Telok Ayer Street Photography

Saturday morning I met with my photo explorer group at Telok Ayer and we planned on walking around for about three hours and shooting whatever came our way. It was a small group of five photographers plus one organizer/photographer. We started at the Thian Hock Keng Temple, one of the oldest and most important Hokkien temples in Singapore. Photography is allowed in most areas of the temple and it is often frequented by tourists with large groups arriving daily.

Inside the temple courtyard looking at the back roof.

Inside looking at the open doors. There is a high door frame you need to step over to enter. This is there to make sure you are looking down (bowing your head) as you enter the temple.

A closer look at the doors. There are a few sets of doors painted like this.

Close up of one of the dragons on an incense urn. 

Here is the incense urn from the above photo.

Every inch is very detailed. Even the ceiling is beautiful. 

The temple started to get crowded with tourists and a few worshipers so we went for a walk around the area. Here are some of my photos. This neighborhood is very close to home for me, I walk around here all the time. 

This photo was pointed out by our organizer. The new high rise buildings and the old refurbished building with the street lamps gives a nice old and new contrast. This is why I like the group photo outings. I am here all the time but I don't always see the same things the other photographers see. 

Alley barber shop. I liked the reflection of the first customer in the mirror. He is waiting for the barber to finish setting up. The barber was excited to see us there and liked that we were taking his photo. According to the Singaporeans in the group, alley barber shops are hard to find these days. 

I took a photo of my group hard at work. They are trying for a reflection shot in the window of a business that is closed for the day.

I preferred the reflection in the car hood.

Another temple just down the street. This one does not allow photographers to shoot inside. The large metal furnace in front is for burning offerings.

I like all of the street lamps in this shot.

Happy Friday!!!

Reflections

There are a few ways to photograph reflections, some easier than others. You can find reflections in water, mirrors and shiny objects like glass or metal. There is another contest and guess what...the subject is reflections. For me contests are a good way to keep shooting, keep learning, try new things and get some feedback on my shots. I still feel like a beginner with a thousand questions.

This is the reflection in a hood of a shiny black car in Chinatown during the Mid Autumn Festival. You can tell its a car by looking at the top right corner of the photo I left a bit of the street in the shot. 

This is at the Botanic Gardens in Copenhagen. Not a perfect water reflection but close.

Gardens by the Bay Singapore during the Mid Autumn Festival. There were dozens of photographers lined up next to me to take this shot. In the photo are the super trees that now have more plants growing up the trunks. I think they want them to have full coverage of plants. The flower dome and cloud forest dome is also in the background.

I loved this building with a cool reflection in NYC.

Lau Pa Sat (orange tiled roof with a small white clock tower) reflection in the Asia Square building. LPS is a hawker center across from our condo in Singapore. I was on the 8th floor (pool level) walking around looking for good reflections since we are right in downtown, found this one. 

Watering the lawn at One Shenton. Hard to believe they need to water it since it rains so frequently.

Cruise ship in the Asia Square building. Nice blue sky.

These stools made a good reflection on a polished tile floor.

Flower in a mirror.

Art Science Museum at Marina Bay Sands has a nice lotus pond in front. There are always people sitting there enjoying the day. The reflection is of the museum itself that is shaped like a lotus flower. I was just there last week to see the Karl Lagerfeld Little Black Jacket photography exhibit, it was great!

Same lotus pond.

City skyline in the Marina Bay Financial building. 

Another skyline in one of the financial buildings. I am surprised they didn't call security on me as I was so close to the glass taking photos. Glad they didn't!

Apple in spoon. I wanted to use a spoon for reflections, however, this is harder than it looks. You have to get the angle just right, lighting just right, background, polish the spoon, no flash, etc. But I am happy with how it turned out. Bonus - got to include this bowl I just bought, I love it!

This is my favorite! Spoon on a newspaper. This was also not exactly easy. I think I spent an hour shooting spoons, trying different angles, different backgrounds and reflections AND I thought it was fun. I guess I must be transforming into a photographer or something. ;)

Happy Friday!!!

A Glimpse of Me...

I am not the most creative person and I do not always have great ideas of what to post on my blog. I want to continue learning photography so I have to keep shooting. Lately it seems like I have no idea what to shoot. I can't keep walking around town, fingers crossed, hoping to get a few good shots of anything. I am a planner. I plan my meals for the week and write out grocery lists. I schedule days to work out, etc. So having nothing to post until Thursday has been giving me some anxiety! Super happy I found a great photography focused bookshop and bought a great book with 44 different exercises. Lets hope this allows me to feel a bit more organized. The first exercise is titled, "Glimpses of You". Oh boy, off to a bad start. I hate having my picture taken that is why I am behind the camera! After I read through the exercise plan I realized its only a glimpse and not a full self portrait. I think I can handle this...

Reading a book outside by the pool on one of the super comfy loungers. I didn't like this photo so I have it on its side to try to make it more interesting. Makes me look slimmer, too! I think the worst part of this is that I have to use my tripod and set the timer on my camera then run into place. Its super hot outside and I had to do this about a dozen times to get it right so I was sweating by the time I had it. 

The only good shot of me at the pool :) Immediately cooled down again after running around for the previous photo. A remote control is on my "to buy" list so I don't have to set the timer and run into place. Instead with a remote I can shoot whenever I am ready. 

My reflection in the windows on our balcony. Took longer than I thought to get this to turn out. Had to switch to manual mode focus because the camera wants everything but my reflection to be in focus. I have had the same issue with water reflections and manual mode focus is so far the only way I can get what I want out of the shot.

Lounging, yet again, on the couch waiting for Geoff to come home. I really don't sit around this much I swear!

I spend a lot of time in the kitchen. I don't like to go out to eat everyday so I do most of the cooking at home. Unfortunately in Singapore most kitchens do not come with dishwashers. When we first moved here and were looking for our condo we were told most dishwashers in Singapore have two arms and two legs. Ugh. But it is worth it to eat super healthy meals at home. There is nothing flattering about standing at the sink washing dishes and the exercise guidelines are to photograph part of the daily routine to show who I am. Out of focus is my way of being creative and giving the photo some interest. 

I am holding a small mirror and shooting into the mirror while facing a framed piece of art that I love and you can see my reflection in that as well. Sort of cool. 

I do love flowers. I had some printed on a sort of foam board and I put them up on the wall in the guest room. Love it, need to print a few dozen more to cover the wall. I tried to use the fresh flower to take a photo of me holding the flower up to cover part of my face but it didn't work. I tried about 50 different shots, different angles, different backgrounds, it just didn't work for me. This came out nice and it is a glimpse!

I have a Butterball turkey breast in the oven and when Geoff gets home from work we will have a nice Thanksgiving dinner, just the two of us. No shopping for Black Friday this year instead we are signing up for another half marathon in May 2014. Normally we don't sign up so early but they are giving out free singlets for early bird registration. WOOT WOOT!

Happy Friday!!!

Oh my heavens!

Here are some beautiful skies.

Sunset at Langkawi Island, Malaysia

Storm brewing over Smith Mountain Lake, Virginia

Smith Mountain Lake, Virginia

Beautiful sunny day in Carlsbad, California

Sunset at Marina Bay Singapore

The reflection of a sunset in the ANZ Bldg, Singapore 

Love the clouds in this picture, skies over NYC. Taken from South Street Seaport looking at Brooklyn.

NYC

(I love) NYC

Tioman Island, Malaysia

Singapore