Sam’s Photo Blog

Time flies when you are having fun. I spent some time wandering around Boston in the wee hours and it had a very different feel compared, the street performers and crowd has disappeared, leaving the historic buildings behind.

Quincy Market, I got in trouble for ‘wandering’ in while they were cleaning…I didn’t know any better :P

The Rosebud Diner near Davis Square, Somerville. You can only get away with the intense pink neon lights with such a classic setup.

Running into a war veteran and chatting with him. Inside, the war has never really ended for him and substance abuse is one way for him to get away.

I didn’t expect to do much at the Aquarium initially but turned out there was a little of different stuff going on. It was really neat working alongside the biologist and trainers that oversee the well-being of the animals.


I spent a morning with the group that maintains the large area for the penguin exhibit. Here they are feeding them fish and logging them so they don’t get overweight.

Rockhopper Penguin

African penguin moulting (changing fur)

Me in a wetsuit for the morning. The penguins knew I was new so were poking at me curiously.

There are always lots happening the Giant Ocean Tank…

This cownose ray is fast swimming bugger!

In the Animal Medical Center they were doing a check-up on recovering stranded sea turtles.


Whale watching, this time we spotted 2 humpback whales logging near the surface. The size of these animals are just baffling!


Tomorrow I will be starting a 2-week roadtrip with Anthony, John, and Ludwik. Just putting us in a van would be an experience by itself, with insults flying everywhere. We have started a blog, Engineering East Coast Expedition, for updates along the way, see you there!

I am in Boston this week visit fellow Azure Dynamics co-workers as well as doing some photoshoot for the New England Aquarium.
I think the feeling of being done school has finally sunk in.

This animation was taken from Brian’s balcony near Yonge & Bloor. Lens used was a lensbaby with a home-made spiral aperture.

If the animation is slow please let it load for a minute. If you do not see the animation please click HERE.

With help from Mike Purvis, new addition of the category section should further enhance your browsing experience.

As a very small country measuring 42 by 23 km in size, high ranking Singapore government officials are better paid than president of the USA. Its government has very high decision making power but does not abuse the power, the corruption rate is one of the world’s lowest.

Their subway, known as the MRT, is extremely well planned out and thus owning a car is not necessary. The public washrooms are extremely clean, though there is a fee of 10cents and I wonder if they lose money hiring someone to collect the fees.

I had the chance to meet Frank and Luke, fellow Pentaxians I met online. They were very kind and showed me the local Singaporean lifestyle and sights which added so much more to the overall trip. Frank decided to shoot film for the day, it was interesting to hear him worry about running out of film. :D

This is Sentosa, a resort island connected to Singapore, containing many of the key tourist attractions. Shuttle buses provide the connections between the different attractions on the island.

Underwater World, visitors can walk through an underwater tunnel.

Apparently built-in cellphone cameras are not replacing the digital point & shoot cameras, though I doubt it is any use inside an aquarium.

Next up was the Dolphin Lagoon show. The late comers sat in the sandy area in front of the chairs but some of them would not sit down and was quite annoying and unfair to the others.

I wonder how much power they can output in order to leap out of the water.

Outdoor Jazz performance, food, sunset. Not bad.

The Jurong Bird Park. The tropical climate allow them to house a wide variety of species.

But by far the best thing in Singapore are the people. The crime-rate is very low so the people are warmer toward each other and it is a joy just to walk around the street and see the different cultures and colorful shops.

Probably due to the diverse mix of people in Singapore the people are very accepting toward other ethic groups and English can be understood everywhere.

Their smiles are so beautiful and so genuine. They don’t seem very rushed and would usually strike up short conversations.

Overall it was a fanastic trip and I met a lot of cool people along the way!

The past week in Boston went by way too fast, but I did get to catch-up with friends and co-workers. On Sunday night, Pat, Ryan and I went to the St.Anthony’s Feast in the North End.

Feast is definitely a good word to describe the North End. There were lots of food, drinks, games, and concerts but I still don’t know who St.Anthony is except people like to pin dollar bills to his figure.

Summer in Boston have so much happening and the overall mood is very relaxing.

I worked in the New England Aquarium for 3 days and it was a lot of fun. Even after spending hours near the giant ocean tank taking photos of the different animals I didn’t get tired of the seeing the expressions on the children’s faces when a shark or sting rays swims by.

I had the opportunity to go behind the scenes and watch them feed baby penguins, perform a endoscope check on a French Angle Fish, and join the seal trainers during their training sessions.

Tim and I went on a whale watch and we were very fortunate the whales were breaching (jumping) out of the water! Hard to imagine the power needed to send these 30 tonne animals out of the water!

Work starts tomorrow for me, I am quite excited. Hope everyone have a good start at school and work for the coming term.