Ngong Ping Cable Car I

This is the first of 4 posts on Ngong Ping, taken with my Canon G11.

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As mentioned here and here, the Canon G11 is my default family snapshot camera plus street photography tool when I’m playing the role of the wholesome family guy as opposed to a street photography maniac outside of my professorial hours.

When will it break?, I sometimes wonder at quiet moments, as I need an excuse to get that fabulous Ricoh GR.

As I tell my wife, it’s all for the sake of documenting our important family moments, of course.

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If you’re a poet and nothing else, then you’re not a good poet.

If you’re a street photographer and nothing else, then you can’t possibly be a good street photographer.

If you’re a scholar and nothing else … (you get my point)

So yes, I’m a father and husband too, and I can play the role of a tourist very well.

Ngong Ping is one of those tourist sites that is tastefully done, I think.

It’s a tasteful blend of commerce and spirituality.

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So yes, I was in B mode (berserk mode) with my camera in the cable car.

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I can’t decide which of the above three photographs is the best.

I feel like I’m comparing apples with oranges.

It’s never the same river, I’m not the same me from one moment to the next, and strictly speaking even cameras of the same model are not the same.

You get the picture *drum roll, with crashing cymbals* (yes, pun intended).

Which is why I have 2 Yashica GX’s, 2 Contax TVS’s and am planning for another lens for my Leica M6.

Don’t tell my wife. (I was joking about the planning bit.)

I often go shopping with the intention of not buying another film camera.

Anyway, back to the main plot – it was raining so the view was rather poetic…

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So – a quiz. Are the above three Buddhas or one?

I’ll just end with this quote from one of my favorite books. I read it once every few years.

I mean the book.

The only Zen you find on the tops of mountains is the Zen you bring up there.

(Robert M. Pirsig, Zen and the Art of Motorcycle Maintenance)

ROBERT M. PIRSIG, Zen and the Art of Motorcycle Maintenance

Read more at http://www.notable-quotes.com/p/pirsig_robert_m.html#qY3ZCqf1wh3GR32J.

London Street Photography II

From my London folder again…

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I was happy to have caught this gesture…

He’s framed by various pictures, and there’s a statement here to be made about the idealised/commodified/cosmetic appearances of the pictures vs his heartfelt sincerity. Check out the arrow that’s about to pierce his heart.

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The British Museum … it’s difficult to photograph such an iconic place because you know it has been done so many times…

I chose the seemingly unthinking approach: capture it at any angle and it’ll still look wonderful. Kudos to the architects…

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Here’s a museum interior that plays with religious icons … there’s definitely a connection between religious devotion and museum space.

In a way, we’re here to worship art and/or the past.

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At the Victoria and Albert Museum.

Here’re the acolytes …

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I’m a tourist!

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A busy scene with the seated person as a focal point, at the still point of the turning world …

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“At the still point of the turning world. Neither flesh nor fleshless;
Neither from nor towards; at the still point, there the dance is,
But neither arrest nor movement. And do not call it fixity,
Where past and future are gathered. Neither movement from nor towards,
Neither ascent nor decline. Except for the point, the still point,
There would be no dance, and there is only the dance.
I can only say, there we have been: but I cannot say where.”

(T. S. Eliot, “Burnt Norton”, The Four Quartets)

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Thanks for reading!

River Safari

We’re still on the theme of street photographs taken during family outings some time back.

This is the newly-opened River Safari in Singapore.

I went absolutely berserk with the various compositional possibilities in front of the large fish tank.

As everyone else is looking at the exhibits, no one is looking at me – that’s the perfect set up for a street photographer.

I’ll call this series The Physical Impossibility of Death in the Mind of Someone Taking Photographs (see Damien Hirst).

Utter fascination.

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Innocence.

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Musing. This is a work of art.

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Look! Look!

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Looking.

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The trick to this is knowing telepathy and fish language.

I’ve managed to convince those fishes to frame themselves around the human exhibits.

I am a very talented photographer.

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Still looking.

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Finally, a decisive moment.

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Thanks for reading!

Singapore Zoo

Yet another set of street photographs taken at in-between moments during a family outing at the Singapore Zoo a few months ago.

That’s our friendly and helpful tram driver.

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My son loves the pony ride.

I am a very talented photographer – through telepathy, I’ve managed to convince the person in the background to bend a little bit so as to be confluent to the pony handler’s face and shoulder outline.

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Here’s the horse carriage driver.

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Here’s the horse.

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It’s interesting how high contrast monochrome changes things. The photographs look somewhat hard-edged and menacing at times …

Go to the zoo if you’re ever in Singapore. It’s really not so menacing …

The crowd at an animal performance show.

We go to the zoo every time we’re back in Singapore.

So, I’ve seen the performance many times.

Now, instead of looking at the performance, I look at the crowd and think about how to photograph the human exhibits.

I am a very talented photographer – using telepathy, I’ve managed to convince a stranger to stand up so as to create a contrasting element to the crowd.

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That’s err… a bird animal creature with two legs and feathers…

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I suppose that’s my nod to Gary Winogrand‘s The Animals.

Thanks for reading!