Category: photography

This is Spike, a once farrell cat that now lives with my parents. I took this photo in May 2005 when I was visiting home. This is one of the first shots I took with the Lens Baby 2.0 I got that I like. The lens baby is hard to keep focused but a lot of fun to play with.

[edit] I got the name wrong. It’s Spike not Shelby… oops

Taken at Thian Hock Keng Temple [wikipedia.org] in Singapore.

On February 11th the annual Thaipusam [wikipedia.org] festival took place here in Singapore. The festival, celebrated mostly by Tamil Hindus, is a celebration of the birth of Lord Murugan [wikipedia.org] and the day his mother, Pavarti [wikipedia.org] gave him a spear to vanquish a demon.

Whatever the details are about the origins of the festival the striking feature of the festival to an outsider today is the Mortification of the Flesh associated with thevel kavadi, vel meaning spear and kavadi meaning burden. The vel kavadi is basically a portable alter carried above the head and shoulders and attached to the body by a number of vels piercing the flesh.

While there were a large number of vel kavadi, some up to two meters tall, there were also a lot of other types of mortification. Some people had small hooks in their legs, back or chest each attached to an orange or lime. Others carried kavadi but rather than having them attached by spear like vels they had them attached by hooks on ropes or jeweled chains.

I understand that the festival is outlawed in India and the largest festivals today are in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia, Penang, Malaysia and in Singapore. As one of the guys hanging out with me the day of the festival said: ‘this is the most interesting thing to happen in Singapore.’

Posted a the first of many photos from my recent trip to Paris and Japan. I’ll post them a few at a time as I get them cleaned up. I have about 20 gigabytes of photos from the three week trip.

These first few photos are all of the Eiffel Tower at night, most of them are taken through the ‘Wall for Peace’ which is situated at the far end of the Champs de Mars from the tower.

I actually went to the Singapore Botanical Gardens [wikipedia.org] way back in January but and just now getting my lazy ass around to posting the pictures. They are not the most artistic pictures I’ve ever taken but if you like flowers take a look. 90% or so of the pictures are actually of orchids, but there are a few other plants, bromeliads and a Venus flytrap [wikipedia.org] even.

I used to know a guy who grew 15 or more species in his house in C’ville. He had orchids in the bathroom, orchids on the steps, orchids everywhere. Of course this guy was a transmission mechanic by trade, a molecular biologist by education, and a founding member of the Elvis Grotto caving society. Strangest thing was the large black and while profile of the king himself that was spray painted on the hood of this guys 1971 Land Rover. Very strange. He used to go to ‘orchid society’ conventions and little old ladies from around the world whom he had only met briefly in Vegas or New York while at these conventions would call him at all hours to ask about growing this or that orchid. Very strange indeed.