One Week Baby

Mayenne is one-week old today. She is feeding better after we used bottle. Milk is expressed from mum's breasts so that we can monitor her intake. If it's not enough, we supplement with formula milk powder. Her feeding pattern becomes more pronounced over the days. She seems to cry less, and we attributed to the higher food intake she is getting.

Today is Vesak Day, a public holiday, so my parents came in the morning to 'make a scene', much appreciated. We wanted to create a noisy 'daytime' environment so that Mayenne can differentiate day and night.

This is not Mayenne's first bath, but it's the first one that I was present.

Getting dressed up.

Feeling comfortable

Baby's Not Eating Enough

I am feeling the first setback as a parent. Today visited the paediatrician. He informed us that Mayenne is not gaining enough weight. We have noticed that since birth she has not been feeding well. She slept soundly during the day, responded to feeds rather fine, but cried for milk at night. Doctor says she should be taking about 50-90ml per feed, 8 times a day. In her last feed, we fed through the bottle so that we can gauge her intake. To our horror, she only took 20ml.

All we can now hope for is for her to take more milk. We will try to feed her more frequently and to interact with her more actively to keep her awake. We will probably offer formula milk after midnight so that she will feel more satisfied.

Despite the worry, watching her facial antics lifts our spirits and keeps us looking forward to another growing day.

First Night - Rough

We had a rough first night at home. Baby refused to sleep after meals. After putting her down, she woke up and cried again. We found that her nose block is worsened after I applied the nose drip and it disrupted her feed. I slept at about 12am but my wife and the confinement lady went on to feed and pacify her till 3am, before she quietened down.

My wife was very very uncomfortable with the breastfeeding position. She was also very worried about Mayenne's feeding difficulty that resulted in extended feeds. To ease her discomfort, I applied half day leave today to dash to Isetan to get the Medela breast pump 'Swing' model and the 'Brest Friend' support pillow for breastfeeding. Thanks to the Great Singapore Sale, I got good discounts. I also took a trip to Thomson Medical Centre to buy the cloth recommended by our antenatal consultant, Mrs. BB Wong, at Parentcraft.

The purchases are worth every penny. The breast pump works on both batteries and AC adaptor, and it's quiet and light, Angie can now express her milk conveniently. The Brest Friend pillow also works great.

It's almost midnight and Mayenne seems to be sleeping well. Hope the overnight feed is shorter and easier for Mummy.

Beautiful feet

Playtime!

Sleep time...

Baby Goes Home

Mummy told me that Baby is feeding better after the nurse helped out last night. And it seems that we have been under-feeding the baby. This morning, Baby was clamouring for more milk every half hour, keeping Mummy very busy. Fortunately, she was satisfied by the time we needed to check out, so she sat throughout the car journey quietly.

"Bleah!"

"Hi, Mama!"

"Eh, Papa?"

"I act cool!"

Home Sleep Home

3 Days, Daddy

Mayenne is being diagnosed with mild jaundice, and is put under UV light for the entire day. She is still not very proficient in suckling the breast, and we were kindda worried as we are unable to tell whether she has taken enough milk. Her cries are getting stronger and more 'scary', and we are at a loss of what to do. Her blocky nose does not help in the situation. Her weight has dropped to 2.5kg.

We then recalled that babies need to be fed even if they are happy to be sleeping. Herein lies the dilemma: she looked so serene when she is asleep that we were afraid to wake her up for food, but if we wake her and if she starts crying, we would not know what to do.

Tomorrow, Angie will be able to leave the hospital, but we do not know if Mayenne can leave with us. And if she does, it will truly be the beginning of our parenthood - on our own.

Looking at Mummy

Looking at Daddy - behind the camera

Serene

Looking at Grandparents

24 Hours Later

I reached hospital at about 9.30am, and a clinician was already there to teach little Mayenne how to suck so that she can feed on breast milk properly. And thank goodness it helped.

The paediatrician informed us that she has mucus build-up on her nose and so requires to be kept under a warmer. He also prescribed some nose drops.

Mayenne was mostly asleep and not hungry for Mummy's milk when we brought her to the ward. At times, she was wailing helplessly, and yet when we tried to feed her, she was disinterested though it stopped the crying. We thought it could be due to the below-body temperature she was experiencing in the ward. So we left her in the nursery most of the time.

She has yet to opened her eyes fully, but some who saw a glimpse thought she has double eyelids. Some even thought they saw dimples.

Here's some photos I captured while Granny (my mum) held her.




Many of our colleagues and old friends visited us. Thank you all for the gifts. Hope you all can attend Mayenne's first-month gathering!

Birth Day

Today I became a daddy.

Last night, my wife and I went to watch Pirates of the Carribean 3 at Bishan GV. She wished to finish the final trilogy before she went into confinement after birth, so I took the risk and bought the tickets in advance. Probably the worst of the 3 movies, but what matters is to complete the tale.

At 3.22am, I was woken by her sudden dash into the washroom. A moment later, she alerted me: the water bag had been broken. We took 15 minutes to get ourselves orientated, she took a shower while I packed the final stuffs. We reached the hospital at about 4am.

We monitored the baby's heartbeat and contractions, and all seemed to be normal, until about 5.30am we found the baby's heartbeat disappeared from the ECG. Panic, we alerted the nurse, who adjusted the ECG devices. We couldn't get any good consistent readings, and so the nurses decided to alert our gynae and prepared for an emergency Caesarian section.

By 6am, she was wheeled into the operating theatre. I wasn't allowed inside, so I waited outside till 7am, then I was a little life being wheeled out of the door. My daughter, Mayenne, is born at 6.35am, weighing 2.69kg (almost 6 pounds).

Everything happened so suddenly and so quick. I was expecting a long labour since nurse told us that her cervix was only 2cm dilated. But a C-section shortened the entire labour process, eliminating me from the entire process. We never got to make use of all the breathing techniques or the mental support we learned from antenatal classes. To my wife, it just felt like a surgical operation rather than a baby delivery, a feeling which I perfectly understand.

Incidentally, our bed number is 524, the date our baby's birthday.

Trying hard to make this post interesting, but having very little sleep, I lost my usual creativity and mental effort. Anyway, the most important thing in this post is... PHOTOS!!!

Hello!

Big Yawn!

Who's Peeping?

Snap the Babe!

Mother and Child

Retouch, Untouched

Warning: the following site may devastate your belief in the images you always see in every day life.
http://www.christyschuler.com/retouching.html

The general rule is: anything perfectly beautiful on print is almost-certainly unreal.

As much as I abhor this rule, and as much as there are untouched images around, it is unfortunate that this conception is the consequence of technology. Ugly people can be made to look perfect, and perfect people are being doubted.

But before you lose hope, here's a spectacular video of how the photographer makes use of one flash to execute 'light painting' over a large subject. No camera tricks or post-processing.



There is hope after all.

Month of Movies

In the next 6 weeks, there will be one new movie every week that I would love to watch. Alas, it's the time when my wife is due to give birth. What great timing!

24 May - Pirates of the Carribean 3
31 May - Shrek the Third
7 June - Ocean's 13
14 June - Fantastic 4: Rise of the Silver Surfer
28 June - TRANSFORMERS

I could probably wait for the DVD to catch all the movies - except TRANSFORMERS. In fact, I have arranged an outing with some old friends for some g'old times.

For fans alike, check out here for the latest official movie preview trailer released over the weekend:


Want a clearer view? Download the Quicktime version here (25MB) or catch the preview in cinemas during the screening of Pirates of the Carribean 3!

"AUTOBOTS, TRANSFORM AND ROLLOUT!"

Photobooks of Real People

I love creating photobooks. It's the best end-product to the photos compiled into meaningful sequences.

I also like to capture images reflecting the real person - in another word, journalistic. See, anyone who puts on make-up and styles the hair and wears nice clothes will look good in pictures. The challenge is therefore to capture them in their natural self, presenting the 'photographee' in his/her true personality.

Glamour shots are perfectly fine as it presents the person in a beautiful light, just like how a bride wants to look her best on her wedding day. But as a photographer, I feel a greater sense of achievement and satisfaction when I am able to present beautiful images of the person I photograph in every day settings - by being him/herself.

That's why I embarked myself in wedding day photography before other genres.


Weeks back in end-April, I did a photoshoot with Madeleine. She is probably one of the hottest models in the local photographic community, ClubSNAP, as she is one of the few freelance models that accepts lingerie, bikini, and semi-nude assignments. Some even believed that all the photo assignments she took are in those categories.

So, against all fashion, I decided to do a photo shoot of her properly clothed.

In true journalistic fashion, we talked about what kind of stories she (the subject) wanted to do. Being a professional-minded model, her standard answer was obviously "do what I (the photographer) want to do". But I wanted to change her mindset, and it didn't take long to uncover her interests. So we decided to do, among many things, a shoot of all her favourite tortoise soft-toys, the "Kuma Kuma", and her cello, which she stopped learning for many years.

We had discussed about the shoot for months and waiting for the right time to execute the shoot. On the day of the shoot, she told me she couldn't get back her cello as it was at her friend's house and he was not contactable. So I decided to substitute for my violin instead, not exactly representative of 'her' but afterall it's a portfolio shoot, so we went along with that.

The 40-page photobook can be viewed here online. Here's some image excerpts.






The day before I did the shoot for Madeleine, I did a shoot for a ballet-teacher, Audrey. The RAD exams of her students just ended and I was the exam pianist. So after the exams I arranged to use the dance studio for a photoshoot. Initially, we were given the whole afternoon to shoot, but later the senior teacher told us that someone would be using the room, and so we only had less than an hour to do the studio shoot. So I quickly grabbed as many shots as I could and did the rest of the shoot outdoors. The entire photobook can be viewed at this link.






That afternoon after Madeleine's shoot, I did a studio photoshoot for her sister's children (In short, in the spam of 2 days, I did 3 sets of photoshoot). This is the second time I did a shoot of children, and so I already know what to expect. As this is a paid client shoot, I am not supposed to share the photos extensively, but since this image is also posted on Madeleine's blog, there is no harm sharing here.


Aren't they beautiful. The boy was extremely shy throughout the photo session and refused to take many photos of himself. The girl, however, is totally at ease and volunteered many poses. Takes after her aunt Maddie.

Waiting to Engage

My wife will be off from work for the next 4 months. She will start her maternity leave from today and she will stay at home to wait for the signs of contraction and to give birth to our baby.

She should be blogging all these by her own but since she is adamant about not writing her own blog, I end up doing the writing 'on her behalf', because she has kindly shared my blog link to some of her colleagues and friends who are now regular readers of my blog.

Yuna, my Hong Kong friend whom I met in Singapore in late April, had the following MSN comments regarding my music:

"聽你彈的歌覺得你好平靜
是 你嚮往的世界...

"你是一個很溫柔的人...

"你的音樂同你2的生活有關
都好平靜..."

Interesting how she interprets my personality through my music. And she is quite right about that. It shows how much she appreciates my music, and I am flattered.

Do you feel the same way too? Listen to my compositions via IMEEM playlist on the right side. The songs are not uploaded by me, and since I have no control over the people who uploaded my songs over the Internet, I thought I might as well utilise them for your listening pleasure.

Recently, a lot of copyright material was being taken down in YouTube, so it's a matter of time when my songs are taken down. If you like them, please purchase from the CD shops (in Singapore) or order from the internet at http://pianospa.chester.sg/

Respect Our Biological Clock

All of us has a biological clock that our body keeps such that our internal organs function in routine, from waking up to eating to shitting to sleeping. The most obvious effects of our biological clock is during jet lag when you travel to another country and you realise that you feel sleep in the day and active at night.

Our body goes through self-detox during our sleeping hours, so if you force your body to stay awake and engage in some night activities, you stress the body and affects its 'maintenance'. Sooner or later you will 'break down'.

As much as we want to have fun and stay awake all night, we should not do this too often and affect our health.

Same thing about social drinking. Too much is bad for your health. I don't understand how intoxicating your mind and puking is enjoyable. But to those who wants to drown their sorrows, it is definitely a way to escape from reality. But do they realise that getting drunk does not solve the problem, but probably adds to it? Drinking delays the problem-solving process, it does not make it go away. I mean, if your problem is already messed up, why mess up your body too?

Last weekend I was supposed to do a photoshoot with someone. On the day itself, I SMSed her, called her, but no reply. Still, I went to the agreed place to wait for her for an hour, afterwhich I gave up and went home. I then received her SMS at about 7pm, telling me she just woke up after partying the night before.

For those who wants to look beautiful and shapely, there's nothing more important than to take care of your internal body. From there, your external looks will follow. Having a clean and clear mind also helps in managing the entire functioning of your body.

Web: Unlimited

When I started creating my own web site in 1997, I had to rely on my own server space to host all my content, like photos and music files. And when someone asked me how he/she can create their own website, I told them it's better to purchase webspace because at those times, free webhosts like Fortunecity and Yahoo restricts bandwidth and have too many pop-up ads. They also prevent files with MP3 or EXE extensions to be uploaded for fear of copyright infringement (those days, they associate all music files as commercial music).

Fast forward to 2007. You can easily create content, upload photos and music in free public sites. From Flickr (photo hosting) to IMEEM (music hosting) to YouTube (video hosting) to Meebo (instant messenging chat windows) to Multiply (multimedia content hosting), you can create your own multimedia content site without even paying for any server space.

This is amazing. It's like living in a country where they offer free housing and facilities. This is the free world of online community.

I just joined IMEEM last week, and found my Piano Spa tracks in the site. Thanks to these people who uploaded my songs on IMEEM, you can now listen to my compositions right here. I personally won't upload these songs on the sites as they are copyrighted and I would like you to purchase my albums and support my sales so that my record label has justification to continue releasing more albums of my compositions. But since it's uploaded by others, I might as well link them here.

Enjoy and exploit.

Dramatised Comics

Watched Spider-Man 3 last Friday. Very lengthy and longwinded movie, very untypical of a superhero movie. In fact, nowadays comic heroes have been humanised to explore other aspects. Even the villains are no longer bad without a reason. So far, all the villains in the Spider-Man movies are fundamentally good, and what's tragic and amazing is that everyone of them is related to Peter Parker.

And I think all movie producers are exploiting that "relative" element to work on the storyline. From X-Men (Professor X and Magneto) to Fantastic Four (Mr. Fantastic and Dr. Doom) and Batman (Batman and Joker). Comic stories are no longer portrayed where heroes don colourful costumes and give cheesy lines or silly action sequences. Superheroes will die - like Superman and Captain America.

Speaking of which, TRANSFORMERS is coming. But from the trailers, Michael Bay made Transformers look like creepy aliens from outer space. I respect his detail for authenticity in the transformation modes, but it's still a movie, so I was hoping that the robots are more human-like rather than some messed up machinery. Another movie producer's attempt to "darken" the comic characters. I felt that perhaps TRANSFORMERS work better with CGI animation like 'Final Fantasy'.

Photo Journal

After a movie, I was walking back home when I saw this scene. The couple was supposed to be pushing their bicycles and I wanted to capture that scene, something that is rarely seen in modern Singapore. As I took out my Fuji F31fd, the couple decided to ride, and so this is what I could get. The foggy feel is due to lens condensation, but otherwise created an apt feel to the scene.



Clouds are some of the most beautiful things that you could get. The best thing is that everyone on Earth gets to enjoy them. And because it's everywhere, it's easy to capture them on photos.

Alma Mater Matters

In recent months, my secondary school and university alma maters have been aggressively promoting the alumni activities. If you are wondering, I finished 'O' Levels from Catholic High School and got my bachelor degree at Nanyang Technological University (NTU).

There is a big difference in which alma mater I feel a more sense of belonging. NTU Alumni currently boasts their new club house at One Buona Vista, top-class facilities and membership privileges.

On the other hand, Catholic High Alumni recently announced that they are using the current school compound as a Recreation Club every Saturdays, where alumni members can use the facilities.

To me, it's not the million-dollar facilities that entice me, these are merely material. All an alumnus asks for a a place where he feels a sense of belonging and evokes memories of old. And there's no better way than to offer an opportunity for us to return to the school where we lived and played. Even though the current school compound is not the one we went to school, it's the feeling of 'back-to-school' that instantly transports us back to the schooling days.

If you are once a Catholic High School student, visit the alumni page at http://www.cha.org.sg/ and join the activities, meet old classmates, get back some of those lost memories.

Jack Neo Starts His Own Blog

Jack Neo, a local Singapore film-maker, starts his own blog!

Jack is a very well-known TV personality for over 2 decades. He started off as a comedian in variety shows and slowly worked his way into producing TV shows and finally movie-making. His movies reach out to the Singaporean. It's not for artistic purpose nor is it filled with Hollywood effects. It is his story that shines above all. No doubt it could have some crappy endings, but that's how all movies end, don't they.

Anyway, now that Jack has a blog, he is reaching out to fans on the Internet to help contribute to his next film. It might be seen as a way to get free ideas, but hey, that's how the web community works. If you don't want to contribute, don't.

Visit his blog at http://jackneojackneo.blogspot.com/

Thank you, Jack Neo, for sharing your movie-making journey.

Living In Our Own World

I was having lunch with a colleague, and while we were discussing about how ridiculous property prices were and how some people can afford them, it dawned upon me that there are people in different social groups whose ways of lives we could never have imagined. Social groups that owns houses worth millions, spends tens of thousands every month on lifestyle.

Do I envy them? Frankly, no. Living in that kind of social group requires you to behave in a different manner. I mean, how else do you think you could earn that kind of money? These people socialise, entertain, update their wardrobe to upkeep their status. They may earn a lot, but they need to spend a lot too. If they live in big houses, they got to pay for the maids, the gardener, the car, the utility bills. On top of that, they work hard. You've watched enough movies to get what I mean.

There is no right or wrong in what they do, because what they are trying to do is to conform to the social group that they are in.

To me, 'social groups' does not only imply different income levels. It also means different industries, for instance, the entertainment industry. Totally chaotic but colourful. To survive and be successful, you cannot afford to be normal (haha).

But thanks to Internet and blogs, we can now have a glimpse of some of these people's lives through their blogs. Last week, I discovered the 'Lao Zhar Bor' blog and her life revolving in her social group. Then this week, I found Jack Neo's new blog. Jack is a well-known film-maker, producer and talent manager in Singapore. Again, through his blog, I uncovered the life of a film-maker. Then there are blogs of my friends with different social groups: models, actors, musicians, students.

I am a music composer. I am a photographer. And I sometimes wonder why I cannot be as successful as others with the same interests. Then I tell myself it's because I am not in the social group. I have had opportunities to 'join the group': go for gatherings, for concerts, meet people, share my interests, expand my networking. But I just didn't tread deep enough.

Look at Fred. He's now in Shanghai working his head off. His typical working hours is 5pm to 5am. He can afford to fly to another country and work hard because he is young and building his career. And he will succeed, not because he's ultra-good, but because he is in the group.

4 years ago, I caught the attention of Terence Yallop, President of Real Music, the label that makes Kevin Kern famous. After months of trial collaboration, we met in Singapore during Kevin's first concert here. His comment was that it was difficult for us to work due to geographical differences. I could think of a simple solution: I could fly to U.S. and base there to expand my music career.

But I chose to stay.

You know what they say, that the grass is always greener on the other side. I like the fact that I could, from time to time, visit the 'other side' and experience greener grass for a moment, then return to my own side. I choose not to migrate to the green side, for if I do, I might soon realise that green grass is not the only thing that is important.

A life is simply an equation in the world of living. Your existence can make a positive difference to the people around you. That, I feel, is the value of living.

The Rise of the Citizen J

"J" is for journalism, and citizen journalism the new buzzword for the year.

Everyone is encouraged to send newsworthy events to the news station to get them published and publicised. It's ironic how an event that was been criticised as trying to exploit free publicity made it on the news and thus making it self-fulfilled. A recent case in example: a closing pet shop that received public attention because of a well-meaned pet lover SMSed to her friends.

Before the advent of citizen journalism, the role of sensationalising the news lie on the tabloid news reporter. Now, the honour goes to the citizen who supplied the news and the 'victims' who are part of the news. They have to 'make it big' so that it is news-worthy. Such a mentality would in no time distort all the news that we receive. In fact, we can no longer believe everything that is being reported on the news. Although the news reporter might try to verify the information, no one knows the truth better than the victim him/herself. A recent classic case: the family of a man who committed suicide on the MRT station received thousands of dollars in donations to support the livelihood.

But there are definitely benefits to citizen journalism. We get news that we would never learn from professional journalists, photos we could never get from press photographers. News reading has become more entertaining. Even my wife nowadays watches the evening news.