Day 1, Istanbul (26 Nov 2010)

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Group Photo at Singapore Changi Airport

11.5 hours before arriving at Istanbul, we were all at the Singapore Changi Airport, Terminal 2. All the participants from other countries arrived at Singapore 1st before taking the plane together. From there, we started chating and getting to know one another. I was slightly nervous at 1st as i was holding the fact that i am the youngest among all. You know, generation gap sia. I wonder if people would engage conversation with me throughout the next 8 days. That was my concern. All my worries were gone soon after as i realised that ”Hey! We are a fun group after all!!”

11.5hrs of flight. Backside pain. Cant sleep well even though i do have high hopes for Singapore Airlines to be the leading airline in the world. One good news is that there’s no major turbulence throughout the flight, and i appreciate that a lot. To pass the time, Singapore Airline has several movies in their in-flight entertainment. Recent movies are screened, which was something commendable. I watched Salt, Inception, Despicable me, two chinese movie, and spent much of the time staring at the screen that shows our flight info. Well, due to insomnia, i only slept 1 hour plus.

Probably due to excitement, I was so awake even without proper sleep. We touchdown at around 7am (1pm Singapore time) and we headed straight to our hotel. There’s a slight change in plan, so we practically pushed the whole of  day 7 to day 1.

Overall schedule was simple: we walked to the Blue Mosque just 5 minutes away, after which, entered the Hagia Sofia Muesum which is just beside Blue Mosque. Following which we went back to the hotel for lunch, and then traveled by bus to the Galata Tower. We then walked along the streets after sunset, admiring beautiful city of Istanbul. Lastly, we will travel back to hotel, where we will have photo critique session every night.

The set of shots:

For every photo critique session, everyone of us will have to select 4 best shots of the day for sharing. The above 4 photos were the best shots i have selected. Unlike previous years, we have a mini competition among us for this year’s photoclinic. For every photo critique session, Triston and Ant will judge our photos and to rank us up. The best photographer of  the day will achieve 12 points, and the worse, 1 point. Points will be accumulated until the last photo critique session, where the highest scorer will win himself a EF100mm f/2.8L Macro IS USM. WOW!

There are always positive and negative comments made by both the instructors. We learnt from everyone’s strengths as well as mistakes, thereby gradually  improving our skills. It was quite torturing for me to pry open my eyes over and over again throughout the entire photo review session as i was facing severe jet lag. LOL.. It’s as though you didnt sleep for the entire night but only to put yourself onto bed at 8am in the morning.

After the end of 1st day, i was, surprisingly, ranked 1st. i scored 11 points for the 1st photo critique session, and another 5 points for being on time throughout the day. Well, i didnt stay at that position for subsequent days, my skills started going downhill since then. HAHA! Inconsistency is the only word that i can describe myself!

Next— Day 2, Izmir