Mr Lee promised us a garden city

Tree planting ceremonies were a big deal when I was growing up in the 70s. This initiative was part of our then prime minister Mr Lee Kuan Yew's vision of turning Singapore into a garden city because he felt it was "important that the whole island be clean, green and with everyone owning property".

I remember images of Mr Lee planting trees in some part of Singapore or another. I didn't think much of it then.

But now, I feel so much pride just looking at the big tall trees with their thick foliage and the thriving bird nest ferns sitting snugly on the branches. They are everywhere we turn. They are an everyday sight that many, I would imagine, have taken for granted. But these trees have brought so much joy to our family.

A tree is not just "a tree". It has seen my boys grow up as they walk to school. Its dead branches served as toy swords for my sons to play with. Its roots improved the boys' balance as they walked on the roots, with their arms spread out. Today, the three of us tried to see if we could hold one another's hand around a big tree near our house. We could. I couldn't see the boys' faces although I could hear them giggling away.

Mr Lee has left behind a beautiful legacy. One that I hope can be appreciated for generations to come.

Read the National Park's tribute to Mr Lee here.
The photograph was taken with the Fujifilm Instax Wide 300 camera.

MWAC: Tokyo with Polaroid

I don't care how you get here
Just get here if you can

(Taken with the Polaroid Sun LMS)

MWAC: Little India and an encounter with the curious Indian man

I had noticed two Indian hearses parked in a public car park during my Saturday morning runs around Farrer Park, and I've always made a mental note to take some pictures "the next time". But the next time almost never happened because of some reason or another until I made what the husband deemed as an impulse purchase--the Fujifilm Instax Wide 300 camera.

But after I showed him my photos, he seemed somewhat mollified and also amused by my encounter with a curious Indian man who allowed me to take a photo of him. He had followed me after I snapped a photo of him, a curious bystander who was watching construction workers load trash onto a truck. I was initially afraid, and I should be as he was rather big size and can you imagine the apprehension of having a man tail you as you walked down the streets!

But I stopped and looked at him, and he stopped, shook his head in a friendly manner, and waved both his hands. Perhaps it was a greeting, a hello, a question. I didn't know what possessed me to point at my camera and make an ok sign to him, indicating that I'd like to snap a photo of him. To my amazement, he stood and posed for me.

We then stood in the street as I showed him how his image slowly appeared on film. When it finally came out, he smiled, I smiled. He shook his head and waved his hands, and we both went our separate ways.

He wasn't local. I don't think he is. Then I saw the SG50 banners further down the road, adorning Little India, and that's when I knew what SG50 means to me.

Indian hearse

Hearse 3508

Golden horse

There are many electronic stores like this touting great mobile phone deals

There he is, my curious friend (left)

My curious friend

A Chinese association in Little India

Mahatma Gandhi Memorial

The foundation stone for the building was laid by Pandit Jawaharlal Nehru in 1950 during his first official visit to Singapore as Prime Minister of India. The idea to build this memorial was proposed by 20 women during a memorial organised by the Women's Section of the Regional Indian Congress after Gandhi's assassination in 1948.

Hello?

SG50

The Binjai tree in Spottiswoode Park Road

One of four Heritage Binjai Trees in Singapore
(Taken with Diana F+ with Provia 400X)

I was in Spottiswoode Park earlier this month to collect a python-skin bag to replace a cobra-skin bag that had tore under mysterious circumstances. (Snakes have very thin skin?) As I rambled down Spottiswoode Park Road, something made me cross the road to look at this lone tree standing in a field.

As I got closer, I saw a sign in front of the tree, which read:

Heritage Tree

Binjai (Mangifera caesia)

The Binjai is a large tree of the mango family, native to this region. It bears small lilac-pinkish flowers around April to June. It was commonly planted in villages for its brown potato-like fruits.

Spottiswoode Park used to be a nutmeg plantation in the 1840s. It was converted in the early 1900s into a residential area full of bungalows with gardens for employees of the Tanjong Pagar Dock Company (the present Port of Singapore Authority). The then residents or estate managers may have planted this Binjai for its sourish-sweet fruits.

I went online and found that National Parks has what it calls a "Heritage Tree Scheme", and it also has  a list of criteria that it uses to "qualify a tree to be endorsed as a Heritage Tree" (i.e. cannot anyhow call a tree a "Heritage Tree".) And according to the board in a separate document, there are four heritage Binjai trees in Singapore. So if you happen to be in area and if you want to see a "Heritage Tree", this Binjai tree is opposite Spottiswoode Apartments.

Foo Dog guardian
(Taken with Diana F+ with Provia 400X)

Spottiswoode has changed quite a bit since the mid-90s, which was the last time I walked the streets to take photographs of the neighbourhood and the railway tracks. Hip cafe joints have since popped up and the tracks are gone. I've always wondered what the refurbished two/three-storey houses look like inside but I can only imagine a mix of modern with old-time grandeur just by looking at the facade.

The statues at the gate are for fengshui reasons. The Chinese Lions (Foo Dogs) represents power and prestige. I didn't take a close look and I can't tell from the picture if this is a male or female lion; I am guessing female. The male is usually seen with his right paw on a ball, which depicts unity of the empire while the female will have her left paw on a cub, which represents thriving offsprings.

The eagle watcheth over
(Taken with Diana F+ with Provia 400X)

The eagle statue represents success and prosperity.

I love taking photographs of doors but I ran out of film so I'll definitely be back. It was a hot day (like duh), so Impossible Project's color Polaroid washed out all the colors, once again. Disappointing.

MWAC: Color of Impossible Project film in Asia's weather

My blog is possibly getting a little schizophrenic but I'll like to think it's evolving. The boys are growing up and the issues they face (and I face) are increasingly complex, which explain recent posts that are on the serious side. Less of the cute stuff.

Plus maybe because I've passed the big FOUR-OH and with more time on my hands now that the boys are older, I'm digging out all my old film cameras (and buying new ones). This explains lots of photography-related posts lately and because photography gives me an opportunity to think about the objects I photograph, I've been writing about our country's past.

Big vase at Antique Row
(Diana F+ with Fujichrome Provia 400X)

I started my "Mom With A Cam" (MWAC) series in September 2013. It's like a photo-roll of the pictures I take in between cooking, chauffeuring, grocery shopping, doing volunteer work in Kai's school, and real-world work that I do for Mr. Boss-Man (i.e. husband) at his clinic. I bought a Polaroid Sun 600 LMS refurbished by the Impossible Project in June this year, and I started taking color photos for some of the Singapore heritage posts I did recently. (The Impossible Project purchased the last factory in the world manufacturing Polaroid instant film in 2008, and started manufacturing their own re-formulated versions of Polaroid instant films.)

I was horrified by the results. My color Polaroids didn't come out in colour, like in the CMYK sense. They are brownish, sepia-ish, bronze, reddish even. Some people, like my husband, would say the result is charming. I wouldn't mind if a few of them look like the colour of mud, but not when almost every image is washed out with hardly any other other colour tone.

The photograph on the right from Antique Row is what you'd get with a cross-processed color slide film.

I trawled the Internet for answers. Why is everything I'm taking turning brown/sepia-ish. Is it the camera? Is it the film? Is it ME??? The community of Polaroid users in Singapore isn't big to start with; film is expensive. Perhaps the answer is buried deep inside some photography forum thread? Well, I can't find it! I was stuck until I spoke with Noreen, a friend who is one of the founders of 8storeytree, a toy camera boutique in Singapore.

So. For Polaroid newbies out there in our island state facing the same problem, here's the answer out in the open and not buried in some forum/review thread. Consider it a community service since Impossible Project's films are expensive. (It's close to S$5 per film.)

It's the temperature. The color film, which is highly unpredictable to start with, is allergic to high temperature. With our temperature constantly at 30°c and above most of the time, you will get the result that you see here.

The solution? Here are a two options I can think of after discussing with another Polaroid photographer and the husband:

1) Bring a thermo bag with an ice pack (placed in a ziplock bag) inside and throw your film in for developing immediately.
I haven't tried this though technically the theory is sound. The ice pack should reduce the reddishness of the photograph. But one must plan for the photo shoot in this case; nothing impromptu!

2) If you're shooting at home, throw it into the fridge immediately for developing.
Once again, I haven't tried this option though technically it should work in bringing more blueish hues to the photograph. Experiment with how long you can leave it in the fridge for.

MWAC: PaserBella, the less glamorous perspective

(Photos taken with LC-A+)

MWAC: Revisiting Havelock and Zion road

Dragon guardian of Giok Hong Tian temple

Burning of hell notes is not allowed here (Giok Hong Tian temple)

Peek-a-boo dragon (Giok Hong Tian temple)

Near our "$2 shop" (Covent Garden)

Goodbye (Covent Garden)

To all my ex-colleagues from Miller Freeman/CMP: We grumbled about moving to Havelock road but when our CMP-days came to an end, it was a sad farewell for all of us. Who could forget Covent Garden and the "$2 shop" that fed the group of hungry editorial staff? We all moved on to new jobs, new challenges but the flats in Covent Garden continued to exist for a while until they had no choice but to move with the times.

(Photos of Giok Hong Tian temple taken with Seagull 4B-1 TLR using Fujichrome 120 ISO64 T64 film; Covent Garden flat taken with the LC-A+ using Kodak Portra 160 film.)

Read more about the disappearing Zion Road Estate here.

MWAC: Chinatown

Mum With A Cam (MWAC) photos taken with a LC-A+ and Fuji Velvia RVP 100F 35mm film and Seagull 4B-1 TLR and Lomography Lady Grey 400 ISO 120 film.

MWAC: Around my neighbourhood

(LC-A+; Fuji Velvia RVP 100F Film.)

MWAC: PaserBella

Half of my day revolves around sending the boys everywhere they need to go. Chauffeuring duty can get a little dreary and nerve wrecking especially since the boys don't always want to behave. It can also get boring because I am always going back to the same places week after week.

So I've learned to bring a camera everywhere. Partly to snap OMG moments, partly as a challenge to see how many different perspectives I can capture at the same location.

So here's a Mum With A Cam (MWAC) in PaserBella, a place I go to twice a week.

(LC-A+; Fuji Velvia RVP 100F Film.)