Christmas for me is one of my favourite-est seasons of the year and I really cannot believe 2010 is just a few days around the corner. It’s been a busy wedding season with shooting continuing all the way till the eve of New Year’s eve. The editing backlogs are a-piling while everyone is munching on log cakes, but I’m unabashed to declare that I’m taking just these two days off. I’m turning off my computers, access to Internet and stuffing my face with roast beef, lamb and all the desserts at the family’s annual Xmas get together. But then I’m abashed to already know I’ll be tweeting pics of food porn soon.

Thank you for all the memories, friendship and support. Be right back!

Live long and prosper. \V/

For some time now, Jeremy and I have been working on a side project which involved a whole lot of late nights that saw us driving around, getting bitten by mosquitoes and being stopped by cops. To clarify, we weren’t up to any mischief at all, but we were up to our necks in having an awesome time just being able to collaborate. And collaborate we did, with a little project we call – BoomScience.

Born out of the sheer need to create and exercise our left brains, we got together, chanted ‘abracadabra’, snapped our fingers and made science-work. Then using the urban-scape of Singapore as our blank canvas, we literally painted the town red, and blue, and white, and green, and boom. Well…here’s a peek.

www.boomscience.com

We’re unabashed to point out that, painting with light isn’t anything new at all. In fact, anyone can grab a torch or light a bunch of sparklers and run around making random shapes. But it was the exercise of experimenting, failing and more experimenting did we then create these brilliant images that we were really proud of. Needless to say, we enjoyed the process of not having to compete, outdo or outwit each other but to just come together as a collective of two like-minded collaborators in producing great artwork.

So we’re very excited today to announce the launch of BoomScience [www.boomscience.com], where we will be sharing our ongoing light art collaborations online. The outcome of the experience was just uplifting and we feel shows in the experiments we’ve made and of which there is definitely more to come. And while you’re at it, head on down and join our facebook page, where we would love to discuss and work with all the other artists out there.

When you meet people for the first time, there’s always an aura one would sense if you’d be able to click with the other. When you do, there’s always that je ne sai quoi that makes the relationship all the more special. And that is what I felt when I met Jeremy, a brilliant photographer of whom I humbly am able to call and count on as a friend. In the short span of a year, we’ve helped each other out on various projects, shared countless laughs and exchanged experiences not just as fierce competitors but also as genuine friends. Then when I met straight-talking Ann, whom X immediately clicked with I just knew this relationship was looking long-term.

As a wedding photographer himself, J had been wondering what to do for his own Pre-Wedding shoot for his upcoming wedding. We had been experimenting on a little side project for a while, when one day we looked at each other and it clicked – we knew that this project waiting at the wings would be perfect.

The ladies can attest to the late nights, early mornings and countless ‘N.G’ takes we had to pull through to get these amazing one-off shots. But we all think the results paid off and most importantly we thoroughly enjoyed the process of creating.

Collaborators:
Darryl from dazza
Jeremy from Redco Photography

Special thanks:
Xuann, Eadwine, Eirik and The Scientists.

On the rare occasion that I had a Saturday free, I went Biennale-ing. You know what, I’m having a headache just trying to get my brain to think. Here are the photos.

Gabbo – the funny nephew.

You see, if you have four nieces all between Primary 4 to 6, when they come over to the grandparents (yes, yes. I still live my parents. Bleah), the ruckus they create when they run around the house screaming, yelling, jumping and shouting – well you pretty much get the picture. No doubt the house is pretty vacant and silent with only the three of us at home, but it is the peace I very much appreciate.

Now Gabriel, the youngest of the kids and the only nephew, I reckon is much like me. The gap between his two sisters of 7 and 8 years is well, much like the age gap between my sisters and I – the youngest of three. He is a cute little fellow, who says the funniest things which makes you go ‘Where the hell did he learn that?!’ or simply bewilders you with the intelligence such a tiny being can have. And I smile when he visits, yelling for ‘Por-pers’ (Por Por), ‘Gong-Gong’ or ‘Ang-Ker Dare-rel’ from the gates.

And well, that makes me love kids – to watch such innocence, untainted, without jaded eyes, learning and growing each day. Which is not the point, if you’re wondering about my paternal instincts kicking in. Ahhhh…..awww…..

But my gawd! The yelling!!!

I was feeling a little silly this evening and decided to doodle #754 of lyrrad’s random MSN nicknames.

Being the pedantical pedantic maniac, someone had to go ‘STOP ALREADY!’ and so it was a National Service reservist call up that gave me the kick in the nuts to complete it before I head in tomorrow. That’s right tomorrow (more about that in the next post).

No name dropping here, but I’d also like to thank a few people who gave me their feedback and encouragement;

• Alex from depixel for the laughs and experiences at the various weddings we shot together. “Uncle, we’re shooting birds la! (pa jiao) “
• Eulee for all the tip sharing, advice and nasi lemak at Portsdown
• Ming for the encouragement and telling me – “Just go shoot”, “Shoot more”, “F*** the rule of thirds”
• Nickadeedodah for pointing out to me that the right way to spell bride’s maid is bridesmaid, and of course for all the other spelling and grammatical mistakes. Ok, ok. It’s pedantic, not pedantical.
• Of course, Mom and my brothers.

Anyways, hit the link, check out the site, the photos and do drop me a line with what you think of it – love / hate. Of course, I reserve the right to hate the hate! ;-) Thanks and cheers.

We do – Wedding Photography by dazza < we-do.dazza.sg >

Joining the global procrastination on revamping websites, I’ve Rebooted my website in participation of the May 1 Reboot. Vote for yours truly here. Thank you.

Hidee ho,
it’s been months in the making, but I’m happy to launch the first incarnation of my new portfolio website – dazza.sg.

I probably first started thinking about it maybe June ’07. I knew I wanted to relaunch lyrradnahc.com, and it was something at the back of my head as I was on my sabbatical. I’ll admit it, I just got plain lazy and enjoyed not having to think about work. I woke up late most days, enjoyed sitting at cafes, reading, just observing people and watching life go by. It felt great being able to head to the cinemas on a weekday afternoon to catch films again. The hiatus plan also included getting into espresso making, getting my advanced PADI and working/learning as a photographers’ assistant. And I guess somewhere during that time, I put on paper the first sketch of the design.

And then in August, I got called up for my first Reservist in-camp. I had managed to lay below MINDEF’s radar for 7 years and I wasn’t really looking forward to spending 2 weeks away from my break! And so, the brilliant thing about MINDEF’s efficiency, I learnt on the very evening on the last day of our ’2 week obligation’ – that in November I’d have to come back again for a weapons conversion course. Brilliant.

To cut to the chase, I must have really started designing / developing this baby sometime in October ’07. I took my time with it and am not abashed to say that I designed the site for ME. Friends kept asking me when I would finally get it done, perhaps they were meaning to say ‘When the hell are you gonna look for a job?!’ :-p. First it was – ‘End of the year’, ‘January 2nd’, ‘Before chinese new year’, yada, yada, yada… Realising they were probably right to hound me for it, I decided to go on a retreat. A retreat to Bora Bora. I’d head to the island paradise to reflect on life, watch fishes, get a tan and ogle at bikinis. So I packed my bags, set my MSN nick and facebook status to announce my trip and disappeared for a week. Only thing is… the trip… well… was my self-imagined vacation and Bora Bora was actually my SOHO. Sorry guys to have fooled you. But it’s now launched right?!

The effects on the site will probably run a little slower on older machines and I was selfish not giving a hoot about that. This site is still in Flash 8 and not the latest greatest Flash CS3, one thing – I don’t have the dough for the new suite and also I’m scared of Actionscript 3. [start gripe] My gripe with Adobe and the whole ‘latest! greatest!’ concept is, it is fucking tiresome to have to re-learn the authoring tool every time a new version is released. If it was the ‘latest and greatest’ then you wouldn’t need to launch a new and improved version right? But then again, that would mean lower profits too no? [ok, end of gripe]

Anyway, take a look around, take a seat, stay and let us know what you think. Cheers.

After much procrastination, trial and error, and clearing a backlog of work, I’ve finally decided to launch this baby. I guess it would never have been launched, if I didn’t just say – frag it and launch it as it is and add more bits and pieces as we go along. (And with that my little disclaimer that some bits might end up lookin a lil’ weird as we add / fix stuff, thanks.)

And I reckon everyone with blogs, have always a hard time with their first official post – “What do I say, where do I start?” And as I contemplated this, I decided to do a search on my hard drives for images starting with “001″ – the first registered filename on most digital cameras. And as the search results returned, there were several ‘cringe moments’ as I looked at photos from a few years ago. So here I present to you the findings. I hope you’d come back again and stay reading, thanks and cheers!

Click thumbnails below -