Twenty Twenty

Usual favorite moments post from 2020. 2020 was kinda odd, shortly after March, travel was all cancelled, burning a bunch of Norway tickets and ended up spending a lot of time exploring Korea. When I first moved to Korea, I had only heard of Seoul, Busan and Jeju.

I guess the travel restrictions offered an opportunity to travel and explore so many parts of Korea that I wouldn’t have thought of visiting. Populating my Korea google map drastically..

Korea was a pretty good place to get stuck at during COVID, it was relatively safe without much disruption day to day until the recent 3rd outbreak in Seoul. To put things into perspective, Most friends I know worked from home but I only had 2 work from home days in the entire year. 

Started bouldering and continued learning korean, explored a ton of places in Korea that I otherwise wouldn’t have. Anyway here's the more fun parts of it, I guess 2020 was pretty awesome. Hope you enjoy. Happy Holidays and Happy 2021! 메리 크리스마스! 새해 福 많이 받으세요! Shall let the pics do the talking.

January - Spend New Years in NYC. Blue hour in Brooklyn. One of the days I tot sunset would come with some nice fluffy orange clouds but of cos the sun was blocked right at sunset. 

January - did a trip to Tokyo and headed to Hakone and was caught in a snowstorm. Just a short 2 hours flight to the land of ramen and sushi 

February - Trip to Busan. Been to Busan countless times that friends have mentioned that I practically lived there. :D 2nd attempt at this minefield mountain with mine warning all along the trail but this time I found the peak. Was really cold but love the view of Busan from here with the S curve.

February - Maybe the first and last big snowfall in Seoul. Been snowing so hard all weekend and still going strong. Managed to make a quick run up Gwanaksan after bouldering. Took the wrong trail at the start and had to take a slippery and sketchy detour. Lol so cold and was so underdressed, Nike flyknits and tech fleece joggers 

March - Short weekend trip out to Anyang park. Self entertaining during weekend when social distancing was just implemented. Was supposed to be in Norway but borders got closed..

April - Cherry blossoms in Seoul. Been wanting a composition with Namsan tower framed with cherry blossoms since 2019.. walked around Namsan park in the evening and stumbled upon this street that I tot would be nice in the morning with a bus.. went back next morning again in search of my Namsan tower shot but no luck lol. Came back to this street alas bus hasn’t started running yet haha. Sat around on the floor with my coffee tumbler and waited for a bus to drive by.

April - Pretty hard to find any decent spots for blossoms this year as everything is basically fenced up. Found this small little pavilion? But they closed it less than an hour after I got there.

April - Headed to Jeju for the first time. Always liked basalt rocks formations and even cooler with deep blue water reflections. shortly after some adults started dumping really big rocks into the water. 

May - Was in Seoul bouldering a lot haha

June - took some time off and headed to Jeju again and took a road trip to Saryangdo, Tongyeong and Geoje. Chill morning at osulloc tea farm. So zen and tearrific.

July - Hanging out at the BTS bus stop. went surfing in Yangyang and Taean. was out along the coast of Korea and tot some parts of Yangyang had the Bali beach vibes. 

August - Did a roadtrip to Gwangju and Jeonju and my coolest boss also got married 

September - checked out Paju, Wanju and also Chuncheon. One weekend, it was pouring a lot and there was also a moment where all the stars align.. Whats the chances of getting low fog, a bolt of lighting and lotte tower at blue hour all in a one frame.. Probably my personal fav shot of Seoul thus far. 

September - One of the many pine lone trees in Korea but this was relatively harder to get to #shotoniphone

October - Fall colors in Seoul. Pretty crazy how this calm and zen place is right in the center of Seoul. Been here a couple times but never been able to get conditions I wanted at secret garden. This will do for now. Nicely peppered with fall colors. Will try again next season. 

October - This falls is also known as heart falls.. if you look hard and long enough.. and you still don’t see it.. keep staring at it

November - checked out Naejangsan and Gyeongju for fall colors. One of the spots in Korea I thought looked best in fall. Got there at 12am, took a nap, hiked, arrived at 2am and I wasn’t the first. Waited all night in the cold and watched the fog rolled in and rolled out at sunrise 

December - did a weekend trip to Busan. Always hung out around Haeundae beach and never really explored other areas along the Busan coast. Went by this time round checked out some cool temple and shrines along the coast. Caught some nice waves and didn’t really get wet. 

December - recent snowstorm that we had to do the Dobongsan hike twice as one of the routes was closed. This spot was so sketchy and had to prone so I don’t slip and fall off the cliff. Fingers are still numb..

and to be continued.. And finally Happy Holidays and Happy 2021, looking forward to my first/last trip of 2020 as I weave through PDX and Seattle over the next couple weeks.

Twenty Nineteen

My usual favorite moments post from 2019. 2019 was kinda interesting, got a MBA from INSEAD and also moved to a new country where I cannot speak the main language. Rather rough at times, learned a new language but overall having a pretty awesome time. Anyway here's the more fun parts of it, I guess 2019 was pretty awesome. Hope you enjoy. Happy Holidays and Happy 2020! 메리 크리스마스! 새해 복많이 받으세요! Shall let the pics do the talking.

DECEMBER - Graduated from INSEAD and spend the remaining time of the year in SF and Portland. got all drenched but was a good morning in San Francisco, California

DECEMBER - San Francisco, California

DECEMBER - Mount Hood, Oregon

JANUARY - Good Morning Istanbul, Turkey

JANUARY - A hike to Yushan in Taiwan

JANUARY - Taipei 101 framed with currently the most expensive building in Taipei where you can drive ur car into ur apartment. how cool is that.

JANUARY - Mount Fuji under the stars 

JANUARY - Hello snow monkeys, we meet again. Nagoya, Japan

FEBRUARY - Greetings from the Land of Thunder Dragon #shotoniphone

FEBRUARY - The Tibetan style stupa was built in memorial of the 3rd king of Bhutan. Interiors were really nice and cool, but alas, photography was not permitted inside all stupas, temples and monasteries. We had this blessing ceremony inside a temple and was really cool; Lama was reading the prayers off an iPhone, room had really cool light beams but sadly no photos. More on this Stupa, surprisingly lots of local Bhutanese walking around the Stupa at 5am in the morning when I got here. Walking around the Stupa 108 times was said to bring good karma. Off to start my morning rounds, collecting good karma for the year

MARCH - One of my most memorable days in 2019 was in Gokyo, Nepal. Snowstorm Day 6: Machhermo (4470m) to Gokyo (4790m)
Started the day white out and snowing pretty hard. Conversation between me and the guide.. Guide: I think weather is bad we should turn around
Me: 1 inch of snow overnight at Machhermo probably 3 inch of snow up at Gokyo?
Guide: Probably waist deep at Gokyo..
Me: (in disbelief) Let’s see :P

Weather was crappy but I decided to go towards Gokyo anyway. Terrible snowstorm total white out conditions with strong winds and snow. Haha total bad idea. In the end my guide was right, waist deep snow at some parts and my guide also fell into a snow hole that was deeper than him (ie maybe 2 meters deep). The 3 hours hike ended up taking 11am to 5:30pm. Barely shy of 6.5 hours. Got to Gokyo Namaste Lodge at 5:30pm and probably sat by the fire till 11pm. Tried to dry my really wet shoes by the fire but accidentally slightly melted it as well. Great.. Probably the toughest day in the trek.

MARCH - Nuptse standing at 7861m is by far my favourite peak from the entire trek

MARCH - My fav peak in Nepal, Nuptse standing at 7861m on a super cold night with so much frost on my camera and my fingers doesn’t really want to work haha. Earlier in the day, we saw a porter carrying 70kgs worth of 500ml bottles of Coca-Cola along the hike and probably walking way faster than me. So ridiculous..

MARCH - on the route to Everest base camp when we hiked up the ridge when the storm cleared the following day and saw a pretty awesome sunset. 

MARCH - Everest Base Camp (5364m) Probably about 160km and about 3310m elevation gain. The hike itself wasn’t too rough as it was broken down over a period of time with acclimatization days (ie rest days) inbetween but what I found challenging was probably how the indoor room temperatures were also at a ridiculously low -15C and there isn’t heating in the room haha. #firstworldproblems

APRIL - Cherry Blossom in full bloom in Korea #벚꽃

APRIL - Foggy freezing cold morning after camping a night in Daedunsan. #대둔산 #shotoniphone

APRIL - X marks the spot

MAY - First time to Busan. Gamcheon cultural village in Busan often known as the Santorini of Korea or Machu Picchu of Korea but I thought it looks a little like Cinque Terre from the pastel coloured houses. We went around the labyrinth like alleys looking for the little prince with the little fox and found a huge line waiting for a photo op with him.

JUNE - Ran up Inwangsan again at sunset, took about 25 mins this time. Tried a slightly different comp and loved how the old fortress wall (bottom left side of pic) somehow forms a leading line into the city.

JUNE - Spend the weekend in a city far south of Korea with some pretty cool bamboo forest and monkeys looked a lot like Arashiyama in Kyoto just without people #고창군

JUNE - Teleported back to Singapore

JULY - Got all soaked at golden gate bridge. San Francisco, California

JULY - Quick stop in Tokyo, Japan

AUGUST - One of my favourite views of Seoul 

AUGUST - After many many attempts, finally got a pretty awesome sunset at Gangnam. spend way too much time in the middle buildings LOL. 즐거운 주말이었어요

SEPTEMBER - Spend the long chuseok weekend in Fukuoka and drove around abit. Pretty cool place and probably will be back again very soon haha. 후쿠오카에 여행갔어요. #추석 잘 보내세요! 

SEPTEMBER - Visited many waterfalls along the way.. this one felt a lot like Gorton creek in Oregon

SEPTEMBER - Haven’t been to so many waterfalls in a long time.. feels pretty happy walking up to it. That’s me for a sense of scale haha Ramona falls, Oregon

SEPTEMBER - Fukuoka itself wasn’t very memorable other than the yatai food carts which had really awesome mentaiko, the canal surrounding it which was also really nice and this apparently famous long wait dumpling place that was absolutely rude and definitely served mediocre dumplings (sorry not sorry) but the area around Fukuoka was really nice and filled with pretty nature stuff.. running out of Oregon proxies. This one probably reminded me of Portland japanese garden?

OCTOBER - Spent the night and morning in some eerie looking pine forest with Nate

OCTOBER - Back to Busan again. Marina One, Singapore. Pretty popular sunset spot in Busan I believe but I kinda liked how the 우신골근스위트 in the middle stood out amongst the blueish backdrop at sunrise

OCTOBER - Made another quick stop in Singapore

OCTOBER - Fall colors in Korea was pretty awesome

OCTOBER - Tiring fast paced hike up Dobongsan (도봉산) prettily peppered with fall colours over the weekend 

NOVEMBER - Attended my first Korean wedding.. thought the traditional Korean tea ceremony with hanbok was really cool and they serve soju instead of tea.. :D

NOVEMBER - Was standing by this pond in winter 2016 and thought I will be back here in autumn for fall color. so fast forward 3 years later.. here I am and yasss it looks amazing. #shotoniphone

NOVEMBER - Minoo falls was a little out of the way from Osaka but definitely worth the trip, the hike up to the falls was peppered with fall colors and looked awesome. probably my favorite combination for photography; autumn + waterfalls #shotoniphone long exposure on iPhone

NOVEMBER - Window of reflections. #shotoniphone From a temple that I had to wait hours to get into haha. I did a simple cash flow for the temple while I was waiting and was pleasantly surprised how much they would make yearly. Only in Japan 

NOVEMBER - Back in Singapore for exactly 24hours. Chop chop. on INSEAD campus for the day. Went to gym. Interesting convos in BOR. Lunch with folks. more interesting convos in BOR. Dinner in Dempsey. Back to airport. Always awesome to be back on campus. Till next time, 싱가포르

Singapore latest 1.7 billion bucks gem. Honestly the 40m waterfall with the surrounding 3000 trees and 60000 shrubs in the giant greenhouse looks pretty amazing. It’s like walking into a sci-fi movie. Definitely the coolest airport I ever been to

DECEMBER - to be continued..

And finally Happy Holidays and Happy 2020, looking forward to my last trip of 2019.. I promise..

Korea

Got a bunch of questions about Korea recently and though I will compile a list of those and will update it along the way. Feel free to drop me a note and I will add more things to it as time goes by..

Housing

most people that want to stay in Gangnam area (Gangnam-gu near work) stay around this area. There are alot of officetel (think of it like your neighbor could be a tuition center) and there are residential areas. heres the few popular residential areas.

• M Cherville (5 mins walk) - Usually self furnished but can negotiate some furniture 

• Desian Luv (10 mins walk) - Usually semi furnished 

• Star Tower (10 mins walk) - Fully furnished 

A more expat and foreigner friendly environment would be Itaewon/Hannam area (Yongsu-gu across the river) about a 30 mins commute to work. More English friendly I guess but I felt it wasn’t much more than Gangnam area but definitely may more foreign food.

Simcard

You need a Korean number to get most things done so.. Just get a KT sim. its basically almost the same price between the different telco companies. there’s a big KT (with one guy that speaks pretty good English) when u walk out of Gangnam station exit 1 and walk along for 5 mins. get a prepaid simcard first (sold by per gb + initial card fee) and when you receive ur ARC (alien registration card), you can go back to the same shop to get a 12 months contract and get some savings. I went with the 100GB a month plan.

Korean 

In Seoul and at work - totally not necessary, a lot more people speak English and you can totally get by with just Chinese 

Out of Seoul - nice to have, menus are usually all in Koreans and lesser people speak English

Buses, Trains and Airport shuttles

get a TMoney card from one of the vending machines at the subway station, eventually ur bank debit card will become your Tmoney but you need it for the first couple weeks. buses and trains pretty much get you anywhere around Seoul. Taxi is not expensive (meter starts at ~5000KRW and theres no midnight surcharge or peak hour surcharge) but traffic here is so bad it makes more sense to just stick with bus and train. Uber doesn’t really work here and you need kakao Taxi. Google maps also doesn’t work here, download naver map, kakao map and kakao metro and you are good to go.

ICN airport - usually I take airport shuttle buses comfortable and ~15,000KRW to get you door to door approx 90 mins need to pay by cash or by Tmoney card tho you can use credit card to buy the ticket at the airport.

GMP airport - usually I take train ~couple dollars and approx 45 mins

once you get your ARC card, no preregistration needed, you can use the fast track lanes when clearing airport customs coming back to Korea. (basically like global entry in US)

Groceries, online shopping and food

Lotte mart and Emart are the ones I go to most but you could also do most groceries online too. order all my supplements from iHerb.com and cheap and good. 2nd and 4th Sunday of the month the large grocery stores (emart, Lotte mart, Costco) are closed. My Friend uses a rhyme to remember it

• 1 and 3 come and see

• 2 and 4 close the doors

I buy a lot of random stuff online G-market and Coupang (e-commerce website). some stuff I still get from amazon but rarely (shipping is expensive and you get taxed for >150usd)

Ubereats, shuttle and foodfly are where I get most my food deliveries.

License conversion and how to get ur license back (took me multiple trips to get it done, there’s a foreigner desk, speaks decent english, pretty fast and convenient)

You need 4 documents to convert your license 

1. Go to ur embassy in Korea to get ur foreign license certified and also translated

2. You need to wait till you receive ur ARC card

3. You need to get a certificate of entry and exit from immigration office, Samseong station exit 5 (CALT Building 2F)

4. Four passport size photos

You bring them to the Driving license center, Samseong station exit 1 (Road Traffic Authority Driver License Examination Office Gangnam)

Do some paper work while you are there and once license is converted, they will take your current license and issue you a korean license within an hour. 

How to get your license back

• You need to have an airplane ticket/ travel confirmation out of Korea, bring it back to the driving center and they will return you ur license (weird rule but ya that how’s it works)

Things to do around Seoul 

First couple weeks I got here got really excited and was mostly across the river in the tourist side, I no longer spend much time there anymore unless friends pop by and wants to go. 

• Myeongdong area

• Bukchon Hanok Village

• Gyeongbukgung Palace 

• Ikseon-dong

• Hongdae area - young area quite hips

• Gwangjang Market - Netflix street food lady works here 

• Dongdaemun design plaza

• Itaewon foreigner land basically feels like you are in LA

I hike quite a lot within and out of Seoul 

Within Seoul 

• Inwangsan personal favourite and close to other attractions

• Namsanhanseong

• Bukhansan 

• Dobongsan

Out of Seoul 

• Jeju island - Hallasan

• Busan

• DMZ/JSR (though JSR is currently closed)

• Jirisan 

• Seoraksan

• Wolchusan

• Daedunsan
  
  

Favourite food around Gangnam

• Ginseng chicken soup (24hours) - 한방삼계탕
  https://goo.gl/maps/t6XmYqWEBCaN4N2s6

• Cold noodles - Eulmildae 을밀대 - 냉면
  https://goo.gl/maps/6mgrAySkUVaFN3xT8

• Korean army stew - 송탄부대찌개

• Sugi’s seafood pot - 숙이네 조개전골
  http://naver.me/xwCUoo1g

Twenty Eighteen

My usual favorite moments post from 2018. 2018 was a year of gains and losses; left Oregon (a place I called home for more than 5 years), got a MBA from INSEAD and also a new job. Anyway here's the more fun parts of it, I guess 2018 was pretty awesome on the travel aspects. Hope you enjoy. Happy Holidays and Happy 2019! Shall let the pics do the talking. 😬

DECEMBER - Mrauk-Oo, Myanmar 🇲🇲 2 plane rides from Yangon and a 4.5 hours boat ride later.. Finally we are at Mrauk-U.. Here’s one of the endless temples we visited.

DECEMBER - Mrauk-Oo, Myanmar 🇲🇲 The little kids that followed me around town and kept poking my lens with their gun shaped tree branches 😝 they were also really happy when I showed them pics of themselves on the lcd 🤣

DECEMBER - Shwedagon Pagoda in Yangon, Myanmar 🇲🇲

DECEMBER - Bangkok, Thailand 🇹🇭

DECEMBER - Krabi, Thailand 🇹🇭 A sketch and slippery hike at Railey Beach to this viewpoint on the first day of the trip 😅

DECEMBER -Emerald pools in Krabi, Thailand 🇹🇭

JANUARY - Hanoi, Vietnam 🇻🇳 Spent the first day of 2018 roaming the empty yet messy streets of Hanoi post- countdown party. Hopped onto an uber moto with mad driving skills. Driving and texting on a motorcycle weaving through the no traffic light streets and Americans claim Asians are bad drivers.. Really? 🤔

JANUARY - Sapa, Vietnam 🇻🇳 Kids of my homestay, Vi and Ahn. While she was preparing dinner for us with her wood + charcoal stove.. her kids were playing with my iPhone.

FEBRUARY - The ridiculously dense Ho Chi Minh City, Vietnam 🇻🇳 from above.

FEBRUARY - Sunrise at the evercrowded Angkor Wat, Siem Reap, Cambodia 🇰🇭 where I was standing in shin deep mud haha

FEBRUARY - Tonlé Sap lake, Cambodia 🇰🇭 Little kid floating in a styrofoam box on Tonlé Sap lake rowing his “boat” around asking for money. So sad Eugene donated a buck 😰

MARCH - Perth, Australia 🇦🇺

MARCH - The Pinnacles, Australia 🇦🇺 Insanely cool Mars looking landscape at the Pinnacles at sunset before some awesome milky way skies.

MARCH - Taipei 101, Taiwan 🇹🇼

APRIL - MacRitchie Reservoir, Singapore 🇸🇬 1st DJI Spark flight haha

MAY - Sigiriya Lion Rock, Sri Lanka 🦁🇱🇰 The ancient lion rock fortress of Sri Lanka. Apparently a Sri Lanka king built his palace on the rock. Eventually converted to a Buddhist monastery and finally became an UNESCO site. Looks pretty awesome from above.

MAY - Colombo Train Station, Sri Lanka 🇱🇰

JUNE - London 🇬🇧 Flat iron steak and Monmouth coffee was amazing haha

JUNE - Tel Aviv, Israel 🇮🇱 Israel is often compared to be as dynamic as Silicon Valley. However, Israel is truly unique with its cultural and entrepreneurial traits. From the experiences I heard over the week of exploring its ecosystems, I was extremely impressed with the startup nation; the military aspects, the infrastructure that truly supports entrepreneurship and even the 3.5 hours security check that emptied my entire bag before my flight out 😂

JUNE - Jaffa Port, Israel 🇮🇱 Ran by this area almost every morning in Israel. Reminded me of Cinque Terre in Italy 😍

JULY - Last min Jordan research on the Dead Sea, Jordan 🌊🇯🇴🤣
Was at the Dead Sea across the border in Masada, Israel couple days back and water was perfectly reflective and calm. However, it was really windy in Jordan. Crashing waves resulted in some damages; hurting wounds, Jordan travel guide and a Nikon remote. 😝

JULY - Petra, Jordan 🐫🇯🇴 5 nights, 1 cancelled flight ticket, 2 hours on skype with the agent, 1079km drove in a Toyota Corolla and became 3 shades darker. Here’s one from my 4th of 7 wonders.

The roads of Jordan were ridiculously hard to drive where people don’t like to keep their headlights on at night, don’t like to drive in the lanes, randomly drives in the opposite direction on highways and the chaos at roundabouts. Survived. 😂

JULY - Doha, Qatar 🇶🇦 Roaming the aisles of Souq Waqif, where Bedouins and locals used to trade livestocks. 😬

JULY - Spend the summer at Dell, Singapore 🇸🇬 had a lot of fun and also learned a ton from my Korean boss and fellow coworkers. Love it ALOT.

AUGUST - Marks the 1st in 12 National Days I actually got to spend in Singapore. Pretty nice seeing everyone dressed in red and white at ION. Kit Chan's Home is on repeat as usual 🤣 and it's the time of the yr to loop some NDP songs and I was basically on a fireworks shooting spree. 😊🇸🇬 #SG53 #majulah

AUGUST - Melaka, Malaysia 🇲🇾

SEPTEMBER - Changi Beach, Singapore 🇸🇬 Totally reminded me of Cannon beach in Oregon.

SEPTEMBER - First time at F1 Singapore 🏎🇸🇬

OCTOBER - #ShotoniPhoneXS Really like this!

OCTOBER - Shanghai, China 🇨🇳 #ShotoniPhoneXS Interesting week learning more about copycats, innovative ideas and the role of the government in the progress of the Chinese economy. However, my biggest takeaway was how crowded China truly is. #somanypeopleeverywhere

NOVEMBER - Beijing, China 🇨🇳 Great Wall of China peppered with fall colours but not people. Moments of peace before the cable car crowd came by from behind. (5 of 7 new world wonders checked)

NOVEMBER - Beijing, China 🇨🇳 “Foggy” aka really bad air morning at Forbidden City, Beijing with some fall colours before the crowd arrives 🤣

NOVEMBER - Beijing, China 🇨🇳 The humongous egg of Beijing. it’s like a Tamagotchi 🐣 or Digimon 👾 about to hatch haha feels so out of place amongst the forbidden city and traditional looking buildings/structures in Beijing. 

NOVEMBER - Holland Village, Singapore 🇸🇬 Monsoon season in Singapore and my first lightning attempt. not too bad an attempt I guess.

DECEMBER - Multnomah Falls, Oregon 🇺🇸 with Lance. Great week meeting and catching up with friends in Portland. :)

DECEMBER - Mount Hood, Oregon 🇺🇸 Ridiculously cold morning snowshoe with Justin. Haven’t felt like my fingers and toes were falling off in a long time.

DECEMBER - San Francisco, California 🇺🇸 The everchanging landscape of SF with the new Salesforce building with a dance on the digital panel by night.

DECEMBER - Golden Gate Bridge, California 🇺🇸 got all drenched but somehow I really liked the foreground waves of this pic. 😊

And finally Happy Holidays and Happy 2019, looking forward to my last trip of 2018.. I promise..

Twenty Seventeen

My usual favorite moments post but now from 2017. 2017 was a pretty interesting year for me in many aspects; a couple major decisions, leaving my job and also left Oregon. Anyway here's the more fun parts of it, I guess 2017 didn't look or feel too bad afterall. Hope you enjoy. Happy Holidays and Happy 2018 from Vietnam! 🇻🇳 Now I shall let the pics do the talking. :)

JANUARY - a memorable hike with Lance out to Tamawanas Falls, Oregon

JANUARY - This picture actually brings back alot of memories.. it was moments before drowning my Nikon D800E in Gorton Creek, Oregon. :(

FEBRUARY - Did a trip back to Singapore 🇸🇬 

FEBRUARY - Also made a trip to Taiwan.. Special thanks Jojo and Cindy's Mom for hosting me :) 🇹🇼 

MARCH - Freezing cold mornings at Mount Hood

MARCH - Scored permits to Havasu Falls. Couldnt say no. :P

MARCH - Cherry Blossom in full bloom along Portland Waterfront

APRIL - Was out in Woodburn Tulip Fest when Nae and Piriya visited.

APRIL - A short birthday getaway to Southwest

MAY - Machu Picchu and Rainbow Mountains 🇵🇪 

MAY - Lost Lake under the stars with Evelyn and Wayne.

JUNE - Submitted Mount Hood again with Jan again.

JUNE - Headed to Iceland yet again during lupine season and wow it was gorgeous. 🇮🇸 

JULY - Puffins 🇮🇸 

JULY - Checked out Yayoi Kusama infinite mirror exhibition in Seattle, was really awesome.

AUGUST - Snaps from one of the coolest natural phenomenon I ever witnessed. Pretty awesome that you can actually see reddish looking prominences of the sun at the edges #shinebrightlikeadiamond

AUGUST - Made a hike out to Ramona Falls with a couple friends.

SEPTEMBER - Finally checked off a location I always wanted to check out in Oregon. Alvord Desert with Wanda and Pocheng. Dropped by Painted Hills, Bend and Smith Rock along the way.

OCTOBER - Made it to Ed Sheeran's concert, Lady Gaga's concert and also Coldplay's concert. Coldplay's concert was probably the coolest I been this year. #goodtimes

OCTOBER - Mainly spend the remaining October packing after dropping by Chicago and running the Chicago Marathon. Thanks Chelsea and Rami for hosting me. Jojo, Ariel, Wanda and Pocheng for dropping by :)

OCTOBER - and checking out fall colors in near Portland. and meeting all my friends before I leave Portland :(

NOVEMBER - Obligatory photo of my badge, cellphone and laptop.. 

It's been a fun ride, Intel. About 5+ years ago, I drove up from sunny California to this completely new, green yet gloomy state starting my first job at Intel. Over the years, I am grateful for all the opportunities I have been given and I am surprised by the amount I have learned and grown. Oregon is no doubt the nicest place I ever lived in and I did slowly grew to love it.

Some stuff that I will probably miss NOT; replying to pages in the middle of the night, picking up phone calls half asleep, burning my weekends on machine issues and restarting my work cell whenever I don't receive a page for the last couple hours.

Thanks for all my friends in PDX, you made my life way more awesome than it could ever be. Till we meet again PDX! It's been a fun ride Intel. Peace out for now. :(

NOVEMBER - Been wanting to visit the 911 memorial in New York City for years now. saw some videos of the first responders and the audio playback from UA flight 93.. such a sad experience. :(

NOVEMBER - Goodbye Portland. Thanks YT and Ra for all the effort! so awesome #notoofinedining

NOVEMBER - Stopped by San Francisco and grabbed lunch with my 99yo grandma. Pretty ridiculous how she has a nicer outdoor down jacket than any I ever owned #gottastepupmygame #arcteryx  

NOVEMBER - Not many people know this but I grew up in Hong Kong, and growing up there, I had visited all the tourist attractions countless times and even used to own an annual membership to Ocean Park. Visiting HK every time still brings back familiar and fond memories of my childhood. Managed to catch up with some friends over my short stay in Hong Kong. 🇭🇰

DECEMBER - Was at Marina Bay sands collecting my Standard Chartered Marathon race packet to avoid the weekend crowd. 2nd marathon of the year.. Couldn’t resist but to stop by Art Science Museum when I saw the sky starting to glow. Also my first shot from Singapore since I got back, haven’t had much time at all to use my camera. 🇸🇬

DECEMBER - 2 plane rides from Yangon and a 4.5 hours boat ride later.. Finally we are at Mrauk-U.. Here’s one of the endless temples I visited in Mrauk-Oo, Myanmar 🇲🇲

DECEMBER - short stay at Shwedagon Pagoda in Yangon, Myanmar 🇲🇲 on the way to Thailand.

DECEMBER - The food, shopping and massages in Bangkok were awesome. Thanks Piriya and Nae for hosting me in Thailand and Pete for bringing me around. :) 🇹🇭

DECEMBER - A sketch and slippery hike at Railey Beach to this viewpoint on the first day of the trip in Krabi, Thailand. 🇹🇭

DECEMBER - Emerald pools and also not forgetting the full week of party at Chang’s Bar in Krabi, Thailand 🇹🇭 with the INSEAD folks.

DECEMBER - Spent Christmas at Melaka, Malaysia. Didn’t see much Christmas tree except a tiny one at the hotel haha. 🇲🇾

And finally Happy Holidays and Happy 2018 from Vietnam! 🇻🇳 Last trip of 2017.. I promise..

Kids of my homestay, Vi and Ahn. While she was preparing dinner for us with her wood + charcoal stove.. her kids were playing with my iPhone.

INSEAD and I go back a long way. Kind of?

I first heard about INSEAD when I interned at Standard Chartered Bank back in 2011. There was a lady who worked on my level from INSEAD ’08. At that time, I had never come across the school before and I remember looking it up in Google, just because the name INSEAD sounded interesting. A couple of years down the road, after I started working, I had been re-acquainted with INSEAD several times when my friends spoke about their friends who went to school at INSEAD. But these occurrences were not unusual, just your run-of-the-mill hearsay about INSEAD being a famed MBA school.

What was unusual however, was what happened during my last two years in Portland, Oregon where I was working. I was lucky to have the opportunity to explore many cities and countries in those two years. I visited the towering Dolomites in Italy, photographed the majestic Mount Fuji, weaved through the trails of Patagonia in Argentina and Chile, scaled up Machu Picchu in Peru, got drenched by the insane spray of the Iguazu Falls in Brazil and even saw the Northern Lights dancing in Iceland. During my travels, I met a few INSEAD alumni, and got to hear more about this school which was tucked in a corner of Buona Vista, which was coincidentally, where I went to high school. Then, my interest in the school went beyond its quirky name, as it sounded like a place I wanted to be. I dug a little deeper and also spoke with some of my friends who were INSEAD alumni, and found that the international focus of the school really resonated with me.

At that point, I somehow found myself at a crossroad and was wondering if I should plunge into a different field, having worked in the engineering field for some time. While all my brushes with INSEAD were seemingly random, I decided that they were a sign. So after four years as an engineer at Intel, I hit the books, took my GMAT and applied for INSEAD. The application process is, as most would know, challenging to say the least, but when I received that email to set me up for interviews with two alumni, I was stoked! After the interviews, I crossed my fingers (and toes) and waited for good news. I still remember the moment clearly; It was the morning of 30 March, a day before the deadline. I just got out of bed and was still having my breakfast when I got a call from country code +33. I swear I have never been so excited picking up an unknown phone call before, and I even took a screenshot of it before I picked up. Lo and behold, I was accepted!

It wasn’t long before I started packing and preparing for my big move. The last few weeks in Portland were really hectic; packing, donating and throwing away the things I had accrued over the years. I don’t like goodbyes and saying farewell to my co-workers and friends was so hard. The day eventually came where I left with a heavy heart, but with much anticipation of the exciting year ahead.

It has been about 3 weeks since I got back to sunny Singapore. So much has changed but those that matter remain steadfast, like the heat and the humidity! I been sitting in Spanish classes daily from 9am - 3pm and spending evenings doing Spanish homework. Rinse and Repeat. Hola! Como estás! It hasn’t been easy picking up a third language (in compressed time), but I am loving the learning and the new friends I am making!

While school has been keeping me busy, I decided to start updating my blog again for my friends on the other side of the world who would like to know what I am doing. Also, I hope my blog entries can be of some help for those who are interested in applying for business school! Perhaps my blog would be a ‘sign’ for those who just need a nudge to apply for business school.

I will end off with an iconic pic of Singapore that I snapped at sunset recently when I was at Marina Bay Sands to collect my Standard Chartered Marathon race pack. I couldn’t resist stopping by the Art Science Museum when I saw the sky starting to glow. This is also my first landscape shot of Singapore since I got back, as I haven’t had much time to use my camera. Signing off to prepare for my Spanish intensive course exam and presentation this Friday. Hasta la vista!

Crossroads

I'm sure at some point in time, some of you have wondered what I really do for a living, with your thoughts going along the lines of, "Terence's job is so awesome.. (Terence 過超爽的..) He gets to travel so much.. Intel is such a great place to work.. Does that guy ever work.. Dang I wish I had his job.. "

If you're looking to take over my job then today is your lucky day! I am relinquishing my post and my team is looking for a new Process Engineer, which is one of the most awesome Intel jobs EVER, as proven. If you're interested, drop me a message with your resume and I will pass it along! 🙂🙃#yesiwork #nolonger #inbetweenjobs #fiveyearanniversary

My iPhone and Camera gears

From the many questions I get about my iphone setup and camera setup. So theres the list of current equipment I am using..

iPhone Gear

Tripod Clamp http://amzn.to/2v4ucxL

Phone Clamp http://amzn.to/2u5UQsR

Lens https://www.oowa.life/ I have been looking at the Moment series of lens for quite a while now but their iPhone 7 attachment came out kinda late. so couple months down the road, I saw this set of OOWA lens from DynaOptics based in Singapore and decided to give it a try. Apparently OOWA is having a 30% off the lens kit if u use the SG-OOWA coupon at checkout (not sure how long the coupon will last). I will post some images from this set of lens later but all in all i do like it. Disclaimer: I am not making any money off this. :P I bought this set cos #supportlocal

OOWA 15mm and 75mm kit

Updates (Jan 2019): so from my understanding OOWA is not updating their gear so I have opted to try Moment wide angle lens on my iPhone XS. Ordered a set but it hasn’t arrived yet, let’s see how that goes with my new Leofoto Kit.

Recently updated my iPhone XS gear with @Photosphere.SG, check them out.

Love their mobile solutions; Leofoto mobile attachment PC-90 V2 (a way improved version of PC-90) and also the Leofoto arm attachment to my tripod AM-2.

Camera Gear

Nikon D850 http://amzn.to/2g8Uf4O

Nikon 14-24mm http://amzn.to/2uJCr37

Filters for 14-24mm

• Wonderpana 145mm filter holder http://amzn.to/2tAsuGF

• Wonderpana 145mm MRC CPL (theres 2 version of this filter, I have both and the price difference I feel is justified) http://amzn.to/2sIpiFU

• Wonderpana 145mm 10 stop ND http://amzn.to/2g86r5Y

Nikon 24-70mm http://amzn.to/2g8uPnQ (I have the older version that takes 77mm filters and never upgraded because I dont feel like I needed VR at that range and also the newer version http://amzn.to/2g9Gx1u uses 82mm filters and I dont feel like changing all my filters to 82mm and using a stepdown ring.)

Nikon 70-200mm http://amzn.to/2w1Gydq (I also have the older version of this and it has served me well. I heard alot of good stuff about the new version though. havent had funds to justify the upgrade yet http://amzn.to/2wBAj1x probably will upgrade it at some point.)

Filters for 24-70mm and 70-200mm

• 77mm lens protector http://amzn.to/2w8qMvN personally I stopped using them and now just use polarizers as my lens protector when I store the lens. when I shoot, very often I just don’t use a protector.

• 77mm polarizer really useful http://amzn.to/2w8oblw

• 77mm 10 stop ND http://amzn.to/2g844jx

Tripod TVC-24L Ballhead BH-40 http://www.reallyrightstuff.com/

L-Bracket. Personally I use a RRS bracket but over the years I found that this company makes pretty good L-bracket that fits and works well with RRS quick release. They cost way less and if you are on a budget.. u could try this out, fall in love with the L-bracket before u justify the RRS price. http://amzn.to/2v4IJcV

F-stop Anja backpack with Medium Slope insert. Based out of San Louis, Missouri. http://fstopgear.com/

Kimwipes. If you shoot waterfalls, do yourself a favor get a box of this and it will last you quite a while. They won't scratch your lens and they work better than any towel you ever owned. http://amzn.to/2sI2t5q

Rocket Blower. another do yourself a favor item, get the large RED one. you wont regret. http://amzn.to/2sIFc3j

Crumpler neck strap. an old strap from Crumpler an Aussie company and I had the model called "industry disgrace" loved it and had 2 of them. Seems like you can still find them online but Crumpler dont sell them anymore. I had the version without buckles. 

Camdapter Hand Strap. Small local company based out of Ohio. I have 2 of these as well. pretty awesome. love it. http://amzn.to/2t6PZUl

MagMod Flash Filters. This company makes pretty awesome flash filters. good set to start with. Add more modifiers as needed later. 

Entry Level Camera Recommendations

Fuji XT-30 with kit lens 18-55mm. tried one love it. great value for money in a smaller package as compared to a full sized DSLR. https://amzn.to/2YCJOfa

B+W Circular polarizer to go with it. probably the only filter I use the most https://amzn.to/31vqptB

Finally, my to go to Sandisk memory cards https://amzn.to/2YHME2A

Affordable Tripod Recommendations

Leofoto Ballheads - been using some of their equipment and like it a lot value for money.

• Very compact ballhead (I currently use this a lot for my compact setup) https://amzn.to/2tiS4yr

• Very stable ballhead https://amzn.to/2MCyuWM

Manfrotto Tripod Legs

• Very compact tripod (I used to own this and now is my ocean setup) https://amzn.to/2ykT2jJ

• Very stable tripod https://amzn.to/2ypGfMQ

Circular Polarizer

A couple friends has asked me some time back if I used a circular polarizer for waterfalls. I was processing some pics over the weekend and randomly saw this 2 pics and thought it kinda showed why I used a polarizer. The left was taken unpolarized and the right was taken polarized. Both iPhone 7 plus images taken back to back with the same exact settings. It removes a bunch of reflections on the rock wall that I believe would be hard or almost impossible to remove in post processing. It usually also makes foliage slightly more vibrant but probably could achieve pretty similar in post processing if I wanted to. 

Patagonia

My attempt on a blog entry for a trip that I always wanted to do but was a logistical nightmare and got postponed several times. A map to show roughly where Patagonia is basically close to the Southern tip of South America. There's a Chile portion (Torres del Paine) and an Argentina portion (Fitzroy) that I wanted to visit. For those that aren't familiar, maybe you have heard of the California based outdoor clothing brand Patagonia, their logo is basically the skyline of Cerro Fitzroy which is the mountain on the Argentina portion of my trip with me trying to find wifi at Laguna de Los Tres on a pretty morning. Off course there was no wifi there. :)

Logistic nightmare from the fact that it involves border crossing and multiple bus and taxi rides, car rental, International and Domestic airport changes, flight delays from strikes and also the biggest barrier is probably language. Most bookings can't be done online, most of the companies aren't big tech savvy people thus a bulk of the bookings can only be done when you get there. Hence here's quite a bit of uncertainty and having to keep our itinerary as flexible as possible to accommodate to weather changes on top of all these tiny details.

Mirador los Torres, Chile

Some Logistic stuff

• 500 peso to go city from EZE. Got taxi front hotel counter. Taxi ride was almost an hour as traffic was really bad in the city on a Friday afternoon at about 4.30pm
• 390 peso FTE to El Calafate
• 250 peso El Calafate to FTE 
• 690 peso from EZE to AEP. Most expensive taxi ride from this trip. Got this taxi from the TiendaLeon counter right before I exited the airport. 
• 250 peso AEP to city. Used the company Transfer Express as there was a strike going on and lion was out of taxis for the next 2 hours, looked at the price list on lion was also 250 peso. 
• 500 peso from El Chalten to river bend (aka ur road shot). Taxi is good for 2hrs. More than sufficient time.
• Used Cootra for inter state crossing between Argentina and Chile. Took the earliest bus they had which was at 8.30am daily. Bought tickets at hostel ranch grande.
• Rented a car from EMSA at Puerto Natales, Chile
• 1080 peso for 1 day car rental at El Calafate, Argentina for Perito Merino about a 80km drive. The entrance of the park is at about 50km and General admission is 250 peso per person good for 1 day. Opening hours 8am-4pm in the off peak/winter season.
• Stayed at Hosteria Schilling at El Calafate. Super popular place among backpackers. Cheap and good. Owners were super nice and friendly and I thought the lady at counter was cool :)
• Stayed at Lo de Trivi in El Chaltén because the other one was full. Lo de Trivi just across the road from the one I recommend. Recommend Hostel Rancho Grande but slow wifi probably due to the number of people in that hostel. Faster wifi at my hostel which is just across the road. It's better to stay at the end of the road trailhead starts there. Try El Muro restaurant (San Martin 912, El Chaltén) also at the end of the road like that place most haha of all the places I tried.

Torres del Paine, Chile

I will group them broadly into 2 sections. The Fitzroy, Argentina side and the Torres del Paine, Chile side. The Torres del Paine side is probably the more popular one whenever you hear anything about Patagonia, the next question you get is "are you doing the W trek? or the circuit?" Those are popular hikes on the Chile side. I personally having been to both very much prefer the Fitzroy side of Patagonia. I didn't end up doing the W hike due to weather conditions and only did a hike up to Mirador las Torres, Chile. I did a loop for Fitzroy in Argentina. The route I took was from El Chalten -> Laguna los Torres -> Cerro Torres -> El Chalten.

Fitzroy, Argentina

Some interesting stuff I found out about Buenos Aires, the Capital city of Argentina, South America in general during my short stay..

Macdonalds in Buenos Aires (or might have been South America in general) doesn't accept credit cards with chip. I haven't seen a credit card without chip since my school days, so basically they don't take credit cards. I was kinda out of Argentina Pesos on my last day and didn't want to change more but wanted to eat french fries. 37 pesos (~3 usd) for a large fries and i only had 34 pesos. Ended up having to get fries from Burger King instead which accepted chip cards. Argentina Pesos aren't the most stable currency in the world and hence there's almost no way to change that currency back to dollar or pounds or euros out of Argentina. I tried to change some for the trip from all the major US banks and no one would do it. Hence spend all ur money there.

I arrived at the domestic airport at about 7pm and taxis were delayed for 2 hours as there was an ongoing strike. Got to the city at 10pm and walked into a huge restaurant that was still kinda busy. There were so many kids still out with their parents on a Thursday night. When I left at about 11.30pm, the restaurant was packed with people and the kids were still there.. What time does school starts?!

Contrary to popular believe, Argentina is actually not as cheap as one would imagine. Was talking to the Schilling hostel owner back in El Calafate, he was saying how the Patagonia area probably cost the most in terms of standard of living probably due to tourism with Buenos Aires coming close 2nd. But the rest of the states/cities in Argentina are also not far behind. The owner told us numerous numerous times to visit Mendoza, Argentina.

In the pic, the Obelisco de Buenos Aires, a national monument that resembles Washington Monument in DC, is probably the most recognizable icon of the city. The city area looked a little like the streets of Paris and Milan type of architecture which was kinda cool. Interior of shopping malls had all these European looking pillars and decors. There's an area about 60 blocks (uber long walk since they don't have uber yet) from Obelisco de Buenos Aires called Caminito (which apparently means little walkway in Spanish) located in La Boca, Buenos Aires had all these bright colored rows of houses and buildings which appear on a lot of their postcards and totally reminded me of Burano, Venice.

South America is a really interesting place and if I ever have some free time.. I will probably spend a couple months here :) 

Twenty Sixteen

Some of my favorite moments from 2016. Hope you enjoy. Happy Holidays and Happy 2017! Now I shall let the pics do the talking. :)

JANUARY - a memorable hike with Lance and Rami out on TDH the very last day of 2015. 

Mount Hood, Oregon

JANUARY - I was out in Banff and Abraham Lake once again. Probably lost count of the number of times I been to Banff. Lol. In the uber cold winter months, Abraham Lake up in Canada has these frozen methane bubbles formations which look really really cool (no pun intended).  

iPhone 6 Plus - Abraham Lake, Canada

FEBRUARY - made a trip to Japan to visit the Nagano (for snow monkeys) , Kyoto (which I always wanted to visit) , Tokyo (for food) and also made a last minute trip out to Mount Fuji. 

Snow Monkey, Japan

Kyoto, Japan

Tokyo, Japan

Kyoto, Japan

Kyoto, Japan

MARCH - caught cherry blossoms in both Seattle and Portland and missed both the wildflowers season at Rowena and tulips season at Woodburn this year.

PDX, Oregon

PDX, Portland

UW, Seattle

PDX, Oregon

MARCH - went to a bunch of DinePDX and got a pic of kaka that i really liked. Also did a random photoshoot thing with Steph and Robert.

APRIL - spent my birthday in Patagonia. Managed to visit both Torres del Paine, Chile and Fitzroy, Argentina for some fall colors in South America which I had wanted to visit for a uber long time. For some crazy reason that morning, I decided to jump into the water lol. The glacier water was uber cold, not kidding. Got pretty lucky up here at sunrise as I know a whole bunch of friends who had came up to this Mirador Las Torres viewpoint and never saw the three towers. Also Managed to spend some time in Bueno Aires, Argentina after the Patagonia trip. Really unique place. 

Mirador Las Torres, Chile

Torres del Paine, Chile

Torres del Paine, Chile

Fitzroy, Argentina

Bueno Aires, Argentina

MAY - Did a bunch of spring hikes around Pacific Northwest. A bunch of friends also visited and brought them around some hikes in the area.

Panther Creek Falls, Washington

Ramona Falls, Oregon

Upper Bridal Falls, Oregon

MAY - a FedEx box showed up on my door steps. When I opened the box *dramatic music* I was almost in tears.. Almost a year after the #ShotoniPhone6 campaign.. Multiple lost/misplaced shipments from Apple and 76,413 email exchanges... My shot on iPhone 6 books, that Apple announced way long ago, have finally arrived! They didn't come equipped with gloves as they were supposed to. Haha but not gonna lie, the books looked pretty awesome. Never managed to see any of those billboards in person but some were featured in the book; One from Singapore (left) , one on a train station in Japan (not in the pic) and one above my favorite brunch location on Wilshire Blvd in Los Angeles (right).

#ShotoniPhone6 campaign

JUNE - Did alot more climbing this year than I usually do. Attempted Mount Hood twice with Jan and summited once. Pretty brutal but still real fun. Probably will do it again sometime.

Mount Hood, Oregon

JUNE - Was in San Diego for my brother's graduation and later my folks made a trip up to Portland and brought them around for a couple hikes in the gorge, made a quick stop at trillium lake and of cos lots of food. :D

Ponytail Falls, Oregon

JULY - Jan brought me up the summit of Mount St Helens on a random rainy weekday. Couldn't see much or the crater rim when we got up to the summit. :( Here's a pic from across St. Helens. I should be somewhere up on the edge of the summit of that mountain across that day. 

Mount St Helens, Washington 

JULY - We also attempted to summit Mount Adams once, made it up probably 3/4 way and ran out of time and turned back. Will probably try that again sometime. One from my ridiculously windy campsite on Mount Adams for the night overlooking Mount Hood in the distance. Wind was howling so hard felt like my tent was about to fly away. 

Mount Adams, Washington 

AUGUST - Rented Kai for a weekend to get some pics :D

AUGUST - Was at San Diego and San Francisco for a weekend, probably had a food coma for too long and didn't remember much of it. All I remembered was it was super foggy and cold when I was there :D

San Francisco, California  

SEPTEMBER - Lava was flowing into the ocean in Hawaii and made a quick trip out to Kauai, Big Island and Honolulu mainly for the lava and also to get my poke fix. Pretty hot and steamy experience :p took a boat out to the ocean for 61G ocean entry and also hiked out the following day. Arrived in the middle of the two Cat 4 hurricane Lester and Madeline. Was supposed to do a helicopter tour but was cancelled due to weather conditions. Highly recommend to check it out before it stops flowing! :)

Kalpana Ocean Entry, Hawaii

Kalpana Ocean Entry, Hawaii

OCTOBER - Headed out to Dolomites in Italy for fall colors. Really scenic place and would totally recommend the trip to families. Itinerary is pretty easy to plan. Easy drive on a long scenic route, some hiking would be nice but not totally necessary. No camping required. Totally worth a trip.

Dolomites, Italy

iPhone 7 Plus - Dolomites, Italy

Dolomites, Italy

OCTOBER - Decided also to check out Cinque Terre, Italy which had been on my list for a while but its far out along the coast of Italy and a little inaccessible and thus been pushing it out. We got there in low peak season, drove between most of the towns with plenty of free street parking (obviously not the case during peak season). There really wasn't much of a crowd, lower chances to get pickpocketed. Win-win.

Manarola, Cinque Terre, Italy

Riomaggiore, Cinque Terre, Italy

NOVEMBER - Did a bunch of hikes mostly in the Pacific Northwest for fall and spent a weekend shooting Tula and Ashley's wedding in downtown PDX. Also last hike with Mr Jabaji before he took off the Chicago for a couple years. :( 

iPhone7 Plus - Silver Falls, Oregon

iPhone7 Plus - Moulton Bridge, Washington 

Tula and Ashley's wedding at Opal 28, Oregon

iPhone 7 Plus - Gorton Creek, Oregon

DECEMBER - got 2 big snowstorms in Portland so far. Probably the most snow I have seen in December in Oregon. Can't wait to go snowboarding and when I get a chance this year.

Horsetail Falls, Oregon

Abiqua Falls, Oregon

I guess that's all for now. Happy Holidays! :) 

iPhone 7 Plus vs iPhone 6s Plus

Saw a full double rainbow 🌈 out the window, grabbed Jason's iPhone 6s Plus and took it for a run. I tried to take 2 Pano JPGs back to back with the 2 phones, hoping everything else close to equal. Tried to.. The iPhone7 Plus shot is up top and iPhone6s Plus is below. Colors seem to look more magenta, warmer and more vibrant on the 7. For some reason, the 7 looked like it had better dynamic range but maybe just my lack of skills. Top left cloud looked less blown on the 7 than on the 6s. Pretty subtle differences, I think if I processed them, I probably could make them look close to the same. Tried the 2x too and that's way more awesome obviously.

The screen on iPhone 7 Plus really reminded me how I used to wow whenever I looked at my images off the LCD of my Sony RX100. The screen looked way more vibrant and sharper than what shots looked like on my MacBook Pro. Totally sold! Verdict.. BBBMTL! 😝💸 #shotoniphone7

Moulton Bridge, Oregon

Gorton Creek, Oregon

Silver Falls, Oregon

some initial shots with the my new toy will update again in a couple weeks :) the control you can get from the raw files pretty ridiculous. just lacks long exposure. Tried it out in Dolomites, Italy too recently and heres some that I liked..

Val di Funes, Italy

Dolomites, Italy

Lago di Braies, Italy

Venice, Italy

Singapore

Someone asked me about an itinerary for Singapore. So I did a quick list, this was tailored to flights out of Portland, Oregon (PDX). If you have something else you would like to know. Feel free to drop me a note and I will update this along the way. 

National Day Rehearsal #SG53

I know from PDX Delta is the least stopover to Singapore.

• PDX -> Narita (NRT) 1hr stopover -> Singapore (SIN)

I did a quick search on Singapore Airlines which is also a member of Star Alliance (United is part of it). (Real excellent airline. Trust me on this one.) http://www.singaporeair.com/ 

• PDX -> LAX -> Narita (NRT)  -> Singapore (SIN) I like this particular flight because it’s a A380
• PDX -> SFO -> Seoul (ICN) -> Singapore (SIN)

Stay somewhere downtown. Marriott is in a real good location. Runs about 250sgd a night. (~180usd) the entire shopping area is here it’s called Orchard Road.

A rough map of where things are. https://drive.google.com/open?id=1Df5o5UA4nVgdY2CTiI7EyakkSWQ&usp=sharing

Singapore Map

The unique hotel, Marina Bay Sands, that I told you about earlier. Pretty good location too. If you don’t mind the hassle of changing hotels, you can stay here for a night. This hotel has a infinity pool at the rooftop. Living in the hotel is the only way to get access to the pool and also it’s a observation deck on the top floor of the hotel (free for hotel guest). There’s also a laser show at this hotel every night. https://www.marinabaysands.com/

Marina Bay Sands with the Helix Bridge

Nearby there’s a famous greenhouse nearby. Popular tourist spot. Called Gardens by the Bay

Merlion is also across the bay from this hotel walking distance. (free of charge)

Merlion, Singapore

Another famous spot also nearby is Singapore Flyer. Basically a giant ferris wheel. The singapore version of London Eye. http://www.singaporeflyer.com/

Central Business District Area.

A lot of my friends use this bus when they are there. Unlimited rides for a day to tour around. http://www.city-sightseeing.com/tours/singapore/singapore.htm

But to go to attractions usually they just use taxi.

Singapore Zoo. Award winning zoo. Worth a visit. http://www.zoo.com.sg/ Jurong Bird Park is at a different location. Night safari and River safari and Singapore Zoo are all at the same location. River safari is new but it’s only popular because they have some new panda bear exhibit. (I think you can skip this one unless you have extra time.) Just head for Night Safari and Singapore Zoo, night safari is really unique. Jurong Birdpark if you have time. They offer a park hopper pass online check it out on the zoo link above.

Sentosa. Within sentosa there's a bus and train service. It’s free. http://www.sentosa.com.sg/en/attractions/ My friends that visit usually people will take shuttle one way and cable car one way. http://www.sentosa.com.sg/en/attractions/imbiah-lookout/cable-car/ Famous attraction at Sentosa.. this merlion is bigger than the one in the city and this has a laser show. http://www.sentosa.com.sg/en/attractions/imbiah-lookout/the-merlion/

The SEA Aquarium is also located in RWS. Heard its really good. Personally I haven’t been. http://www.rwsentosa.com/Homepage/Attractions/SEAAquarium

Selegie House

Some other interesting stuff in the area are like

• Clarke Quay (extremely popular among friends that visit)
• Chinatown
• Little India

A lot of friends like to visit this mall. Personally, I have never been there.

• Mustafa Center http://www.mustafa.com.sg/

Finally, Some local famous local food

• Chilli Crab (Singapore Dish)
• Bak Kut Teh (Singapore Dish-  pork ribs soup)
• Hainanese Chicken Rice (Singapore Dish)
• Carrot Cake (not the regular sweet ones. It’s salty and doesn’t resemble a cake at all)
• Roti Prata (Indian food)
• Curry Fish Head (Singapore Dish)
• Yakun Kaya Toast (breakfast/tea place)

Singapore Parliament House

Hope it helps. Let me know if you got more questions and I will expand the list and go on from there. That's all for now! :)

Lost on TDH

Here's one from TDH on New Years Eve, definitely the last bad decision I made in 2015. A month had passed since and I had initially wanted to write an entry for it but got carried away by a bunch of stuff and life got in the way. Anyway since I am on a long flight now and I have some time to spare after watching this cycling movie (To The Fore) that a friend recommended, which turned out pretty good.. Here we go and bear with me, its gonna be long.

I have been to TDH Mountain (Tom Dick and Harry Mountain) a good number of times that I am pretty familiar with the route up. On this particular day, forecast was partially cloudy and would have been a good day to attempt the hike. Woke up at 2am and was supposed to meet up with Rami, Justin and Lance to head over to West Skibowl to start the hike. Alarm went off and checked my messages.. Justin bailed. Great. We continued as planned, drove towards Skibowl West, got a couple glimpse of Mount Hood looking extremely awesome throughout the drive and started the 5mile hike at about 4.30am. Weather forecast was still looking great, parked at Skibowl as the trailhead was closed and added probably another half mile or so to the hike.

The initial part of the hike to Mirror Lake was pretty easy, basically tons of footprints and no need for snowshoes. After mirror lake, we usually take the route towards the back and finally to the top of TDH. However, as we hiked a little more, I realized the usual route was not there anymore. I found this open area and decided that we could just ascend from the front instead. I had also heard a couple days ago that the trail up to the top has changed recently and thus initially thought it was a good idea. The climb became really steep and really deep fast and we put on our snowshoes and pushed on. Wind speed started to pick up, clouds started moving in and it started to snow or might have been just snow that got blew from the ground back into the air. Since we could kinda see the endpoint, we kept going in the brutal thigh deep snow all the way to the top and made it in record time! 6.45am way earlier than predicted, wasn't a good idea as it meant a longer wait in the cold. The mountain is now all covered in clouds/fog and we waited at a lower point among the trees as its ridiculously  windy and cold up top. I ran up a couple times to check if things started to clear. Nope no luck and it's not surprising, I have been up there a bunch of times and probably only saw Mount Hood from TDH once or twice and there would always been a piece of cloud overhanging the top of Mount Hood. Then sunrise went by... Well it never happened or at least we never saw it happen and we were all packed (since technically we never unpacked) and all ready to go and I decided to head up one last time to check and lo and behold I saw the mountain through the cloud clearing, shouted for the Rami and Lance, while I fumbled with my own gear. When I managed to get my gear out, the clouds rolled in again. haha fml.

We packed and followed our initial snowshoes track to head back down and maybe a 100 feet down, we saw the mountain in between the trees. Lance stayed while Rami and I raced back up to the top. Stayed up top in that ridiculous wind, so strong I had to stay seated down and I had initially thought Iceland's wind was bad.. Eventually I got this photo handheld, you can probably see the wind blowing the snow really hard in the foreground trees. I started making my way down and I realized, Lance and Rami were gone. I see a fork on the snowshoes trail, and I took the right trail and later realize it leads to an open space with no trail which I still think it was the path we took up and the thigh trail was just all covered and erased in snow. I panicked and backtracked and took the left trail instead and started shouting their names. I found them maybe 30 mins later and realized they have been walking in circles as well. We started trying different trails that ascend and descend and eventually still brought us back to the same place. Extremely tired and demoralizing...

Eventually Rami decided that he wanted to try finding the usual trail we would take to get up from Mirror Lake and try to take that path down. which also means we got to snowshoe all the way back up the mountain before descending again. As we were going back up, I found a bar of service and called up Chelsea to let her know to get help if she doesn't hear from us in 2 hours as our phones are basically all dying from the cold. Also told Justin we were kinda lost. :D After some descending in the direction I think we should be going, I found a trail (kinda) and was extremely glad. Messaged Chelsea and Justin that we are back on track on our way down. Another 10 mins in, hey we are back on the same path we were before and I was extremely extremely demoralized by then. %#@$. We then decided to just go ahead bushwhacking and making a new trail towards the direction of Mirror Lake. We got to a big clearing which eventually lead to a cliff and I was like erm we should turn back, we gonna fall off that cliff. We went back to the open clearing, super exhausted, dug out three snow holes and sat in it and took a rest. I was kinda sweaty from the hike and stopping was definitely a bad idea as I would start shivering real fast. I found a spot with cell service but my phone was dead. Kept my phone in my gloves in an attempt to warm it up to revive it while Lance tried to called search and rescue with his limited battery life. Whenever I could revive my phone, I will take a picture of Mount Hood and a couple images of my surroundings with some description and send it to Justin. He has an extremely excellent sense of the area around Mount Hood and would roughly know where we were at which helps.

Rami was cold and went into the forest to get some shelter. Maybe 15 mins in, I heard some voices from above but I couldn't see anyone. Shouted back but I wondered if anyone really heard me. Maybe I wasn't loud enough or maybe I was just hearing voices haha (for the record Rami heard those voices too). After waiting a little longer, I felt a little cold and thought we should keep moving as it was going to get dark soon and I don't plan on staying there overnight. Lance was getting intermittent messages from Search and Rescue (SAR) and they asked stuff like..

• SAR: "are you lost?"
• yea
• SAR: "are you on the trail?"
• I guess not? if I was, I won't be lost?
• SAR: "call back in an hour."
• my phone has like 1% left… huh? really?

So we kinda slide down that extremely steep area and continued traveling in the direction I believed where Mirror Lake was at. Crossed multiple creeks and continued to push on. Lance then got another ping..

• SAR:"can you hear the sirens?"
• no?
• SAR: "keep walking.."
• ok..

We later found out that the car was basically just by the freeway waiting. Rami kept walking and at this bend, we saw people above us. Awesomeee… Hikers that were making their way back from Mirror Lake. Rami shouted and asked if they could wait for us so we could head back on the trail. We basically had walked past Mirror Lake from a lower elevation and had missed it. One of them, Brett, came down and gave us some water, lifesaver! What a relief when we found the trail. *Humming Capital Cities' Safe + Sound* Probably another mile or so to go as we made our way down with Brett and his friends. When we made it out to the trailhead, there was a police officer waiting in the car, I believe that was the siren he was talking about. Anyway, glad to be safe. Crawled back to Lance's car and headed back, what an exciting day. :D Got frost nips from all my fingers which all became blisters after... and had awesome and WARM hotpot after at Brandon and Ting's place... Lesson learnt, buy a GPS... :P

Cokin Nuances ND1024

Was given a set of Cokin Nuances from Cathy Photo a couple months back to test out. Been playing with it quite a bit but never got a chance to sit down to write an entry for it. 

Used Cokin Z-Pro series holder a couple years back when I was using grads. I stopped using them after getting a d800 and could get most pictures all in one shot or I would do a quick blend with masks. Hence haven't used the holder much. Back when I used grads, I took most shots on a 16-35mm and they produce a non fixable vignette at 16mm and correctable vignetting at closer to 19-20mm.

I tried to make some adjustments to the filter holder, by unscrewing and adjusting the holder so it only takes 1 filter rather than the 3 slots that it allows. This still made a vignette at 16mm but pretty correctable at 17-18mm. I will add some pics of the change I did to the filter later. Recently, I mainly used this filter at 24mm.

38mm f/8 iso400 5mins. Portland, Oregon.

The copy of this filter i got from Cathay Photo was 10 stops (2^10=1024) meaning a 1/1000 sec shot with the filter will be about 1 second. Meaning you can acquire a longer exposure. so normally if you were trying to achieve a longer exposure you would lower your iso to the lowest say iso50 and change the aperture to say f/22 (However, causes diffraction and would make your picture look soft) and that would probably be the limit to how long your shutter speed could go. You could then add a ND filter to extend this exposure time. 

24mm f/16 30s iso100. Castle Mountain, Banff, Canada.

With the filter on, you probably will not be able to see much in the viewfinder if you looked, so what I would usually do is focus first and take a test shot. Using this exposure time, i will multiply 1024 to the time and flip it over to manual focus and insert the filter on the holder and change my shutter speed accordingly. Whenever I add a 10 stop, I am usually trying to blur the water or streak the clouds and I would usually go for a longer exposure. 

24mm f/11 3mins iso200. Portland, Oregon.

While testing it, the filter has a slight correctable magenta color cast. There's is no light leak when used with the Cokin Z-pro filter holder, the holder has a stopper at the bottom and will also prevent the filter from falling out in the other direction. All in all I think it works really well and according to google a set of Cokin Nuances 10 stop will cost less than getting the Lee filter big stopper. Value for money! I will add more pictures and thoughts along the way as I get through processing them but here's a couple for a start.

Twenty Fifteen

Favorite moments of 2015. Tried to process all new images but i guess i failed terribly. Did what I could, sorry it will take a while to load, best viewed on iPhone. :) Hope you enjoy. Happy Holidays and of course Happy 2016! :) 

January - Abraham Lake in Canadian Rockies known for its ice bubbles due to the lake freezing and methane gas release from the lake bed. At -39 (doesn't really matter if it's Fahrenheit or Celsius anymore) with wind chill one morning, it's one of the coldest place I have ever been to. While we were on the lake near The Belly, we were standing on ice maybe 10 inch thick (?) but we couldn't see the bottom of the lake. We could still see the water flowing below, snow storming hard as usual and we walked on snow covered ice. After a while we heard some ice cracking in a distance, packed our stuff and left the ice right away. After we left, I googled and apparently it's normal to hear cracking sound of ice during changing conditions. Still kind of creepy. :P 

January - #ShotoniPhone6, Abraham Lake, Canada

January - Abraham Lake, Canada

January - Lake Louise, Banff, Canada

January - Vermilion Lakes, Banff, Canada

January - Woke up at 3.45am 2 days in a row to head over to Trillium Lake for a sunrise shot. Day 1, fogged in. and I remember Rami and Lance and I decided to not do the hike. Day 2, extremely clear. The forecast on both days were partially cloudy. Great! Haha so heres a shot of Trillium Lake with some reflections. 

January - Trillium Lake, Oregon.

January - Headed to Lost Lake with Tula Top and Justin Poe. Also met Ben Coffman and Chip MacAlpine shooting stars and milkyway while we were there. The skies were totally clear this morning and as luck has it.. 30 mins before sunrise, fog started rolling in and covered the mountain and we never saw the mountain again. Alas. As usual, Master Justin Poe got the shot of the day with mountain reflections and all the goodies. I tried doing some telephoto stuff as the fog was rolling in and got this pic of this little cabin that I thought was kinda cool before it was engulfed by fog. :)

January - Lost Lake, Oregon

February - Milky Way without the Calories. From Mount St Helens where I got a speeding ticket for driving 7mph faster than the 25mph road limit. Hmmm Seriously? I guess. :(

February - Mount St Helens, Washington

February - Karl the Fog PDX Edition. If you are not familiar with that term, every year there's a period of time due to some atmospheric phenomena, there's a higher chance to spot fog over Golden Gate Bridge, San Francisco and photographers will flock there when there's fog/visibility warning and somehow/someone named it, Karl. He even has his own Instagram account @karlthefog. But anyway this is probably my personal favorite pic of Portland with a similar concept, been chasing for these conditions for a long long time. Happened to get lucky finally. Naming it Ter the fog, Instagram account in the making @terthefog :D

February - St John Bridge and Mount Hood from Portland, Oregon.

February - After my (n+1)th time to this extremely famous viewpoint in Portland.. This is probably the only time when all the conditions came together in a single exposure. Fog + city lights + Mount Hood + awesome sky. Checked.

February - Pittock Mansion, Portland, Oregon. 

February - Was here again with Justin Poe couple weeks later and the iPhone version of this shot was 1 of the 4 that made it on Apple billboards as part of the shot on iPhone6 campaign.

February - Lost Lake, Oregon

March - Iceland probably deserve an entire separate entry on its own. Ran into the biggest snowstorm they had in a while right when I landed (how lucky as always), spend probably 2 nights sleeping in the parking lot of Hallgrímskirkja before I started going anywhere. *Nervous laugh* Met a group of Thais that drove over to Kirkjufell before the snowstorm started, they got stuck at Kirkjufell for the next 2 days too. Not sure if it's better to be stuck at Kirkjufell or Reykjavík, but I totally fell in love with the noodle station haha, warm bowl of Thai beef noodle soup in the snowstorm = comfort food. Had that for 3 meals in 2 days lol, it was that good. :D Though the weather is generally never very good over there, it's the nicest country I ever visited. I will be back. I will. Side tracked too much but I wanted a photo of rainbows with the falls, went back over and over and just didn't fall though, so I will live with this reflection pic for now while Ron Coscorrosa continues to troll and terrorize me with his massive NAS drive collection of rainbows from Skógafoss.

March - Reflections of Skógafoss, Iceland.

March - One of my most memorable night in Iceland when aurora was KP9. We were out in one of the ice caves in Vatnajökull that morning when I checked out the weather forecast. There was a predicted KP9 solar storm that evening and Kirkjufell was supposed to be totally clear all night! I think u could already guess what we did. We got into the car and drove 6 hours to cloudless Kirkjufell. We had initially planned to get there at about sunset, so that I can still scout around for a couple of good spots for the aurora.. But as luck would have it, we ran into a flat tire along the way about 20 mins away from Reykjavík. Spent the next hour or so calling the camper van company to get help in locating the tools, and trying to figure how to remove the spare tire from under the van. Of course, we missed sunset with all that time wasted. As we drove and it got darker, the sky lit up with faint hues of green and when we got to Kirkjufell, it was already totally dark. Called Piriya Wongkongkathep (yes, I do know how to spell his name off the cuff) for help as we groped around trying to find the waterfalls there. To my horror there were already 9571 people there, all in the frame. :P Set up my camera and sat around for the rest of the night, watching the spectacular KP9 show that waxed and waned, and feeling thankful we made it there safely. :)

March - Kirkjufell, Iceland

March - Spend almost 2 weeks in Iceland, not even enough. :) Definitely my favorite waterfalls in Iceland. The blue glacier water is real pretty.

March - Brúarfoss, Iceland.

March - Jökulsárlón, Iceland.

March - The waves in Iceland are pretty scary. One of these waves crashed and almost took me out into the ocean with all my gear... Glad nothing serious happened. 

March - Vik Beach, Iceland.

March - Vatnajökull Ice Cave, Iceland

March - Jökulsárlón, Iceland.

April - Camera buttons had some issues for a while now.. Was deciding between sending it for repair and hoping that it would arrive before the Iceland trip or pray that the camera will not fail in Iceland. Went with the latter and was glad it survived Iceland. Here's one of those times I shot with my old d700 this year. Liked it quite abit and went back multiple times after I got my d800 back from Nikon but the pear blossoms were past peak. Postcard shots of Hood River, Oregon.

April - Red Barn, Hood River, Oregon

April - Hood River, Oregon

April - I spent countless mornings at Rowena Crest this year with Rami Jabaji and Lance Rudge and was lucky to get away without any nasty tick encounters. As pretty as these wild flowers are, I'd be ticked off if I had any bites from those buggers. :D

April - Rowena Crest, Oregon

April - A morning hike to this mist machine with Lance Rudge. Butt slide most the way down the side of this sketchy hill all the way to the bottom. The poison oak on the side of "the trail" always make me paranoid I will land face down on them. :X

April - Mist Machine, Oregon

May - Rolling Hills of Palouse. Ran into Chip Phillips here running a workshop that morning. As usual, this is one of those places that's not close to anywhere on the map, probably made famous by Chip Phillips sets of ridiculous good images from here. Google it, you will be wowed. It's not on the way to anywhere but if you do go though, stop by Palouse Falls, it's great. By the way, I don't mean stop by, I probably meant take a 1 or 2 hours detour from the state park. :p

May - Steptoe Butte State Park, Washington.

May - Palouse, Washington.

May - This juggernaut falls has so much spray coming off from the 207 ft waterfall its impossible to keep the lens dry.. I came back later in December too scroll below :D

May - Falls Creek Falls, Oregon

May - Camera was in the shop again. Another d700 in action attempt at fairy falls.

May - Fairy Falls, Oregon

June - This was one of the highlights from my short roadtrip to California with Rami. For several reasons, I have always skipped this waterfall; it's out of the way, requires walking on some train tracks, involves parking issues and the list of excuses goes on. Anyway, after skipping this numerous times, Rami decided to pull a last minute road trip and I just hopped on the bus. As usual, it's not the easiest place to access, but the place felt like the California Zoo by the time we left. Definitely drop by if you are ever in the area. It's worth it.

June - Mossbrae Falls, California.

June - Another one of those nice lakes in Oregon that Jan Boitz pointed out to me at the top of South Sister. Back then I been there a couple times but every time its so foggy/overcast that I never saw anything from there. So sometime late last summer, I was actually up top that mountain in the distance on the left. Good times. :)

June - Sparks Lake, Oregon

June - Thought it looked like a dinosaur foot and since I am watching Jurassic World back then I thought it was appropriate. I almost got a rainbow here ALMOST but yup it didn't fall through, spend the next 10 mins @#$%& and I left this place totally drenched and soaked. Usual :D

June - Painted Hills, Oregon

June - Here's my personal favorite waterfalls in Oregon that we visited due to bad weather along the Oregon coast over the weekend and made some changes in our plan. Still remember my first time here when I left with quite a bit of damage. Slipped, fell, damaged gear, drowned a remote, ripped pants and a couple deep cuts. A year or so later, I have probably been back 3 or 4 times now and the falls has definitely changed alot probably due to higher water flows at some point. I always wanted to show the sense of scale for this giant mist machine. Hope I was successful in conveying that here. This pic also won the water category this year of Oregon Wild Outdoor photo contest. Credit goes to Rami who helped me wipe my lens and triggered.

June - Proxy Falls, Oregon

June - Was in Redwood National Park one morning shooting this lone rhododendron and a giant truck pulled over and 2 photographers got out, Sarah Marino and Ron. Pretty awesome morning chat, didn't walk away with any light beams but here's a foggy picture from those GIANT trees. 

June - Redwood National Park, California.

June - Ancient tree at Crater Lake. If you look hard enough, you can probably see wizard island in the distance. Walked to this tree and saw 2 other photographers, happened to be Brian Adelberg (days before his baby was due!) and Brian Kibbons.

June - Crater Lake, Oregon

July - Another road trip to Rainier cos Sarah decided to buy a last minute ticket up here for the weekend. Called up Rami for a last minute trip out and somehow things all worked out. Clear skies through the trip but wildflowers were looking awesome and at peak. Here's one from sunset. 

July - Mount Rainier, Washington.

July - Two of my favorites things, red and lone tree. What not to like about it Haha.

July - Cloverfield, Oregon.

August - Went back to Banff again in the summer! Moraine Lake still had me in awe, nonetheless; imagine 10 giant peaks towering over an emerald lake, with layers of pine trees skirting the lake, alpenglow, reflections and all the good stuff. I could probably just sit around the lake and do nothing but admire it all day, but we had to check out Lake Louise and had to move on. 

August - Moraine Lake, Banff, Canada

August - Peyto Lake is yet another postcard-perfect place and the lake’s captivating turquoise color (screams Jasmine Loke) can be attributed to the sediments of the melting glacier. The lake’s milky-blue color varies, depending on season and time of day. The intense color of the lake is incredibly charming, and I reckon I should have taken a telephoto abstract shot of a small part of the lake. Ah well, next time maybe. :) 

August - Peyto Lake, Banff, Canada

August - Castle Mountain, Banff, Canada

August - Located in some remote canyon. At some time in the day, the arch glows from the reflected sun light off the canyon wall behind. I always classify pictures into 2 categories; looks good in photos and looks good in person. The 1st category basically just means it involves some form of photography technique; isolation of subject, reflection by going really low, perspective, telephoto or something along those lines. The 2nd category needs no further elaboration, basically looks good when you are seeing it. This place belongs to the latter, the glow is UNREAL.

August - Sacred Arch, Arizona.

August - On the verge of a 3000 feet drop above Colorado River. Yeap, that's me looking for cell signal. 

August - Toroweap, near North Rim of Grand Canyon National Park

August - #ShotoniPhone6, Zebra Canyon, Utah

September - Got a bunch of ridiculous sunset in Portland during the month of September. Was late for a really great one and missed a bunch. Looking through those from that week and I liked this one the most. With Rami and Justin again. Justin used to hate cityscape, probably still do but I made him starts shooting Dudu and I am proud of it. 10 stops 5 mins exposure. Single shot.  :)

September - Portland, Oregon

October - So Portland Japanese Garden was closed this year, had to find an alternative. :)

October - Lake Jabaji, Oregon

October - Was here for another rainbow attempt again. Saw this strip of sunlight that was illuminating downtown Portland.  

October - Pittock Mansion, Portland, Oregon

November - My favorite series of iPhone pictures, all from the Subway hike in Zion National Park, Utah. I could hardly convince people that its all shot on iPhone.. but the next 3 images are all #ShotOniPhone6.

November - #ShotoniPhone6 Archangel Falls, Zion National Park, Utah 

November - #ShotoniPhone6 Crack, Zion National Park, Utah

November - #ShotoniPhone6 The Subway, Zion National Park, Utah

This happened the night when we saw this weird UFO cloud in the sky, greenish/purplish probably due to light pollution. Later got tweeted and hashtagged all over the place. Apparently, was Navy Trident II (D5) missile test flight off the coast of Southern California. Here's a selfie from that night.

 November - Bonsai Tree, Utah

November - one of the coolest hike I have ever done and had wanted to do for a long time. Spot the hikers all along the trail to the top! :D the guy with the blue bag is Pete Pattano.

November - Angels Landing, Utah

November - Wanted to do this for a while now but conditions never quite worked out. Costed me an umbrella but I guess it was kinda worth it. :P Rainy morning with Lance and Rami and met Adrain Klein at the falls. 

November - Multnomah Falls, Oregon

December - Headed out to FCF with Lance and Rami, half hoping the gate will not be closed. Alas didnt get too lucky there. That gate added 4 unncessary miles to the hike in the not so awesome ice and slush. The consistent rain didnt help the situation at all. We were about 4 day late from prime, may look pretty and all but I got 3 word; cold, wet and miserable. Haha. Got to 2 miles before the trailhead, seeing the icy scene and i realized i had forgotten my spikes.. Opps. Stole one side of Rami's spike during the hike and when I got here, precariously slide around those slick ice to get to the edge for the selfie. :) Cold, wet and miserable but I guess it was still a pretty scene! 

December - Falls Creek Falls, Oregon

December - Opted for 3 extra hours of sleep and skipped TDH Mountain (Tom Dick and Harry Mountain) this morning met up with Justin and Rami and got here with 3 addition hours of sleep. Pretty awesome until.. I fell in the water. lol also my current wallpaper :D

December - Mount Hood, Oregon

December - Seen a bunch of pics and travel blogs of Christ the Redeemer but I never thought I will see it in person. Foggy rainy but definitely very cool. I guess we managed to skip the crowd, when I tried to purchase the tickets at the counter in Copacabana (the world famous 4km balneario beach), the lady at the counter warned us "0 visibility" and after buying the ticket, she placed a big fat stamp in red on the tickets that reads "ZERO visibility" that was kinda funny. I guess I managed to skip the crowd, saw a bunch of Taiwanese up there as I was leaving, definitely didn't see much Asians the entire trip. Pretty rare IMO for a popular tourist spot.

December - Christ the Redeemer, Rio de Janeiro, Brazil.

December - Iguazu Falls, 2nd largest waterfall in the world, definitely made Niagara Falls look tiny. Was in the middle of some rainstorm during the time we were there, hence the large amount of tea flowing through the Iguazu river (i meant muddy water). There's a boardwalk that brings you to Devil's Throat on the bottom right of the picture. Comes with a free muddy water shower. haha took a walk on the boardwalk, other than being completely soaked, we could barely see anything :D

December - Cataratas del Iguazú, Iguaçu National Park, Brazil

December - Since Iguazu river runs between Brazil and Argentina, going over to Argentina sounded like a good idea :P

December - Iguazú Falls, Parque Nacional Iguazú, Argentina.

December - Glimpse of Heaven. :D also one of my favorite pics from Rio de Janeiro, Brazil. I really like how the clouds formed a ring around Corcovado Mountain (It means hunchback and apparent when you see the mountain from Vista Chinesa which I didn't end up seeing anything due to the fog) with Christ the Redeemer at the top. Might also be one of my personal favorites from 2015 and hence kept it for the last.

December - Christ the Redeemer, Rio de Janeiro, Brazil.

Elowah Falls, Oregon

Got a bunch of questions about the Elowah Elowah Elowah shot I posted a couple weeks ago, thought I will make a post on it. This comp belongs to one of my favorite landscape photographer, Marc Adamus.

Here goes... Basically my base exposure (top left) was shot at f11 iso400. Kinda liked those small little swirls on the right of the reflection from the water splashes from the ridiculous amount of flow from the falls. I wanted to keep the splashes frozen as always.

2nd exposure was shot polarized to remove the polarized part in the foreground and also have a longer water falls exposure. Shot was also at 1/1.6s f13 iso200 hyperfocus.

The final shot was a stack for the trees with a 1/200s f5.6 and iso800. Fast shutter speed was to freeze the foliage and not to have motion blur.

After multiple wipe shot rinse repeat of maybe 50 shots I got a couple of clean exposures to make the shot work. Hopefully this helps. :)

#ShotoniPhone6

Thankful and excited to be part of the latest Apple World Gallery, especially after seeing the awesome pictures on Apple's #ShotoniPhone6 campaign back in March. I would love to visit all the places that feature my pics and take a #selfie with all of them but that is not too feasible. If you happen to see any of the 4 pictures somewhere, grab a picture of it and send them to me pleaseee. terenceleezy(at)gmail(dot)com My friends have caught sight of them on billboards in San Francisco, Los Angeles, New York City, Chicago, Minneapolis, Canada, Dubai, London, Paris, Tokyo, Hong Kong, India, Indonesia, Thailand and of course Singapore. I am trying to look for the pics worldwide (I believe they are also available in print as well), and I will update my blog entry whenever I have a chance. Thanks everyone for the help in advance! 

Published on 9 Aug on Straits Times, Singapore

Straits Times Article.

Published on 10 Aug on Straits Times Life D8-D9, Singapore

Photo by Jian-Hui Wong.

Featured on Stuff.TV

Featured on Apple's Website :)

As an Apple fan, I am happy to have made my mark on Apple's website.

Featured on 500px

Billboards

Iceland

Got a bunch of questions about Iceland and I thought I will just write up answers to questions that people have asked and I will add along the way..

Giant iceberg on ice beach at sunrise. Jökulsárlón, Iceland.

Itinerary. I didn't have one but I knew where I wanted to check out and I plan according to weather. I will add a map of the places i checked out and also the places I hope I had went. some places off my head in counter clockwise direction on the map. 

• Reykjavík (city)
• the usual golden circle (all the good stuff) 
• Brúarfoss (my fav waterfall in Iceland)
• Vík (beach, church)
• Vatnajökull Ice cave (in the winter, more below) 
• Skógafoss (waterfall)
• Seljalandsfoss (waterfall)
• Jökulsárlón (glacier lagoon AND ice beach) check both out!
• Kirkjufell 

Places that I didn't get a chance to go due to the severe storm/lack of time..

• Gljúfurárfoss (hidden waterfall near Seljalandsfoss)
• Höfn (Vesturhorn or batman mountain)
• Sólheimasandur DC-3 Plane Crash (heard its gated now, 2km walk one way)
• Goðafoss (waterfall)
• Hvítserkur (the famous sea troll)
• and of cos the highlands/fjords that are only accessible when its not winter. 

Reflections of Skógafoss, Iceland

Accommodation/Car. To keep things simple and flexible as we wanted to catch aurora and headed towards clear sky every night, we rented a camper van and basically slept in the car. The car is pretty well equipped and I will post pics to illustrate that better later. We could cook simple meals and sleep in a bed in the car. I went with Happy Campers and was really happy with them and would definitely rent from them again when I head back again sometime. Great service also note they only have Manual/Stick shift. They have pillows and blankets but I opted to bring my own sleeping bag and pillow for comfort :) Check them out at http://www.happycampers.is/ One thing to plan ahead though, they do airport pickup to their rental place but they can drop you off at the main bus terminal in Reykjavík and u can get a bus ticket all the way to the airport. Those bus runs every hour I believe so plan ahead (free wifi onboard)! :)

Showering. It was kinda cold. We basically showered every other day at local pools. There's plenty of those swimming pools/ thermal pools around and you can get a "showering facility" for less than 10 bucks a per entry. I don't mean showering in the swimming pool.. They have hot water showers available. http://www.swimminginiceland.com/

Vík Beach, Iceland.

Wifi/Hotspot. I got my wifi dongle from http://iceland.trawire.com/ came up to about 10 usd a day. they can deliver and drop off at happy camper for no additional cost. hence no hassle. Unlimited data for instagramming. unbeatable LOL. Service was actually pretty good all over Iceland, there was a couple of blind spots here and there but at most places u will have 4g network. I did look up other companies like Vodafone for wifi but they didn't offer micro sim back then and i would need to use my old unlocked iphone.

Electricity and charging. I had 9 DSLR batteries. I got a 300w battery inverter and also a car cigarette socket dual splitter. one for battery charging and one for gps. and several usb socket on those to give u enough juice on ur cellphones and the trawire wifi dongle. And one addition note.. remember to unplug ur power before leaving the car/sleeping or the charging will just keep running and u know what will happen after. :p  Didn't happen to me but happened to a friend and I was pretty careful about it when I was there. I also tested it and somehow the cigarette lighter socket doesn't disconnect power when the car engine is off/car key removed.

Aurora in Iceland!

Aurora. I basically checked for predicted clear skies every night and drive in that direction for the day. I saw aurora 5 of 8 non stormy days we were there. I was there for a total of 11 days but was stormed in Reykjavík for 3 days lol. I used this for cloud cover check and I found it really accurate during the time I was there. http://en.vedur.is/weather/forecasts/cloudcover/

Ice Cave. There's 3 big companies that does the tours. I went with http://www.localguideofvatnajokull.com/ book early. I mean WAY early. My trip was basically planned around available space in the ice cave tour. haha.

Diving. More on this later. I wanted to do the Silfra fissure dive. Did some research and booked it. Things didn't work out as planned. Hence didn't do it in the end.

Hope it helps. Let me know if you got more questions and I will expand the list and go on from there. For the record, Iceland probably the most awesome place I ever been to. And yes i will be back! :)

Twenty Fourteen

An entry on some of my favorite moments of 2014. I hope you enjoy - if they did not manage to amaze you, I hope that they at least entertained you a bit! The view at many of these places is just so breathtaking that photos don’t do them 100% justice. But I try my best to capture what I see so that I can share nature’s beauty with everyone. Happy Holidays and Happy 2015! :)
 

January - San Francisco, California

January - Yosemite, California

February - Elowah Falls, Oregon

February - Rowena Crest, Oregon

February - Portland, Oregon

March - Panther Creek Falls, Washington

March - Portland, Oregon

April - Tulip Festival, Oregon

April - Lost Lake, Oregon

April - Steptoe Butte, Palouse, Washington 

May - Painted Hills, Oregon

May - Gardens of the Gods, Colorado

May - Great Sand Dunes, Colorado

June - Proxy Falls, Oregon

June - Mendenhall Ice Cave, Juneau, Alaska

July - Portland, Oregon

July - Cape Kiwanda, Oregon

August - South Sister, Bend, Oregon

August - Glacier National Park, Montana

August - Mount Rainier, Washington

August - Mendenhall Glacier, Juneau, Alaska

September - Monolith, Yukon, Canada

September - Tombstone, Yukon, Canada

September - Moraine Lake, Alberta, Canada

September - Assiniboine, British Columbia, Canada

September - Maroon Bells, Colorado

October - Boardman, Oregon

October - Subway, Zion National Park, Utah

October - The Narrows, Zion National Park, Utah

November - Spirit Falls, Washington

November - Magic Rock, Washington

December - Oneonta Gorge, Oregon

December - Los Angeles, California

December - Singapore

December - Mount Fuji, Japan