夢幻者的部落格 ~ Dreamer's Blog: Sg River Festival @ Clarke Quay

Since i read about the Singapore River Festival in the papers, I decided to chk out its schedule to practice photography. This round, i had Denise wif me, who juz bought a Canon 550D wif 135mm lens, cool manz! We met up at Central & dine at TCC... while there, i checked out her new gizmo, keke! Now, i've 2 buddies who joined in my league of dslr & i could play wif their different models ^o^ Wow, her free tripod was a gd deal, really solid thou albeit heavy for gals.

Near 7.30pm, we headed out to the entrance of Central & saw some performers in wet suits spraying water & having photoshoots wif people who flocked around. A quick glance around, i noticed many photo enthusiasts armed wif their powerful lens & gears, like all out to battle! Ahem, i only have a standard kit lens & a modest 1000D body but that won't deter my objective at honing my skills! At 7.30pm sharp, we heard an announcement that the AIR show would be commencing soon... however denise & me could only squeeze behind all the tall guys armed wif dslrs....grrr... i had to turn on my Live view instead & despite tip-toeing, it was challenging! As I was taller than denise, i utilised her zoom lens & think we could manage some shots but it was tiring to tip-toe & steadying my right arm wif her heavy cam.

The AIR performance was spectacular & i got an idea of wat to expect, so when the announcement informed that there would be a 2nd show at 10pm, we decided to hang around... Immediately after AIR, there was the bum-boats parade, wif bum-boats decked out in 'clogs' to 'old newspapers prints'. Meanwhile, we strolled on the bridge & i shared wif denise some photography tips. While we were on the bridge's pathway, i discovered a low angle which i like alot & got denise's help to shoot me wif the ''Singapore River Festival'' huge balloon! Denise had not even done much shots & she already lamented tired! She juz dropped herself on the ground to snap for me, haha! Yeah, dun tink photography r juz for oldies, it zap alot of stamina esp when u lug a 2kg load around! All the more, i believe i need to pursue this passion while i still have the energy.

We strolled along the river-front & decided to locate a good viewing spot 1hr in advance! Since i do not have a long-range zoom, i need to be as close to the action as possible... so i decided to station ourselves at this barricade area, where i could capture action on both left & right sides. There's only 1 space available for tripod, so i let denise set-up hers instead of using mine since her cam is heavy. Not used to her tripod & we struggled abit to set-up, whilst doing this, i tink the guy next to us noticed... He was also waiting for the perf wif his powerful cam mounted on a monopod. He nicely told us that we should 'park' the tripod's 2 legs against the barricade & taught us how to select a solid tripod. After tis fiddling, there's 45mins more to 10pm & denise felt it's a long wait... yeah, my reply was it's a test of patience & i dun mind for some nice shots. To past time, i decided to take shots of denise's bored looks & asked her to snap me too... this is called self-entertainment, haha!

Finally at 10pm sharp, we could watch the performance without blockage... now is a test of my steadiness, cos i had to shoot free-hand, half-squat at times & trying hard to avoid the dazzling spot lights flare! The guy next to me was considerate enuf to on & off turn around to ensure i got my chance to take pics, cos he's tall & would block my angle... hmm, actually quite hard to bump into such a considerate guy :) I also checked how denise was coping as she fumbled wif her cam's settings... At that point, i really wished her zoom lens was mine,haha! Cos i could only capture @ up to 55mm! It was good that i watched the 7.30pm show, cos now i know at which directions the performers would 'fly' across the river! Really need to be fast in pressing the shutter to capture the moments! At the end of the half hour show, I had sweated gallons but all was worth it when i captured some 'moments' i wanted!