MORGAN AWYONG

LEGEND OF THE DEMON CAT (FILM REVIEW)

When you have the venerable Chen Kaige at the helm, you can expect lush visuals that are hard to ignore. Colours, textures, movement, all come together in an airy dance that is pure foreplay to the eyes. CGI fever has overtaken many modern films in China, no doubt due to the rising younger audience who…

RING IN CHRISTMAS WITH RED AND GREEN

While red usually warns of danger, excitement and power, and green promises nature and nurture, when the two colours collide, they are a complementary duo that represents the best of Christmas. Here’s what you need to know before you get snappin’ these hues this festive season. Turn on the lights. It’s Christmas! Photo credit: Kevin Dooley…

GIFTS THAT REALLY SLEIGH – YOUR GUIDE FOR THE CANON FAN (ADVANCED)

With the list of features longer than your own gift list, buying professional equipment for the Canon fan can be a daunting task. The jargon itself can easily overwhelm, especially when you don’t have the expertise and there’s no context. Because professionals likely use cameras as tools of their trade, it’s always good to check…

PITCH PERFECT 3 (FILM REVIEW)

Last call Pitches. This reviewer says: we can hope. In the latest installment, the girls may have left their textbooks, but the scriptwriters seemed to have returned to theirs. Pitch Perfect 3 sees the harmonising group Bella take on the biggest stage ever – real life. Things after college is note-acibly not as glamorous, and…

GIFTS THAT STILL SLEIGH – YOUR GUIDE FOR THE CANON FAN (INTERMEDIATE)

You know Christmas is coming, and your special recipient can already rattle off their aperture settings and talk about the perfect ISO for the Orchard Road light-up. They sound almost professional – almost. But what they’re lacking in is some equipment upgrade to further their skills. The intermediate photographer is a tricky person to buy…

GIFTS THAT SLEIGH – YOUR GUIDE FOR THE CANON FAN (ENTRY-LEVEL)

Every year it’s the same story. One blink and you’re catapulted to December. Next thing you know, bells are jingling and brows are furrowing – mainly over what to buy for loved ones. Because even though it’s the thought that counts, the gift still matters! We can’t speak to other products but we’d like to…

HONG KONG, CHINA – PLAYING WITH SPACE (HOTEL REVIEW)

When it comes to capsule hotels, you belong either to the can or can’t group. Luckily for me, I’m with the former and feel more cosy than claustrophobic when it comes to small spaces. Coming across L’etoile de Mer was a big relief for me, given how expensive accommodation in Hong Kong can get. And…

TIPS FOR LONG EXPOSURE PHOTOGRAPHY

City scenes with traffic trails. Landscape scenes with wispy clouds. Your name literally written in light. There’s no doubt that long exposure photography is one of the most visually stunning, yet easily achievable effects that a photographer can attempt. And it’s not just for experts. Experimentation is part of the fun, and it’s easy to…

THE SACRED RIANA WINS ASIA’S GOT TALENT 2

Twitching her way into the finals with her spooky illusion acts, The Sacred Riana (aka Marie Antoinette Riana Graharani), has won Asia’s Got Talent Season 2 on AXN. With over 70 millions views on Facebook and YouTube, it may not have come as a surprise to some, but it was still a nail-biting results show…

THE THOUSAND FACES OF DUNJIA (FILM REVIEW)

There are a few stalwarts in the Hong Kong movie industry, and two of them are in this film. Tsui Hark’s hand in creating commercial cinema during the “Golden Age” is legendary. Both entertaining and original, his classics such as A Better Tomorrow, A Chinese Ghost Story and Green Snake have all been milestones of…

ASIA’S GOT TALENT: GRAND FINALS (REVIEW)

If viral videos are any indication of a show’s success, then Asia’s Got Talent Season 2 has got it down pat. From the creepy The Sacred Riana to the joint-popping ADEM Dance Crew, audiences have shared this season’s acts widely, garnering international attention. So it’s no wonder with such talent, that tonight’s 9 finalists turned…

A TAXI DRIVER (FILM REVIEW)

Other than in South Korea, and for people in that region during May 1980, not many may have known about the Gwangju Uprising, where hundreds, and some witnesses suggest thousands, of civilians were massacred during demonstrations against a military coup. This state secret back then would have gone undocumented, if not for Jürgen Hinzpeter, a…

A CLOSER LOOK AT THE CANON EOS 6D MARK II WITH TRISTON YEO

Triston’s range is extensive. He thrives on learning through investigation, so he was the perfect candidate to test the latest Canon EOS 6D Mark II to see how the latest lightweight full-frame performs. You recently came to experience the Canon EOS 6D Mark II. Can you tell us the first thing that came to your mind when you…

EOS PROFESSIONAL: ALVIN FOO

Alvin Foo is a busy man. When he is not helming the Canon Imaging Academy as Principal, he demonstrates his 7 years of experience in projects with local and international companies. We find out more about his work and his journey to where he is today. Alvin Foo is the Principal of Canon Imaging Academy…

IN THE BEAD FOR PERANAKAN LOVE

For the unaware, the beaded patterns hanging in wooden frames in Robert Sng’s Little Shophouse might seem nothing more than pretty craft displays. In actual fact, those intricate pieces are designs to be made into a famous part of the Peranakan iconography – the kasut manek (beaded shoes). No traditional Peranakan sarong kebaya is finished without a dainty…

SEEING FAR & WILD WITH TEONG LIN NG

Travelling to exotic locations to capture land and wildlife alike, Teong has achieved some spectacular shots with his partner-in-crime, wife Nina. Their work has resulted in a few published coffee books as well as mentions by National Geographic! Intrepid explorers Teong and Nina have seen places like Scotland, Iceland, Botswana, Kenya and the Galapagos to…

BETWEEN FROZEN PEAKS AND STARRY FIRMAMENT: FENG SHUO

Mother Nature and the Universe meets in many of Feng Shuo’s photos. His fascination of the world and the cosmos beyond has served to take him further out, yet also deeper within. Here he shares some of his experience with us. Feng Shuo constantly longs for the reminder the peaks and stars give him to…

EOS WORLD INFLUENCER: AARON LAI

That’s two dashes, then one, then three. That’s Aaron Lai aka @__mr_black___ for you, who fills his popular feed with candid shots of his family, events and the occasional camera and timepiece. Find out what makes him tick and click. EOS World Influencer Aaron Lai Aaron is big on expression. He uses photography to break…

EOS WORLD INFLUENCER: ATHENA TAN

Architecture, portraits, wildlife and landscape – nothing escapes Athena’s lens when she goes travelling. Through her feed, one sees not just the wide scope of the world as she wanders, but also the breadth of images her full-frame cameras have captured. Athena attended a photo trip, and now she’s hungry to see the rest of…

THE PROMISE (FILM REVIEW)

The 47-storey scalloped architectural project that is Sathorn Tower is like the Titanic. It was to be the tallest and most luxurious of buildings in Bangkok, commanding priceless views from its prime position. But Thailand’s financial crash in 1997, nicknamed the Tom Yum Goong Crisis, sunk the development and everything was brought to an abrupt…

EOS PROFESSIONAL: TIMOTHY TAN

You might have seen him along the circuits, snapping furiously away as the action whirrs by in a blur. Timothy sees what some of us cannot, and shares the frozen snapshot to display the full beauty of the sports. EOS Professional Timothy Tan He’s in it for the adrenaline. Timothy spends his time in the…

BATAM, INDONESIA – HASHTAG BATAM

And so a certain famous contracter used to proclaim, “and some say Batam!” This line is a reflection of the kinship Singapore has with our Indonesian neighbouring island. For example, did you know that a good majority of our pigs are imported from Batam? Or that they are an important supplier of electricity and sand…

CHINA’S VAN GOGHS (FILM REVIEW)

Made in China. The very line elicits derogatory reactions – cheap, fake, inferior. In the village of Dafen in the city of Shenzhen, one can say this rings true. In 1989, a Hong Kong businessman began turning hamlet into horde, with his peasants-turned-oil painters replicating masterpieces of the Western world for sale. He started with…

GEOSTORM (FILM REVIEW)

The worrying trend of climate change has provided fodder for big movies these last few years. From documentaries to epic disaster movies, the topic is a compelling one as we throw out many “what if” scenarios. Geostorm is the latest entry that places us in the future of a possible scenario, where we use tech…

HELPING THE INVISIBLE: THE ASIA MALARIA IMAGES EXHIBITION

Malaria is long thought of as an African problem. Yet close to home, in the Asia-Pacific region, over 2 billion Asian lives are at risk of endemic malaria. Tens of millions to possibly hundred of millions get infected, and tens to hundreds of thousands die from the disease each year. These staggering figures go unreported…

CHRONICLING SINGAPORE’S HERITAGE HAWKERS: ALVIN FOO

We Singaporeans love our food. There’s been a recent awareness that the local hawker trade might be in danger of fading away, with no heirs to the wok. Alvin Foo teams up with the Singapore Tourism Board (STB) to chronicle our legendary chefs in the project: Heritage Hawkers. Hunting down our food culture icons is…

A POEM FOR OCT 4 2017

秋风见冬顶银湖流满月独农下马村仓守春蜜罐 Roughly translated: Autumn winds meet winter peaks The lake is silver from the full moon light A lone farmer returns to Horse Village Where a store guards Spring honey pots

A WINNING EXPERIENCE AT CANON PHOTOMARATHON: MARK ANTHONY LIM

Mark Anthony Lim was the winner of Canon PhotoMarathon XIV in 2016. He wowed judges with his lively perspectives and spirited captures. In light of the upcoming Canon PhotoMarathon on 23rd September, we find out about his competition experience and his takeaways. Winner of Canon PhotoMarathon Mark Anthony Lim at Oarai Isosaki Shrine, Ibaraki Prefecture, Japan during the…

FAIRY TALE, ENDING

So this is it. It’s not the day that democracy died, because opposing pundits will say that that was already a dead dog. But certainly this is the day that it was most felt by the general Singaporean. Halimah Yacob, uncontested, has become the next President of Singapore in an uncontested walkover. The memes came…

MIDNIGHT RUNNERS (FILM REVIEW)

South Korea has been dishing out finely polished film productions in recent years, going big-scale from sets to budgets. It’s good to see someone in Asia carrying the torch in this region, as other giants like Hong Kong, China and India struggle to catch the wind in their filmmaking sails. Midnight Runners is South Korea’s…