Our Family Diary: July 2014

Saturday, July 26, 2014

My new toy, my telephoto zoom lens : Jul-14

Since buying my full lens DSLR, I had been 'aiming' to have a telephoto zoom lens to go along with it. As it was rather expensive, I did not jump straight into the buying mood but was reviewing and reviewing for several months. Finally, after talking to a photo enthusiast and a professional photographer and both echoed how addictive the f/2.8 telephoto was... I think I couldn't wait further.

After reviewing that a third party lens could be better than the original Canon lens and a thousand dollar cheaper, I decided to buy this third party lens, a Tamron SP 70-200mm f/2.8 Di VC USD. It was very heavy to adopt and play with as it was nearly 1.5kg adding to the camera body. Nevertheless, I was thrilled by it's quality, I was starting to get addicted to it.

New banner for our Blog : Jul-14

One good Sunday afternoon, we decided to make good use of our studio strobe lights to take some formal individual shots for a new blog banner. While spirit was high, preparation effort was also high. Lights needed to be setup, backdrop needed to be ironed, clothes needed to be chosen, makeup, hair styling... we took at least 2 hours before everyone was ready for the shootout. As usual, we had a merry time during the shootout session. Although our white background cloth was not opaque enough to provide a clean white background, the photos turned out pretty decent. We even invited our new family member, Tobby, to join us in the shooting and he cooperated perfectly.

After choosing the better shots, it was time for me to practice my photoshop skills again. I took me a tedious few days to crop the pictures and design the banner, it turned out to be quite satisfactory since everyone was looking at their best at least.

Sunday, July 20, 2014

40th BD Bash With DHS Friends : Jul-14

2014 is a year for reunions.

The July 10 date soon arrived after my besties landed home one after another. Though one was not planned and it was not for good reason that she was back in Singapore, we were nevertheless exhilarated to have her join us! Did I mention most of us have opted to exclude spouse and children for this big bash? And that was exactly what we did!! (^_^)

The 40th birthday bash was a huge success!! 18 out of the 20 on our Whatsapp chat group turned up for the party; the remaining 2 were pretty sad they could not make it due to home commitment. The party venue was the photography studio of one of our gals, now a professional photographer. In that huge space, we ate delicious home cooked Malay cuisine and took countless studio pictures in various permutations we could think of, whilst recounting interesting events that peppered our memorable secondary school days which happened like two decades ago........

Well, did I say no spouse or children? Hehee.. i gave Victor a very important task that evening and invited him along! He was to be our candid shot photographer as well as relief photographer so that our dearest photographer friend could also join us in the pictures!!

Our guys ..

Our gals ..

Everybody !!

Our most lovely and sweet birthday representative ..

Everybody, again !!

So, the studio pictures credit to Berry Happy Photography (http://www.berryhappy.com/), and the candid shots credit to my dearest laogong Victor Koh!

Piggin out and catchin up ..

.. while some of us asked for personal shots!

Tryin to do a re-make of a pic taken in our JC days ..

Watchin our dear friend at work with our pics ..

Everyone was supposed to look at the professional ..

This was what happened in between some shots !!

We really don't look 40, do we ?

Amazing perspective found by Victor !!

Can u tell what instruments they used to play ?

She's our memory bank, she remembers everything !!

Lotsa actions after every pro shot, u know ...

We're so fortunate to be in this spacious studio ..

We can't all stand behind the cake & sing ourselves bd song..

So we had a rep !!

Someone's amused our hardworking photographer !!

Seems like we're back to secondary sch days !!

Sharing pictures is so easy nowadays..

.. isn't it ?

Our venue sponsor with our organizer ..

A very nice chap cleanin up whilst others r busy with nothing

Earlier blue and now red background, our school badge colors!!

En's 7th Birthday : Jul-14

Since the end of June, I had someone keep asking me why isn't July here yet, why it takes so long for June to be over, etc.. Yes, that someone was En, and her anticipation for July was only because of one thing -- her birthday!!

Juz like Qi, who thinks that the entire world should evolve around her for her birthday, En has the same mentality. In fact, juz as it turned July 1, En came to me, "Mummy Mummy, I am very excited!!!!" She caught me off-guarded and I was about to ask her why when she asked me, "Mummy, you know why I am so excited, right?" Eyes sparkled like never before.

Since months before her birthday, she had planned for her birthday celebration. Each time every year she would want a birthday party, but in the end, she would opt for something else besides a party to celebrate her birthday somehow.

En was rather upset when she learnt that her birthday fell on a weekday this year, a lil' distressed over how she could celebrate her special day if she had to go to school! "Well, we can always celebrate it over the weekend before your actual birthday!" -- this made her more relieved.. (^_^)

Before long, we were discussing on whether to celebrate her birthday on the Saturday or Sunday.. That was when we realized that her birthday actually fell on a school holiday! The replacement school holiday for Youth Day.. In the end, En's birthday was celebrated on two days - Sunday and birthday Monday!! She's such a fortunate and happy gal...

En's idea of celebration was very simple - Barbie doll toys, breakfast @Canopy, and playground time @Pasir Ris Park.