So you already know I am an Instagram freak, well here's my entire vacation to Perth with the family this month as an extra large instagram collage :D To make head or tail of the images, I guess you should go to Instagram and search the hashtag #sgperth0312 to view the entire collection complete with captions and comments. All instagrams shot and edited with my iPhone 4S. DSLR images to come soon :)
2011 was not a good year for many I know. It was quite a bad one for me too the first half of 2011. The year started with me falling sick twice. Now this is rare if you know me and to get hit twice at the beginning of the year started the bad luck rolling. The next few months saw us receiving two lawyers' letters (long story), my kids contracted HFMD, chicken pox too even though vaccinated, business was slow up till June, our photos were used everywhere without credit, my grandma passed away and my mother took thousands from me to settle her debts leaving us with no vacation last year.
But why bore you with my sob story?! Here are the good bits of 2011! :) On the business front for The Studio Loft, we had an awesome year and a few milestones. In Feb we welcomed Joanne Tan as our 3rd photographer, she was teaching at a childcare centre before and is great with kids especially the naughty ones :p Wen Lin and I are happy to have her on board working with us. We also had intern extraordinaire Yvonne Soh for 8 weeks! She is an extremely talented illustrator and artist and we were bloody lucky to have her as our intern :)
We had our very first walk-in promotion OUTDOORS! It was the Easter Hop-Out and it was a great success although the weather was rather unkind to us. We also smashed all walk-in records with our innovative and awesomely cute settings for the Children's Day Walk-In! The first day of the walk-in on Childrens' Day itself saw us not being able to cope with the number of people coming in so we had to turn a few away otherwise we would have been shooting till 9pm!
In total for 2011, we shot 283 Blooms (maternity), 135 Teeny Weenys (newborn), 215 Little Big Shots and 155 We Are Families! We are so grateful for all the support shown to us by our clients, old and new, and hope that 2012 will be an even better year for the studio. What's coming up for The Studio Loft in 2012? First big thing will be we are moving to a BIGGER and better space come 3rd quarter of 2012! We are also hoping to hire one more digital imaging artist to help us with post processing work. To stay at the top of our game, we will be attending more professional photography workshops and may even hold one ourselves! We will strive to continually come up with new and exciting promotions and interesting settings and backgrounds for walk-in or walk-out shoots in appreciation of all our clients who love to come for these mini-shoots. So stay tuned by "liking" our Facebook page :)
Last year also saw great exposure for me as a mobile photographer. Three of my iPhone Instagram photos were selected for the SIN exhibition out of 8000+ submissions and I am very honoured to be a part of the Singapore Instagram community. I was also given a HTC Sensation smartphone as part of HTC's marketing campaign getting photographers from different backgrounds to shoot with a HTC. Six of my photos shot with the HTC was featured in advertorials for the phone company. I was also interviewed in The Straits Times for an article on the growing trend of travel photography with the phone camera.
This blog was nominated as Best Family Blog in the Singapore Blog Awards 2011. I didn't win the category but won a few new friends :) Since then I have not been actively blogging due to work and family commitments. I am hoping to be more active this year so do keep your comments coming as I would feel better knowing I am talking to somebody out there and not just to myself :D
I baked my most ever in 2011 and was constantly Instagramming as well! This led to me forming a special friendship with the Instagram Mamas - @kawaiisensei @tygermama @catfong and @jmeelim! These ladies made each day much easier to get through with our Whatsapp chats, monthly meetups for tea or baking classes together! Thank you so much for your friendship :)
2012 sees a big change in my family's schedule. Kayden our eldest starts his primary education this year! Dylan continues at nursery level in the childcare centre (much to his dismay) and we parents have been struggling to stay awake and sane since the year began :p Here's hoping the new year gets better as we go along. That goes for you too and I wish everyone a great 2012!
I leave you with a few shots from one of my last few Teeny Weeny shoots of 2011 :)
I spent today with my elder son Kayden, who has been down with chicken pox since last friday. He isn't having a bad outbreak as he has been inoculated previously. Don't ask me why he still caught it but we are thankful it's just like 15 pox over his upper body. His sexy legs were spared haha, not even one!
As I was helping him get dressed after his bath, I started to notice things about this not so little boy. His bermudas have become shorts... he doesn't dislike pink... he owns a cute baby paunch... he has a lovely smile and nice lips... he is bashful... and this is the best thing I noticed - he still loves me despite the younger brother and my work claiming almost all my time! *yay!*
After doing some artwork, we walked over to the neighbourhood mall for his favourite Japanese lunch. The usual order is cold soba noodles and egg sushi. Once we sat, he proceeded to take a plate of Tamago off the sushi train. Followed by another in quick succession. I exclaimed that he must be famished! He replied,"No, this plate is for di di." But di di is not here darling. "It's for him when he comes back from school." *melts*
So there I sat across the table from this sweet boy, all grown up and independent, doesn't seem that long ago when I was still cleaning up his diapers. I can't help feeling that I had lost precious number of moments with him since Dylan came along. It's like he was 3 years old then 6 years! Where did all that time go? I got a little sad. I made a decision there and then that I must get to know my firstborn again. His dreams and ambitions, his joys and heartaches, I want to know them all and for him to share with me his deepest thoughts. I want to be his mother and best friend again. But for the moment, we are mother and son sharing a day together, and that hug and kiss from him when the day ends was just what I needed to remind me that I have a wonderful son who loves me.
No iPhone 5!!!!! Drats! I've been making do with my iPhone 3Gs for so long now it's starting to look like an antique :( So when the announcement came from Apple early this morning our time that it is actually an iPhone 4S, I was totally disappointment. BUT WAIT! As I watched the video, I got more excited. The big big thing for me as a photographer was of course the new 8MP camera and optics that also shoots 1080p HD video! Not only that, they have added a 5th lens to the camera plus a larger f2.4 aperture allowing for low light photography. There's an image stabiliser when shooting videos too, so no more Blaire Witch projects :p WOO HOO!
However excited I was about the camera, there was this new assistant they introduced which you can't help but love. Her name's Siri! Check her out below.
Now THAT'S AWESOME and did you see that baking section of the video, that's so ME! I am always checking the damn phone apps for conversion of temperatures, cups to grams etc with my oily and floured covered fingers. Now Siri can help me :D *dancing around the living room*
*added on 16 oct* Ok I dunno how Siri is going to respond to Singlish but here's a rough idea from Mr Brown with S.I.M.I! HILARIOUS! If you are Singaporean, you got to listen to this podcast :p LOL!
One last great news is iCloud. iCloud stores your music, photos, videos etc wirelessly and pushes them to all your devices. Automatic, effortless and seamless they tell you. Now that's just spiffy isn't it? Here I am trying to delete photos and apps I don't use from my iPhone just to be able to store new data. So iCloud is gonna save me all that storage problem :)
Ok, you know where to find me when the iPhone 4S starts selling in Singapore, at the phone shop :D
It was back in December last year when I posted my first Instagram! What is an Instagram you ask? It is a photo you shoot with your iPhone and share via the Instagram app. It is sort of like Facebook for photos only, within your iPhone. You can follow other users and have followers within the Instagram community who can then like or comment on your photos. I became an IG (short for Instagram) addict and am known as an SGIGer (Singapore Instagramer) :D
The IG community grew rapidly and one SGIGer, @chairfreak together with @aikbengchia and @phonenomenon spearheaded a project to get an exhibition of Instagrams up this year and viola! Tonight is the opening of SIN: A Singapore Instagram Exhibition at the National Library :) SIN is an exhibition of Instagrams with “Singapore” as its theme. The exhibition is curated by Mr Goh Eck Kheng, Dr Tan Ngiap Heng (my shifu!) and Mr Chia Aik Beng (Singapore's most prolific iPhone photographer). It features Singaporeans, our way of life, Singapore architecture and of course our glorious food!
Out of the 8000+ submissions, a collection of 150 works that were photographed by the ubiquitous iPhone by everyday Singaporeans from professional photographers to full-time housewives were selected for the exhibition. I am proud to say that 3 of these Instagrams belonged to me @tubbykat :)
If you have the time, do visit the SIN exhibition which runs from today till 30th October 2011. You will not be disappointed and perhaps even be surprised that all those photos were taken and edited with the humble iPhone!
Photo of us at the exhibition taken by my fellow SGIGer and friend @pixbykm :)
Today marks the end of an 80 year run for the KTM train service into Tanjong Pagar railway station. It is a historic event with reporters, photographers and the man on the street clamoring at the station for one last look, photo or meal before the last train rolls out slightly before midnight. From tomorrow, the service will only be available from the Woodlands station.
Exactly one month before, my friend Ik Hui decided that just for fun we should go for a ride on the train with the kids to Johor Bahru and back! What a swell idea and the boys were pretty stoked about going on their first train ride too (i try to ignore their whining while we got seated onboard about "what's that smell mummy?!").
Here are the pictures taken with my iPhone yet again. Yes, I brought the DSLR but with two kids to mind for, it was just easier shooting with the phone :p
CHOO CHOO!
the 3 adventurers
our seats and ticket
love the reflection of kay
the boys missed their naptime
jaeden chirpy and checking out the onboard brochure
An excursion with the boys and mummy's entire studio yesterday :p Will update with full blogpost and DSLR pictures soon. All shots taken and edited with my iPhone.
The earthquakes and tsunamis that hit Japan earlier this year claimed many lives and caused so much devastation that it made the rest of the world want to reach out and help the land of the rising sun. Singaporeans too offered their hand and donations in anyway they can and we were delighted to be a part of the Beauty For Japan fundraiser organised by my client and world renowned makeup artist Andrea Claire. It was a gathering of the top makeup artists and hairstylists in Singapore offering tips and a beauty clinic to the guests of the event. With a minimum donation of $50, participants got themselves prettied up and had a portrait shot by us on the spot :)
We thought it would be fun to shoot some iPhone pictures of each fundraiser participant holding a speech bubble with their message of encouragement to Japan.
Here's a composite of some of the ladies (and one guy!) who had their shots taken after being made up!
And here's one shot in colour (so you can see the wonderful makeup) of Andrea's beautiful daughter, love the hair too!
For 2 hours of all our time that day, we managed to raise for the Japan Red Cross just under $1k. We hope this will help you in some small way Japan, gambatte!
I made this simple cake for Dylan's early birthday celebrations..................NAH! I wouldn't do that to my little boy! See next post for what the cake really looked like :) (shot and edited with my iPhone)
Being my second child, I have been quite slack with Dylan in terms of bringing him for enrichment classes, letting him watch educational DVDs etc so one tuesday I was off and decided to spend the day with him doing such stuff. I let him watch Your Baby Can Read, to my surprised, he sat through the entire first half of the video and even paid attention. One of the words shown in the video was NOSE and ARMS UP. During the second half he wanted neh neh, so I kept the video on while he nursed. At one point of the video, it was the ARMS UP word again and when he heard the word, he raised one arm (the other was stuck around my waist)! After he stopped nursing, I let him continue watching the video, next word he mastered was NOSE, he pointed to his nose when the word was read out. Next came KICK. Ok I know most of your kids this age probably already know all these words but this was the first time I let him watch this video and already he picked up 3 words just like that. Made me guilty of what he could achieve if I had the time to sit with him an hour each day learning like this. Gosh, is he missing out? That evening I excitedly told his father about Dyl's achievements and he said it's a coincidence la! I asked Dyl, where's your nose? He flattened his nose as he placed his finger on it :p ARMS UP! I said and both his arms popped up in surrender pose kekeke. You should have seen his dad's face ;) That was more than a month back, he knows quite a few now.
Can say and understand: 1. BALL 2. BYE BYE 3. BUBBLES 4. DUCK 5. STAR 6. FLOWER (wow-wer) 7. CHRISTMAS TREE (ok ok, he calls it quish mus si) 8. NA (Ribena) 9. CHOU CHOU (when he poops, complete with hand fanning action to shows it's smelly) 10.SHOES (hoos) 11.UP 12.NEH NEH 13.MAMA (his favourite word kekeke) 14.HELLO (harrow, he will put a phone to his ear as he says this) 15.BABY (bee bee) 16.MOMO (our cat) 17.HOT (he will exaggerate with a scrunched up face to indicate that it's "hooort") 18.BOOK 19.BEAR (any soft toy is a bear :p) 20.NO MORE (twists wrists and hands to show no more)
Can understand and react: 1. NOSE 2. EARS 3. HEAD 4. BELLY BUTTON 5. EYES 6. SOME MORE? (If he has had enough, he will shake his head) 7. ARMS UP 8. KICK 9. WHERE IS xxx? (He will reply "THERE!" if he knows the item) 10.POSE (cocks head to right side) 11.CLAP 13.Give me a kiss or hug and he will do just that, but the kiss is him giving you his cheek to receive a kiss
I also brought Dylan for the first time to an indoor kids gym called Polliwogs at East Coast. He was a bit apprehensive at first and I ended up with a bit of a workout bringing him around the obstacles and encouraging him to try the slides etc. We went with gor gor a few weeks later and this time, Dyl wasted no time showing his brother around and even went up and down the slides on his own. This boy's a real trooper :) The both of them totally enjoyed themselves and I was glad to see Dylan opening up.
Lately whenever I whip out the camera or my phone and point it at him, he will give this cheesy cheeky grin almost like Kayden's eyeless smile! I wonder if Kay has been giving him lessons on how to smile :s This is what he looks like in that smile :p
OH and I almost forgot, Dyl boy won this mountain of yum yum from a Halloween photo contest by Cold Storage. I happened to buy 2 Halloween props (a witch hat and a devil's horn) from the supermarket and took some pictures of him wearing the horns (he hated the hat) and submitted this collage and he won! The grocery trolley bag that could be pulled up stairs easily (it has 6 wheels) is really handy.
This is the winning shot:
Diet wise, there has been much improvements. Dylan eats rice for dinner now, which I lightly stir fry with pureed vegetables and add in an egg or some tofu for his protein. He's still vegetarian at the moment. He loves fruits, any kind but especially cataloupes, bananas, apples, pears and grapes. He likes to feed himself too unlike Kayden. Often rather taking the food portion from your hand instead of letting you feed him. I like!
One of my resolutions for the new year will be to spend more quality time with the little squirt offering him more opportunities and exposure to education and not waste his capacity for learning.
(all pictures taken on the Lumix and iPhone. my iPhone is the very first version from USA, thus the low image quality)
Ok I am almost a week late posting Dylan's 10th month old entry! My apologies to the toothy smiler, this is THE smile I so love from him, showing all 4 teeth with 2 more on top peeking through the gums:
He also has a new toy, a finger lollipop:
Dearest boobu, I have to say I am rather disappointed that you have not started walking unassisted yet! You started standing with support at 2 months old and I really thought you would beat your brother's 10.5mths record at walking but nooo, you are such a cautious little thing that the moment you feel unsafe, you drop like a hot potato and revert to crawling :p You still have a week left to match your bro's record so "jia you"!
Friends and family say that you have slimmed down, we can now see your neck and your face is sharper. It's no wonder, you've been stuck at 9.something kg for the longest time and you have grown longer/taller. Lookwise, I would say you look better as your features become more defined. The double eyelid on your left eye is quite permanent now but the right eye's fold remains hidden. Your daddy say you look weird like that but I think it just makes you unique :)
You love your brother so much, evident from your big smile each time you see him in the morning and when we pick him up from school. I enjoy seeing the both of you interact and play with each other. You respond to your talkative brother's ramblings with squawks and soothing noises which sound like the whale's singing.
We have to be wary of how we speak around your presence as you are sensitive to speech tones and patterns now. For example when you misbehave or fuss for no reason, I just need to give a stern "hey" and you will instantly turn your mouth upside down and drop your head with exaggerated force to rest on me, apologetic and acknowledging that you have done wrong. When your brother raises his voice, you scrunch up your face and wail immediately, looking to me for justice, tearless of course :p If you get no attention from us, you will stop just as soon as you started :s
There are a few words which you understand and respond to. They are "Bye", "Clap", "Pose" and "No". I don't know where you picked up "pose" from but it's certainly not how I tell my clients to do while shooting! hahaha! Your brother started this pose too on his 1st birthday exactly. Looks like it runs in the family :D
Oh and you had your first hair cut at the barber's on Good Friday! You screamed the shop down and by the time they were done with you, your face was a mess of tears, snort and hair :s I am dreading your future visits already.
Little boy, I hope your toothy smiles will be with you always, even when you are an old man with just that many teeth as you have now.
Love, MUMM-Ma (that's what you've been calling me lately ;P)
*photos (except the last one) taken with the iPhone at Marche*
i am a mummy to two rascals (boys) :)
i own and run The Studio Loft, shooting babies, kids, families and the very pregnant! This blog is a diary of my kids growing up, my photography and personal ramblings :)
