Visited the Naval Base yesterday for the 2013 Singapore Navy Open House. Every year, the Singapore Armed Forces (SAF) will host a public event to keep us civilians abreast of the developments in their mission and to allow us to sleep peacefully during the night knowing that our forces are on 24/7 protecting the nation. While we may not be the strongest eagle in the sky, or the biggest elephant on the land , or the largest whale beneath the ocean, we sure pack one of the meanest hornet sting that promise to make anyone regret they ever threaten our sovereignty. That being said, we are a peaceful group of people because we love photography 🙂
The X20 is a wonderful companion to bring along to the event as it is light-weight and has a zoom of 28-112mm. Hence I could just swing the camera up and start shooting without much consideration for weight or lens changing. I shot the day using two modes – B&W and the Negative-Hi. Loved the latter as it gave a stern blue tone to the images, befitting the well-trained naval forces.
The even started with a showcase of the naval might. This involved a real-time demonstration of the naval capabilities in their reaction to terrorist attacks at sea. The X20’s fast auto-focus came well in play here.
There were quite a number of equipment displays available for visitors to try on or explore. Frigates were aplenty too and these were awe-inspiring given its futuristic looking stealth exteriors.
I could not resist doing colors as the stern colors of the frigates went perfectly with the sky and the emerald sea.
I loved the submarine best. The X20 rendered the image very well despite the dark colors of the sub.
Besides the equipment, there were tons of people around. Had to take some shots of the men in blue as a simple tribute to them and their hard work.
Even the K9 unit came and the kids just loved them.
One of the sights that melted my heart was the presence of the underprivileged and handicap group. They were invited by the naval forces to join in the show and have a good time. Kudos!
Kids from other schools were invited as well.
If you are in Singapore, do drop by the naval open house over the weekend!  I will just leave you with more photos of the equipment, and a preview of what you can expect at the event 🙂 Enjoy!