Looking Up

I have a bare wall in my guest bedroom that needs a photo. Since it is a narrow wall I thought it would be fun to shoot the perspective of height or vanishing point. It's been a bit of a challenge but a fun challenge. Here is what I have so far. Nothing I'm ready to print and hang just yet.

 This is the Parkview Square building in Bugis. it was completed in 2002 in art deco style. The New York City Chanin building was the inspiration. This beautiful gold crane is facing mainland China and a poem nearby refers to the mythical crane ready to fly thousands of miles back home. I do like this photo but I think I'd like to retake it, maybe try to get both wings of the crane in the shot and straighten out the building a bit. Not bad though, I do love art deco architecture and this is one of my favorite buildings in Singapore.

This is the Park Royal hotel across from Hong Lim Park in downtown. The many terraces are beautifully landscaped. Its a gorgeous hotel, love all of the gardens and it is so striking in person but this photo is not doing it any favors!

Looking up a pretty tree in Bukit Timah Nature Reserve. The tree trunk had these spiky ball thingys all over it, very strange. The photo will go in the same room as the flower wall so maybe a tree photo would be nice?

This is the perspective I was looking for but not the right layout. Sometimes the Art Science Museum (odd white flower shaped building on the right) is lit at night with colorful lights. I'll try to re shoot in the future. 

I sort of think this is cool for our guest room...not really going along with the theme of height though.

Since I'm off topic I want to add this photo too. It is my most favorite tree photo so far. I have always wanted a good tree photo to blow up really big and made into a triptych. I'm still searching for the perfect tree to do this with. It needs to be larger and I think with a cleaner background. I don't really have the wall space anyway....

Here is height! I was really hoping those coconuts wouldn't fall on me :) Thankfully, they did not! That would normally be my luck though, lol!

Vanishing point with a flower. Not quite but close. 

So that's what I've been working on this week. Probably I will be working on this for a while since I am not happy with any of these. It is sort of fun to have a project and a particular idea and to try to go out and find something specific. 

A new bike/running/walking path has opened very close to home allowing a run or a bike ride from our place all the way to East Coast Park without having to ride on the streets. I went out once this week so far and it is really great to be able to ride for a few hours and not have to worry about traffic. I just love it and feel so lucky to have it so close to home. 

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!

Bugis Village / Pasir Ris Beach Park

Bugis Village is a fun place to spend an afternoon people watching, snacking and shopping for trinkets. I always manage to find something interesting here. Last weekend and this weekend there is a dumpling festival. Who doesn't love dumplings?

This guy is new from the last time I was here.

There are food stalls on either side of the street with tables and umbrellas for shade. The trees lining the street keeps it much cooler here, nice place to stop for a treat.

Buying dumplings for later.

Flower stalls. I saw people were buying small bunches and bringing them to the temple across the street. 

Kwan Im temple 

These stores sell dried goods, mushrooms, shrimp, chilies, etc.

  

Quite a few psychics in Bugis Village, here is one.

Sri Krishnan temple

More dried goods.

There are always people at this stall standing around watching music videos and listening to music. CD's and DVD's for sale here, not the typical top 40 though - at least for me ;) 

This is a giant tent/building with fresh whole fruits or fresh fruit juices, snacks, clothes, trinkets, shoes, backpacks, etc. Big enough you can easily get lost in here. 

I went to Pasir Ris Beach Park earlier this week, here are a few shots that turned out pretty good.

Not the beach but a waterway off the beach going into the mangroves.

He is hard to see but there is a pretty big owl in the center of the picture. Someone on a bike pointed him out to us, we wouldn't have seen him otherwise. 

Very small beach but beautiful palm trees, nice breeze and a very nice park. Not a cloud in the sky!

These coconuts fell and are sprouting new trees.

Gorgeous!

Kids on school holiday, this really looks like fun!

The wrong side of the river...

The Singapore DBS Marina Regatta 2013 is this weekend and next with Dragon Boat races May 18 and 19 and a Bay Festival May 24 and 25 with dragon boating, kayaking and live bands. I am hoping to get over there to take some pictures this weekend, wouldn't that be cool? According to dbsmarinaregatta.com there are over 120 international and local dragon boat teams racing. I was hoping to catch some of them practising today but it did rain pretty much all night last night and the river is full of muck, there were a lot of branches down, not many teams practising. Of course it doesn't help that I probably went to the wrong-ish place to look for teams. I was at the Kallang River but I took the train to the Kallang exit. Sounds good, right? Well I think I should have gone to the Stadium exit, I think that would have put me on the other side. There was a lot of construction at Kallang and it was hard to figure out where to go. As I was wandering around trying to figure out why I wasn't where I thought I was going to be I did manage to take a few decent pictures. I hope you enjoy them.

Started out at Marina Bay, close to home.

You can see the dragon heads and the drums in the boats. 

Then after taking a few pictures of Marina Bay I decided to go to the river and I got lost, but it is pretty there. I think I needed to be on the other side of the river. 

I love egrets!

Is this a stork?

Across the river one team is getting ready for practise.

They kick up a lot of water when they paddle...

That is really all the action I could find. Leaving the park this pretty yellow bird was flying around and then went up into the tree and started singing. So nice of him to pose for a few shots!

Happy Friday everyone, enjoy your weekend!