42point195
By marathonerArchive for Singapore
Lights, camera, action!
As I write this, the dust has already settled on the race track. In fact, workers are in the process of tearing the Marina race track apart to make way for regular traffic on Tuesday.
Last year, I watched the race live on TV in the US on a Sunday morning and wished that I was here. This year, I am here. Indeed, the sensation is completely different – watching images of cars racing on the circuit glowing in the dark beamed to my living room and being right in the middle of it, listening to the sounds from the engines reverberate through the built up Marina and City Hall areas.
This race weekend was also a photo outing for me. I decided to take most of my photographs during the practice and qualifying sessions and spend most of the time during the race watching the race itself.
I carried my modest 17-70 mm lenses to the track, where I saw many other photography enthusiasts show up with their humongous telephoto lenses. Even my tripod, the one that is compact enough for me to be willing to carry it with me when I travel, appeared wimpy in the presence of their more sturdy and taller ones.
Never mind, we work with the gear we have and learn to be creative with it. That can be said very easily, but for a moment, I was at a loss of what to do when faced with the low lighting conditions and the very fast cars. For a number of shots, I ended up shooting the fence, or the track, or anything, except the cars.
While on one end of the spectrum, we have the well-equipped photographers, there were many spectators with equipment that belonged to the other end of the spectrum. More than once, I peeked over their shoulders to steal a glance at the LCD screens on their PhD* cameras. Hey, these people actually managed to capture the cars in their shots. Well, if everybody else could why couldn’t I?
Think, think, think… I had to think – what could I do with my camera? What could I try? I think I eventually “got it”, and I managed to get a few decent shots. The race track was lit, I had my camera, and I was able to capture some of the action.
* Press here, dummy!
F1. Night race. Singapore.
Watching a video of Steve Slater’s interview on Channel News Asia’s website was enough to rekindle my dormant excitement over the first F1 race in Singapore. A sport I appreciate. A night race. In my country.
Races on the F1 calendar usually take place at 8 am Eastern Time every other Sunday morning in the US. Over here, my F1 season is about checking the F1 website for qualifying results on Saturdays, making predictions of the race results on Facebook’s Formula 1 Picks, catching the race on TV on Sunday if I wake up early enough, or stare at the F1 website’s live timing screen and watch the timings refresh if I wake up early enough but none American TV station is showing the race ‘live’. Lately, my F1 season has also overlapped with my running season. At 8 on Sunday mornings, I have been running, probably in no man’s land and though I have been waking up very early, there was no way I could have watched the races.
With this kind of exposure during the F1 season, it is hard to sense the excitement and buzz around the races.
As yesterday’s race in Monza came to an end, the next race in Singapore is only 2 weeks away. 2 weeks away. A night race. In my country.
How should I put excitement in words? I am very eager to see a race hosted in my country. In Singapore, on the same roads along which I used to jog regularly – most part of the track had been part my my jogging route. In the part of the city, past the familiar landmarks where I used to hang out in evenings and weekends. Imagine, Kimi Raikonnen, in his Ferrari, flying over the Esplanade Bridge.
When we watch Monaco, we recognise the tunnel, the marina and Lowes hairpin, overlooked by some building where its occupants would simply lean over the window and watch the cars meander past. We remember names of landmarks, such as the casino and the swimming pool, but never having been there before, these are simply names that cannot be associated with any image and memory in my mind.
In Singapore, I will know where Kimi is as he speeds past City Hall and the Padang because I will not miss the dome of the old Supreme Court and the UFO-like structure that crowns the new one. I know he passes Victoria Concert Hall if I see the clock tower, which I knew, since I was a kid, as the clock that gives the most accurate time in the country. As he makes the turn from Esplanade Drive onto Raffles Avenue, I will recognise the iconic “Durian” and I can boast to other non-local viewers that I used to jog here almost everyday when construction workers were still getting it built to house what is called the Esplanade Theatres on the Bay today.
Esplanade Bridge (Esplanade Drive runs over it) leading to the “Durian” on the right. The creature monument is the Merlion and the tall building in the background is Swissotel the Stamford.
The “Durian”, with its neighbouring hotels along Raffles Avenue.
There is a certain sense of pride to it – the sense of “I come from this nice country and I would like to show you around”. Now, having most of my pictures of the city taken at night, I have to say that Singapore has a lovely cityscape when the sky gets dark and lights come on in the city. I am hoping the night race will bring out this face of hers to viewers elsewhere in the world.
I do not want to admit it, but there is a lingering sense of regret that I will not be in town to witness my home race at night.
On this 9th of August
I would like to say that this is one of the best passports in the world to hold on to. I will not be giving it up anytime soon.
It is one that gives me easy access to most places in the world. Well, I would have liked to say “virtually anywhere”, but I have not traveled that extensively to proof that right or wrong.
At the very least, I know that I can take it with me on an overland trip from Singapore all the way up to China without having to apply for an visa in advance. Maybe even further, but I have not done any research on that. With it, I can be admitted to countries in Europe and the US without much hassle. I do appreciate that as I know of people of other nationalities who had to go through a lot of trouble just to get a business visa to some of these places.
I am not living in Singapore now, and I would not say that I was totally happy about it when I was living there. If you are Singaporean, these woeful rants may sound familiar to you:
“Life is so stressful!”
“It is too competitive out there!”
“There is no quality of life!”
“The government (or ‘gah-men’, as some may prefer to call it) thinks that they are always right!”
“There is no freedom!”
“It’s too boring!”
“The future of my kids are not guaranteed!”…
Well, what else can you think of?
When I said that I was not totally happy about living there, these were not my reasons. Singapore is a great country. So, if I say that Singapore is a great country, what is it that made me unhappy over there? It must be a love-hate thing, I reckon. There are some things that you like about her, and there are some other things that turn you off.
It could be the people. Those people who parrot those woeful rants and the likes without really putting their own thoughts into it. It could the people, still. People who have framed their mind to a pattern in the so-called system, and who assume that everybody else around them will follow the same pattern.
Think of – get an education, get a job, get a car, get a flat (an apartment), get married, go on a holiday with an organized tour, have kids, pay their car loans and mortgages and devote the rest of their lives to raising their kids.
This is not a bad thing, if people have thought through it and decide that this is what they want. Having a happy family does bring joy to people’s lives. However, if somebody is going through this because others are doing the same thing, please – I am calling out to the somebody – do not assume that there are no other people besides those others whom you know are doing the same thing as you.
What I do appreciate of the country is that fact that I grew up there. Singapore is positioned right in the heart of where Asian and occidental cultures cross each others’ paths, right in the eye of the storm, if you will. What results is that we, people who grew up here, emerge as very unique individuals who can appreciate and adapt to the very different perspectives coming from these two streams of thoughts, values and customs.
I would not admit to being patriotic. This word has too much of a severe notion to it to properly describe my sentiments. Nonetheless, this country has some character in it that makes me feel proud about. It will probably take me another post (or maybe two more, three more…) to talk about what that character is all about.
Today, I just feel the urge to write my first post on Singapore, on this 9th of August, as she and her people celebrate National Day.
