Smoke Art?

The hot weather had me wanting to stay indoors this week so I gave smoke photography a try. I had some incense and I got my camera and black fabric backdrop set up in the lift lobby (sort of like a mud room on a house) and gave it my best shot. It didn't turn out as well as some of the images I have seen on the internet but not bad for a first try. Saturday I have an outdoor photo shoot planned and I am hoping I will get great photos for next week.

Smoke rings

Like it but maybe a little out of focus? Maybe that is just the way the smoke looked? 

This one is my favorite :) Great smoke swirls, sort of looks like a snake, maybe...

Same set up as the other photos, just different editing. I like this one too.

Happy Friday!!!

National Orchid Garden at the Singapore Botanic Gardens

I went to the National Orchid Garden a while back and I just realized I didn't share very many photos from my tour of the garden. It is a beautiful place to see if you have the time to take a stroll. I will try to make it back again soon. I don't feel like I did such a great job of getting super good orchid photos and I have no photos of a larger view of the gardens. A few managed to make it onto my flower wall so it wasn't a total bust either :)

The background is a little busy and the orchids are all so close in color it almost looks like one giant flower. Some of the petals are backlit and I like the water drops.

Too many all jumbled in. Hard to see the main subject. Nice blurred background and beautiful colors. Wonder if I blur the entire photo....

Not sure if I'm in love with it. I cropped the photo a bit, used a vignette filter and a glamour glow filter. Eh...I like the next photos much more!

Gorgeous! One single full bloom with partial blooms extending the color from corner to corner. Nice blurred background keeps the focus on the main subject.

Beautiful tiny pink flowers with a nice blurred background.

Background isn't blurred but it isn't so distracting either. Nice colors.

This is why I want to go back to the National Orchid Garden. I think when there is one flower it is easy for me to get a good photo. When there is a bunch of flowers together it is more difficult to get a good shot. I'd like to work on that a bit. I like the flower in the center but the background is so distracting you can't really see it. I didn't realize orchids grew in plants that are the size of bushes or small trees, wow!

See, one flower, nice clean photo. I love this one with the flower bud and a nice clean background. Top left corner needs to be photo shopped out, there is a spot of white...bugs me a bit.

Gorgeous and just a bit off center, so dramatic, lol.

One of my favorites, it made it onto my flower wall in the guest bedroom.

Love love love this one. The petals are just so beautiful.

Extreme close up of an orchid, doesn't it look like a little alien? I see the face, two arms....lol!

I think I posted a waterfall photo but not sure if it was this one or another one, there are a few water features at the garden.

Egret statues in the water fountain at the entrance of the National Orchid Garden.

Happy Friday!!!

Water Drop Photography

The air quality has found itself back in the unhealthy range most of the time these days thanks to fires burning in Malaysia and Indonesia. I have been trying to stay indoors with my super high powered air cleaner close by so at least we can have clean air at home but I am BORED! I knew these days were probably coming again after the record breaking terrible air quality we had last year so I have been trying to get a few indoor photography projects together to keep my blog going. One subject I have wanted to try was water drops. I built a studio using a ziplock with water and a pin hole hanging off a chair dripping water into a bowl. I tried to use my tripod for this but I really didn't need it with such fast shutter speeds and it was easier to shoot without it.

This would have been perfect if it wasn't for the odd ripples just off center.

This one is pretty perfect, except it needs to be a bit sharper on the drip.

Nice drip :)

Oh my, what a big drip!

So I am so proud of myself for doing this and getting great drip shots and I am looking at the photos and telling my husband, "oh, look at this one" for every shot and it occurs to me that it may not be that interesting to anyone other than myself. It was fun and sort of easy to do and it was successful on my first try so I was really excited. I suppose I wouldn't want to look at 100 photos of water drops either unless I took them myself. OK, I get it.  Here are a few other shots that may be more interesting.

One of my framing shots I took in Chinatown. This is looking at an area where there is always a few groups of men playing some kind of tile games, maybe mahjong?

One door leads to another, literally. 

Infinite archways.

New obsession is to get a good flame/fire/smoke photo without burning down the house :)

The Fullerton Hotel and Cavenagh Bridge

I have read several historic fiction novels based in Singapore since moving here. "Tanamera", and "A Different Sky" are my favorites. Sometimes when I walk around town I remember the story lines in the books. Sort of makes me wish I had bought the books on my Kindle because then I could just search for the words "Cavenagh Bridge" and find references so quickly. This bridge is one place that will bring the books to life. It is the oldest bridge in Singapore that is still in its original form. It is a suspension bridge and opened in 1870. In 1910 it became a pedestrian bridge when the traffic became to much for it and the Anderson Bridge opened just down the river.

Silhouette of the bridge at sunset.

Slow shutter speed to collect more light at night and to show movement in the people walking by, stillness with the couple sitting and the buildings. 

Silhouette and fish eye effect on the sign.

The Cavenagh Bridge and the Singapore River.

Walking across the bridge, maybe to have dinner at Boat Quay.

The other side of the bridge has a few museums and is a nice area to walk around with all of the trees providing shade.

The Fullerton Hotel. The northern end of the hotel was built in 1829 and was the former Fort Fullerton, becoming the General Post Office and Exchange building in 1874.The Fullerton Hotel is now a luxury five star hotel. The boat is part of the Singapore River Tours and you can take it to various locations.

A side of the Fullerton at dusk.

 What I did for this photo was set a long exposure of of 20 seconds and every 5 seconds reduce the zoom. Makes an interesting effect.

 Here I am standing on the Cavenagh Bridge and the Anderson Bridge and city lights are in the background. The lights in the water that sort of resemble laser lights are from a boat going by. When shooting long exposure it has this effect on moving light.

Happy Friday!!!