Post No. 49: 8,555 Words...

On Christmas day last year (funny, isn’t it…? The words “last year” make it sounds as if this was quite some time ago but it was only 12 days ago…), having time to spare after watching the movie “Merry Christmas” (which is a moving & thought-provoking movie injected with much humour… I strongly recommend you all go watch it before it ends its run in Singapore…) at Cineleisure, I went to view the “Earth From Above” photo exhibition. This exhibition is situated along the stretch from outside Borders all the way to Forum The Shopping Mall. To keep a long story short, I was so struck with the beauty of the photos on exhibit that I decided to take pictures of them for keepsake.

Thus, on 30/12/2005, armed with my elder sister’s digital camera, I went back to the exhibition and started to take pictures of those photos that impressed me the most. Quite a few of them turned out quite bad due to the reason that I went in the afternoon and the photos, being slightly reflective, somewhat reflected the surroundings (so don’t be alarmed if you all start spotting a “ghostly figure” in some of the pictures below… that’s just a reflection of me taking the picture… :P). Well, I wouldn’t ramble on anymore and let the pictures speak for themselves… Enjoy!

“Heart” (naturally-formed) in mangrove swamp near Von, New Caledonia

Patchwork of carpets in Marrakech, Morocco

Tree trunk in a coral reef, Dominican Republic

Fields of tulips near Lisse, near Amsterdam, Netherlands

“Tree of Life”, Tsavo National Park, Kenya

Trees amid the waters near Taponas, Rhone region, France

Mount Everest, Himalayas, Nepal

Like what you all saw above…? There’s more at the actual photo exhibition… Hurry, it ends on the 17th of January… Alternatively, you all may choose to access this website: www.yannarthusbertrand.org for more of such photos…

Okay now, I would like to use this opportunity to tell you all that I was most annoyed that several of the photos (which weren’t not protected by any protective cover), when I saw them on Christmas day, were slightly defaced by pieces of coloured foam that stuck to their surface. Needless to say, this was a result of the Christmas Eve revellers who, according to those letters sent to the Straits Times Forum complaining about their wild behaviour, went wild spraying foam on anyone, everyone, anything and everything… Ironic, isn’t it…? To think that the defacing of these photos, which symbolise the beauty of Nature, by inconsiderate revellers is somewhat analogous to us humans damaging the environment to satisfy our own needs & desires… Sad, isn’t it…? To think that once people start to immerse themselves in their merry-making, they forget to care about the negative effects caused by their wild celebratory behaviour… If recent news reports are to be believed, the amount of rubbish generated by those Christmas Eve revellers, within the short span of one night, on Orchard Road, was a shocking 6 tonnes (which was about twice of the usual amount generated)! Don’t be mistaken, I have nothing against people letting their hair down when they celebrate… Celebrate if you all want to but please be mindful that you all don’t build your enjoyment on the unhappiness of others or sacrifice your future enjoyment for the sake of immediate pleasure…