Side Note: It is so easy to spot the faults and imperfections on another person's picture, and shunning his photography skills right there and then, but have you ever thought for a second sometimes it was not that easy to make that not so perfect shot happen? Criticism is accepted, but not blind comments with no directions.
So I was in Singapore and the main reason for that was to attend the very first Blogger's Christmas Party, jointly organized by VPOST and Nuffnang.
It was held at one of the prominent clubs locally in Singapore, DXO which was situated around 15 minutes taxi ride away from the Marriott Hotel where we spent the night in.
We arrived the venue rather early, hence I had plenty of opportunities to snap around.
The party was, like usual, a costume party, where everyone has to dress up accordingly to the theme of own choice according to the assigned letter of either V, P, O, S, or T. Interestingly neither me nor Jason (the bubbly lovely guy who got me an invitation to the entire thing) was assigned with any letter, and being invited in such last minute, I was unable to come up with anything near decently creative.
Gosh, I was so occupied with the company Christmas Dinner (I was part of the organizing committee), a friend who flew in from Kuching and stayed the night at my place and a million other things that I did not have the time to sit down and think about what costume I would be dressing up to the party, let alone go and buy or make them happen !!
Alright lets forget about me and move on to the more interesting things of the night.
Ruby and Cindy (The MDG)
Upon arrival, like typical bloggers everywhere, the camwhoring began. It was great seeing so many bloggers coming together. Primarily the event was organized for Singaporean bloggers, with around 20 invited Malaysian bloggers to join in only. For some reasons, I have been falling out of touch from the world of blogosphere.
There were only a few older generation bloggers that I could recognize, as the newer and obviously the currently popular ones, I had not a slightest clue who they were. Nonetheless, it was great fun meeting everyone, getting to know new faces, and of course, taking pictures of those camwhoring actions going to the extreme !!
Note to self: Start blog-hopping again so you would not be missed out in huge events like this.
Among the celebrities who attended the event from Malaysia were Sixthseal, Kenny Sia, and Cindy (the Malaysian Dream Girl). It was really awesome seeing the gathering of the stars of the blogosphere, and partying together in a club.
There were free food (buffet style) and free limited drinks.
The entire event was rather well organized I must say, kudos to the organizing committee. Handling so many bloggers together from two different countries was no easy task I dare say, and they managed to pull off just right. The programme was just right, with enough thrill and games to get the crowd going.
The only drawback I would think of is the lack of space for getting to know people that you do not know. Most of the time I was stuck with familiar faces, and for a not so known (more like invisible) blogger like me, it was impossible to get into the crowd. The loud music (though I do admit darn good music) and almost pitch dark lighting of a typical club scene did no good in helping people to move around and get to know more people.
That aside, I do think the event was a huge success. Everyone seemed to be enjoying themselves tremendously.
INSIDE DXO
Photography was a nightmare though. It is rather interesting how all the events of me using my camera lately all required me to have an external flash. Without one, it was almost impossible to focus and meter the subjects accurately, and forget the speed of the camera in performing such tasks. There were times I needed to wait for at least 2-3 seconds before the camera could lock the focus and I could release the shutter.
And the Camwhowring resumes.....
Despite the poor AF speed performance, the accuracy was rather impressive under virtually no light condition, and I seldom missed focus. And the pictures come out surprisingly pleasing too, considering the mere fact that I was only utilizing the built in flash. Inevitably, there will be blown highlights and harsh skin tones, but I dare say they were kept rather minimum, and the results were rather presentable in my opinion.
Jolene and Chee Kiang... two of the friendliest and nicest people around !!
Ruby, a girl who uses a DSLR !!
(photo stolen from www.jasonmumbles.com)Obviously having an external flash will aid me in these areas: A lot quicker AF/AE
(auto focus/exposure) operations with the built in assist lamp on the unit, and stronger, and more evenly distributed artificial lighting from the flash firing, with full control of light directions and better adjustments on the intensity. I wonder if Santa would ever give out external flash units for Christmas Presents?
Audrey who won the best dressed costume for the night.
Due to the troublesome limitation of my current camera, ie the slow focus speed under super dark situations, camwhowring with the babes were almost impossible, as it did take a certain effort and knowledge on focusing to get the right picture output.
During the event a few unexpected things happened though.
Huai Bin (Sixthseal) passed out, lying on the couch next to the buffet table just as the dinner has begun. Kinda early for a party freak like him to end.
And boy, you should see how those girls threw themselves to Kenny Sia. I guess they all took turns to stroke his balls for the night. I wonder if he has any left after the party.
The entire event ended at 10pm. Some of the bloggers stayed on to party, but most of the people there left the venue, either crawling to another pub, or for those people like me who would want to do the tourist thing, I went on and started shooting on Singaporean night scenery.
So that was it, the main event of the Singapore trip. Coming up next would be Singapore: The Night Scene.
