I think I’m suffering from some form of mental or cognitive constipation whenver I realize that I have got no photos to post for a blog update. I’m currently back at home to move more of my stuff back to Singapore, which means a painful separation from my dear lappie.
Note: I promise when I get my photos I’ll update! Okay, as promised, here are some of the photos. If you’re connected with me on Facebook, I would have at least one album ready by now :)
Along the pond at The Quad
In the elevator. Look up!
On the spiral staircase.
So, senior camp went quite well. There were twelve photographers in total, eight of which are attached to four groups (two photographers each) and then the remaining four, of which I was one of them, will roam around freely to cover events that attached photographers can’t, or to help out when our services are required. I reckon that being a photographer is one of the best experiences around – not only I get to capture the joyful, fun-filled moments of an orientation camp that I am truly passionate about, but I get to hone my skills further too. Usually for such opportunities, one had to pay for it – say, a model photoshoot.
On the first day of the camp, we free-roaming photographers quickly settled into the four groups though. It wasn’t supposed to happen but then since it was senior camp, I guess it was okay. So I ended up working alongside with Gloria and Soo Chia, two female photographers who are terribly shy of getting into group photos – I’d make sure they’re in some of the group photos or else I won’t be doing my job right.
One thing I absolutely loathe about the camp though, is the long and absolutely unnecessary (not to mention torturous) debriefing sessions. Everyone had to sit for hours, well into 2am on the second night especially, to listen to opinion and suggestions of others. Of course, I applaud their effort to bring to the surface certain important, crucial issues – especially those that concern safety – but some of the discussions are downright uneventful, inconclusive and focused on the most insignificant, minute details that one could ever imagine. That reminds me so much of a person my friends and I generally try to avoid (and whose mouth we try to shut up every single time) during meetings in the past year.
What they fail to realize is that we have a forum where people can voice their views for the intended audience, so as not to hold back 100+ weary, tried souls that are craving for a warm bath and the sweet embrace of their beds. There were still meetings waiting ahead of many after the debriefs – the group leaders and their assistants, the programmers, and members of other portfolios too. I pity the group leaders (and their assistants) and the programmers the most – they are the ones who expend the most energy during the day and yet are one of the last few people to leave for their beds every night. And because of the long hours dedicated to debriefs, I ended up around 3 hours of sleep everyday, hah. I can’t believe how everyone survived it! Although some went down with fever and sore throat after the camp ended (I’m not spared too), so far everybody is doing okay, I think.
Just like other photographers, we spent the first night struggling to open a Picasa account and upload photos we took on the first day. Our opinions converged when it comes to how hard is it to make Picasa do exactly what we wanted to, teehee. It’s a little pain in the butt to use for the first time, with it tirelessly importing every single photo on my HDD. That’s not very typical of Google’s software to be so stubborn and impossible to use, but since I’ve got the hang on it, I shall let it off the hook.
Our leaders, Chong Yang and Yu Yuan are so competent and efficient :) I love it how they’ve managed to wrap up meetings in less than 10 minutes while the general debriefing took hours to complete. They were the ones who filtered through our photos and handpicked them for the slideshow. Thank you so much for the help! Not to mention the other photographers whom I’ve met during the camp, for being terribly kind and helpful!
Towards the end of the camp, there was a screening of the slideshows made of the photos we photographers had taken over the course of the camp. One of the songs, cleverly picked by Chong Yang, was Love Story by Taylor Swift. I always felt so happy, and yet so sad when I listen to the song. At the end of the song, the lyrics went something like this:
He knelt to the ground and pulled out a ring
And saidMarry me Juliet you’ll never have to be alone
I love you and that’s all I really know
I talked to your dad you’ll pick out a white dress
It’s a love story, baby just say yes
But do you really know the harsh, painful and cold truth behind the whole Romeo and Juliet play? Juliet ingested a potion give to her by Friar Laurence that placed her to a death-like state (but in fact, she’s still alive). Romeo learns about Juliet’s death from servant Balthasar, rushes over to her grave. Succumbed by grief, Romeo kills Paris and swallows the poison. Juliet awakens and discovered Romeo dead, stabs herself with Romeo’s dagger and dies shortly after.
I’ve read the play a few times, and it was always near the ending where it sent chills down my spine.
Hahahaah! Dude, you get to sleep for 3 hours!! I only slept for 1.5 hours! hahahaha
Looks like you enjoyed the camp despite the sleepless nights. I’ll be waiting for the photos. :)
I noticed you have got a new layout up since the last time I visited, I “LOL” at the I’m not a teddy bear part. But I somehow still link Terry to Teddy. ;)
Sleepless night is a byproduct of all the fun we had :) to make things good and fix things that went wrong, we had to stay up to make sure that it’s all settled before the real camp begins. Now we’re into the 4th day of the actual camp, and we’re all getting more sleep that we expected, which is definitely a good thing!
Yeap, it’s a new layout! I still love my ‘Teddy’ nick, although it took a little time to transition from the old cheesy ‘teddY’ to the current one, heheh :)
Though the camp schedule was full and you got less sleep everyday but joining that senior camp would be a priceless experience in a lifetime. And I believe it would stay memorable. ^^
BTW, wow 12 photographers! Can’t imagine how many pictures you guys took in total amount. Must be really lots!
Well, I’m looking forward for the photos. :D
Yep! It’s an experience of a lifetime – I get to hang out with friends that were in the same year as me although many of us have never even met before. It’s interesting how quickly we settled into cliques one year back, so much so that we forgot or were totally blithely unaware of each other’s presence.
We take an incredible amount of photos a day (I churn out around 250+ on a daily basis), but each of us have to select only a hundred of them daily for sharing so that everybody won’t be overwhelmed, teehee.
Some new photos are up already! :)
i want more pictures!!!
The camp sounds like fun! And the spiral shot is absolutely amazing!! That’s such a good shot. I wouldn’t have ever thought of that! :D
Ya, Shakespeare loves to kill off people at the end. Hamlet is another one where he killed practically everybody at the end. >.<
Acutally I didn’t think that we could use the spiral case as a prop too! When we were heading for a toilet break in the waiting area of the biggest lecture theatre on campus (it was so big that it actually had a waiting area just for itself), I spotted the spiral staircase and everyone immediately started scaling it. When it comes to phototaking, everyone is quite ‘on’ about it and they settle into photoformation pretty much automatically, heh!
Oh, Hamlet! That’s another fine art. I remembered in secondary school when I joined the Chinese drama club, our teacher actually had so much time to write a Chinese adaptation of the Hamlet drama, and of course rehearsed and acted it out.
Your pictures are great – especially the elevator and spiral staircase. Hope the endless debriefings are over. They remind me of staff meeetings here. It’s a rare skill to be able to run a concise , pleasant , and focused meeting. Send more photos!
@pat: Poor thing! Hopefully you’re getting enough sleep for the real camp, heheh!
@sue: More photos are up already :D thanks for the reminder!
@Bob: Thanks for the compliments! The debrieifings are done for good – now we only have short meetings after every other night to iron out some wrinkles :) phew!
What a cool opportunity! You captured so many wonderful photos. (I viewed the FB gallery a few days ago) Wow! You guys seemed to have had a lot of fun.. despite the long lectures and what not. I especially liked the staircase photo, very cool! And pretty funny how everyone pretty much lined up by themselves and were ready for a photo! Clearly.. they are used to be photographed? I’m guessing. :)
Romeo & Juliet is a wonderful play, one of my favorites from Shakespeare! Such a tragic story.. but still very good. I found my copy the other day and thought about re-reading it. It’s been years since I have read it! I’m trying to start reading a lot of classics. I’m not even close to meeting my books read this year.. I think I’m on number 18 or 50, haha. Long way to go.. :P
I hope all is well, Teddy! You have a wonderful week. :D
Thanks for the compliments, Trina! That was one of the busiest few days in my life on Facebook because never had I tried to upload so many photos at one single time!
Our camps were held two weeks before the semester starts, so we weren’t having any lectures or tutorials (thank goodness). Senior camp is actually more like a “test-run” for the actual Freshmen Orientation Camp, and instead of having freshmen for the camp, we have seniors playing freshmen instead :) since we’ve known each other for a year or so, it’s pretty easy for us to get into the ‘high’ mood of orientation, let alone getting into photoformations in a split second.
Shakespear simply loves killing people towards the end of his play, doesn’t he? Nonetheless, Romeo & Juliet is one wonderful play.