Some Land/cityscapes of Singapore.

Well... I am pretty new to this genre (Landscape)... I know I started late as compared to many photographers out there who had begin with landscape photography. And I do not have much equipment for this genre of photography. Anyway, just going to show off abit here.

Well... thats it... of course there are more, but I am not going to include them all in my blog. You wanna see them, visit my flickr account.

http://www.flickr.com/photos/tiew_cy/

New Year 2012 Celebration

It was a pretty exciting day on Saturday... I set off to meet my photography friends at 1600hrs for shooting of the new year fireworks in Marina Bay.

I met one of my friends in the Cityhall MRT at 1700hrs... and together both of us make way to the Esplanade Open Theatre for the firework.... at that time, it was still pretty quiet. The crowd is building up but it is still quite comfortable.

 ISO: 100, S: 1/40, A: f/14

People are taking their own sweet time setting up their cameras and tripods. And looking for good vantage point to take the photo. Since it was only the two of us... we have no problem getting a good spot... right in front of the firework (which is a mistake actually).

Anyway, we have a few test shots on the surrounding and exchanging of ideas with each others on photography and landscape shots.

ISO: 100, S: 1/5, A: f/13

ISO: 100, S: 0.5, A: f/13

Anyway, another friend met up with us soon... and at that time, we are seeing more and more people. At 1800hrs, the place was already pretty crowded, and still one more guys managed to squeeze in at 1900hrs.

Well... by 1930hrs, the place is so darn packed with people that a step back or to each side would have knock the crap out of another person. So we are basically standing pretty still... and can only move our tripod head from left to right.

Then came the laser show... which took some of the discomfort away, as people who are sitting behind me, standing up and freeing some spaces.

ISO: 100, S: 15sec, A: f/14

The laser show was pretty nice to watch... but I am having lots of light pollution from the open theatre itself... and it showed in the above photo... notice the two beams from the left side of the photo? That is where the light pollution came from.

Bore out of the pants from shooting laser show, I turn my camera to the city and try to captured the magnificent of the city at night.

ISO: 100, S: 10sec, A: f/14

Well... the sky was not completely dark at that moment, and a hint of the last sunset of 2011 was still visible and that make the shot works.

Back to the laser show,

ISO: 100, S: 25sec, A: f/14

Well... making the light pollution works for me, I zoomed out, and the two beams of light from the open theatre now looked more concentrated and like part of the laser show.

Finally, night had completely fallen on the marina bay.

And the sight of the city is amazing.

ISO: 100, S: 20 sec, A: f/14

Well... it was pretty boring as there are still a couple more hours before the countdown begins... and the fireworks. So I take to experimenting (more like fun shots) of similar landscape...

 ISO: 100, S: 10sec, A: f/14

Zooming in/ or out (couldn't remember) slowly after I hit the shutter button, gave me the above effect, which was pretty nice. Then I tried more funky method...

ISO: 100, S: 13sec, A: f/14

Well... for that shot, I basically set my camera straight, focus, then hit my shutter button. After that, I twist my camera 90 degree to the left, then 90 degree to the right, before moving it back to center.

ISO: 100, S: 15sec, A: f/9

You know... I cannot seemed to recall what did I do to get that effect (damnit!)

Anyway, enough playing of different effect, I set myself to more serious shots. I turned around and it was as if for the first time, I saw the crowd.

I mean, I know there are lots of people, but I never imagine there are this much people.

ISO: 100, S: 25sec, A: f/8

Then something interesting caught my attention... someone was screaming and cheering. So I looked around... and I was surprised... there is actually a barrier at the side of the bridge to prevent people from looking through. The reason was to prevent cars and vehicle passing that bridge from stopping their vehicle and watching the firework.

Huge number of jokers had teared down the barriers, and it looking something like the falling of berlin wall... and also like huge number of mobsters, protesters and the like tearing away barriers build by the authorities.

ISO: 100, S: 18sec, A: f/11

The number of people standing there is huge... massive even. I was surprised at the number of audience.

Well... enough of the 'rioting' people, I turned my attention back to the marina bay sand... and compose my shot for the firework.

For firework, everything is happening so fast, I really have no time to recompose my shot... basically, I will not be looking into my viewfinder, and simply just click my remote control.

I have set my camera to BULB mode which is essential as it give me more control over the opening and closing time of the shutter curtain... I need to time myself for the firework, so preset exposure counts is not useful anymore.

ISO: 100, S: 4sec, A: f/11

ISO: 100, S: 2sec, A: f/11

ISO: 100, S: 4sec, A: f/11

First couple of shots are okay... then things started to go awry... smoke started coming in, and I was too close to the firework, thus I did get much of a good background... and all my later shots became over exposed at some point of time... especially those below. The background (Marina Bay Sands) was covered by smoke, fire and the firework itself... which make the entire composition, very very bad.

Overall, I am not happy with my performance. I cannot blame anyone... except myself. I am there thus early... I should have enough time to seek for a better location to shoot the firework. I didn't... so this is the type of crappy shots I get for getting on a wrong location.

After the firework show, I was looking around... and noticed that the city seemed to be smoking... it was a pretty interesting look and so I took a couple of shots on it.

ISO: 100, S: 25sec, f/13

ISO: 100, S: 10sec, A: f/8

Well... that's it for the show... and the next wait will be the first sunrise of 2012 in Singapore. I was very excited to get that shot...

Anyway, the crowd are moving towards Cityhall MRT, and it took us 40 minutes to 1 hour to get from the Esplanade to Cityhall... in a good day, I would have make it in around 10 minutes, but this time round the crowd is huge...

Anyway, we have our dinner there... roamed around... most of my friends left at some points of the time, except for two, so the three of us roamed aimlessly around waiting for the sun to rise.

At one point of time, we went to the food court in Marina Bay Sands to rest.

In the food court, I didn't set up my tripod, so to increase the speed of my camera, I step up the ISO.

ISO: 1000, S: 1/20 sec, A: f/8

The food court is not deserted... there are some patrons... and many of the shops are still open for business... and we just sit there chatting.

Then we make way to Raffles Place area where we predicted would give us a good view of the sunrise.

It was still night... but the sky was not really that dark... so I took some shots... It amaze me how well long exposure shot would be in situation like that.

 ISO: 100, S: 30sec, A: f/13

 ISO: 100, S: 15 sec, A: f/8

ISO: 100, S: 25 sec, A: f/8

ISO: 100, S: 25sec, A: f/8

Well... with taking of these shots, observation of the brightness and environment is needed. Thus as compared, by last picture is much better than the first one in the series.

The sky turned bright at around 0640hrs onward... but to all of our disappointment, we seemed to be at the wrong side... and it is too late to get around. We didn't get to see the sun... anyway, the cloud is also blocking it.

So we simply make do with what we can and get a few shots before calling it a day.

 ISO: 100, S: 2 sec, A: f/11

Well... overall, it is a fun outing, good friends, lots of shots, experiments... and although I make quite a bit of mistakes... but I know I will not make them again in future, so... yeah... it is a good experience.

Birding with my EF 70-200mm f4L

Been to Australia at 2010 to visit my bro who was staying there for good. Well... it was a quiet little place called Thornlie in Perth (Western Australia). Went to a pond and had quite a time shooting photos of some ducks and water fowls.

ISO: 400, S: 1/500, A: f/5.6

ISO: 400, S: 1/250, A: f/6.7

ISO: 400, S: 1/750, A: f/5.6

It is a pretty nice photoshooting session... I feel that I could have done better if I was to be at eye level with the ducks and fowls... maybe lying on the ground would have helped.

ISO: 400, S: 1/500, A: f/5.6

This photo would have been better if the Aperture is much smaller... then all of the ducks will be in focus, rather than the two infront.

ISO: 400, S: 1/400, A: f/6.7

Big fat black chicken (crow)... she was perched safely on the branch way above me... I just had to take some photos of her. Pretty cool... I mean the weather... it was near winter when we visited Australia.

Then we go Fremantle for some seafood and managed to shoot some photos of the seagulls.

ISO: 400, S: 1/8000, A: f/6.7

ISO: 400, S: 1/2000, A: f/5.6

I kind of like this pic alot... the composition works for me. I do not put that seagull right in the middle of the frame and instead threw it to the side... and also exposing some of the shadow. It is a pretty nice photo.

All other pic can be found here: http://www.flickr.com/photos/tiew_cy/sets/72157626085792650/

It is a pretty nice experience in Australia and I will be going there again... this time round I will try landscaping shots. I think it can be very nice too.

Birding with my 300mm + 1.4x teleconverter

I was out there in the morning waiting... I wanted to catch some birds... but none seemed to be in the precinity. And I thought it was a wasted wait... then it all happen...

One of them landed right in front of me... and so I being shooting like mad.

ISO: 400, S: 1/80, A: f/6.3

Well... I keep the aperture relatively small so that the entire bird will be in focus while the background was a nice blur. Also it is important to shoot at the eyes... to capture the liveliness of the eyes of the bird.

ISO: 400, S: 1/80, A: f/6.3

ISO: 3200, S: 1/800, A: f/5.6

Well... one thing led to the other, after this bird had flew off... and I was back to the house... that afternoon, I went out to try my luck again... and it is holding up.

ISO: 400, S: 1/320, A: f/5.6

ISO: 400, S: 1/320, A: f/5.6

ISO: 500, S: 1/250, A: f/5.6

This humming bird also landed near me... somewhere on the roof of my neighbour and is facing me. Well... like the other one, I focus mainly on her eyes, and position myself in such a way that I could capture the eyes of the humming bird with some of the sunlight falling off its eyes, so that it glittered.

The next day, I was shooting at some birds again... when one of them flew near me for the third time... I must be very very lucky that few days. And the bird perched at a branch in my garden, and I was able to shoot at it for all I was worth.

ISO: 3200, S: 1/125, A: f/13

ISO: 3200, S: 1/125, A: f/13

ISO: 3200, S: 1/125, A: f/13

Well... it only goes to show... you must be patient when shooting birds... and also to a certain extend, lucks also plays a part. If the birds are too far away, my lens will not be able to get a clear clean shot. If they are too near, I would have to move back and the movement (myself, tripod with camera and lens) will alert the bird and it will flew off.

Anyway, shooting bird, a tripod is necessary because we are using telephoto lenses...and unless you have a very very good shooting technique coupled with high speed and good IS, it is very very difficult to achieve a blur free shot.

From some of my attached exif, it is not difficult to see that some of my photos are taken at very high ISO. Of course ideally, your ISO was not to exit 400 to 800 to keep noise at a bare minimal... however, when an opportunity came up. Please be sure to take that opportunity, even if it means pushing your ISO to 3200 and above.

It is better to have a noisy photos then not to have a photo at all. Plus noise can be corrected during PP, and in a smaller print, you would not even notice them. Plus nowadays, digital sensor had already reach a very manageable noise range, so it is pretty alright to have a high ISO.
So in conclusion, get a lens that could shoot far (a 300mm is a minimum that could get you close enough, but not too close to your nervous subject. if you can afford... get a teleconverter to extend the range). And don't forget... use a tripod whenever possible.