Daily entry

Shot for the Day (04 January 2016)

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West Witterings – Shot 1

Before leaving the UK for Christmas with my family in Singapore, I headed down to West Witterings, one of my favourite childhood beaches.  The morning was cold, wind lashed and stormy.  All of which made for fantastic clouds and changes in light.

The image for today’s shot of the day is one of a series of five shots I took that morning, that I will publish over the next few entries.  This was the moment the overhead storm relented momentarily, giving the sun a brief reprieve to broke through the cloud and washed the beach in golden light.

Warning, if you head to Witterings, remember to take £1 coin or change with you as you have to pay to drive into the car park behind the beach.  Otherwise, it is a long walk.

Shot for the Day (02 January 2016)

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Pilau Ubin rain

Yesterday, we took a family outing to an island off the north eastern coast of Singapore called Pilau Ubin.  It feels more akin to neighbouring Malaysia than the ultra-modern Singapore and as such, has a certain charm that is lost in this country’s modernity.

Unfortunately for us, being in the midst of the rainy season, the heavens opened as we were en route to the island from Changi.  The shot above was from the pier we were deposited on at Pilau Ubin.  Our boat was reversing out into the emerald green bay as the rain lashed the landscape.

Pilau Ubin after the storm

After a very wet cycle ride around the island, we caught a boat back to the mainland in the early evening  The rain had finally stopped and we were afforded a dramatic view of Pilau Ubin to the north, as the heavy rain clouds circled the seascape, in preparation for another storm.

All shots were taken on my Nokia 1020, which did a pretty decent job.  However, I will definitely return on a less inclement day and take my camera kit as the views on the island are very contrasting to mainland Singapore.

Shot for the Day (25 October 2015)

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Finland 1

Some shots from a recent trip to Finland.  The weather was hovering around zero but the skies were generally blue and the ground frost intermittent.  Finland is a truly beautify place and I have been there several time.  I was only an hours drive north of Helsinki in Karkkila but it felt like a million miles away from London or Singapore.

Finland 2

For this trip, I took along my new Nokia 1020 to shoot on.  These are the low res files I downloaded and did not even colour balance or amend.  Very impressive result from a mobile phone.  Then again, it does have a 41 Megapixel camera…

Finland

The last shot was taken on the return journey from Finland, where I enjoyed a 2.5 hour long sunset as we flew south west from Helsinki to London.  This image reminds me of how people often envisage the entrance to heaven.

Shot for the Day (3 September 2015)

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Following on from my last entry, this was taken a few minutes prior to the last shot (below) in Alcudia, Mallorca. Unfortunately, I was not well positioned for the sunrise, which was behind the head of the peninsula, to my left.  The reason for this was main due to the fact that the westerly facing headland was several kilometres on the other side of a private golf course and I had no idea how long it would have taken me to walk there.  Has anybody ever made this journey?

One thing that resonated with me the most about this particular dawn was the strength of the yellow in the sky.  Singapore tends to be far more orange due to pollutants in the atmosphere.

Shot for the Day (1 September 2015)

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I awoke well before dawn on my penultimate day in Mallorca this summer.  I wanted the experience the serenity one finds at the birth of a new day, surrounded by nature.  My home town of Singapore does have many green spaces but they are a patch of nature juxtaposed against the greyness of manmade objects.  I was craving for the antithesis.

A yacht had moored the previous night and bobbed gently on the rising tide as the first light of day bathed the foreground in a rich golden light. The moon was cradled amongst the wisps of cloud as they glided silently across the sky overhead, travelling on the a light breeze, which rustled the branches ever so slightly.

I think this is going to be my go to calm place for this year.

Shot for the Day (15 August 2015)

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Mount Richie monkey

This afternoon, I went for a walk on the wilder side of Singapore.  In the centre of the island, there is a slither of nature called MacRitchie Reservoir Park.  Just south of Upper Pierce Reservoir, there is a tree top walk, which in effect is a narrow suspension bridge, just wide enough for someone to traverse across the rooftop of the jungle below.

Lining the side of the bridge were many monkeys. They were generally quite skittish but the character in the image above was more than a little bold.  I had a wide angle lens on my camera, meaning he was sat within an arm’s length from me when I took this shot.

Shot for the Day (30 July 2015)

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Whilst in Europe earlier this month, I visited Città di San Marino, a medieval settlement situated on the slopes Monte Titano, over 700m above sea level.  San Marino was added to the Unesco World Heritage list in 2008 and walking around the hilltop enclave, it was very easy to see why.

San Marino, situated close to the Adriatic coast, is the third smallest state in Europe after the Vatican and Monaco and claims to be the world’s oldest republic, being established in 301 AD by a Christian stonemason named Marinus, who, once climbing climbed Mt. Titano, found a small community of Christians, persecuted for their faith by the Emperor Diocletian.

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The Republic of San Marino is made up of a few towns dotted around Mount Titano and the capital. The city walled city has three distinct towers that overlook the rest of the country and are visible for miles around.

This is a reverse view of the central fort from the top of the previous hilltop fort, looking down over most of the Republic of San Marino.

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Shot for the Day (9 July 2015)

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Out walking around downtown Singapore a week ago and grabbed a shot of the cityscape just after the sun had dropped below the horizon.  Still over thirty degrees even past 8pm but that’s life one degree from the equator.

Nokia Gulp – Work from the archive

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Back in 2012, my team at Wieden + Kennedy created Nokia Gulp, shot solely on a Nokia N8 handset.  The plot as based on a Jonah-style adventure of a fisherman getting caught in a belly of a giant fish.  It was the successor to Nokia Dot, the smallest animation ever, which W+K also made with Sumo Science and Aardman, again using a Nokia N8 handset.

Here is a look behind the scenes how the world’s largest animation is shot on a Nokia phone handset.  We needed an army of locals to help us prepare the beach everyday for the shoot.

The advert was release across Europe initially and then globally.  It has since become a favourite on Vimeo and still enjoys good ratings years after making it.

Useful links:

Wikipedia: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gulp_(film)
Wired: http://www.wired.com/2011/08/gulp-stop-motion-animation/
Creative Review: http://www.creativereview.co.uk/cr-blog/2011/august/nokia-gulp-wieden-kennedy
DesignBoom: http://www.designboom.com/art/gulp-worlds-largest-stop-motion-animation/