Monday, December 20, 2010

Rounding up December

Been real busy but managed to go out and shoot once in a while. Here are some shots from this month.

#1 - Upper Seletar Sunset

#2 - The lone tree

#4 - Promontory Sunrise

Tuesday, November 23, 2010

No Entry to the Bottomless Lake

Taken: 21-Nov-2010
Pictures taken with Nikon D300s + Tokina 11-16mm/2.8 + Lee Big Stopper
Location: Upper Seletar Reservoir, Singapore.
All pictures © all rights reserved.


Took a spur of the moment trip out to Lower Seletar with some friends to try to catch the sunset. Weather was hazy, foggy and overcast. So in the end, I took out my 10-stop ND filter and did some long exposures for some BW action.

Friday, November 19, 2010

Promontory Sunrise

Taken: 17-Nov-2010
Pictures taken with Nikon D300s + Tokina 11-16mm/2.8
Location: Promontory @ Marina Bay, Singapore.
All pictures © all rights reserved.


I am back from my sun chasing break. This time went down to the new Promontory to catch the golden light.

Sunday, November 14, 2010

The Little Cannon

Finally yielded and got myself a F2.8 tele-zoom. It is not a small or light one too. The build and weight of this one looks perfectly fitting to the nickname photographers in Asia gave this lens - The Little Cannon (小钢炮). Introducing my Nikon AF 80-200/2.8D ED.

The little cannon mounted on my camera. Not very 'little'.

Output is extremely sharp and crisp.

100% crop of the picture above with no adjustments, jpeg (basic) straight out of cam. You can even see the reflection of the softbox and the reflector in the eyeball.

Shot wide open at 110mm

Shot wide open at 200mm

Wednesday, October 6, 2010

Super Junior in da House!

Taken: 3-Oct-2010 to 5-Oct-2010
Pictures taken with Nikon D300s + Sigma 24mm/1.8
Location: Singapore.
All pictures © all rights reserved.


Super Junior has arrived and has smartly stolen any time and energy I have left. I will be taking a break from landscape photography for the time being. But I am sure my shutter finger will not rest *grin*.














Monday, October 4, 2010

Sunrise before the Long Break

Taken: 2-Oct-2010
Pictures taken with Nikon D300s + Tokina 11-16mm/2.8
Location: Marina Barrage, Singapore.
All pictures © all rights reserved.


Went with Bryan for a quick sunrise shoot at Marina Barrage on Saturday. With junior expected to arrive any moment now, this would be the last sunrise shoot before a hiatus in any landscape photography or sun chasing activity.

New Pontoons

Taken: 25-Sep-2010
Pictures taken with Nikon D300s + Tokina 11-16mm/2.8
Location: Lower Seletar reservoir, Singapore.
All pictures © all rights reserved.


I am really lagging on my posts these days. Went back to Lower Seletar reservoir recently. This is one of my favorite sunrise chasing locations as I thought the view just works. I shot some very glorious sunrises there (like this one). On arriving at location, I was horrified that the floating wooden pontoons were replaced with white plastic ones. I was quite disappointed as I really loved the wooden ones. They made such great foreground. The new ones were much longer, making it harder to compose in the frame, and I just hate the white plasticky look. Anyway, for what's it worth, this was the shot with the new pontoons.

Monday, September 13, 2010

Sunset with wet feet

Taken: 12-Sep-2010
Pictures taken with Nikon D300s + Tokina 11-16mm/2.8 + GND0.9 + ND0.9
Location: Lower Pierce reservoir, Singapore.
All pictures © all rights reserved.


Did a solo shoot at Lower Pierce to catch the sunset. It wasn't the most spectacular sunset, but it was quite fun standing on rocks ankle deep in the water with the tripod in the water. It made me only slightly nervous, triple checking to see if my stuff are all properly secured.

Saturday, September 11, 2010

Sembawang sunrise

Taken: 10-Sep-2010
Pictures taken with Nikon D300s + Tokina 11-16mm/2.8
Location: Sembawang beach, Singapore.
All pictures © all rights reserved.


Went to Sembawang beach for the first time to shoot the sunrise with several buddies. With the neighboring coastline of Malaysia just a short distance away, and close to major shipping routes, ports and industy, the beach is one of the dirtiest I have seen in Singapore. The lighting from the sunrise was also quite flat with heavy clouds looming.

Monday, August 30, 2010

China Streets (Yiwu/Shanghai) - part 3

Taken: 22-Aug-2010
Pictures taken with Fujifilm Finepix F450
Location: Yiwu, China.
All pictures © all rights reserved.


Continued from
Part 2

#15 - Yiwu Night Market

#16 - They are more intimate??? And Ray is coming.

#17 - New International Terminal at Hangzhou Airport

#18 - We made a pit stop at Shanghai. Shanghai is filled with highways like these.

#19 - Shanghai bund.

#20 - Slicing of our Peking Roast Duck.

Sunday, August 29, 2010

China Streets (Yiwu) - part 2

Taken: 22-Aug-2010
Pictures taken with Fujifilm Finepix F450
Location: Yiwu, China.
All pictures © all rights reserved.


Continued from
Part 1

Night fell and the life of the city took on another feel. Lights of restaurants, entertainment complexes as well as the night market took over the mundane business dealings in the day.

#8 - It is an interesting city due to the influx of traders from all over the world. You can find a slice of their life somewhere in this city. Muslim BBQs, Turkish restaurants, and even Egyptian cafes complete with Hookas

#9 - In this city people are serious about their hair. Here is one of the largest hair stylist in the city. The founder and owner of this joint, Ah Guang, was the hairstyle designer for Jacky Cheung for his 2002 concert tour. Needless to say, he struck gold after that gig.

#10 - In the midst of the fine dinning and expensive restaurants, the street eats rule.

#11 - At the night market, you can get your manicure and tattoos all done on the spot at the one-stop shop.

#12 - Or you can get your pants or shoes repaired or adjusted.

#13- Hot plate fried rice store at the night market. Pick your ingredients and the dude will whip it up for you.

#14 - No night market is complete without your BBQ store.

China Streets (Yiwu) - part 1

Taken: 22-Aug-2010
Pictures taken with Fujifilm Finepix F450
Location: Yiwu, China.
All pictures © all rights reserved.


Took a trip back to Yiwu city in Zhejiang province. This is a very unique place where a small city is blessed with tremendous growth within a very short time. Many things had changed since I last went there, and many things had not. Everyday sights there seem more common place during the times I lived there years ago. Now, going back as a visitor, everything seem fresh and new again. I wanted to capture what life was for me and armed with my small little compact camera this time, I snapped away.

#1 - Yiwu city skyline. I used to stay in one of those 6-storey buildings in the foreground.

#2 - What Yiwu is famous for is their small goods market. Buildings, grouped by products/services, houses more than 150,000 trading storefronts like these selling everything you can imagine.

#3 - Pigeon cages? To keep them out or in?

#4 - Now this is new. A business shirt vending machine.

#5 - Precisely what I was looking for to take photos of... Exotic!

#6 - The store sign literally says "Out-of-style Clothing Store"

#7 - Street-side restaurants starting to setup for the busy night ahead.

Continued in Part 2.

Sunday, August 15, 2010

Dark Quiet City

Taken: 14-Aug-2010
Pictures taken with Nikon D300s + Tokina 11-16mm/2.8
Location: Esplanade, Singapore.
All pictures © all rights reserved.


Joined Ding's newbie outing at the Esplanade. Weather is gloomy with thick clouds and flat lighting. Thought it would be nicer to go for a long exposure kind of look. This is the side of the CBD we we only get to see at dawn during the weekends. Quiet, dark and lifeless. Gave my new 4" Hitech filters a test run and they performed well. Here is the picture taken with a 3-stop ND stacked with a 2-stop GND.

Tuesday, August 10, 2010

Good Morning Singapore!

Taken: 9-Aug-2010
Pictures taken with Nikon D300s + Tamron 17-50mm/2.8
Location: Upper Pierce, Singapore.
All pictures © all rights reserved.

Woke up early on Singapore's National Day and went to catch some fresh air and the sunrise with a few of my buddies. Went back to Upper Pierce reservoir park. The fresh air and the smell of grass and water is refreshing. This is the feeling missing from all our urbanscape sunrises.

Sunday, August 8, 2010

Clarke Quay Newbie sunrise shoot

Taken: 7-Aug-2010
Pictures taken with Nikon D300s + Tokina 11-16mm/2.8
Location: Clarke Quay, Singapore.
All pictures © all rights reserved.


Organized the newbie photoshoot for this month. This time we did it over Ord bridge at Clarke Quay. The sunrise wasn't the best we've seen recently. But it'll do. We did it all for the learning of our new budding photographers. I was running around talking to the newbies and did not really shoot that much. I kept only two shots that morning.

#1 Still dark

#2 Caught the reflection of the purple clouds in the glass windows of the building on the left.

Wednesday, August 4, 2010

MBS Sunrise

Taken: 30-Jul-2010
Pictures taken with Nikon D300s + Tokina 11-16mm/2.8
Location: Marina Bay, Singapore.
All pictures © all rights reserved.


Went out shooting MBS again this morning. Turned out to be quite a nice sunrise. A shot of the highway turned out to be the shot of the day. Enjoy.

#1 - Sunrise Highway

#2 - Marina Bay Sands

Saturday, July 24, 2010

Punggol Sunrise

Taken: 24-Jul-2010
Pictures taken with Nikon D300s + Tokina 11-16mm/2.8
Location: Punggol End beach, Singapore.
All pictures © all rights reserved.


Went out with our usual bunch of buddies from SunChasers (yes, we have a name now) to catch the sunrise this morning at Punggol End beach. There is major construction going on there now and the security post is moved. The light now is shining directly on the beach which is a major distraction to any long exposure work along many parts of the beach. I ended up with a couple of acceptable shot this morning.



Wednesday, July 21, 2010

Camdapter Manfrotto L-Plate

For most of us Manfrotto RC2 users, there are just not many options available in terms of accessories. And as an avid landscape photographer, I always yearn for a L-plate. With an L-plate, I will be able to mount my camera in the portrait orientation upright on the ball head. This makes it a lot easier to compose in the portrait orientation. It also keeps the center of gravity dead center of the tripod, as well as giving less stress to the ball head. So when Camdapter announced the new Manfrotto L-Plate, I was jumping for joy and immediately ordered one. If you want one too, you can order one at this site.

Well, it finally came and here are some pictures of how it looked and performed.
#1 - The L-plate. Very well made.


#2 - It is a smart but simple design. The L plate can be adjusted by sliding the bottom plate. The 4 small screws on the base plate are used to tighten the L plate once the width is set. Mini allen key is provided.


#3 - Recessed screw that mounts to the camera tripod mount. Allen key is included in the package.



#4 - This is how the L plate looks installed on the camera with the Camdapter top grain leather hand strap.


#5 - This is what the L plate is all about. The L plate is nice and solid. I am a happy camper now!



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