Mission Accomplished

Back from Thailand.



That's me with the main man in Sukhothai Historical Park. There's also about a million mosquitoes in the picture but thankfully you can't see them :)

Dancing Schoolkids

Bumped into these schoolkids doing a presentation at a public park in Sukhothai, Thailand:



After spending a whole day shooting drab and gray archaeological digs and temple ruins, their colorful costumes and graceful movements were a sight for tired eyes :)

Shot on assignment for Fah Thai Magazine.

Another Muang Boran

It means "old city" in Thai, and there's plenty of them here in Thailand:



A Buddhist monk displays artifacts recovered from Ban Khleang, Central Thailand, where a archaeologists are currently studying the remains of a 700-year-old temple.

Mine... Mine.... MINE!!!!

I am not even gonna attempt to explain this sign:



Last I heard, there's still a living, breathing minefield just a few kilometers from Banteay Srei, that famous red temple near Angkor in Cambodia.

My survival handbook states the following precautions, among many others, in mined areas:

- Follow only well-worn pathways and never stray from them. Taking a step or two outside to urinate can prove costly. I guess that means you can piss on the trail.

- If you're in a place with suspected minefields, watch out for abandoned fields or old, unused trails. These may have been left by the locals because of the presence of mines. Disembodied parts of animals (or even people) lying around unburied area are a sure sign of the presence of mines.

- When traversing a suspected minefield, walk slowly, tread softly and try to land each step on the balls of your feet. This offers a better chance of stepping backwards quickly if you suspect a mine in front of you.

- When you hear a click on the ground after you take a step, GAME OVER.

Valerie and Melissa

Two pretty ladies I photographed early this year:



Valerie's a part-time model who made a cold call to my office. Melissa's a full-time professional who has since appeared in a couple of TV commercials. They're the cover girls for the April-May issue of SMILE, the inflight magazine of Cebu Pacific Airlines.

All Hail!

Long live THE KING!



The spirit of Elvis lives on in people like Jega, one of the few hardcore Elvis impersonators in Singapore.

Shot with a Canon EOS 400D + EF 18-55mm lens

Yosi Pot

The fire escape stairway near the photo desk at Ink is the site of a favorite breaktime activity:



Now that is heavy duty smoking :)

Shot with a Canon EOS 400D + EF 28-135mm IS lens

Captain and first mate

A bumboat driver and his second-in-command (the conductor) wait for a full ship before sailing for Ubin Island, off the north coast of Singapore:



Shot with a Mamiya MSX-1000 and a 28mm lens, using Colpan 100 rated at ISO 200.

Clarke Quay

Hard to believe that cargo from boats used to be unloaded at this place:



The building in the background was probably once a warehouse. Today, Clarke Quay is one of Singapore's trendiest nightspots. Back then it was bumboats and barrels. Today its beer and babes.

Shot for Time Out Singapore's "Bar Wars" feature.

This is for you

I moved in close with my camera to take her picture and this is what happened:



But don't let this furious finger fool you, friend - she's a nice person. She's a cool editor too :P

I love the way the red pencil gives an accent to the image.

E.T. Rajarantharam phones home

A foreign worker calls home on a phone booth near Desker Road:



Check out the massive handset. That has got to be bigger than his head. I bet you can hammer nails with that thing.

Shot using my last roll of Colpan 100. Mamiya MSX 1000 camera, 50mm lens.

The Kiwi Klub

Had a long conversation with a Kiwi photographer today which reminded me of an assignment I did in New Zealand almost a year ago. I tell ya - just take away his camera and he'll fit right into this picture:



This was shot at a sheep farm just outside Napier, at the edge of Hawke's Bay in the North Island. It's amazing how it all looked exactly like TV - the barn, the sheep, the sheepdogs and the kind country folks. What's even more amazing is that right behind this place is a real nature reserve on a cliff, complete with a breeding colony of rare seabirds. Man I love this place.

Oh, and you know who you are, John :)

...and now for the MAIN EVENT

A tang ki, or spirit medium, cleanses a pair of swords with water from his mouth before cutting himself with it:



Last night was the birthday of Kuan Yin, the Chinese goddess of mercy, and the night before that was the birthday of another Chinese deity, the uncle of the Jade Emperor. These are enough reasons for the Taoist gods to come down to earth (or come up from you-know-where) to hang with us mortals. When this happens, it is the body of tang ki that they possess. This dude you see here was in a trance. Check out his head - it's bleeding. And he is standing on a bridge made of sword blades. Cool eh?

Yup, this happened right outside my window, just a few meters from a live POP CONCERT. I kid you not!

The Muppet Show

Sort of...



The Taoist god of hell is celebrating his birthday right now and this is part of his bash - a traditional Chinese string puppet show, placed in front of his altar to entertain him and his other immortal friends.

Now this thing can get awfully noisy with plenty of percussion and string instruments being played, and they're playing it right outside my apartment window. I guess I won't be getting much sleep these next few nights, but hell this is so cool (pardon the pun) - a cultural curiosity right where I live!