More from the Navy

Days in the Navy

While sifting through my archives in preparation for submission to The Eddie Adams Workshop, i've chanced upon the pictures taken during the course of my 2 and a half years with the Navy. Looking back, it was a significant period of my life no matter how often i bemoan the days. I didn't know it yet, but that was my introduction to photojournalism.

I was acutely aware that having a camera in hand, brings me places, shows me things i wouldn't normally have seen. From live firing in the South China Sea, to roaming the majestic Kittyhawk (and other Nimitz class carriers) when they docked. On hindsight, i should have appreciated the access given to me more.

I guess that's why they keep saying that "Life has to be lived forward, just so you can understand it backwards."

Landing ship tank returns from Iraq.

Returning from their tour-of-duty in Iraq, sailors from the Republic of Singapore Navy come home to a boisterous reception by family and loved ones.

Sea Expedition at the crack of dawn.

Grenade!

Base Defense. Troopers patrol the naval base 24/7.

Decontamination Point.

I won some awards with these pictures. Nothing major, just small time community awards. But then again, nobody got into photojournalism to get rich. Never happened, never will.

Cross straits tension

A fisherman dwarfed by docking warships cuts a lonesome figure along China's naval base in Xiamen. Naval crafts frequently patrol the straits of Taiwan as a show of force. Since taking power in May 2000, Chen Shui Bian has refused to embrace the one-China principle, which says that both Taiwan and the mainland are parts of China. Beijing insists on the principle as a precondition for jump-starting cross-Straits negotiations, which broke off in 1999 when former Taiwan leader Lee Teng-hui said the relationship should be state-to-state. Cross straits tension between Taiwan and China continues to this day.

Picture Set here