I don’t usually get to shoot much when I am teaching a workshop, so when I got a few photos during a recent (short) walk out to Haji Lane with my Photovoice SG group, I was happy to let the photos stew in the heat of my 6-year-old MacBook Pro, and even happier to find that some of them still appealed after the requisite month-long “soak”.

Untitled — Haji Lane, Singapore, 2014. © 2014 Callan Tham.

This is just one of them. It’s always great to have material to look through, and especially when one is cooped up at home trying to rest a bad back. I’d love to be out there photographing, but having stuff to edit is better than looking at the ceiling, thinking “I should be working”.*

* I wonder how many people will get this rather obscure movie reference, especially when it was such a terrible movie.

Montmartre, Paris, 2013. © 2014 Callan Tham.

I’ve been sidelined by a recurrence of my old herniated discs problem for the past week or so, and have been on a diet of painkillers and lots of rest. I’ve recovered enough to make it to some activities (I think–that could be my misguided sense of immortality speaking), but I’ve also taken this time to have a long, hard think about where I’m going and how I’m getting there.

It’s difficult to get one’s bearings right when the target is moving all the time, and the photography industry is just like that. Things change, and I’ve got to move along with it. I don’t exactly have big plans, but I’ve at least figured some stuff out, and will be announcing them soon. Then we’ll go from there.

Other than that, it’s the usual day-to-day thing: just trying to survive. There will be lots of mockery to come, surrounding the phrase “we go again”, but for some of us, that is the reality. We go again, day after day. It’s all we know, and sometimes, it’s all we have.

Occasionally, I look back at some photographs I’ve taken with equipment that are loaned to me, I wonder why I did not end up buying them. Then I just go back to using whatever camera I have. Photographing does cure many ills.

Here’s a snapshot from when I had a loan unit of the Sony A7. I’m still working on a short review, more for records’ sakes than anything else, as everyone who wanted one would already have one.

Untitled — Singapore, 2013

Nope, still no story here. Nor am I trying to tell one. I just like what I saw. Hope everyone is having a good, long weekend.

© 2014 Callan Tham. All rights reserved.

Untitled — Haji Lane, Singapore, 2014

It’s not a tiger. Not even a toy of a tiger. Just a snapshot of it. Does that change what it is or the representation? Or is it just a photograph describing what I saw?

Stories are nice, but sometimes, they are…overrated. There. I said it. Happy Labour Day, folks.

© 2014 Callan Tham. All rights reserved.

“Never ever confuse sharp with good, or you will end up shaving with an ice cream cone and licking a razor blade.” — Bill Pierce

Heading out to town in a bit for a spot of shooting before dinner, so if you see a fat dude with an old camera, wave and say hi.

Photo: 5th Arrondissement, Paris, 2013. © 2014 Callan Tham. All rights reserved.