Monday, December 29, 2008

40 Faces of NJS

Hihi...

Okies.. I know your're like.."wad la.. you again?!?! pls get it over and done with it already..."

But dun liddat la.. hahaha... I know you all will like this one, esp that special someone..haha.. Enjoy peeps... (P.S. Click on the picture -.-...)

10 Reasons you should go for chalet

10 reasons why you should attend chalet 
(day 2&3 of ops ubin)


1. You already paid for it!
2. You can get to enjoy the bbq, which is catered by bbq wholesale.com
3. There is a screening of Garbage Band movie, which will only be screened ONCE
4. There is xbox and mahjong
5. There is Wild Child (the movie!) screening
6. You can get to take more photos (SUNRISE @ Changi Village) = so stay overnight!
7. Can spend the last days of 2008 with the greatest photog club
8. It is chee howe's birthday tmrw
9. Just come okay!!!
10. Don't pangseh 

Latest Update

Hi all,

Ops Ubin is still on. 11am at Changi Village bus interchange.
If you are still reading this message, YOU ARE LATE!!!! GET OUTTA YOUR HOUSE!!

Thanks.

Eunice

Sunday, December 28, 2008

FYI

Hello people (:

 

for those who're taking cameras/lens/blah blah for ubin trip..

you can come down to the photog room from 945 onwards on mon,29th dec (:

currently,only these few people told me what they want:

shirleen

vicky

kuan yee

cherish

xiu qi

quent

chee howe

xing quan

eunice

(some of you alr have the stuffs with you ^^ )

so to the rest,please tell me asap k?

thanksssss (:

 

Angelineeeeeeeeee.

Saturday, December 27, 2008

Last Remarks

Hi all who will be attending Ops Ubin, please remember to bring the following items on our outing on Monday.

1. 2 bottles of water (they are no water stops available on Chek Jawa, or any other place other than Ubin Village. Which we might only stop for roughly 5 min.)

2. Some light snacks for break time

3. Wet weather protection (for both yourself and camera), use club equipment you dun funny funny dancing in the rain with the cam hor.

4. Mosquito repellent (if you're scared of mosquitoes, they are galore on that island)

5. Sufficient memory cards, remember to charge your batteries and check whether the camera can fire anot!

As this is a large group of you and most of you will be broken up into respective smaller groups, please follow instructions from the Alumni Recce Team to the T and follow your group leaders.

Friday, December 26, 2008

Ops Ubin Overall brief


Operation Ubin
a pioneering three-day-one-night photography outing for the soul.


Briefing
Operation Ubin is a culmination of a year's work in the Alumni, held at Changi Village and Pulau Ubin on the east end of Singapore during the end of 2008. It is a 3 Day 1 Night outing, featuring a night's stay at an Aloha Changi bungalow located on Changi Village itself. This is an Alumni-organized event with Club involvement
In addition, Operation Ubin shall coincide with a chalet barbeque during the resort stay at night, to be noted on a separate brief.


Date 29th - 31st December, 2008
Time 29th DEC 1100hrs – 31th DEC 1200hrs
Participation Alumni-organized, participant strength to be confirmed



Mission

1. To impart further photography skills to the participants
2. To provide a platform for further Alumni-Club interaction, including Club members
3. To boost Alumni member strength:
- By calling back members and exco from graduated batches
- By formally inviting graduating J2 members
4. To develop the passion of photography in all participants


Safety and Security

The Alumni recognizes the need for extensive planning to ensure safe and secure conduct of Operation Ubin. As of current discussions, there will be an appointment of a safety officer who will preside over all areas of planning with a chief focus on ensuring the safe procession of the actual day exercise. However, all members are to be reminded to be responsible for their own safety as well as others around them. The safety officer has all rights to stop and pull any member of the exercise out from the exercise whom he feels that is jeopardizing the safety of anyone. He will be assisted by a medic who is trained to perform basic first aid.


Ops Ubin Safety Guidelines

DOs

Bring lots of Water and hydrate yourself regularly

Stay in groups.

Have 7 Hours of Sleep.

Sound off if you have a problem.

Take care & look out for each other.

Respect the Nature.

Have Fun and Shoot Away.



Don'ts

Bring Excessive Equipment.

Go Away Without Telling Anyone.

Travel Alone.

Let anyone feel left out.

Put Yourself & Others in Danger Just to get a picture.

Be afraid to Ask & Learn.

Emergency Contact Nos
Pulau Ubin Police Post: 65428664
Pulau Ubin Management Office: 65424108


Logistics
The chief objective of Operation Ubin is to combine a photographic hiking experience with an end-of-day club gathering of BBQ. From the collection of $25 each from the participants, $500 is collected.
The breakdown of the money used will be as follows:

1) Transport for Ubin trip
The transport of the members will be included in the $25 paid. This will include:
1) Boat ride to & fro ubin $2.50 x2 = $5.00
2) Van ride to & fro Chek jawa $2.00 x2 = $4.00
All other transports are not included.


2) Aloha Resorts Changi, Changi Cottage
Jun Sen has managed to secure Cramwell Bungalow 2 of Aloha Resorts Changi on the 30th December, 2008. The details are as follows:

Cramwell Bungalow 2, located at the end of Netheravon Road.
Booking Fee: $112.35, inclusive of 7% GST
Booking Date: 30th December, 2008 (book-in by 3:00pm)
Amenities: Suitable for 40 pax by day
- 4 air-conditioned bedrooms
- 3 toilets/bath
- BBQ pit
- Fully equipped kitchen
- Living room w/ TV and games table



3) BBQ

We have engaged BBQ Wholesale Centre Pte Ltd for the BBQ. The menu is as follows:

http://bbqwholesale.com/package/Meaty20.pdf

Members are also encouraged to bring any other food so that we can have a pot luck


4) Miscellaneous
After paying for the essentials, we will have $13.96 left for buying miscellaneous. They will be bought on the morning of 30th DEC by Xing Quan, Quent & XiuQi at Sheng Song- Loyang Point. Any members interested to join us can come along. The intended shopping list is as follows:
- Charcoal x1
- Marshmallow x2
- Syrup x2 or
coke 1.5L x5
- Bread x2
- Aluminum Tray x1
- Cups & plates x1
- Junk Food x ∞ !


Timeline

29th DEC

11oohrs-1130hrs
Meet up at Changi Village Bus Interchange

1130hrs-1230hrs
Lunch at Changi Village Hawker Centre

1230hrs-1330hrs
Move out to Ubin
- Boat will leave when
there is 12 ppl on board.

1330hrs
Arrive at Ubin

1330hrs-15oohrs
Photography at Ubin Village

1500hrs-1600hrs
Movement to Chek Jawa
- Van x2
- Point of contact
Uncle Teck : 97464119

1600hrs-1800hrs
Photography at Chek Jawa Weather forecast Tel :65427788

1800hrs-2000hrs
Return to Mainland & Retire



29th DEC

1400hrs-1430hrs
Meet up at Changi Village Bus Interchange -

1430hrs-1530hrs
Movement to Chalet Advance party will move out to check in first at 1500hrs.

1530hrs
Arrive at Chalet

1530hrs-1800hrs
R&R
Members can choose to stay in the Chalet or move around Changi Village to Shoot

1800hrs
BBQ starts

2100hrs
Screening of
the
Garbage Band Movie

2100hrs onwards
Whatever Night Activities



31th DEC

0530hrs-0600hrs
Wake up & Wash up

0600hrs-0645hrs
Move out to Sunrise point

0645hrs-0730hrs
Photography at Changi Point ( Sunrise)

0730hrs-0830hrs
Breakfast at Changi Village Hawker Centre

0830hrs-0930hrs
Head back to Chalet via the Changi BoardWalk Route taken is subjected to change

0930hrs-1030hrs
Nuai & prepare to check out

1030hrs
Check out

1100hrs
End of Operation

----------------------------------------------------------









Wednesday, December 24, 2008

Merry Xmas to all!

^^

Anyway,to those gg to the Ubin trip,please email/sms me your camera orders (:

If you've done it,please send again to confirm the stuffs.

Thank lots.

Have fun :D

Angelineeeeeeeee.

Merry Christmas!! =)

Tuesday, December 23, 2008

The Photog Room



The Photography Room - In pictures
I guess most of us spend our time in the club room to do productive stuff, or perhaps to chill after a long hard day in school. I realised no one (that i know of) has taken a proper set of photographs of our very own club room... to think that we are photography club somemore.. 

So, this post is dedicated to our very own lovely club room, which has its own aura that will trap you inside for longer-than-you-know-once-you-step-out-of-club-room-the-sky-is-dark-liao. 

This post also lets alot of the non-photog members to get a sneak peek into the mysterious-and-must-be-very-shoik-inside photog room. 





I put that sign up after looking at students getting scolded by PPC for not knocking the door everytime coming into the room. (And also getting quite irritated by people just walking straight into the room as though it is their house)


 



The always-messy-after-an-event club room





We are the coolest club, because we have our own aircon, two PowerMac G5s and ah dell!
(The fastest computers are found in our room)




The Epson 9600 inks




Our four rolls of backdrop. My personal fav shot





Our great cupboards 




We have our own dedicated access Wireless network also~ 





G5 



Thats all, if you got photos of the club room you'll like to share do blog about it
Till then, happy holidays!


Quentin 


Monday, December 22, 2008

Ops Ubin Safety Brief

Ops Ubin Safety Brief

The Alumni recognizes the need for extensive planning to ensure safe and secure conduct of Operation Ubin. Your safety is our utmost concern and it will not be compromised. We have conducted several recce to certify that the operation will be safe for all. We try it so you don't.

However all members are reminded to be responsible for their own safety as well as others around them. The safety officer - How Xing Quan, has the right to stop and pull any member of the exercise out whom he feels is jeopardizing the safety of anyone.


Ops Ubin Safety Guidelines


DOs


Bring lots of Water and hydrate yourself regularly. (Water is your Best Friend ☺)


Stay in groups. (ever wonder why wolves stay in packs ? )


Have 7 Hours of Sleep. (Don't ask me why? By SAF standard)


Sound off if you have a problem. (U don't tell us, how u expect us to know.)


Take care & look out for each other. (Take care of others & others will take care of u☺)


Respect the Nature. (Leave with only photographs leave the rest alone)



Have Fun and Shoot Away. (Wats a outing without fun, its just like stale bread)




Don'ts


Bring Excessive Equipment. (carry until so heavy for wat?)


Go Away Without Telling Anyone. (Later u kenna capture by Ah pu ne ne, I don’t know)



Travel Alone. (Refer to above)



Let anyone feel left out. (U leave someone out, we leave u out !)



Put Yourself & Others in Danger Just to get a picture. (The safety officer is watching u….)



Be afraid to Ask & Learn. (The guy next to u might be as clueless as u)



Lastly.......


DSC_0719 copy


Sunday, December 21, 2008

a quickie :^D

hihi, i know y'all are super duper hyped up about Ops Ubin (which I can't go due to work committments.. sob sob T_T).. anyways i just got a piece of good good news that has made me super duper excited so i just thought i would share it with you all since it's related to photography :^)

recently i sent in a series of three photographs of my friend's ball jointed doll (he's called Luke) as part of an entry for a photography competition organized by The Doll Affair.. basically participants have to submit photographs taken of ball jointed dolls, so since my friend had one and i had my camera we decided to join in! ^_^

shooting was rather challenging since i had nil experience of shooting such dolls, but luckily a number of people helped in the process.. oh well, with every shot you learn new things ba :^D.. so then we set up a couple of sets and shot a series of pictures, then went on PS to make them look more pweety before sending them via e-mail.

and then.. ta-dah! two of my shots were shortlisted! these are the two shots ^_^

The Lion's Dance

He Waits in Darkness

both photos will be on display during the event itself, at Suntec City Meeting rooms 325 & 326(Level 3) this Saturday on the 27th of December. if you're free try to come down kays! ^^
-whee
more details about The Doll Affair can be found here: http://thedollaffair.org/index.html

kays thanks for the reading CIAO! ^_^
Owari.

Registration Form

From photography > MJC


Saturday, December 20, 2008

FAQs

Since everyone is either
1. Starring at the blog, magically waiting for a post to appear
2. Overseas and leeching wifi at another part of the world
3. Do not fall into either 1 or 2 

So i shall blog something okay?

Who manages the blog?
The Alumni of MJC Photography. We are in-charge of the forums and portal as well. 

Can i contribute to the blog?
Yes, ALL members and alumni can contribute to the blog. Just drop us an email at mjcphotog.alumni@gmail.com indicating your Blogger username (email address) and we will invite you. 

What can i post on this blog?
We strongly recommend anything that has to do with photography, be it your thoughts about your experience in the club or photos you'll like to share. 
Of course, you can post random stuff that is totally unrelated, but standard rules apply (no hoarse language etc..)

Why are there ads?
Because it happens to be there

Where does the ad revenue goes to, and what is it for?
It goes directly to the Alumni. It is for funding of Alumni activities such as exhibitions, joint outings with other photography clubs as well as events like ops ubin. 

I would like to advertise on this blog. Do you sell advertising space?
Yes we do, kindly address your enquiries to mjcphotog.alumni@gmail.com

What on earth is Garbage Band?
It is a band. But it is not made of Garbage. Neither is the music that they produce

I would like to request photos for (insert event here...). Is it possible?
No. We do not sell/distribute our softcopys. The upcoming portal will feature a gallery that will show selected photos of Meridian JC's school events. 

What is the Reactions feature at the end of a blog post for?
It is for you to click. 

Can you put a link of my website on the blog?
No. Due to certain concerns raised, we have ceased to link member's personal website on this blog.

When will the portal be ready?
Patience is a virtue. It'll take quite some time as the information on the portal requires vetting. Expect it to be out at Jan 2009

Thats all i can think of. 
Merry X-mas to everyone reading this blog. 


Cheers!
Quentin

Friday, December 19, 2008

Martin Boland Makes A Splash

Hey, check out the second most awesome video! (First most awesome will be Ops Ubin The Movie produced by Photography > MJC Studios.)

Thursday, December 18, 2008

Ops Ubin The Movie

ops ubin the movie


Executive Producer: Quentin Sim
Cast and Crew: Eunice Chan, Ng Jun Sen, Victoria Ong, How Xing Quan
Special Appearances: Jinbei and Abei

ONE SCREENING ONLY! COME FOR OPS UBIN!

Endorsed by Adolby.

Wednesday, December 17, 2008

Prom Night 2008

Hello! This is a long overdue post, considering that prom was 13 days ago, on the 4th of December.

This is Prom Night 2008, from the MJC photography club's point of view (voiced by Vicky!). This is gonna be photo-heavy...

I can't exactly pin-point when our preparation for the 'print & sell' studio booth set-up started, but from the very beginning we'd already prepared ourselves mentally for the challenge we were posed, to even further improve on the amazing job the club did last year for prom!

We began with advertising campaigns, including a one page advert on the latest issue of Musings, and we had similar 'print & sell' studio booth set-ups on Open House and JC 1 Year-End Bash. Ooh, here's a photo of Vanessa and Shirleen at the Bash! They both looked absolutely sweet in their lovely get-up, and Shirleen brought her Barbie polaroid camera!


We didn't earn much on those two events, but profit wasn't our incentive and heng we had those two set-ups, or we would not have been as efficient on prom night!

Well, there were quite a number of differences between this year and last year's set-up. We had 2 backdrops, including the new bee-yee-aye-yooooofiful red backdrop that Mr Cheng bought. Many couples were happy with it...


(can I just say that my sister was damn gorgeous lah pls, and so was Nawal, the beautiful lady she's hugging in this photo...)


Shot, of course, by Canon 5D Mark II using the one and only Mr Cheng.

Seeing the huge groups of people who came for photos, I think we're all appreciative of Mr Cheng having organised a studio photography lesson for us by Mr Tan Eng Howe. Mr Tan taught us how to arrange people for shots and how to arrange the light sources accordingly. He taught us to note the overall shape of the arrangement, the importance of discordance in a line of people, colour co-ordination and various standard but classy poses.

This was especially useful for Chin Chye, who was manning the grey backdrop, and had to arrange large groups of people...



Hi Shirleen! Do you have anything to say?

No.

Hahaha... Okay. Well actually ah, a lot of very nice photos got one lor, but all in Zheng Hui's lappie, so sad!!

Here's shots of Chin Chye hard at work!

Thanks Jun Sen for the pictures!


I don't have any photo of the rest of the photography booth set-up, which is really really sad! Kingston, Eunice, did you take? I think Mr Tee did, but too shy to ask him leh... >_<

On Prom Night itself, we also helped the Councilors take photos of the prom king and queen nominees, and here are the shots of the Royal Two by Mr Cheng, Muhd Khairil...


...and smokin' Anmari!


Also, my sister was a nominee too! *proud* Being her sister, I guess I'm allowed to say biased things, so yeah I DO SO THINK VERY MUCH that she's prom queen material. :)



I remember pausing after having finished serving a customer and looking around. Everybody was busy with whatever their duty was, taking a step back, and admiring our whole set-up. In that moment, I realised how elaborate it looked, and felt very impressed and proud of, well, ourselves!

And of course, I found myself wondering at how everything, everything was literally packed out of Mr Cheng's car. I mean, you look at the whole set-up, the backdrop, the viewing gallery, the printing station, the collection bit, the stands, and you'd probably think we hired a lorry to lug everything over. But everything fit into the back of his car!

Great car Mr Cheng! ^_^

We left school at around 11am and unloaded everything around 12pm. By about 4pm, we were ready for our first dry run.

At 6.39pm, our first customer was at the viewing gallery selecting their photos! I served them, and boy, my heard raced like siao. I remember being so nervous and excited, like an over-eager puppy! I made a few blunders, but thank goodness Vanessa kept her cool! Aha, I wrote on their receipt $5 for a 4R, and when she corrected me, I gave them the wrong change! I didn't realise it until Vanessa noticed an anomaly in the receipt.

Oh, and I almost forgot to pass the CF card to the printing station. And I think I almost forgot to ask for their number (I had to run up to them to ask for it). ^_^"""

But lucky they were really nice, and I was much more careful for the rest of the evening. OH!! And Mr Cheng is such a good salesman!! He got our third customer to order and A3!! Ahaha, I was serving the customer, then he came up, talked to them a bit, did his old *nudgenudge* It's-a-good-deal-I-know-you-know-it-aiya-just-get-lah-one-night-only thing and they accepted it! Whoa! I remember we were all very happy for it. :D

The rest of the night went by very quickly! It was... well it was hectic when it got busy, dull when there weren't any customers (though poor Shirleen and Zheng Hui were pretty much engaged the whole night printing). 

When it got really really busy, I don't know how the rest felt, but I remember just mechanically going through the motions of...
1. Trying pathetically to persuade people to take photos
2. Hovering about as they got their shot and not really being of much help in the arrangement of the people
3. Grabbing the CF Card from Mr Cheng/Chin Chye and rushing over to the viewing gallery, slotting in the card, and rapidly pressing F5 waiting for it to load and feeling bad for making the customers wait, 'cause it's 'their night' and all...
4. Tapping foot quite impatiently while they hemmed and hawwed selecting their photos.
5. Not really properly registering the price they were paying as I wrote it down on the receipt.

It was weird! The money Just. Kept. Coming. And I think we all tried not to think about it, though all of us had the niggling worry that we wouldn't be able to achieve our target. Part of me believed that we definitely would, seeing the crowd of customers and the more than occasional receipts totalling above $100. But there was this other part that told me not to get my hopes up so I wouldn't feel too disappointed later.

There were a number of panicky moments of course! 

At around 3pm, before the set-up, we couldn't find the 3-leafed receipt books anywhere in Raffles City! So me and Vanessa headed down to Bras Basah Popular in the pouring rain. We had to borrow umbrellas from the friendly hotel staff. It was really cats and dogs big fat raindrops monsoon rain kinda rain, and the bottoms of our pants were soaked. Eheh, when we got back, Vanessa switched to her slippers, and left her sneakers to dry behind the pillar. I remember Ms Koh commenting euphemistically that there was a funny smell around the printing area...

At 8pm, the printing people (aka Shir + ZH) predicted that, at the rate orders were coming in, the 60 A4 printing paper we brought wouldn't be enough, so Vanessa rushed down to Funan to buy more Ilford smooth pearl! But! Challenger was closed!!

Dun dun dun!!

Heh, in the end, she bought from South Asia Computer, which fortunately, had it in stock... Phew!!

Later in the evening, we experienced a shortage of CF cards, which we totally did not anticipate. The CF cards were stacking up with their orders at the printing station, where, at that time, Shirleen and Zheng Hui were steadily and quietly doing their job. I guess stressed people aren't really conversational. I remember I was impressed by Chin Chye, who was delaying the people by distracting them with adjustments to the poses as he waited for a CF card, and they didn't realise it.

The issue was resolved by Elliot and Angeline I think, with minor adjustments to the workflow, and Mr Cheng praised it, which was, of course, a fantastic thing!

And even better, we made $****.40 that night!!! WOOOOO~!!!!

We closed shop at about 12.30am, and packed everything in record time. The councillors were faster though! Ahaha, like last year's batch, we stayed out later than the councillors did... By about 1.30am, everything was in Mr Cheng's car, and we all headed down in 2 taxis to Lau Pa Sat, where Mr Cheng gave those who could make it, a treat!

:D :D :D Sambal stingray! Satays all around! Kopi-peng and fried rice! :D :D :D

Okay, and I'll just insert here what I typed in the tagboard, 'cause it's more permanent here right?

Great job, everyone on the success of this Print & Sell!! It was fantabulous... Thank you Mr Chengand Ms Koh for the support and all the help. Without you two greatgreatgreat teachers, our club, just wouldn't feel right.

Thank you to the members who came down to help out, VERY MUCH APPRECIATED! Chin Chye, Humairah, Syaz, Soon Siang and Kar Mun. Exco, wonderful job, yeah? XD

Alumni, thank you also for the encouragement, Jun Sen, Eunice and Kingston for coming down (and even covering event photography), and those who were actually attending prom (and looking damn unbelievably hot), Cherish, Suerya, Xiuqi and Yongen for taking out their time to help out or visit! Not to mention all the preparation and planning assistance, especially Quentin for the advice!!

Also to everyone else I've missed for the miscellaneous, but vital, help! Every single person was important in contributing to the event!!

<3

Prom Night 2008, was a good night for MJC Photography Club.




Especially it's pet cat.

Tuesday, December 16, 2008

Redang

I'm not so much of the kind of person to sit around and just wait for something to happen, and while my syndrome of stare-at-photog-blog-screen-hoping-for-a-new-post-to-appear is ever so excruciating, so let me post something... Haha...

I remember last year during the June holidays, I went to Redang for a short R&R trip with my dad and some friends. If you have been to Redang, you'd probably know that there's nothing much there except for the sun, sand and the sea. We stayed at a kinda lao pok resort, each room was small and it had to accomodate 3 to 4 persons each. The food there ain't exactly good either, I think it was quite a pretty successful 4 day weight reduction programme.

I loved snorkeling. It's really fun when you get a bag of bread from the resort lobby, and just swim out to the deeper ends of the waters and start feeding the fish. They flock towards you in all directions, begging to have a bit of the food that you have to offer. More often than not, they'd come right up and kiss your goggles. My dad was elated. He was having a lot of fun, for he was rather tickled by the fishes. I rarely hear him laugh like that. His laughter was really cute then, a mix of amusement and terror. He was feeding the fishes, but he was scared that the fishes would bite his finger off. I went hunting for a baby shark, but I guess he didn't like me and didn't want to meet me, so I got a jellyfish in my face instead. Lols, I only realised a jellyfish was right in front of my goggles after a few minutes and frantically tried to go astern in the water.

Of course, you would be thinking that going on a trip like such would really involve a lot of exposure to sea water- the digital equipment's nemesis- and no one would actually bother bringing an expensive camera. But me being me, I packed the 350D kit and 10-22mm in ziplock bags, packed them into a camera bag, and brought it along with my luggage. (And got my friend to bring her waterproof camera so we can take cool underwater shots.)

When we reached Redang, the tide was coming in but the waters weren't very deep- YET. (When it is high tide, expect to get off the boat with waist high water.) The water was up above my knees, and the beach didn't have a shared dock. We had to get off the boat and into the water, and work our way up to the coast. Well, all I managed to do was to hug the camera bag tight around my chest and start walking.

I'm rather glad I brought the camera despite all unfavourable circumstances. I took a lot of photos, almost 600 pictures. The sorting was terrible because I refused to delete any of the shots -.- terrible mistake, by the way. And I guess some of you might be unacquainted with this three favourite shots of mine from the Redang series I took-

Just wanna share the pics-
IMG_1754

IMG_1723

A Walk by the Beach

I really like landscape photography... maybe because it's one of the easiest to shoot. You just need the right lens and right composition, and you just sit there and wait for the perfect light to press your shutter. Either that, I'm just always lucky. Anyways, the above three shots were sunrise pics which I woke up specially just to take photos of...

P.S. If you're wondering what happened to [Stairway to Heaven], I didn't like it anymore.

Sunday, December 14, 2008

hahaha... relevant post

Senseless Post

I'm sorry, but looking through the pictures from Ubin that Eunice posted previously, I found this incredibly funny.


Wednesday, December 10, 2008

Come for Ops Ubin!

These are some shots taken on the Ubin recce...
Come for Ops Ubin!

Ubin ART1

Ubin ART2

Ubin ART4

Ubin ART3

Ubin ART5

Where's Wally?

Just Some Thoughts Part II

Actually I was also pondering on this whole Prom affair too. Not too much on the technical aspects on the service though...

When I was there at Swissotel on Thursday evening, dropping in to see how's everything going, I was pretty pleased to have seen what was there. The set up and everything was getting better every year.

I remember in 2006 when we had our first prom night on-site printing, it was my project and the EXCO worked very hard on it. Because it was our first major project, we roped in our members as well and had them to give suggestions on the work flow. Our discussion took place after the 2006 College Open House, and it went on till around 8pm. The school servants were locking up and requested that we leave.

We had 10 photog members then, but we didn't have enough manpower. December 6th was the date of the prom nite and the EXCO reported to school early that day. We had a month or two of preparation, clearly written workflows, steps, and loaned all the laptops we needed from the school. They were incredibly slow, and adding to that, we installed Photoshop CS2. I recall clearly that JS changed one of the desktop pictures to "I am a laggy comp. Just kill me."

After a round of very delicious gui chap at kallang, the exco, mr cheng and a boot full of equipment set off to Pan Pac hotel. At 3pm, 3 members turned up but the remaining 3 members were missing. 2 hours later, they didn't come. We had to make do with the manpower shortage, but JS and XQn were very great help, though I was instructed to personally change the cartridges for JS because we were using expired ink! Rofl...

We didn't have backdrops then, and the shooting was pretty haywire. I guess there were a lot of mistakes we made, plus it was our first time doing it, and Chee got a scolding for something he did that was really funny- on hindsight... When on the way home, we counted the earnings and we made a grand total of $278.

The EXCO were so proud of ourselves. That was our first proper print and sell project, and it was considered a blast for us. We had fish porridge at bedok north for supper and were sent packing home, and I fell asleep by 3am.

We reported back to school at 8am the next morning, but no one had any grouses. As far as I remember, we were actually quite proud of ourselves.

When Prom Nite 2007 came, boy, it was MY prom nite! I didn't actually attend because it costs $90 and no one in their sane minds would actually pay that much for some 8 course dinner that you can't really enjoy much because all you really do then is to take photos... So I turned up in a nice outfit and........ my camera bag. =P (I'm convinced no one's in their right minds after the A levels.)

That night, my juniors earned themselves $900+. I couldn't be more proud of them. We only had one grey backdrop, and the hilarious thing that happened during prom night was what I called our "pit stop crew"- everytime a group of people moved off from the backdrop, a bunch of those on duty at the booth with flock onto the backdrop and start using tape to patch up the backdrop, thanks to the killer stilettos the ladies had been wearing.

This year, although I already said that I won't be shooting this year, I couldn't help but drop by. Using "meeting my client" as an excuse, I snuck out of the house and dropped in to see the kiddies. Well, I must say the Prom Nite on-site printing project has really come a long way. From an equipment base of 3 DSLRs, 2 Selphies, a R230 (crap thing), a R2100, and a Pro9000 with no backdrops, no strobes... up till today- a list I don't think I'd ever bother to write out- all I can say is...

"WOW."

When I heard that 4 digit figure of our earnings this year, I must say I was privately envious, and a little bit jealous too. However, as one of the seniors who kick started this project, I am really really proud and thankful of all the people who have made this happened, and Mr Cheng's foresight for buying the backdrops (to which we actually vehemently objected, must have been a teenager thing to oppose to every sane decision) and that this project would not have gotten such a great success without every batch of maturing "J2s".

With love from Grouch,

Tuesday, December 9, 2008

Just some thoughts

To all MJC graduated JC2 who ordered prom photos, if you happen to pass by this blog, whether to seesee around or sourcing for prom photos (we will not upload it) I would just like to say a few words…

Please do bear with the slow-ness of mjcphotog in processing your orders. I know some of you have waited quite long (about 2 hours) and still have not gotten your photos. Please do not bear any grudges as I believe my juniors have made the necessary arrangement for delivery. Printing photos ain’t easy and its slowwwww…. Not to mention processing hundreds of orders in half a day! Yes, we do earn money, but hey, we do not earn a single penny and I believe the current exco, just like the alumni did it out of passion. 
On a side note, thank you for using our services and we will seek ways to improve the workflow. 

To the great junior exco, well done for prom and keep up the good job… tough road ahead! (thanks for the cake)

and do check out this video (rated PG-13) 


Lastly... please visit the forum, and contribute interesting facts about mjcphotog!

The Photog Dreams

Hihi ^^

Yesterday was such a great day to sleep in, the weather was cold and it was such a perfect day to just snuck into bed and hide below the covers. Great for dreaming too. Quent asked me to write down a blog post on the dreams we had for Photog club, rather atrocious but I wouldn't say impossible to do-

1. The Qing Shi Huang Plan.
I bet most of you would have heard this before. It has been said for almost three generations... Eating up biz club as our subsidiary, then the College Pub, then the Film Soc, and then we would be called "Photography > MJC Group of CCAs".

Pretty crazy huh? But well, at least we are now the most profitable CCA in the whole of MJC.

2. The Photog Blk plan (read the archives for this one)
This is nearly impossible, but it is fact that we do need a BIGGER ROOM! We can't always use the study room for our shoots and it is highly irritating to keep setting up and taking down our studio equipment! The club room almost looks like a JUNK YARD! We need an exhibition space, as well! Gah!

3. 2009 CCA Open House publicity stunt
Haha, this one is interesting. Quent and I got so excited chatting about this, though we're pretty sure Mr Tng will stone us to death if we ever dared try to pull a stunt like this.

Isn't it very demeaning to be always cooped up in that dark corner of the study room taking studio shots, even for the school open house? Personally, I thought that was the WORSE place for a studio because no one ever bothers to walk into a classroom that's dark, and where they can't really see what we are doing. If they looked into the door, they would most probably only see a few kiddies working behind a computer and a couple of printers, nothing more.

The DBS commercial gave me an idea. Why do we have to set up our studio in the study room? Why not in the middle of a field, or a parade square? The area that no person would ever thought of setting up a studio, yet prominent with high human traffic? We can just grab a backdrop, set up in the field, boom some music, get some pretty cute models (you know, maybe members of the alumni or the J2s could help =P) and a really cool photographer (when I mean cool, please dont wear that apek grey club T) taking photos of the model? We'll put up our lights and reflectors (good idea to get some for a sunny day) and make it look like a really professional and fun fashion shoot? People can just admire us working. Ahhhh....

Then, after all that pose pose thing is done, we can have another crazy session... Which the few of us were admiring during Studio Days, definitely considered a felony in Mr Tng's eyes... The Jingapore shot on Clubsnap-



Except we will still do this on the field (hey, switch on the sprinklers and the coke will be gone) but I hope no one complains about a sticky synthetic field... yeah and then the kids will most probably think we're crazy (to which I'm actually quite convinced we are already, once you pass your J2 stage from all that mugging) but people will sign up anyway because we are the coolest and bestest photography club in the WHOLE OF SINGAPORE. Yeah!

Don't stop dreaming, guys!
PHOTOG!

Monday, December 8, 2008

There must be a reason why the AF placed me in focus...

Hihi!!^^

Its me again.. For those of you who stayed back after the AGM, I'm sure you all knew the Alumni Exco was taking some studio shots for the portal... well.. for those of you who missed out the fun; here's a lil' something to whet your appetite:P hahahaha... the actual pictures will be going online in the portal some time soon, so no need for me to show those.. but I've got a few interesting ones I wanna share wif ya'll.. esp the many faces of NJS one... hahaha...

Enjoy...:)

Saturday, December 6, 2008

On Ops Ubin

Hi, it's me again on Operation Ubin.

These are the people who have signed up for Ops Ubin, please pay Xiuqi if you have yet to do so. If you have, the Grouch loves you. ^^

Ng Jun Sen
Xing Quan
Chan Wan Wai Eunice
Chan King Won Kingston
Ew Chee Howe
Prescilia Khoo
Chen Xiuqi
Tay Yong En
Lim Shan Shan
Quentin Sim
Cherish Goh
Suerya
Victoria Ong
Goh Chin Chye
Shirleen Goh
Angeline Tan
Vanessa Soh
Joanna Tan
Ho Zheng Hui
Elliot Tan
Nur Syazana Bte Rahsid
Alex Zhang
Soon Ying
Kelvin

Benjamin

Goh Kuan Yee


If you have your own SLRs (film or digital) or you are able to borrow one from your friends/relatives, you are encouraged to bring them for Operation Ubin. Also, if you happen to be bringing your digital camera, be reassured that we won't laugh at you. Really, from my heart really. Heard of the saying, "as long as it produces a beautiful picture, it doesn't matter what you use"? (which means, you cant blame the cam if your pics are bad =P)

Also to note is that the dates of Ubin HAVE BEEN CONFIRMED. It will be held from 29th to 31st. The tentative itinerary will be up soon, please keep your eyes peeled. The rough activities of Operation Ubin will be as such:

29th: Day out at Ubin
30th: Check in to chalet at 3pm, games, bbq at chalet
31st: Chalet activities, check out chalet at 3pm

Staying overnight at the chalet is optional, and please be mindful of everyone's safety. The BBQ food at chalet will be provided, but if you would like to bring some food along with you such as dessert and drinks, please feel free to do so. We would love to try out your cooking! (yeah, I'd love Vicky's blondies ^^)

I think this is all from me, Grouch out-

Friday, December 5, 2008

FYI.

Hello people ^^

I'll be going overseas from 7 dec to 17 dec.

So if you need,any equipments,please contact either Vicky, Shirleen or Mumtaz.

Thank you :D

& if anyone needs camera for Op Ubin, please err..

Make your reservation ASAP as cam are running low (:

Thank you again.

QM 08/09.

Angeline.

A new dawn has come...

There can be only one JC2 in my heart at any one time. Finally that moment has arrived. Quent and gang is now known to me as the alumni and Elliot and gang is to me the JC2s.

The road ahead is going to be tougher and bumpier but seeing how you guys have come together to surpass all obstacles, I know that the club will be brought to a higher height.

Well done JC2s!!!

PPC

Thursday, December 4, 2008

I Love Japan ^^

Since Vicky asked yesterday, I thought I'll show you my Japan pics, editted lightly with Adobe Lightroom while travelling on the Shinkansen (bullet train) hehehe they may not all be v nice by some of your standards but they're my memories of the country I so love... =) but funny the pics look less sat here than on MobileMe or LR...

Here are some pics I like:

It was really difficult to shoot Momijidani (Maple Walk) during peak season without getting cam whores or someone's ass/amputated limb/decapitated head in your frame -.- We stayed at the ryokan (inn) just right in front of the maple garden so I woke up at 6am Japan time (Singapore time 5am), went to cheong the hot spring first then dragged a half-asleep Mr Wong (my husband) to catch a shot of the blooming maple trees. yeah, those two "models" are my husband and I in yukata (kimono-like outfit) =)



The night before, I tried the gold filter that Eunice and I went to buy... I quite like the effect ^^



And this, Kintai-kyo, is one of the top three bridges in Japan, in Iwakuni near Hiroshima. I think people in the ancient times are v smart and i have great respect for those who built magnificent structures with their lack of teknologi



This was shot on a cruise around Kujukushima (99 islands).



And hehehe, Japan also has street-side stalls one wor! It's called Yatai and it's found in Tenjin (Hakata, Kyushu). This stall is run by a father (his back facing camera) and son (holding out noodle) team and the ramen was so good (and cheap!) that we went back again and the old uncle recognised us ^^



and this one's just for laughs! LOL



k la, if want to see more, you can click below:

Kyushu
Miyajima, Iwakuni, Kyoto