Winner Winner Chicken Dinner ;)

I entered an online photography contest with the Nikon Club Singapore. It is open to everyone and photos are submitted based on a pre planned subject. The subject for October was backlighting, lucky for me I just did a few backlit photos so I was ready. I have never entered a contest before and I don't even tell anyone I have this blog because I just don't think I am that good of a photographer so I am stunned to say I won this contest. Here is the #1 Choice:

Backlit Fern

For this weeks blog I went to the Gardens by the Bay Flower Dome. They were supposed to have it decorated for Deepavali. This is a Hindu Holiday (if I'm wrong please correct me!) that celebrates the victory of light over darkness, goodness over evil. One of the biggest holidays of the year. Normally when the Flower Dome is celebrating they decorate it beautifully. Safe to say I was a little underwhelmed with the holiday decorations but the flowers were just as beautiful as always.

Cute elephants carved from wood were nestled into the flowers all over the dome. 

Red sparkly elephants were the centerpiece. 

More cute elephants. Maybe I missed the big decorations, the website for the Gardens said it would be on display through Nov 10 even though the holiday was celebrated Nov 2. 

Still the flowers did not disappoint and there just so happens to be another photography contest with flowers as the subject. Here are some of my possible entries.

Love these, I was there early and they had just been watered. 

This one turned out well too. Aperture setting to give a blurry background and keep the main subject in focus.

Not a flower but a succulent. They are some of my favorite plants. Used the aperture setting to get the blurred foreground and background.

Like the composition of this one. Using the rule of thirds to create a picture with more depth by putting the main subject off center. What do you think?

These guys were so pretty!

Gorgeous!

Love this one too. Wish it had a better background, all one color at least that I could blur more, it would help the flower become more the center of focus.

Sunday is the Great Eastern Women's Run and I signed up for my first half marathon. I have completed my training and I was super ready for the race and then I got hit with a nasty cold/cough. I think I will still go and do my best but it is such a bummer to do all of that training and then feel like I can't do my best at the race. You never know though, maybe I will feel better and have a great run. Crazier things have happened! I just won a photography contest, maybe I'm lucky right now? Keep your fingers crossed for me!

Happy Friday!!!

Back Lighting and Shadows

The effect of back lighting is so pretty and soft. I have always liked how the sunlight filters through the leaves in the late afternoon but never realized it was a popular photography perspective. I shot these in Program mode, ISO 100-400.

The light filtering through the leaves makes beautiful shades of green.

This fern was growing on the side of a palm tree and the sun was shining so brightly it really glowed from behind. Its a super zoom shot to keep the background clean which helps the fern pop.

Its so hot in Singapore this will definitely be a favorite perspective to shoot, shade is a must!

This is usually a much darker leaf... maybe I just learned something about composition. In this photo you cannot immediately see that it is a back lit subject. I guess to show the effect of back lighting it is good to have a larger view to see the change the light makes with the subject. What a smarty pants I am, I just figured that out on my own!

Sun shining through the palm trees.

Love how the sun has totally blown out the left side of the photo here, its even shining through a bit of the butterfly's wings. 

Shadows are another fun subject. When the sun is too bright to photograph the trees and get something other than a washed out picture, try the shadows. 

This was a perfect palm tree shadow. 

This shadow was on a building just before twilight. The building is normally a grey concrete color but with the sun going down the glow was a bit orange and the shadow was excellent. 

Group photo of my photography class in Chinatown. Sometimes I get so focused on the photo I am trying to shoot I don't see outside of the frame. In this case, everyone was  really into the photo and after shooting we realized there was a car patiently waiting for us to get out of the street. Ooops, good thing he wasn't in a hurry!

Use of shadow to create a frame for the main subject. 

Shadow of the roof line of a building across the alley, interesting lines.

Happy Friday!