About Chord: December 2015

With 2015 drawing to a close, I showhanded my remaining leave for an extended break from work. Not wanting to lepak the days away, I penned a to-do list and one entry was to bring my 6-month old baby to someplace special.

And boy was that harder than I thought.

We have already stroller-ed down Orchard Road evening time, curating the christmas lightings. And we have already visited Changi Airport, walking straight past the Star Wars exhibits. *yawn*

Thankfully Alive Museum came knocking.

Our last visit was a blast and this time round with our 6-month old little one in tow, it's not hard to imagine that the fun-ness is gonna be cranked up a notch.

Wanting to avoid the crowd, we visited on a Thursday afternoon, making sure that baby Coven was well-fed and well-rested before we entered the museum.

But midway through the visit, Murphy's law set in and baby Coven wanted to nap again. Thankfully with the baby carrier (Tula), mommy could tuck him in and we could carry out with our photo-taking.

Madagascar fans alert! Upcoming zone for photo opportunity with the adorable penguins against local backdrops.

Besides the Madagascar set, there were 2 new zones: Live.Laugh.Love and Young@Heart.

Love's definitely in the air with the many artworks that form ideal backdrops for couple shots and with the chorus of Bruno Mars’ Marry You playing each time someone walks near ‘The Proposal’.

~It’s a beautiful night, we’re looking for something dumb to do,

Hey Baby, I think I wanna marry you!~

Wanting to feature baby Coven in the Live.Laugh.Love artwork, we waited for him to wake up from his nap before doing a U-turn.

And looking at the final products, yeah, it was well worth the wait.

With more wisdom gained from our 2nd visit to the Alive Museum, here are 5 more tips to make the most of your visit. Check out the earlier 10 tips here!

Tips #13-15 are for parents who are bringing their LOs.

#11 For best outcomes, use at least a point-and-shoot camera.

While helping others to take photos using their handphone cameras, I noticed that the angle of field is rather narrow and with the small confines around some of the artwork, I wasn't able to capture the entire breadth of the backdrop.

#12 Use your handphone camera when asking others for help to take photos.

With the invasion of the handphone cameras, people seem to have forgotten how to use the good old half-press for focusing. In the many instances where we asked others for help in taking the family photos, they simply poked at the shutter button which resulted in the images turning out blurred. Hence my advice is, when asking others to help take a photo, hand over your handphone camera instead. Unless you wanna teach everyone along the way the half-press technique.

#13 Parents leave your Capellas and Combis at home!

The areas are pretty confined and the stroller will greatly hamper your mobility. Put your LO in a carrier instead. There's the added convenience if your LO needs to latch along the way.

#14 Time your visit.

By 6 months, your LO would have settled into a routine. Plan the visit during your LO's active hours for you won't want him/ her to be sleeping in all the pictures.

#15 Bring along your LO's favorite toy or some prop that he/ she would respond to.

At 6 months, they may not yet respond to your calls. That's when the props come in useful to get them looking at the camera. But then again, I noticed the best shots were the candid ones so you may not want your subjects to be looking at the camera for every shot.

People often ask why do we bother to bring our LO on mini-excursions/ travels since they would not have any recollection of it.

My usual response is: 'Yes, they won't remember. But we will.'

With the string of holidays coming up, it's time to bring your children out to play! And while you are out, why not visit the Alive Museum for a fun-filled session with numerous amusing photos that capture the happy moments!

Happy holidays my friends.

Many thanks to Alive Museum for the invite.