Shot for the Day (25 October 2015)

October 25, 2015January 12, 2016 | Zapfly

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.

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…

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 (25 June 2015)

June 25, 2015September 2, 2015 | Zapfly

This weekend, I went for a walk with my family in a place called Bukit Brown Cemetery. It is a secluded, overgrown graveyard in Singapore. It is unique in that you are in the middle of a metropolis that is Singapore but be standing in the solitude of a rainforest.

Bukit Brown Cemetery is also known to the local community as Kopi Sua or Coffee Hill. It is a Chinese cemetery, established in the early 20th Century and was the biggest Chinese graveyard outside China. The cemetery was named after its first owner, George Henry Brown, who was a ship owner and arrived in Singapore from Calcutta in the 1840s. He bought the area and named it Mount Pleasant.

As I wondered around this oasis of nature and calmness, it was very distressing to see all the construction work underway, something very common in Singapore. The issue here is that Bukit Brown Cemetery is slowly but sure being sacrificed to the god of progress. Large swathes of land have already been dug up and this beautify setting will soon be replaced by suburbia, concrete and glass.

In a place like Singapore, where such places are rare and revered, it is a shame that such a tranquil and spiritual place is being ruined to make way for apartments and the MRT (underground system).

If you are keen to see this wonderful place before it disappears forever, you can find it located between Lornie Road and Mount Pleasant Road, off Sime Road and Kheam Hock Road.

For further information about Bukit Brown Cemetery, here are some links, including a site to help save it from extinction:
1) Information about the cemetery: http://bukitbrown.com/main/
2) Save the cemetery site: https://sosbukitbrown.wordpress.com/
3) Preserving the history of Bukit Brown: http://www.bukitbrown.info/

Shot for the Day (23 June 2015)

June 23, 2015 | Zapfly

Dawn on a stretch of beach a few miles south of Tofino on the west coast of Vancouver Island, Canada. No another person around for miles, just the gentle lapping of the Pacific ocean against the shore. Mist was rising from the land, creating a very other-worldly effect.

Holiday season was well over and the temperature was only a just in double digits. Still, one of my favourite beaches in Canada.

Shot for the Day (8 June 2015)

June 8, 2015June 7, 2015 | Zapfly

Back in 2003, after completing a 4 month stint as expedition photographer for Raleigh International in Coyhaique, capital of Region XI in Chile, a few colleagues decided that the best way to end the experience was be to trek Torres del Paine, situated at the southern tip of Chile.

Amongst this ensemble, only three of us were foolhardy enough to attempt the full loop and circumnavigate the entire range. It was April, the very end of the season and all the refugios were being closed down for Winter. Consequently, we had to carry all of our food with us for the multi-day trek ahead.

Temperatures varied from a comfortable 20 degrees Celsius during the day to a chilly minus 20 degrees Celsius at night. We restricted our gear as best we could but our packs stilled weight in at just under 35kg each.

The effort, however, was more than worth it, as we were constantly treated to such beautiful vistas as the one above, with not a soul for miles to break the tranquility. In the end, it took Tom, Bill and I just under 8 days to complete the trek. I eagerly hope to return and do it once again in the future.

Shot for the Day (6 June 2015)

June 6, 2015 | Zapfly

At the end of 2014, just prior to Christmas, I spend a few days with my family on the beautiful island of Langkawi, on the northern end of Malaysia, very close to Thailand.

I got up early each morning to enjoy the silence of surroundings, a far cry from the bustle of Singapore. This shot was moments before the sun rose to my right, as the light wind stretched the clouds across the sky, with the two yachts bobbing gently in the water ahead of me.

A few monkeys in the forest behind me we on an early morning scout to find breakfast and were eyeing up my camera bag a in a furtive manner, wondering if I had some food hidden amongst the lenses. Finally, a sea otter walked out from the shelter of the shrubbery to my left and wondered over to take an early morning bath.

Canada photoshoot 2011

October 1, 2011November 22, 2011 | Zapfly

Just prior to the Frankfurt motorshow in September, I went out to Canada for a two week photoshoot. Starting off in Calgary, I headed west to Banff National Park. From here, I drove through all the surrounding national parks including Kootenay, Yoho and Jasper. Over the first ten days, I covered almost 2000 miles.

After returning to Calgary, I then flew further west to Victoria, capital of Vancouver Island. My good friend Justene Miller, a Canadian from Vancouver, gave me some excellent advice, to visit Tofino and Ucluelet, on the Pacific coast of the island. I was treated to a cloud rainbow, something I have never seen before.

I loved Canada, with its spectacular landscape and friendly locals. My only reservation is that the food is much like the US is pretty awful most of the time.