So in about 4 hours,9 members of my family arrive here in Singapore (right now they are in the midst of their 20th travel hour from California!), Felicia and I are rather excited and the wedding events, family dinners, tourism and all the other associated craziness is about to commence!  Even Pikachu is ready!

The Perfect Assistant

• Strong Back
• Witty Banter
• Valid Passport

Above is exactly what I wrote on the back of the business card today when I saw National Geographic Photographer, Steve McCurry for the second time, this time at an event for the Straits Times journalist staff that my dear, soon-to-be-wife, snuck me into.  He was speaking about going boldly and taking chances in life to get what you want in life, so I did exactly that.  He laughed at what I wrote and asked if I never get sick either, to which I replied “..of course not.”

I am sure a photographer of his stature has plenty of assistants to choose from, but I still feel pretty good that I had the confidence to offer my services to him. Who knows if I will ever get a call, but at least the chance now exists.

The last two days have been insanely busy, and with only 12 days to go before the wedding we don’t really foresee any changes in our hectic schedule.

First came Saturday, our “Gift Day” which started off like Christmas if you were in love with fruits, veggies, jewelry and money.  We stepped out of our room while Felicia’s mom covered our bed in good luck tokens, like oranges for prosperity, Pomegranates for lots of children (they have lots of seeds), evergreen pine so we can be ever loving to each other, and sweet bamboo so we can stay sweet to each other through the years, and a paper wishing us a 100 sons and 1000 descendants (I guess this is good luck, but it sounds like an awful lot of work to me…).  Felicia also received her inheritance in jewelry and some money for bedding & sheets for the new home, given from mother to daughter.  I was given money for pants and a new wallet (so I would have something to keep my lifetime of wealth in), and I also handed Felicia’s mother a red packet full of money to thank her for raising her daughter for me.

After the gift giving formalities, we headed out to hand deliver out wedding invites and small cakes to all the members of Felicia’s extended family.  I really enjoyed the idea of actually handing your invites to people in person, but I will say all that driving and visiting can be tiring.  The first stop we hit was Grandma and Grandpa’s (Mama and Yeye), and they spoiled us with a gigantic lunch which left me ready for a nap that I would never get.  The afternoon flew by and before we knew it we were back at home working on our neverending list of wedding stuff.

Then came Sunday.  My photography mastersclass with Steve McCurry was today, which was a extemely interesting slideshow/talk for the first half (it was 3 hours long), then he sent us outside to shoot for about 20 minutes, then we were supposed to come back in and get our pictures we shot review on the LCD screens of our camera for about 1 minute each.  I was in “Group 2″ (of 2) which meant we had a little longer to shoot before getting reviewed, but being hot outside I ended up coming in and watching the Group 1 reviews.  After a few minutes I noticed he was correcting on things like image sharpness, shutter speed, ISO and aperture (all things I feel VERY comfortable with), I was really hoping for a little artisitic critisism, his ideas about use of color and such.

When Group 1 was done I positioned myself to be first in line of Group 2 to be reviewed, and as soon as I sat down next to him I asked if it was alright if I showed my portfolio instead of just images on the back of my camera. He responded with a “Yes, please.”

I whipped out my 20 image, 8″ x 12″, spiral bound, black mounted portfolio of all my favorite travel images from the last three years and dropped it in this legendary photographers lap. My heart was beating fast and hoping I don’t look like a fool (professional portfolio reviews sometime will easily cost hundreds of dollars)….

We proceeded to sit there for the next 15-20 minutes, with the class moving in closer and closer to see my pictures, while he looked at all my images and commented on what he like and what worked.  I was beaming with pride when I realized that he was actually enjoying looking at my pictures and was dumbfounded when he asked “Who do you shoot for? Are you making a living doing this yet?”

I responded that I was making a modest living that let me keep travelling and he confirmed that I was moving in the right direction to being a full time professional travel photographer…  I couldn’t have asked for anything more to boost my spirits.

So between massive amounts of wedding planning and crafting from my lonely tower which Felicia keeps me locked in, I was able to make a short trip into town to enter two of my photos into “The Unguarded Moment” photo contest that is running this week in Singapore at the Asian Civilizations Museum.

It is judged by National Geographic photographer Steve McCurry, who is also teaching a 3 hour mastersclass which I signed up for on Sunday. It cost me $200, but Epson is also sponsoring the event and is throwing in a brand new printer for that price, so I can’t really complain.

Anyways, things are going great here, only two more weeks until I am a married man!

Felicia and I set out last night on research for our post-wedding night shindig.  I love it when “research” involves a beautiful woman, drinks and some fun music.

I can’t believe a whole week passed without me blogging, we’ve been so busy with all sorts of wedding tasks and activities that it just flew by.

I did manage to meet up with blog fan/fellow travel photo-blogger, T-roy. We ate lunch, talked cameras, and did an exceptional amount of walking while I (as his tour guide) proceeded to get us sorta lost.  We ended up in front of Raffles hotel, home of the Singapore Sling, and decided to have a few of these refreshing beverages.

All in all, I have been doing well for the last week. Although I must admit, this heat wave the country is having right now is taking a severe toll on my productivity.  So many days I just want to lay there and do nothing with a fan blowing on me…

Felicia headed off for the evening on some sort of lady-ish wedding-shower-thingy with a few friends and left me to fend for myself.  Essentially I just took a nice long evening wander of some of the Singapore tourist attractions and took lots of long exposures.  Quite fun.

Oh, and FYI the three giant buildings are part of the Las Vegas Sands company, and they will be Singapore’s first legal gambling. (I can’t wait!)

Felicia’s mother was heading out to see her mothers ashes today in a temple across town and invited Felicia, Arthur and I to come along, today was the 10 year anniversary of her death.   Just like we head out to peoples graves on special days and lay flowers on their headstones, the Buddhists will visit and burn incense and gifts for their departed relatives.

Although Christina joked about the whole system of burning gifts and “Hell Money” was like “DHL for the underworld“, I could see she missed her mother dearly and took the entire events of the day very seriously.  I just tried not to be a pain, except to the temple’s cats who I stalked to take pictures of… they seemed rather annoyed with me.

Felicia and I are in semi-frantic, must-accomplish wedding mode right now.  There is amazing amounts of things to think about that I never would have thought about.  Anyways the days are flying by too quickly, only a month and some odd days until the big day!

If you are interested in the details, be sure to check out www.RobandFelicia.com 

So today is my birthday… and I am 30…

Anyways, since I missed Felicia’s birthday a couple of weeks ago in while I was in California, we decided to have a combined birthday fest at the uber-fancy Shangri-La Hotel buffet here in Singapore.  Unfortunately, since it was midweek we thought we would have no trouble getting a reservation, so when we called yesterday we were quite surprised to find we would have to sit outdoors (ie. yours truly will melt).

Still not to be swayed we showed up right when they opened at noon and I asked to sit indoors, the restaurant said they were completely reserved, so I asked to please come and move us if anything opens up, which they agreed to. We sat there trying not to melt and enjoying our first course when an absolute tropical deluge began (which gave us another reason to NEED to be indoors), So I flagged the down the doorman and asked again if we could be moved, this time he agreed to find us an indoor table.

(The above foods are what I ate - in chronological order.)

Much happier and much cooler, Felicia and I proceeded to act like the worlds biggest pigs, on this 2 1/2 hour multi-course lunch, everything was extremely tasty, I finished feeling like this, after a second course of the decadent bread pudding.

All in all, it was a glorious birthday and after acting like complete food-heathens we did wander the malls/streets of Singapore for 7 hours finding more stuff for our wedding, feeling slightly less guilty for our over indulgence.

The birthday doesn’t make me feel any different, still feel just like a kid, so I guess aging is not too bad.