SnapIt!! (Singapore Flyer - 15 Feb 2014)

Yay! It's weekend again. As usual, photography time.

This morning, it was blue hour and sunrise shoot. We spent an hour or two last night to plan the route for this morning shoot.

The location we picked is Marina Bay Sands shopping area for blue hour shots and area around Singapore Flyer and Garden by the Bay for some sunrise shots.

We woke up at 4:50am to catch the first train as we need about 1 hour to travel. We reached Bayfront at around 6:30am. Perfect for some blue hour shots at Marina Bay Sand shopping area. I took some shots at different locations from my previous night shoot there. I am keeping the blue hour shots for later posts.

Around this time of the year, sunrise in Singapore should be at 7:15am. However, at around 7:10am, we did not see the orange light in the sky. The weather is kind of cloudy on one side and the wind is quite strong, and I thought this is it. It could be another unlucky day to catch the sun.

Moving from the shopping area, we were thinking to move to Garden by the Bay or the Singapore Flyer side to try our luck. For sunrise, we wont have the time to cover both area as it was a quite distance apart. We picked Flyer side and I am glad I did that. When we reached the location at about 7:30am, the sun just came out and it was showing full shape with little cloud in the sky.

Morning breeze is refreshing and I wanted to add that feel to the shot. I saw few coconut trees on the side. The wind blowing, the leaves are moving and I thought "this is perfect to add to the shot to represent breeze". And we settled at this location not too far from the trees. From this position, Flower Dome on the opposite side is fully visible. I zoomed all the way to 11mm to include it in the shot. We spent about 20 minutes there before the sun was too high and too difficult to shoot without filters.

From experience I had when shooting sunrise at hometown, this time I observed closely the histogram. I was adjusting the shutter speed and observing the histogram at the same time. Great experience and I think it is a great shot.

As I wanted to keep the feel of sunrise and morning breeze in the shot, I did not add much effects during the post processing in Photoshop. Here's the result. Enjoy!!

NB: Observe the new watermark.. ^&^

SnapIt!! (Marina Barrage - 18 Jan 2014)

Finally, I made a trip to explore the other part of Marina, the Marina Barrage. The night view from the top of the building is magnificent. The wind is so strong, yet so many people enjoying the city view of Singapore from its top. It's the perfect location for some great night shoots. Here's some of the photos.

Synchronicity

Serenity

Lesson Learnt:
1) Night photo looks better with different colour
2) Stop down 1 stop to prevent overexpose of neon lights
3) Adjust angle and perspective

SnapIt!! (MBS - HDR)

The last few weeks, I have been busy with works and too tired to get out there to shoot. I spent most of the time in front of my computer working on my HDR photos. I took whole lots of bracketing images at Merlion Park during the sunrise and I am really glad I did that. Here's another HDR photo I took at the Merlion Park. Compared to the non-HDR version, this one IMO gives a different feeling to it. Enjoy!!

SnapIt! Kallang Bahru, Marina Bay Sands, Esplanade

Due to my interest in Landscape, Architectural, Cityscape, and Seascape photography, I made decision to get a wide angle lens recently. It was Canon EF-S 10-22mm f3.5-4.5 USM.

To test out this new gear out, I went to few places from day time, sunset, and night. Overall, I am satisfied with the results. Here's the story. Enjoy.


Kallang Bahru (Architectural)

Kallang Bahru is known as one of the spot for Architectural photography. But it was because of River Vista that made me went there. I accidentally viewed the condominium inside a car passing through the bridge across Kallang River. The view was magnificent, I decided to shoot it. Here's the result after post-processing along with other photos I have taken around the area.

River Vista viewed from the bridge

Marina Bay Sands (Sunset & Night)

From Kallang, we moved to area around Marina Bay Sands hotel where there are many skyscrapers. Perfect place to test this lens out. It was cloudy day. Luckily, it did not rain. Here's the results after post-processing.

Marina Bay Sands Hotel view from Garden by the Bay at Sunset

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Another Marina Bay Sands Hotel view from Garden by the Bay

We stayed a little longer around the Marina Bay area for night photography. Here's the results after post-processing. Results seem to be a little over-exposed. I should have set the exposure 1 or 2 stops lower to prevent over-exposures of the neon lights. One last thing I noted is the sharpness seems to be around f8 - f11. Indeed, night photography is a challenge. I will be back there again.

CBD at night view from Marina Bay

LV at Marina Bay

Last part of the journey, we strolled around the Esplanade area and came across this unique lighting from the carpark. I stopped for awhile, and snapped this photo.

Carpark at Esplanade