SnapIt!! (19 July 2014 - Lower Seletar Reservoir)

Yes, FINALLY!! That's my expression yesterday after I had finally managed to get a decent sunrise shots at Lower Seletar Reservoir.

It was my 3rd morning there in the past 1 month. I always wanted to capture beautiful sunrise there. However, due to unpredictable weather, I always came back with "nothing". Well, it is not exactly nothing. I always came back with other type of shots which I am happy with.

First morning I was there, I was greeted with passing rain with large rain cloud in the sky. Here's the result.

Although there is no sunrise, I love this shot very much. The situation forced me to get most out of it. The light trails from the MRT, leading line from the wooden jetty, star burst from the street lights and the rain clouds all come together as one pleasing composition. Definitely one of my favourites photo so far.

Not happy with the results, I went back there again. This time, there was no rain. But... Yes, it was cloudy. I have taken the shot at the fishing jetty from my previous visit. So this time I skipped that and went straight to the other location. I met a young fellow photographer who had arrived there much earlier. As morning blue hour is short, I quickly set up my gear and started shooting. It was so dark that even with viewfinder, it was so difficult to focus. Finally, I managed to get a few test shots and adjusted the composition. Here's the result.

Best time to shoot in the early morning is about 10-15 minutes before the sun rose. You will find the sky is blue with red glow on the horizon. With your naked eyes, the red glow is not prominent. However, you will see a big different if let your camera exposed for longer time. The above shot was a 30s exposure shot. The cloud moved during the 30s and created a nice smooth effect. As the sun rose higher above the horizon, part of the sky will lose its blue colour.

I went back again for the 3rd time. This time, it was partially cloudy. The light was beautiful. I arrived there earlier and managed to take few shots. One of them is when the sky was still pretty much blue.

The water water was calm. No wind blowing. That's why the boats looks sharp and not blurry. My tripod was set up very low and close to the subject. Be careful when going to this place. There were lots of leeches and mosquitoes. Bring your bug sprays!!

When the sun rose higher, you would see the horizon glowing red. And the part of the sky where the sun would appear turned white. In this case, it was to the far left on the above photo. The clouds turned magenta red. This would not last long. As soon as the sun appeared above the horizon, your shutter speed should be faster to avoid blown up sky. I used my GND filter covering the top left corner of the frame which helped to bring back the details of the sky. Here's the result. As the sun rose higher, the sky lost the colour saturation. So for this type of shot, please take the photo as quickly as possible before the sun is too high. Here's the result!!

I will definitely come back sometime at the end of the year when the sun will appear in the middle of the frame. That would make an interesting shot. For the time being, I am pretty much done with this place.

My long term sunrise/sunset project update for the month of July 2014 was published. I would not be posting any photos till end of this month. Stay tune for more updates!! Next we are heading to beaches.

SnapIt!! (Jun 2014)

It has been some time ago since my last post in this blog. I had been really busy with work and many other things that happened in the month of June 2014.

8 June 2014

As usual, my shooting time is always during the weekend. Similar to my other weekends, this time I visited Lower Seletar Reservoir. I knew it was one of the best place in Singapore to enjoy sunrise. However, I was not too sure about sunset here. Here's the shot taken right after the sunset. Enjoy!! One thing to note when visiting this place is remember to bring your mosquito repellent. We identified few locations for sunset and determined that we will come back for good sunrise shots.

Lower Seletar Reservoir

14 June 2014

This weekend I did not have my time to do my sunrise and sunset shots. My aunts and nephews were visiting Singapore and we took them around. This time we visited S.E.A. Aquarium at RWS. For this visit, I decided to leave my wide angle 10-22mm lens at home. Lighting in the aquarium are poor; and with the limitation of the f-stop of the lens and lack of image stabilisation, it will be difficult to shoot without tripod. And with the limitation of the shutter speed at reasonably low ISO, it is not possible to freeze the movement of the sea creatures. Instead, I brought my 18-55mm kits lens which I have not been using for sometime.

It turned out to be a good decision made. I managed to keep the ISO at max 1600. Here's some of the shots I like.

Hermit Crab

Jellyfish

Fish World

Lobster

22 June 2014

After missing sunrise/sunset shots previous week, I decided to visit Lower Seletar Reservoir again. This time, it was for the sunrise. When we reached the location, the sky looked dark and was about to rain. I never lost hope and kept waiting. We visited the locations we identified earlier. But at 6.45am, we had yet to see sun light on the horizon. 

We decided to go back to the fishing jetty near the entrance to the park. My camera was set up, facing the position where we were expecting for the sun to come out. At 6:55am, we had yet to see the sun and the sky was getting darker and darker. This was the time I gave up on the sunrise. I decided to look at the other directions and I was shocked by the magnificent view. Dark clouds were gathering and the sky was blue. I turned to my camera and trying to find best composition. I was facing the MRT track and I thought it would be interesting to include the light trail from the MRT in the shot. I waited for a while for the MRT to be in the middle of the track and frame the shot. It was 6 seconds shot which was long enough to get a nice light trail. Here's the result and I was very happy with it. Lesson learnt here is "Never pack your gear and leave too early. Always look at the surrounding. You will find something interesting."

Thunderstorm

29 June 2014

I was down with pain from a wart on my right foot for 3 days. I almost gave up on my planned trip to Legoland due to the pain. And I almost disappoint people I promised to have fun with.

On the 4th day, things getting better. I decided to give it a try. I made the decision to go even though I could still feel the pain. Thanks God I made the right decision. I had so much fun although I was limping the whole trip.

That morning, I packed up my gears with some cleaning cloth and blower. I brought both my lens and decided to leave my tripod at home. I was not expecting to shoot sunrise/sunset or low light. Here are some of the architecture shots I took.

Lego City

Twin Towers

Most of the shots I took during the trip was portraits. Being a tripod man, portrait photography is always a challenge for me. I rarely had chance to do portrait photography and the trip gave me lots of opportunities to improve. To capture a nice composition through the viewfinder is much more challenging than using live view mode. Looking forward to the next trip. I will try different things. May need to read up more on travel photography. Excited!!

SnapIt!! (Updates from 29 Mar - 26 Apr 2014)

I have been very busy recently with works for the last couple of weeks, leaving me not much time and energy to post in the blog. Although I still made an effort to shoot at least once during the weekend. Here's some of the story and updates from all the photos I have taken so far. Mostly are sunrise and sunset shoots.

29 March 2014

My Dream

Star Merlion

I have planned where and when I wanted to shoot that Saturday. My wife was not feeling well and not be able to join me in the morning. But I determined to go out and shoot. And yes, I am glad I made the right decision. Two shots above are the results. And yes, I was back in time for breakfast with her. :)

I have seen many times that people often gave up our dream just because their close friends or buddies did not have the same dream. I feel that one's happiness shall be determined by his/her own action, not others. The first shot "My Dream" was inspired by my feeling that morning. I was taking the photos alone. So, I have to run back and forth between my camera and my seating position. I set the camera on 10s timer. While I was running back and forth, I saw the street light through the hole on the statue. That's where I got the idea for my second shot "Star Merlion". I have visited this place before, but I had never seen any light shining on the Merlion statue. Therefore, it is worth visiting the place you have visited. Because you can always find something different.

5 Apr 2014

Convergence

That week, I did not have specific photo I wanted to create. So, we were just exploring the places we have visited before and finding new spots for the shoot. The photo "Convergence" was taken on top of the Marina Bay Shopping building. Initially, we were there to find spots for some night shoots. It was in the hot afternoon without any shelter. As we were walking from one end to the other, I spotted this beautiful structure with unique patterns. It seemed like all the lines from the steel wire, wooden walkway, and from the shelters are coming toward the centre. I quickly set my tripod very low on the ground to get the dramatic view of the wooden walkway and frame this shot. As I was facing the bright setting sun, it was really a challenge. Finally, I got the composition I wanted which looked almost symmetrical on both sides.

6 Apr 2014

Twin Star

This is definitely one of my favourite place for photography. I still remembered, my first shot 6 months back when I first learning photography. Comparing to that shot, I have seen how much I have improved for the last 6 months. This shot was taken in the hot afternoon, the sun was glaring but the sky was blue. Very beautiful and I admitted I seldom see this kind of sunset. When I reached the location, the sun was still quite high. The moment I saw that, I was trying to position myself so that I could get the sun light shining through one of the pagoda's door. I managed to take a couple of shots, but composition was not good. So, I leave it for the next visit. As the sun went down further, I spotted this spot where the sun was between the two pagoda. After I composed the scene, I waited a while more for the sun to be near the horizon to get the rays on the edge of the bridge.

12 Apr 2014

Amigurumi

This was the weekend I did not go out for shoot. The weather was wet and I was too tired to go out for shoot. So, we decided to work on creative photography. We shot in a totally dark room with only the candle light to lit the doll. Doll is made by my wife. Very happy with the result. Enjoy!!

19 Apr 2014

Two Sides

One Morning

As I always say, go back to those places you have visited before. You will be surprised with what you found. This is another example. I have visited Merlion Park before, but that morning was special. There water was so calm as there were hardly any wind blowing. Moreover, the Merlion statue did not spray out water from the mouth. That created a very calm water which was perfect for creating reflection images.

The first shot "Two Sides" is the sunrise shot before we can see the sun itself. The lights illuminated on sky was beautiful. I always love the strong orange tone of sunrise. As the sun is higher and higher, the sky getting clearer and boring. So, the best time to take sunrise photo is between blue hour and before the sun appears in the horizon. 

Another tips when shooting sunrise or sunset is "look at the scene behind you". The reason is that when the sun is getting higher, the light illuminates the other part of the sky. And that was the result of the second shot "One Morning". This is an unusual view of the Merlion. That morning, may be due to some of the work that was going on there, the statue did not spray out any water resulting in a very calm water around the area. I managed to take 5-6 vertical format photos of the scene and stitched them in Photoshop. That's the result. Enjoy!!

20 Apr 2014

Coastal Sunset

It has been awhile since I last shot coastal sunset/sunrise. This particular shot was taken at East Coast Park. We have been there before, but due to poor weather we did not get any decent sunset shot. The weather that afternoon was good. Partly cloudy with orange sunset colour in the sky. That was my first attempt to capture smooth wave next to beautiful sunset. From my observation, shutter speed below 1.3 seconds would give a nice flow of water but not smooth. It also depends on the speed of the wave. In order to get shutter speed more that 2 seconds when the sun is still hight, we need ND filters. As I have none of those filters, my limit was 1.6 seconds before the sun light disappear. I would say it is a decent shot for the first attempt.

26 Apr 2014

Fullerton Bay Sunrise

I have been in this place at night for few occasions this year. Because there are always people walking around the area, it is very difficult to get a shot where noone in it. That was my goal. So, I decided to give this place a visit in the morning. All the excitement I had previously was crushed when I reached the location. No light from the building and walkway. As the light in the sky change so fast during the sunset/sunrise, I need to be quick before I lost the best light. After trying few different shots, I decided to leave with disappointment. When I was walking pass this area, I stopped for awhile. I looked at the surrounding 360degree and asked myself a question "How does it look like if I took a 360degree panorama picture from this spot?"

I spontaneously turn my eyes to the sunrise at Marina Bay. YES! There was still fairly amount of orange light in the area. Quickly I set up my tripod, adjusted my composition and shot. In total I shot 20 vertical format photos of the surrounding and stitched them in Photoshop. HOLA! That's the result! I am very happy with it and would like to try this again at different places. Stay tune!

Lesson learnt is "Expect the unexpected because the unexpected is FUN!"

SnapIt!! (Marina Bay & Chinatown)

I was busy and tired last weekend, so there was no post.

So, to compensate for that, I will update the photos taken last weekend today.

Last weekend, we were exploring again Marina Bay area. The amount of light near the Marina Bay is always the main reason for us to go back there. But this time round, we managed to catch the sunset too. We called the shot "City Sunset". The photo is taken at the Singapore F1 track near the Singapore Flyer with Marina Bay Sands hotel and CBD in the shot.

City Sunset

As the sun was setting down and blue hour approaching, we decided to move towards the Marina Bay Float area. Just 2 months back, this area was formed to a floating platform for Chinese New Year celebration, this time they were preparing for iLight Marina Bay event. This is another reason we always like to come back here. This place will never be the same through out the entire year.

Right after passing by the Helix bridge, I saw this beautiful panoramic view of the entire Marina Bay area. The entire area was lit by the light from the setting set with neon lights from the surrounding buildings. The sun has set but the dusk has not come. The remaining reddish orange light from the sun casting on the blue sky which result in magenta colour in the sky. The one thing comes to my mind, panorama stitched photo. But I had to be quick. During this time, the change of the amount of light can be quite fast. I quickly looked for a place to set up my tripod. As I am taking panoramic shots, if my tripod was standing behind the railings, firstly I may not get all the reflected light on the water. Second, the railing may be in the shot with a large amount of distortion like the fish eye lens. So, I have to set it up on top of the railings. I ended up setting up my tripod this way.

Taking panoramic shot of setting sun where the amount of light on the sky changing quickly is a challenge. The amount of light is low, and it forced me to go for long exposure of 2-4 seconds. I also wants the water to be smooth, so I need at least 2 seconds exposure to get that. As I need to take 5-8 photos, I may end up having photos with different exposure level if I spent too much time for each shot.

To avoid the amount of distortion in the panoramic shot, I usually take 5-8 shots in vertical format. But at that time, it would be to long as the sun light fading very quickly. So I decided to take 3 shots in horizontal format. I first post-processed the photos in Camera Raw for camera distortion correction, white balance, removing chromatic aberration, sharpening and a little noise reduction. The photos were then stitched in Photoshop. The result has a little distortion looks similar to the fish eye lens effect. But it was kind of nice. Enjoy!!

Blue Hour Marina Bay

After this shot, we called it a day and went home.

From another day last weekend, we went to Chinatown for dinner. As usual, I would bring my gear with me.
At Chinatown, I always curious about the view from the top of the surrounding area. There are mixtures of low raise and tall buildings which could make a unique shot. But first, we need to find a high raise building where we can have a clear view of the surrounding. So, we were exploring the HDB area and found a good spot. The HDB is 24-storey high, but we decided to stop at 10th storey. The reason was that the surrounding low raise building was really low. If we were to go high and wide, we may not get the details of the building which is one of the reasons for this shot. So, we thought 10th storey is perfect. We took a couple of shots at different angles and views. As usual, shooting directly to the sun is always a real challenge without any filters due to the high exposure range of the dark and white area. But I managed to find the sweet spot where it is still editable during the post-processing. Here's the result. Enjoy!

Chinatown Sunset

After taking couple of shots, we left. When we were moving toward the central of the Chinatown, we have a closer view of the colourful buildings line up in a row. We stopped by the road side and looking for a good place to shot. Here's the shot. Enjoy!! I included vehicle moving in the scene to add elements to the foreground instead just empty road. Because of the colourful building line up in a row that made us took this photo, we call it "In A Row".

In A Row

Thank you for visiting my blog. Visit my Flickr Photostream to view all my work here.

SnapIt!! (Marina Bay Blue Hour - 15 Feb 2014)

As promised in previous post, I would post the blue hour shot near the Marina Bay Shopping area. Here's the shot. Enjoy!!

Distance

Right after arriving at the destination, I started looking at different locations for the shot. I photographed the Central Business District (CBD) before. But I was looking for different composition and location. I thought maybe it will look very different if I were to move further from it. We decided to walk towards the Helix Bridge. I keep looking back to check if I had found the right location. When we passed through this place, I saw the the Art Museum on the left and the Marina Bay Shopping on the right. Then I got the sudden idea of viewing the CBD from the gap between the Art Museum and Marina Bay Shopping. I stopped for awhile and looked back. My position is a bit out to get the CBD in between the two. I need to move towards the Art Museum a little bit more. But I saw the "No Entry" sign. I entered anyway. And when I recomposed the scene again, I said "Yes, this is it. Perfect!".

I gave the title of the shot "Distance". I learned that photographing an object need not to be close. Sometimes when we are too close to something, we are not able to appreciate its beauty. Similar to life, we may not be able to appreciate things which are close to us until one day they no longer near us. Enjoy the weekend and appreciate all things near us!!