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.

SnapIt! (iLight Marina Bay 2014)

Again, Marina Bay Singapore has changed. This time, it has changed to a light art festival. Yearly festival which was started in 2010 features 28 creative and unique light installations along the Marina Bay. The installations were divided into 2 routes, A and B.

We explored the route A yesterday, it was quite fun especially for family and kids to play. Photography in such low light condition and many people around is never easy. Moreover, I am using a non-IS lens and not able to perform well in low light. Noise performance of 700D is not as good as Canon high end camera such as 5DIII. Hence, I was taking most photos using my iPhone. But when I came across beautiful lights on the water, I thought of making it as my foreground. But what will be the background? The lights from the office buildings could make a great background. But some of the towers are too high. Although I am using ultra wide angle 10-22mm lense, some of those buildings are still cropped out. The main object I wanted in the shot is the lights on the water. Hence, I scarified some of the buildings and go for the foreground light. This time I broke the rule of 1/3, and the image still looks decent. Post-processing was done in Camera Raw to bring up shadows, correction of lens distortion, chromatic aberration, contrast adjustments, and proper cropping. Here's the result. Enjoy!

iSwarm

Moving further down to the end of route A, we noticed the symbolic ArtScience Museum is featuring artistic light painting which is unique. I found a good spot where I was able to view the light painting as a whole with the museum front door and a bit of lotus pond in the foreground. Here's the result. Enjoy!!

The ArtScience Museum

After this shot, we move to other locations to have a different point of view feel. I noticed a couple sitting next to the lotus pond with the ArtScience Museum in the background. The view gives the feel of love. Although, I doubt they were looking at the art piece. Yes, I still like the shot. :) So, I will still post it here. I have to waited for 10 minutes for a few guys sitting to their left to leave before I could frame this shot. So, enjoy!!

Love

That is all for the updates.

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