Happy Lunar New Year

Due to the dreadful rainy weather the past few weeks, I did not go to Chinatown for my usual street shoot around this time of the year, which is very close to the Chinese Lunar New Year! The recent barren spell was due to low morale induced by the heavy and continuous rains pelting down on almost the entire island, day in day out. No wonder minor floods were created and so many people are reporting sick at work! I'll update this blog with new pictures as soon as I get my creative juices flowing again. Anyway, I do wish that the Year of the Rabbit will give us reason to cheer this time. Gong Xi Fa Cai! Have a Happy and Prosperous Chinese Lunar New Year!

2009 Chinatown Walkabout with Nikon 24-85mm F3.5-4.5

I took a short walk around Chinatown with my friends KK and Rachel. Rachel had just rented a lens(Nikon 17-55mm F2.8 DX) around that area for a wedding shoot she was going to help a friend do the next day. I brought along a simple Nikon 24-85mm F3.5-4.5 lens for the short walkaround. The pictures taken here are from 2 different days but of the same lens. Its a nice basic kit lens to have on a full-frame body.

These Shoes are Made for Walking


Along the main road of Chinatown


Waxed Chinese Sausages and Ducks on the Wall














Eye in the Sky


KK over seeing from the Sky: Does he look like a Prison Wardon or a Detainee? LOL!


Mechanical Cranes in the Sky
Desolate windows of a HDB residence from a bygone era.

Chinatown Streetshoot

The Chinese New Year is fast approaching and the streets of Chinatown are teeming with shoppers, tourist and photographers alike, soaking in the festive atmosphere. I ususally do not feel comfortable in crowded areas, especially around this time of the year in this part of Chinatown, but it was still manageable, as it is still quite a couple of days before the Lunar New Year. I actually went there twice with 2 friends on 27th(Sun with Rachel) and 29th(Tue with Trevor) to have dinner at the abundant mouth watering and gastronomically savoury delights at the various roadside stalls, eateries and restaurants. Of course being photo hobbyists, we did go there to take some pictures of the biggest yearly event in Chinatown, which is the Chinese Lunar New Year. Chinatown is a place with good food to eat and great photo subjects to take, beautifully blended in a marriage of contrasting old world charms and modern convenience and technologies. More pictures can be viewed on this walkabout by fellow blogger Rachel, who has some great pictures of her own here.

Prime Time

The story behind what happened during the taking of this half face portrait in Chinatown Area is quite hilarious! As some people may know, Chinatown has its Red light districts and some freelance hookers roam the streets there trying to seduce lonely and usually older men with too much time in their hands, hehe! I took this picture of her along a busy and crowded bridge there, knowing that the freelancers usually come out during the evening time along that area, but I didnt care, as it is a public area.

We both soon realised that there were quite a number of Dirty Old Men pausing in their tracks along the bridge to stare and ogle at her, haha! It was so abrupt and the way they stared was like they have never seen a young lady before, the desire in their eyes full of perversity! Haha! There was even one TeeKo Peh(Dirty Old Man) who literally stepped forward quite close to us with his eyes almost popping out and mouth open, as if he wanted to eat her there and then! I joked with her that maybe he should take out his hanky to wipe his drool... I kept an eye on him and the rest in case they tried to do anything funny, haha! It was quite an eye-opening experience for both of us with all these unwanted attention on a crowded Friday evening.