PoP: Chinese Garden

Monday, November 10, 2014

SnapIt!! (8-9 Nov 2014)

Every morning, I got to enjoy a brief sunrise when I wake up. Just happen my room window is facing toward the north east and there is no building across the other side. The early morning light on last Friday morning was amazing. Just manage to snap it with my iPhone.

Another weekend, another shooting time. Going into the last weekend, I was pretty excited. One reason was that sunrise on Friday. The other reason was the sunrise at Chinese Garden. I found this spot recently and my first attempt last week was a failure. So, I got to come back and shoot this weekend.

However, weather was unpredictable. Forcasted weather for Saturday and Sunday morning was 100% chance of rain. And it really rained. It was very heavy in the early Saturday morning. So my morning trip was cancelled. Instead, I decided to visit Changi Broadwalk for an afternoon long exposure shot. I did not expect much for the sunset during this time of the year. I tried something different with long exposure settings. It also happened that Kelong Walk is under repair.

I already had B&W in mind for the shot I wanted to create. But I decided to add sephia tone to enhance the feel to create sense of mystery. I am satisfied with the overall result. I wished I had done more homework before heading out and shoot. The tide was very low when I reached the location in the afternoon. Toward the sunset, the tie went even lower. So, I only managed to get few decent shots.

Changi Beach

I only go out to shoot during weekend and I make sure my camera is locked in the dry box during weekdays. Having failed sunrise on Saturday morning, I only had Sunday to hope. On Sunday morning, train started a little late. The first train is on 6am. Sunrise in Singapore is 6:50am at this time of the year. So, I will just have very little time for the blue hour before the sun rises above the horizon.

BUT, it was raining on Sunday night. And the rain continued till the next morning. Looking at the weather which was still drizzling at 5am, I was hesitating either to give it up or give it a try. At the end, I decided to give it a try and to hope that the sun would come out after the rain.When I reached the location, it was still drizzling and I have to shoot the entire morning under an umbrella covering my camera only. However, I was very satisfied with the result. At about 30 minutes passed sunrise, the sun was out and with some fast moving cloud.

Light from early sunrise is soft and it creates a ambient of early morning scene with the soft blue sky. If the sun was too high, light is hard and you will lose the soft blue sky. So, my time was limited. To have a soft water and cloud effect, I used my big stopper for long exposure. Each exposures took about 70-120sec. Adding the time for long exposure noise reduction on camera, one shot would easily take me about 5min to complete. And each second the cloud formation and light was changing. It was a very challenging situation to shoot. And This is also the reason why I love shooting sunrise/sunset. Each second is critical and you wont know what you will get. I managed to get a few shots and this is the one I love. The light was soft. And the addition of soften cloud really creates the "serene" effect. Although I decided to title it as "Aftermath".

Aftermath

For high resolution view, please visit my flicker Photostream.

Saturday, April 26, 2014

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!"

Saturday, January 4, 2014

SnapIt!! (Learning HDR)

I was going through some of old photos I have taken with exposure bracketing which I planned for some HDR learning. Got some time to read some tutorial and work on it with Photomatix Pro.. Not best results yet, but the process is fun. Enjoy!!

Friday, January 3, 2014

SnappedIt! (23 Dec 2014 to 3 Jan 2014)

I have not been posting on my blog since the last post. But I have been out there shooting.. Here's are some of those.

Night strolling around Singapore River area.