Forever Barbie - 50th Anniversary

Who would not love to look their best forever? Barbie is the most popular plastic doll for girls in history and she still looks her best and trendy after 50 years.

Forever Barbie, celebrating 50th year of a pop culture icon - Barbie - is being showcased at Federation Square (top floor car park). It is the biggest Australia has ever seen. In fact, it is the biggest Barbie exhibition ever in the southern hemisphere!

With over three hundred Barbies, from the yesteryears to the new. From retail models to custom made ones, accessories - bags, glasses, shoes, more bags, houses, furnitures, automobiles (and space shuttle and horses) and pets and of course Ken (which may be classified as her pet also?)! From Barbie doll size to life-size fashion designs...

Not only Barbie fans will find it interesting. There are heaps of merchandise to purchase as well and I don't mean just dolls! Barbie is more than just a doll!

If you haven't checked it out yet. I highly recommend it, especially for this school holiday. It will be open (since Friday, 26th June) until Sunday, 12th July. Checkout the Barbie site for more details.

KEN: "To debunk all the rumour claiming that my relationship with Barbie is rocky, here is proof! We love each other and we are very happy together.

All you eligible bachelors out there, go look somewhere else!

Fans, thank you for your unwavering support to both Barbie and me! XOXO"

The King of Pop Michael Jackson has left

Very sad and unbelieveable news that Michael Jackson (29/08/1958-25/06/2006) has passed away this morning at the age of 50. He was such a great performer, so talented.

His life and career was filled with so much drama and he was undoubtedly the most influential music performer in the last 30 years. On the same day, Farrah Fawcett, one of the original Charlie's Angels also died. She was one of the most beautiful during my childhood years. ;_;

Must say like many, I was somewhat turned off by Michael's look in his later years after the plastic surgeries and skin condition... when he was given the nickname Jacko.

Nevertheless, he was a significant person during my childhood. Thriller, Beat It, Billie Jean, Bad, Black or White are some of his songs that have permanent residence in my memory.

It was quite a moving experience at Federation Square tonight. They screened many of Michael's top hits on the giant screen. Many stopped, stood there, sat there, cuddled another and watched. There were older folks, younger people and even some kids.


While there was some technical problems here and there (the video flickered and the audio could not be heard in some songs), people patiently waited, looked on... filling in the gaps with what they remembered and remembered so well.

I wonder about all the memories that must have rushed back to each person as they saw Michael perform... I felt like everything came to a standstill for a moment...


It is so sad that he is not with us anymore. No doubt he will be remembered as a legend, a great achiever, one who won many hearts. Lets remember him for his amazing talent, wonderful songs and moon-walk. RIP Michael.

The Light in Winter

Wanted to photograph the light shows at Federation Square for sometime. Tonight is the night! It was indeed very nice. Federation Square has officially became one of my favorite place! :)

The whole exhibit is called The Light in Winter which is all part an enlightenment theme. This first picture is The Gift of Light. Visit here for more details.
This exhibit is called Volume, LED light columns that reacts to human movements. I love all the colours of the exhibit and also the rich colours of the buildings near by. Beautiful!
Lets see it from ground level.

The next one, called Context, is a really interesting one. It is a real fire. You probably guessed it, it relates to the indigenous people of Australia.

Indeed, it was deigned by Vicki Couzens with the elders of the indigenous communities.

Melbourne Cup Parade

Congratulations to jockey Blake Shinn, horse Viewed, trainer Bart Cummings, horse owner, Malaysian, Dato Tan Nim Chan for taking out the 148th Melbourne Cup in a photo finish and Brat Cummings' 12th Melbourne Cup win which is a remarkable achievement, and again, confirms that he is the best trainer ever.

This is the Melbourne Cup Parade, held a day before the Melbourne Cup, on 3rd November along Swanston Street ending up at the Federation Square.
What is a democratic country without protest? These protesters are against cruelty in horse racing.

Personally, I don't think it is right to put a horse down if it is injured in a race, not unless it is beyond treatment and death is imminent. Horses are wonderful animals and deserve to be loved not only for their racing ability.

Robert Dipierdomenico, an ex-AFL footballer for Hawthorn. He is affectionately known as Dipper or Big Dipper. He is also the face of Dimmeys and Forges in recent years. Go Dipper!

This is Emilia DePoret, the Countess of Pop, a Swedish singer. While we didn't hear her perform at the parade, she was very nice - talking to kids (thus public) outside the exclusive marquee, giving away her CDs and signing them. Finding out kids' names and all that. Not just a pretty face. Check out her work here. Emilia, welcome to Melbourne. Hope you have a wonderful time downunder! :)

Here is a MV of her newest single "Pick Me Up"

Australia Sports Model of the Year - La Femme Physique Australia

Thank you very much to Brett for your encouragement. Thank you Clint for the pass. What an amazing experience. Great to catch up with you Christine and Mag. Nice to meet you again Patrik. I love your work. Nice to meet you Christian. Thank you very much to all the new friends as well - Wendy, Shenelle, Ruth, Bianca, Amanda, Jennifer, Nicole, Anna and Tricia. What can I say? you are all beautiful!

May our Australian team rack up all the prizes at the WNBF competition. Aussie aussie aussie oui oui oui!

It was Australia Sports Model of the Year- LeFemme Physique Australia Calendar Launch held at the Transit Lounge, Federation Square. Look at how much fun these photographers (and video cameraman, Christian) are having. I can't wait for the next event.

Let me introduce to you, from left to right, Fernanda Ramos and Wendy La Roche. Wendy is the defending world WNBF title holder. You just have got to read her bio. She is a wife and a mother of two, postgraduate in Marketing, in IT, modeling, an athlete and body building competitions. Amazing woman!
Garth Ploog performed live at the launch. Garth is a jazz singer / songwriter. He has appeared in musicals and TV series such as Neighbours and Australian Idol. In 2004 he was the youngest male to perform on the show and reached the wildcard final. There are lots of his music and videos at MySpace. His complete profile can be found here.

2008 Melbourne International Arts Festival - Opening Night

Wanted to photograph Federation Square crowded with people (just like during 2006 FIFA World Cup when it was broadcast at Fed Sq. I missed that).

There were many excellent cultural performances. How excellent were they? Just watch the reaction of the crowd.

Music performance dominated the evening. A very strong crowd made up of people of all ages and all races - senior citizens who brought with them chairs, office workers, students, families, youth and kids.

This picture of the jumping girl do no justice to how high (thus excited) she was jumping. She is not that much taller than the boy in front of her! She should be in our Olympic volley ball team!

This guy can dance, he and his friends had so much fun. Just look at how he is transfixed to the performance on the stage.

And what about this girl (and her partner - the lucky red shirt guy behind her), she was great - photogenic, moves great with the music, really enjoying herself, a pleasure to photograph. I killed many shots on her. Basically everyone in the front close to the stage were dancing. It was just crazy. The only person who didn't appear to be enjoying himself was the guard who was standing by the edge of the stage watching for any mis-behavior. Even he must be happy to say the crowd was good and behaved well.

That said, I must say I was very happy about how nice people were. They were polite and caring. Some even made effort to let me move around. I was pleasantly surprised. Australia is a great country and Australians know how to have fun!

OK, what were they cheering for? What were they dancing to?

This guy is good. Notice he is actually facing the crowd, not the marquee? That's right, he was conducting the crowd as well as the orchestra. He did really great to stir up the crowd.

Everybody's favorite, John So, the Melbourne mayor

Victorian premier John Brumby

Alfred Deakin Innovation Lectures 2008

Spent almost two weeks shooting Alfred Deakin Lectures 2008. Most lectures were held at BMW Edge at Federation Square in the CBD. There were a few held out of town and one at Melbourne Town Hall also. I must say I was skeptical at first thinking to myself how boring it was going to be shooting lectures and academics...

Well, to my surprise, they were (most of them anyway) were very stimulating lectures. For examples, exploring the possibility of regeneration which is only possible with liver and our muscles in human compared with such as worms, star fish and some lizards which have much greater regeneration power. Clear zebrafish being the new lab rat for the 21st century, being completely clear, makes it very easy to study... The topics were very diversified - biology, technology, computing, web, art, human rights, urban, transport, space travel, ethics, climate change, etc. Of course, sustainability is the buzz word on everyone's lips. There were international speakers, older respected speakers as well as voices from some of the smartest young people of this generation.

There were lectures as well as debates. To sum it up, I feel my mind has been challenged and innovation is working in me! Of course, I have learnt a few new things about photography also.

OK, about the pics, the first two are basically of the venue to show you how amazing looking BMW Edge is. The picture may look better cropped to give a more panoramic view...

The third picture is of former deputy prime minister of Australia Tim Fischer. He was great to photograph - so much expressions. Well, that's because he is a passionate advocate for rail transport that he was speaking on.

The last is one of the young voices, Larissa Brown. She helped to save a forest in Costa Rica! I will leave it as an exercise for you to find out more about her work if you are keen.

Sorry, no technical details on the pics... this post is long enough as it is. No post processing was made and most were taken at very high ISO to keep shutter speed high for sharp result.

Sustainable Living Festival, Fair Trade Market

Shot a couple of events last week. 1st was on Friday, 9th of May during lunch time (a very productive day indeed). It was the Fair Trade Retailer's Market where my friend - Boby, Laos Silk and Craft - had a store there. On top of photographing her store and products, I seized the opportunity and shot the whole market.

The 2nd shoot was at Malvern Town Hall for Stainable Living Expo on the weekend, 10th and 11th of May. Good thing that it was over the whole weekend (in fact, it started on Friday). I missed plenty of shots after reviewing shots I took on Saturday. Thank God that I had the chance to come back on Sunday. A very good learning experience indeed.

I also learnt lots from the expo. Did you know that you can clean the whole house with 150ml of water and no detergent. Of course that does not include laundry and you need some special products - cleaning clothes from Enjo to do that.

PS The 2nd photo is cropped. I love the light from the energy efficient bulb on the faces. Ashamed that I can't give you the full res pic. Focus is tack sharp on the boy's eyes so it is very captivating.