Chinatown at Mid Autumn Festival

Hello! This week I did make it to Chinatown to photograph the lanterns hung for the 2016 Mid Autumn Festival. Enjoy the photos!

Here is the main lantern display, Chang'e, the Moon Goddess of Immortality.

Two ladies getting a cell phone pic.

Another main street in Chinatown has more lanterns hung.

I waited for the light to cross then stopped right in the middle, just for a few seconds, to take photos. There were other photographers there waiting to do the same thing I was doing.

I think this is the husband of Chang'e.

Overview looking down one of the busiest pedestrian streets in Chinatown.

The best part of Mid Autumn Festival is the children's lantern painting competition. These are great!

Excellent work. He wrote "I love to paint" near the very bottom. Yes, it shows, you did amazing!

Excellent, check out their faces and their expressions.

Same here, very good job!

I recognize this, National Day celebrations. Love it.

Her face and eyes are so beautiful.

Happy Friday!!!

A Week Lost

This week I had a super hard time taking photos and I am going to blame it all on this book.

This book is by far the best book I've read all year out of 13 so far. If you love to read do yourself a huge favour and go find this book. It is an interesting read, takes all of my concentration at times but is totally worth it.

So a few weeks ago I forgot to post on a Friday and I actually had some photos to share so I'll share them now.

I went out to take photos of birds at Gardens by the Bay. It was an epic fail, I only got good photos of this one bird and its friend and about 12 mosquito bites.

Very nice reflection shot.

I couldn't figure out what kind of bird it is. It is a bit taller with long legs and those feet look like chicken feet.

So giving up on the birds of course my next subject would be flowers. The lotus flowers are so beautiful. Something so pretty growing out of the muck and the mud.

Love the pink flowers and the lily pads.

Nice reflection.

Another good reflection.

Do you prefer the close up or....

Back a little with the palm fronds in the shot?

Love this plant, I thought it was a ginger plant but I'm not so sure now.

Beautiful orchids along the walk ways.

These are super tiny little buds on a tall shrub type plant. The Gardens by the Bay is growing and expanding their gardens and walkways. Always something new to see here.

Hopefully tonight I will be able to tear myself apart from this book for a night photo shoot at Chinatown. It is time to celebrate the Mid Autumn Festival and the lanterns displayed at Chinatown this year are supposed to be very special.

Happy Friday!!!

The Chickens at Fort Canning Park

When I first got this camera I went to Fort Canning Park with my husband and took a ton of photos and then got home to discover I had used the wrong settings. All of my photos were blurry. ugh! These are much better. 

Right next to the sign in the previous photo are stairs leading into the park. 

Map of the park in front of a beautiful giant tree.

View on my way up the stairs. So pretty with different landings, stone walls and views.

At the top of the stairs looking down.

Retaining wall with tile and stone carvings.

Another retaining wall with stone carvings.

Wall is as tall as me...

Close up. These are the only monkeys at this park, the ones in the carving. That is how I like it. No monkeys, chickens are ok so far.

Giant trees with hanging vines.

Looking up from the walkway and seeing a canopy of trees is a wonderful feeling.

Gorgeous trees covered in ferns and plants. Way too big to get the whole tree into the frame. I wish you could hear the sounds at the park. The birds chirping and the bugs are humming along, every once in a while a rooster crows. 

The chickens at the park were a little surprising even though I have seen them at other parks in the city. I still find it so strange that they are here. This little hen was busy searching for a meal. 

No bugs here, she should maybe get off the sidewalk, she would have more luck hunting in the grass but I do appreciate the photo opp!

Her feathers are so pretty. 

I love this fence they have at Fort Canning. It isn't super curvy but if you stand at this one spot and sort of stretch a bit you get a little more curve. 

Of course I have to play with it some, here it is in black and white.

One of my favorite filters is the Glamour Glow. Puts a nice dark dreamy look on a photo.

A hen and her chicks looking for some tasty bugs.

This rooster was fast! He was by the fence in the photos I showed you earlier but just out of the frame. I would have appreciated him posing on the fence for me but he refused. Gorgeous feathers. It was fun trying to figure out the correct camera settings to capture him. I needed a fast shutter speed but too fast and it doesn't let in enough light so its a sharp but too dark to see rooster. Changing the ISO to 800 and shooting at 1/100th of a second seemed to work ok. 

He is very pretty, his tail feathers were swaying in the breeze.

Profile :) I seriously almost brought some corn with me to try to feed them to get them closer. Maybe another time.

Why did the chicken cross the road? To run away from the photographer. I had to write it, you know I did.

Rooster and hen.

They went too far on the side of this hill and I couldn't get to them but look at how many there are. This park is in the middle of the city. So strange to see wild chickens in Singapore.

I guess they have a nice view of the skyline.

Of course there has to be a flower photo in every post, right? 

Such a pretty frangipani blossom. This photo or the close up, which do you like better? 

Happy Friday!!!