Like a bird in a cage…

In March, when one was still able to go wherever he(she) might chose, I went on a hike in Ang Mo Kio (starting in the park across the street from the library on Ang Mo Kio Av 6 and ending up in the Mayflower neighbourhood).

 

It’s here!!

 

It’s really not that long ago but it feels like ages!!!

 

Anyway… I loved that hike.

The park was really nice (and pretty much empty) but the best was our discovery of the Mayflower Kebun Baru Bird Singing Club. I’ve heard about it before, but seeing it in person was really magical (the kids adored it).

 

Imagine (well you can just look at the pictures actually :-)) a field filled with high pitched old fashioned cages, colourful clothes, and the beautiful singing of all these beautiful animals.

 

 

There is a path in the middle, with on one end the park I was talking before, and on the other end the market and Mayflower hawker center.

 

When you get closer to the cages, you notice all the beautiful details: the fabrics, the delicate mini-china inside to feed the birds, the old-fashioned cages…

 

The Bird Singing Club itself has a few shaded area where one can sit down to admire the birds, enter a singing competition of its animal, purchase or sell a bird.

 

 

And you can sit down around a drink at the hawker center and still enjoy the view on the birds.

 

 

By the way, anyone else but me feeling a little bit like… a bird in a cage…. lately? 🙂

 

To see more images and purchase a print, please check out my website:

https://www.mermozinefineart.com/

This pictures can be find more specifically here:

https://www.mermozinefineart.com/singaporephotography-mayflower-sing

 

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“Paint it Black”

Here we go, I finally finished a new series of pictures.

I usually spend most of my time editing clients’ pictures, which leaves me little room for my own creative vibes. But Singapore has been hit with the wave of Coronavirus since January and business has been down since then… And I’m obviously very stress about that (and so many other things related to the current situation obviously).

but,

“when life gives you lemons, make lemonade”!!

So I decided to spent some time thinking about what I like to photograph for myself and make a series around it.

I like black and white, I like nature, I like minimalism, ….

I will just put a little sample here.

To see more or in bigger size, click here ;-).

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© 2020 MermozinePhotography

Green green Singapore – Thomson Nature Park

From Europe, my first thoughts of Singapore were of lots of buildings, very high skyscrapers and a modern, urban jungle… for me, a green nature person, the thought of moving there was a little scary.

But just out of the airport, I was relieved to realise how wrong I had been. Yes, there is a lot of urbanisation, but the green is everywhere, and the jungle is far from being only an urban one.

You have giant parks like the Botanical Gardens, Gardens by the Bay and MacRitchie Reservoir, but there are also plenty of smaller ones.

Today, I went for a stroll (literally, since a stroller was involved!) in a newly opened park, Thomson Nature Park, just off of Upper Thomson Road. If you have not discovered it yet, it’s the perfect place for a quiet stroll in nature (we were alone almost the whole time).

To give you a little preview of what to expect there…

– nice clean trails, lots of gorgeous lavish nature,

Thomson Nature Park © Catherine Houston

Thomson Nature Park © Catherine Houston

Thomson Nature Park © Catherine Houston

… monkeys

Thomson Nature Park © Catherine Houston

… “ruins trails” (quite fun for kids)

… beware of random falling durians… 🙂

Thomson Nature Park © Catherine Houston

Thomson Nature Park © Catherine Houston

and spoiler alert… quite an handful of hungry mosquitoes (I guess it’s the price to pay to experience a “jungle-like” hike).

Like a bird on a bench…

It was one of those (rare) days when I had no client appointment and no kid to watch after (well just a couple of hours really…), and I sat there, on my balcony, like a bird on a bench, not sure about what to do.

I wanted to go out and take pictures, but at the same time doing nothing and even just watching TV was not an unpleasant idea either.

I waited, and waited…. looking at the sky, thinking it’s probably going to rain anyway….

But I grew up in a house surrounded by a big garden, and my parents never considered highly staying inside doing nothing (although my dad would not argue as strongly about going outside when I was playing piano :-)).

So many years after my childhood I still have that little voice inside my head telling me that I should go outside.

So I waited a little more, but eventually… I took flight…

I did not go very far, just the park next door, but I took my camera with me and enjoyed walking, observing, remembering why I love photography at the first place.

Nature is beautiful but we often forget to take the time to look at it.

 

To purchase an image, book a session or a class or just to see more pictures please follow the link below:

https://www.mermozinefineart.com/

 

Flowers of Little India, Singapore.

As you may know by now if you stumbled upon my blog before, I love doing street photography in my free time (I’m not that rich in free time however, which probably explain the lack of regularity in my postings…).

Some of the most colourful streets of Singapore are found in Little India. I organised there a few weeks back a photography walk mostly focused on Tekka market (one of the biggest wet market in Singapore), but a short walk in the neighbouring streets gave me also the opportunity to rediscover some wall paintings, and to pay a closer attention to the flower shops.

The flowers are omnipresent in Little India.

There are sold not only in bouquets for the obvious decorative purpose, but also cut and/or organised for temple offerings. Either way passing through one of the many flower shops in Little India is overwhelming for your senses ( the colours, the smell, textures, …).

One of the many treasures of Singapore.

Little India Flowers © MermozinePhotography

Little India Flowers © MermozinePhotography

Little India Flowers © MermozinePhotography

Little India Flowers © MermozinePhotography

Little India Flowers © MermozinePhotography

Little India Flowers © MermozinePhotography

Little India Flowers © MermozinePhotography

 

For more images and to purchase prints, please check out my website at: https://www.mermozinefineart.com/

Thank you 🙂

 

Like a Valentine’s Rose…

 

“Mignonne, allons voir si la rose
Qui ce matin avoit desclose
Sa robe de pourpre au Soleil,
A point perdu ceste vesprée
Les plis de sa robe pourprée,
Et son teint au vostre pareil.

Las ! voyez comme en peu d’espace,
Mignonne, elle a dessus la place
Las ! las ses beautez laissé cheoir !
Ô vrayment marastre Nature,
Puis qu’une telle fleur ne dure
Que du matin jusques au soir !

Donc, si vous me croyez, mignonne,
Tandis que vostre âge fleuronne
En sa plus verte nouveauté,
Cueillez, cueillez vostre jeunesse :
Comme à ceste fleur la vieillesse
Fera ternir vostre beauté.”                                   

    – Pierre de Ronsard

Because there is no Valentine’s Day without Roses

Because I can’t think about Roses without remembering the first verses above.

Happy Valentine’s Day to all of you!

(yes ALL of you –  singled or happily married or anything and everything in between, don’t we all need flowers and chocolates at least one day in the year??).

Valentine’s Day Ⓒ Catherine Houston

Like a Bird in Paradise…

“Like a bird in paradise…”
I often go to the Botanic Gardens, here in Singapore.

It’s beautiful.

But most of the time I just go there with a purpose: being on time, meeting with clients, doing a photoshoot, being on time to my next appointment, … I know pretty well the park by now (I still get lost sometimes though 😉), so I’m on autopilot-photographer-mode, taking my clients to my “usual” places to get the best shots.

 

But once in a while I need to pause, take a deep breath, and really open my eyes to my surroundings… the only way to really appreciate and see the beauty all around…

Like a Bird in Paradise.

 

Minimalism (… a therapy)

For the last few months I have been stroke by an urge for anything minimalistic in my photographs.

Minimum number of subjects, minimum colours, and even more recently a phase of white on white pictures (with just a little bit of textures and shapes). So of course, as a photographer, it could be my current school of thoughts (that sounds so cool and romantic right 😉 )….

and then again as a mom of now 4, living in a perpetual mess (visual, but also the noises, …) that could be an inconscient therapy…. my soul trying to resist the chaos by creating a little bit of cleanliness in my world!!!

In any case, here it is….

The art science museum of Marina Bay Sands, in Singapore.

A frangipane flower on the floor, in the Gardens by the Bay, Singapore.

A fake window on a real green wall in Chinatown, Singapore.

A row of silver mailboxes on a white wall, in Tiong Bahru, Singapore.

Birds flying in a sample of street wall art in Singapore.

A stack of white coffee cups on a white background.

 

You can see more of my work at www.mermozine.com or by following me on Facebook

You can also contact me by Email if you wish to purchase prints, at Photography@Mermozine.com.

Singapore – Sea Side

This morning I discovered a nice low-key nature reserve park in Singapore .

– The Labrador Park Nature Reserve –

If you’re looking for a nice walk near the seashore, far for the crowd, that would be a good option for you.

 

LabradorPark © Catherine Houston

LabradorPark © Catherine Houston

The park itself is quite small, and to really appreciate it at its best I should probably have been there at sunrise, but it was nonetheless a very pleasant walk on the coast. Easily accessible from LabradorPark MRT station (although finding the way from the station toward the park was trickier than expected… but then again my orientation skills are not very sharp!!), you can then walk you way along the coast toward the Harbourfront MRT station, passing on the way the very nice Keppel Bay area and it’s peaceful marina.

Keppel Bay © Catherine Houston

Keppel Bay © Catherine Houston

Keppel Bay © Catherine Houston

Enjoy your walk  :-).