical studies at some univerisity somewhere in the world. Yet it is so paradoxical to note that most of the compulsory subjects I have to study in medicine aren't really exactly in the realm of the humanities that I prefer. Such nonsense indeed. Talk about "internal conflict".
Later in the evening, it was back out to the sea on night shift duty. I'm really blessed to be working in the best team in the entire police coast guard. Where the working environment is so good, that those on MC prefer not to report in sick. I guess that many companies shell out millions of dollars for staff courses to improve the working culture else to achieve a workplace somewhat as good as ours. Well, even though in theory, the job is rather dangerous. Then again, I guess it doesn't matter. Its been really eye opening working out at the sea. There's been so many incidents as well as close shaves to ignore tha fact that there's really a good God up there who takes care of me. Its really true, even though sometimes I'm not faithful. God is still faithful.
One of the crew onboard bought the exact same model of cup as I did. So nicely, we have not one, but TWO cups onboard that comes inbuilt with Internal Stabilisation as well as an enhanced grip. Its a nice contrast to have one blue and one yellow cup onboard. The colors Yellow and Blue remind me of ACS. Generally, just a pretty "normal" time of night shift. Of course, its tiring though, made much more stressing on the mind when I did not get my usual rest before night shift duty. It really did feel like lightning bolts are going through my head at 5a.m in the morning.
In the morning, we were treated to an ordinary sunrise. Nevertheless made more beautiful knowing that we would be let off duty an hour earlier today since the next team taking over us was notified to leave the base for their patrol sectors earlier than usual. I really do enjoy myself when I'm onbard the boat. It can get a little boring at times, sometimes a little claustrophobic. But really, nothing beats seeing all kinds of sights that most Singaporeans do not come across in their normal course of their daily lives.
We happened to pass by Pulau Hantu. Originally, this natural isle carried a different name. The "old" Pulau Hantu was actually reclaimed and joint to the part of another offshore island. I guess this is the place with the nicest beach in the country. Not too near, not too far from civilisation. The water is clear blue and really calm. But that's within the limits of the breakwaters surrounding the island. Outside, the current is very strong and there have been cases of unfortunate deaths of expert divers who even venture near to the jetty. When its at low tide, the entire beach washes out leaving a plain sand bank flanked by about 3 meter tall breakwaters. Something like that of a Chek Jawa. Just on a smaller scale.
The boat crew returned safely from night shift patrol duty and the Kallang Basin was rife with activity this time round. It was the Police Force's annual sea sports carnival. Its a time where every police division and specialist unit will send teams to participate in various canoeing and dragonboat challenges. Besides, just the men's and women's there are singles and doubles as well as races for the various senior officers. Police Coast Guard has traditionally been very strong in the sea sports arena.
As I don't have a good solid zoom lens. Most of the initial photos I took were just plain simple wide angle views. I was able to get a few nicer closeups when the dragonboats were very near to the jetty. But of course, nothing beats having a solid zoom lens. The only reason why those sports camera bodies as well as super big telephoto lenses exist is only for the reasons of sports and bird photography. Such forms of photography really push the limit on camera bodies as well as lenses and the photographer as well. The action happens so quickly that once you've seen it, you've missed it.
I shot for a while, before leaving the base to have a really good lunch with my family. As its the school holidays right now. My family finally has the opportunity to meet up for a good lunch on a weekday. Dad cancelled all his business engagements just for the sake of us. Like I said before, its not really how long is spent, but rather, an issue of quality time together. During lunch I lamented the fact that I had a lousy camera and no zoom lens. And amazingly, I guess my Dad has agreed in principle to buy me my dream camera when I turn 21 next year. He even told me to go sell off my current camera. So, well, that's really another blessing from God. This time, well, I guess I'll have to go on the Canon route, since Nikon is basically messing everything up on their side. Quite dissapointed with Nikon actually. Their film bodies are still the best. But for digital, just a glance at what equipment the pros were using during the olympics and it'll tell a great deal.
After lunch, I returned to the base and bumped into an old ACS friend, whom I've known since primary 1. He's now enjoying his life as a National Service Inspector for the Public Affairs Department in the police force. As every division was sending a team down to compete in this sea sports carnival, he too, was down with a 2-stopped down version of my dream camera. Therein in the picture is the legendary Canon EOS 1D Camera. Released in 2001. It shoots an amazing 8 photographs per second. Each picture having the resolution of 4 megapixels. For a long time, this has been the staple camera of sports photographers and photojournalists worldwide. Of course, he was so nice to me as to let me play with his camera.
The thing is scary! Its made out of a solid block of magnesium alloy. Its so solid that it feels like I'm holding a metal brick. And its very heavy too, the body plus the lens is about 2.9kg at least? Hand-holding it for a few minutes gave me wrist ache. Even though the technology is 3 years old already, it just amazes me entirely. The shutter fires SO FAST its barely noticeable! Literally faster than the blink of an eye! And well, the viewfinder is really large, clear, bright. The Ultra Sonic Motor autofocus on the white lens is LIGHTNING FAST and totally silent. A very scary camera. This camera is SO GOOD, that it was still being used in the olympics this year. An absolute pleasure to shoot with. Well, I'm still hoping for an EOS 1D Mark II and the same lens that features IS (Image Stabilisation). With that, I guess it'll be a great boost for me to shoot sports. Something that I REALLY enjoy!
After I returned the camera to my friend. I felt that my camera's autofocus was pathetically slow and felt noisy even though it was a "Silent Wave Motor" driven kind. The viewfinder was unsatisfactorily dark and shutter release just too slow for my personal liking. Time to switch to Canon. There after, I actually managed to borrow a cheap zoom lens to take some photos with. The autofocus was painfully slow and the aperture on the lens was just too small. But I tried my best to push the limits of my equipment and managed to come out with some decent shots. I've never seen so many policemen in one place before. Not to mention that every single person on every dragonboat and canoe was a police officer too.
Granted. Its really true that sports photography only starts from 400mm. I need one of those "Big Mama Lenses" of the BWL (Big White Lens) variety from Canon. I'll see how things go. But I can say that a 200mm lens is a good compromise. I just shot until all the races were complete and the commissioner of police arrived as the guest of honour to hand out the prizes. As usual, Police Coast Guard was the overal champion. Champions in the women's category overall but 1st runner up in the Men's category - losing to the Gurkhas. Nevertheless, at least we got to bring home a nice big trophy...
A rather eventful two days I guess, that left me really tired overall. But it was fun through the two days and I did enjoy this opportunity to practise and improve my photography skills.
Wednesday and Thursday this week have been rather hectic days for me. It came packed with plenty of activities and leaving with it much afterthought as well as ponderings-to-be-continued. Overall, just another week passes me by in the blink of an eye, the exception being that I'll be working at the base this weekend. Then again, isn't almost every weekend a working one?
Originally, I wanted to meet up with my good friend NICO to do our swap of camera bodies on monday. But due to reasons of emergency, he was unable to make it. Thus I ended up meeting him on wednesday, of all places, a hospital. One of his family members underwent a serious operation. So I guess it isn't easy. I guess the only consolation was that it was at Mt. Alvernia hospital? Probably the most peaceful hospital I've ever walked into in my whole life.
I was quite surprised to walk inside the hospital's lobby only to find a signboard with the words "Chapel" printed on it. A hospital with a chapel? Wow, that's really a first for myself. Interesting to note was that most of the wards, besides being assigned the regular hospital ward number system, was that most of them carried names of the various Catholic Saints. And the other one up was that all the pathways throughout the hospital was air conditioned - unlike the open air corridors of NUH and SGH. I guess the hospital really does live up to its name to be one of the finest in the country.
Everytime I walk into a clinic, or a hospital, which I do many times a year. I feel ever so inspired to undertake medical studies at some univerisity somewhere in the world. Yet it is so paradoxical to note that most of the compulsory subjects I have to study in medicine aren't really exactly in the realm of the humanities that I prefer. Such nonsense indeed. Talk about "internal conflict".
Later in the evening, it was back out to the sea on night shift duty. I'm really blessed to be working in the best team in the entire police coast guard. Where the working environment is so good, that those on MC prefer not to report in sick. I guess that many companies shell out millions of dollars for staff courses to improve the working culture else to achieve a workplace somewhat as good as ours. Well, even though in theory, the job is rather dangerous. Then again, I guess it doesn't matter. Its been really eye opening working out at the sea. There's been so many incidents as well as close shaves to ignore tha fact that there's really a good God up there who takes care of me. Its really true, even though sometimes I'm not faithful. God is still faithful.
One of the crew onboard bought the exact same model of cup as I did. So nicely, we have not one, but TWO cups onboard that comes inbuilt with Internal Stabilisation as well as an enhanced grip. Its a nice contrast to have one blue and one yellow cup onboard. The colors Yellow and Blue remind me of ACS. Generally, just a pretty "normal" time of night shift. Of course, its tiring though, made much more stressing on the mind when I did not get my usual rest before night shift duty. It really did feel like lightning bolts are going through my head at 5a.m in the morning.
In the morning, we were treated to an ordinary sunrise. Nevertheless made more beautiful knowing that we would be let off duty an hour earlier today since the next team taking over us was notified to leave the base for their patrol sectors earlier than usual. I really do enjoy myself when I'm onbard the boat. It can get a little boring at times, sometimes a little claustrophobic. But really, nothing beats seeing all kinds of sights that most Singaporeans do not come across in their normal course of their daily lives.
We happened to pass by Pulau Hantu. Originally, this natural isle carried a different name. The "old" Pulau Hantu was actually reclaimed and joint to the part of another offshore island. I guess this is the place with the nicest beach in the country. Not too near, not too far from civilisation. The water is clear blue and really calm. But that's within the limits of the breakwaters surrounding the island. Outside, the current is very strong and there have been cases of unfortunate deaths of expert divers who even venture near to the jetty. When its at low tide, the entire beach washes out leaving a plain sand bank flanked by about 3 meter tall breakwaters. Something like that of a Chek Jawa. Just on a smaller scale.
The boat crew returned safely from night shift patrol duty and the Kallang Basin was rife with activity this time round. It was the Police Force's annual sea sports carnival. Its a time where every police division and specialist unit will send teams to participate in various canoeing and dragonboat challenges. Besides, just the men's and women's there are singles and doubles as well as races for the various senior officers. Police Coast Guard has traditionally been very strong in the sea sports arena.
As I don't have a good solid zoom lens. Most of the initial photos I took were just plain simple wide angle views. I was able to get a few nicer closeups when the dragonboats were very near to the jetty. But of course, nothing beats having a solid zoom lens. The only reason why those sports camera bodies as well as super big telephoto lenses exist is only for the reasons of sports and bird photography. Such forms of photography really push the limit on camera bodies as well as lenses and the photographer as well. The action happens so quickly that once you've seen it, you've missed it.
I shot for a while, before leaving the base to have a really good lunch with my family. As its the school holidays right now. My family finally has the opportunity to meet up for a good lunch on a weekday. Dad cancelled all his business engagements just for the sake of us. Like I said before, its not really how long is spent, but rather, an issue of quality time together. During lunch I lamented the fact that I had a lousy camera and no zoom lens. And amazingly, I guess my Dad has agreed in principle to buy me my dream camera when I turn 21 next year. He even told me to go sell off my current camera. So, well, that's really another blessing from God. This time, well, I guess I'll have to go on the Canon route, since Nikon is basically messing everything up on their side. Quite dissapointed with Nikon actually. Their film bodies are still the best. But for digital, just a glance at what equipment the pros were using during the olympics and it'll tell a great deal.
After lunch, I returned to the base and bumped into an old ACS friend, whom I've known since primary 1. He's now enjoying his life as a National Service Inspector for the Public Affairs Department in the police force. As every division was sending a team down to compete in this sea sports carnival, he too, was down with a 2-stopped down version of my dream camera. Therein in the picture is the legendary Canon EOS 1D Camera. Released in 2001. It shoots an amazing 8 photographs per second. Each picture having the resolution of 4 megapixels. For a long time, this has been the staple camera of sports photographers and photojournalists worldwide. Of course, he was so nice to me as to let me play with his camera.
The thing is scary! Its made out of a solid block of magnesium alloy. Its so solid that it feels like I'm holding a metal brick. And its very heavy too, the body plus the lens is about 2.9kg at least? Hand-holding it for a few minutes gave me wrist ache. Even though the technology is 3 years old already, it just amazes me entirely. The shutter fires SO FAST its barely noticeable! Literally faster than the blink of an eye! And well, the viewfinder is really large, clear, bright. The Ultra Sonic Motor autofocus on the white lens is LIGHTNING FAST and totally silent. A very scary camera. This camera is SO GOOD, that it was still being used in the olympics this year. An absolute pleasure to shoot with. Well, I'm still hoping for an EOS 1D Mark II and the same lens that features IS (Image Stabilisation). With that, I guess it'll be a great boost for me to shoot sports. Something that I REALLY enjoy!
After I returned the camera to my friend. I felt that my camera's autofocus was pathetically slow and felt noisy even though it was a "Silent Wave Motor" driven kind. The viewfinder was unsatisfactorily dark and shutter release just too slow for my personal liking. Time to switch to Canon. There after, I actually managed to borrow a cheap zoom lens to take some photos with. The autofocus was painfully slow and the aperture on the lens was just too small. But I tried my best to push the limits of my equipment and managed to come out with some decent shots. I've never seen so many policemen in one place before. Not to mention that every single person on every dragonboat and canoe was a police officer too.
Granted. Its really true that sports photography only starts from 400mm. I need one of those "Big Mama Lenses" of the BWL (Big White Lens) variety from Canon. I'll see how things go. But I can say that a 200mm lens is a good compromise. I just shot until all the races were complete and the commissioner of police arrived as the guest of honour to hand out the prizes. As usual, Police Coast Guard was the overal champion. Champions in the women's category overall but 1st runner up in the Men's category - losing to the Gurkhas. Nevertheless, at least we got to bring home a nice big trophy...
A rather eventful two days I guess, that left me really tired overall. But it was fun through the two days and I did enjoy this opportunity to practise and improve my photography skills.
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