National Day 2014

Fireworks from the preview show. For this show, my photography attempt turned out a failure because of shake. I suspect it was due to the unstable positioning of my tripod that resulted in shake. This camera shake resulted in a huge number of pictures with scribble lines from the fireworks. What done is done and there's no way of rewinding time for this. At the very least, there are at least 3 photographs that are still acceptable and this is one of them. This little disappointment didn't really upset me as the previous photographs from previous shows are already good enough for me to be satisfied.

The parade came to an end on Saturday evening. I've got to say this year's National Day experience for me is really quite a memorable one.

Firstly, most of the fireworks photographs turned out definitely better than I've expected. I'm truly thankful for that. If you've yet to check them out, visit here (Flickr album) or here (label to entries of this year's fireworks) to view the photographs of various fireworks from various displays (includes displays from other events).

Secondly, I finally got the opportunity to be at the spectator’s gallery of The Float @ Marina Bay to watch one of the Combined Rehearsals of the parade. It's not the preview or the actual show, but as I've mentioned previously, this is already absolutely good enough for me and I'm indeed thankful for that. Furthermore, confirmation was made regarding this year's parade at The Float @ Marina Bay being the last for at least a few years to come. Surely, what else can anyone ask for?

Thirdly, after realising that the Esplanade had organised a bunch of events in celebration of National Day, I decided to make a trip down for one of them. The one I went was a performance by a band named Singapore Char Siew Baos. I’ve no idea who they are. As a joke, I thought they might be giving away free char siew baos, but they didn’t. Anyway, they performed familiar local tunes consisting of mainly National Day songs that I grew up listening to (and “forced” to sing some of them) since I was much younger. They had 3 performances in total, and most songs in each show are different. But I’ve only the time for 2 performances. However, I enjoyed listening to these songs once again. Familiar tunes and familiar lyrics, these are the songs that sing of our history and how we developed over the years. These familiar tunes include “Stand Up for Singapore”, “Five Stars Arising”, “There’s a Part for Everyone”, “Together” and “Moments of Magic”.

Now, let me write a little about what I saw on television of the actual parade. I'm not going to compare this year's with the last, because if I do, I would need to spend (or waste) about 5 hours to watch both parades again.

Overall, this year's parade seems to be one that’s very well weaved together. Each segment flows well into the next, with hardly any feelings of awkwardness. The show segment was great too as the messages each segment hopes to deliver can be easily understood. The theme is very well brought out too. I think this year's theme has something to do with pop-art, and this is clearly felt and seen with the vibrant colours and designs elements adopted.

People might be joking about certain costumes wore by some the performers. And I do find some of the elements in certain costumes a little too striking. However, I can see all the designs suits the theme very well, which is what these costumes are meant to do. They are not really meant to be worn for occasions such as for the purpose of shopping. Hence, what's the big fuss about it?

Some people might have also felt that the air force fly pass segment was too short. I've to agree with that. The planes just flow pass and it ended. Perhaps there could be slightly more than this.

Lastly, I just have to write about the fireworks. I do enjoy this year's fireworks display when I'm around the vicinity during the various rehearsals. There are some interesting designs that I do like. However, it was a disappointment as I watch it being televised on television.

The filming crew seems to be spending quite an amount of time televising people rather than the display. Given the finale fireworks display this year being only about 5 minutes, I think more time should have been spent to televise the fireworks display and less of people. Perhaps they could consider splitting the screen into 2 sections, such as having a smaller box by the bottom televising happy people and the larger section showing the fireworks display.

Next, the camera located in the sky doesn't seem to be doing any justice to the display. Last year's sky camera was a lot better in terms of the angles it captured. I know I just ended up comparing. This year's sky camera seems to be capturing the fireworks too up-close and also seems to be stationed at an inappropriate spot. Of the times the television showed the sky camera angles, I only remember seeing the corners of each burst. I hardly remember seeing any angles of a nicely framed full burst upon each burst in the sky. This is such a disappointment. After watching last year’s new angles from the sky camera for capturing of fireworks, I thought I could look forward to something of equal quality in terms of filming or even better ones this year. But that didn't happen.

In any case, I still got to say that this year’s National Day was really awesome and it shall be kept in my heart for many years to come.

Another photograph from the preview show.

One last photograph from the 2014 preview show.

View it bigger: Click on images
Month taken: August 2014
Time taken: Night
Photo size above: 640 pixels - Longer side