Nature Nurtured - Listening to Mr. Subaraj Rajathurai

On Monday night, at the SG100 Foundation Meeting, our speaker was Mr. Subaraj Rajathurai, a lifelong naturalist and a wildlife consultant. Honestly, I can think of very few professions cooler than that.

When he took the platform, I could feel the passion behind his words as he told us about his humble beginnings and the immense work he had done to push for the conversation of what we now know as Sungei Buloh Wetland Reserve, amongst other little-known but no-less-massive efforts to preserve Singapore's wildlife and its habitats.

He highlighted some of his favourite animals and showed us that Singapore, despite being a tiny country, has some of the richest biodiversity in the world due both to our geographical location (close to the equator) and the age of our rainforests (older than even the majestic Amazon).

When he came to the topic of rapid development and urbanisation of Singapore, he emphasised that he saw this as a necessary part of Singapore's growth, though he was firm in his belief that it needs to be done in a responsible manner and with respect to the natural environment.

To this day, he works in his favourite classroom - The Great Outdoors - both as a teacher and as a student. He gives guided tours, conducts nature programmes, and does field surveys alongside other researchers and nature enthusiasts.

Mr. Subaraj is a man I highly respect. He lives his life in the pursuit of learning and passing on what he has learned, and he encourages others to do the same.

He reminds us that we cannot live apart from our natural environment, that if we care for nature, nature takes care of us.

Thank you for sharing your life and your passion, Mr. Subaraj. Through your words, I am inspired.

A Commemorative Dinner, A Book Launch, An Opportunity to Collaborate

On Wednesday, I attended an event at SAFRA Toa Payoh - 'Lest We Forget' - a dinner to commemorate the passing of our Senior Minister Mr. Lee Kuan Yew and to work towards continuing his legacy of nation-building and raising up future leaders.

The event was organised by the SG100 Foundation (yes, the same one that organised the SG100 Carnival in January this year) and it was a huge affair - 500 people across many industries, of various expertise and with myriad life experiences.

I met familiar faces and connected with some whom I only knew by name. I also got to meet new people and I look forward to working with them on future projects and collaborations.

The event was also a book launch of B.O.L.D: Be Outstanding Living Your Dreams. This is a book containing interviews of 10 inspiring individuals who have impacted and changed lives, in which they share their experiences and offer nuggets of wisdom to the future generations.

I was particularly interested in the interview with Fandi (Ahmad), for whom I did the photoshoot in February. It's always a pleasure to know that your work is good enough to be published and immortalised in a book.

The book will be available in bookstores very soon!

Photographing the SG100 Carnival

A week or so ago, I was asked by a fellow trainer to help photograph an event at Our Tampines Hub. 

The event was put together by the SG100 Foundation, a society with the aim of engaging both the youth and the pioneer generation of Singapore to create a bright future for our beloved country.

Not being too sure about what to focus on, I asked the event organiser, who asked me to focus on the participants and the guest of honour, Mr Baey Yam Keng, as he visited the different stalls manned by organisations and companies which have involved themselves in social contributions and other worthy pursuits.

Once the performances began, people started getting into the swing of things and I was free to photograph on-the-ground activities, which I much prefer over stage activities.

I've posted the better photographs in an album on my Facebook page after spending some time correcting the colours (the lighting was orange). 

Apart from once again exercising my over-long-dormant photography skills, I got to speak with some entrepreneurs there. We may be working on some projects together in the near future.

A couple of things I learned while photographing the event

1) Unexpected things almost always happen at events

An individual with (I presume) her family was shouting and demanding to see the organiser when she and her family were asked to give up their seats to a large group of senior residents who were attending the event. In essence, she was saying that the organisers did not put in enough thought into the number of seats provided. 

While I find her behaviour ridiculous and self-entitled, I shall bear this in mind in the planning of my next event.

2) All you have to do is ask

Although I prefer to take shots silently, some of my photos were posed and they turned out very well - a result of my asking my subjects for a shot.

Perhaps it is the introvert side of me that overthinks the asking part, I usually assume that asking for a picture is bothersome to the other party (since I don't like to be in photos myself).

Well, it turns out time and again that many people are quite happy to pose for a photograph if asked. Perhaps they, too, think that it would be presumptuous to ask a photographer to take a picture of them and prefer to wait to be asked instead - a little flattery to be asked to be a model, maybe. I'm not too sure but, from this experience, I figure that it's all up to me to make the request.

The worst that could happen is that they say 'No'.

That said, the majority of my pictures were not posed. I still enjoy the 'captured moment' style of photography and I'll continue to improve my pursuit of this style.

Before I end off this post, Happy 2017! To more learning experiences and more sharing!