My favourite wave patterns

Went with some friends to East Coast Park to re-do the 1st Jan 2011 shoot at the pipe. Had been monitoring the weather for the whole week. The twilight and sunrise moments has been improving over the last few days right up till Friday, it was brilliant. Weather forecast has been mainly showers with thunder in the afternoon.


However, Friday afternoon's rain came late in the evening. But it poured the sky dry and I could see more than 50% clear sky. Onward with the shoot!


Come morning and we got lackluster sky, with distant clouds at a low angle, blocking the orange rays of the sun. Such is the life of a landscape photographer. Since we are already there, I made the most of it - shoot my favourite subject: waves.


The lighting was very even due to the cloudy sky. It was not hard to get sub-1sec shutter. I have learnt through many tries that the best shutter time to get the waves in action is about 1sec. preferably less than 1sec.


Here are some of my favourite waves from this morning.

Not willing to let the poor lighting waste my morning, I took a composite shot, composed of some waves, and a long exposure of the clouds' movement.

Looks like I have to give this location a few more tries in order to get the sky that I want. Till then.

Walkabout

I have come to realised that my topic for the blog is following the progress of my library upkeep. Recently I reviewed this batch of pictures taken when I went for a walkabout along Singapore River, ending up in National Museum of Singapore. This was also the time I got hold of my High Dense Neutral Density filter for Long Exposures. I wanted to experiment before my New Zealand trip.


A fellow photographer once wrote to me saying "... photographers secretly love black and white". I did not buy that. Not that I don't like B&W pictures, but I don't exclusively go out to take B&W photos. So it came as a surprise that when I was reviewing this batch of images, I inadvertently processed them in B&W.


Some of these scenes, I had went out specifically to capture them in colours. The multi coloured Alkaff Bridge for instance, I have long wanted a perfect shot of this bridge for its colours are so inviting. I have yet gotten the picture I want of it but that is another story. Yet now, I find myself preferring the B&W version.


Magic happens to the images with the absence of colours. Suddenly, you can see the shapes much clearer. The tonality of the images becomes very apparent. In fact, the picture is defined by it - it is the life of the picture. In the absence of colour, you are not distracted. There is a timeless appeal to daylight pictures in B&W. Here are some for you to decide.

Not all work and no play

Ok, I got a little carried away when I found out that we are going to run an event at 1-Altitude, the highest point in Singapore. I have been dying to make a trip up to Sky Park, Marina Bay Sands, but that has not happened yet. So I sneaked in my camera into the event, and waited for it to be over before hopping up to the rooftop.


What a feeling to be top of the world. Everything is like a toy. I especially love the view of Singapore River's Boat Quay. These little Tong Kangs ferrying along, with miniature people in the boats, by the banks, in the shops. Then there is the financial district to the west, with the newest buildings like One Marina Raffles.


After taking it all in, I set up my camera and started looking for a shot. And I looked, and I looked... there was almost NONE! Yes. I am at the tallest point all right, but compositionally speaking, there isn't a good city skyline/distance to shoot . The buildings are too close, I am literally seeing their rooftop cooling towers. Then I realised - I am in the city skyline!


Boy, do I wish I was at Sky Park instead. Now I know, for a good city skyline shot, I need 2 things: not be in it; a clearing between me and the skyline. Now that is what makes Sky Park a much better option. Till then, here are some pictures. Not ones that I am proud of, but some of them more fun to make than others.

Re-learning photography

I used to think that I have many years of photography experience, since I started in Secondary School. Truth is, I have not been actively taking pictures ever since my Poly Days. So when I got my DSLR, I was happily snapping away. Looking at those pictures now (only 2 year ago), I dread to think I actually produced such poor pictures.

I started actively contributing to forums, looking and observing other peoples' pictures (God bless them for posting online), and questioning the fundamental - I could do that.

During that early phase, I ventured to Singapore River many times. Sometimes to Merlion Park, sometimes to Boat Quay. I had taken hundreds of shots aimlessly. Under my own scrutiny now, only a handful would make it to my "to-keep" portfolio. Here are some of the more "presentable" ones.

Job Hazard

I have not finished tagging my Japan Trip pictures after migrating to Lightroom, so I shall come back to that topic much later. In fact, I now have about another 2.5k pieces of Europe Trip pictures too. Later.


During the long weekend Chinese New Year break, there was a clear night on Friday that resulted in a clear sunrise on Saturday. I thought I'd take my chances on Sunday and went for a shoot on the Marina Bay.


I was not so lucky, the cloud was low and haze-like, producing very dull over cast blue. I read from photographer Varina Patel's blog that landscape photography is hard work. She made countless hikes to the ideal vantage points for her shoots, only to come back without a single shot as the light was not fantastic.


Like her, I have made several trips to similar locations, but I don't always gets the lighting I want. My wife always asks me why do I make repeat visits to the same places. Even if I do get good light once in a while, I do like to re-visit places for each time, I get a slightly different light and mood, and I get a certain satisfaction from that.


So here it is, the only 3 shots I took that morning.

A (almost) turning point

I have done it again - left this blog for too long. That tends to happen when I have other personal projects going on. Let's see, we ran a major event for the company in Sep, served the country in Oct, planned and executed my Europe Trip in Nov, up-rooted my photo management software and planted myself on Lightroom. All 23k number of images!


Yes, I am a Lightroom user now. I used to think less of people who uses Lightroom as it is a primitive tool compared to Photoshop. However, after going through 2 long trips (2 weeks each) and having the need to sieve through about 5 thousand pictures, I get to think that there must be an easier (faster) way.


I got highly involved in ways that I never thought I'd be. I read in-depth product reviews, watched the products videos on it's applications and workflows, even downloaded the trials and actually use it. To top it off, all this while, doing it on both Aperture as well as Lightroom.


See, I am a Mac user at home. iPhoto has been an integral part of my photo library, and it does it beautifully. It recognizes all RAW files without complicated plugins or updates. I was amazed by it 3 years ago when I plugged in my EOS 5D. It handles my picture without the need for my intervention. I can merge and split events and albums freely. The later version can even recognise faces and keep record of locations in meta data.


iPhoto and hence Aperture win hands down on photo library management. Aperture also does a great job on its editing features. It uses quirky names for some of the functions, but I guess it is due to copyright by Adobe maybe? However, having used Canon's DPP as part of my workflow for a while now, I desperately need a software that can handle lens correction, especially barrel distortion! As a landscapist, barrel distortion is the worst of all. Horizons if not placed in the dead center appear bend and buildings curved. This, Aperture does not have! What a bummer. Adobe is still the more experienced vendor in this respect.


Sure, there are work arounds, like plugins by PT Lens and others. But the solution is not elegant. There would be copies created which defeats the purpose of a "non-destructive" editing software. Unwillingly, I bought the Adobe Lightroom.


And have since been re-visiting my pass photos, tagging them and removing unnecessary jpegs now that my RAW can be edited as is. In the process, I rediscovered some of my older pieces with a new lease of life. This was my first trip to USA, a business trip to San Francisco. It was 2004 - when digital photography hasn't quite caught up and film processing is still available. I would have brought my Contax but this being a work trip, I only have my Canon G3.