Christmas Light Up Around Singapore...

A collection of Christmas decor' around Singapore shot this month...kinda disappointing at Orchard Road's light up. The Singapore River's 'autumn' feel red trees look outstanding at night. While Gardens by the Bay for the first time has a Christmas Market and a 'snow' dome. But the colours look like Deepavali! haha! 

My Creative Series with my Fav Doraemon!

Shooting wefies with buddy was the fun part ~ created some nice shots under the drizzle! 

Singapore Garden Festival 2014

First time rented a Canon macro lens to learn how to shoot macro. I got the lens from Camera Rental Centre ~ EF100mm F2.8L which is really a powerful lens dedicated for macro photography. As a noob, I had a challenging time trying to manual focus hand-held, thou I know that using a tripod is the ideal situation. I spent a total of 6 hours at the biennial Singapore Garden Festival held for the 1st time at Gardens by the Bay. Previously, everything were indoor at Suntec, but this round got to endure some heat (esp i started fr Noon) as part of the exhibits were outdoor. The layout of the air-con pavilions were also abit confusing... nevertheless, i tried to navigate slowly, looking out for potential subjects to shoot. I like the Fantasy Gardens but the darkness there made setting up on tripod a Must and also my sensitive sensor tends to shoot high ISO, garnering RAW files as big as 30MB! *gasp* 

When move over to the Flower Dome, it was easier to do hand-held as there were ample sunlight shining thru' the glass dome. I was already quite tired but I strive on, wanting to understand the ideal depth of field and discovering interesting angles to shoot the same plant that everyone sees thru' my lens. The end result was getting a blurry version but also quite happy that I got some satisfactory shots. Below is a selection of my album & prints are available for sales via http://500px.com/minzstudio 

 

Mid-Autumn Festival @ The Gardens

For the first time this year, the Mid-Autumn Festival (aka Mooncakes Festival) lanterns display has changed the venue to Gardens by the Bay. When I knew about it, I decided to go for a photoshoot.

 

Wei impromptu decided to join me & I was very happy! Cos since a year ago, I tried to 'jio' her to go for night shooting at Gardens by the Bay but it never materialise... A heavy downpour at 5pm kinda dampen my plans to shoot at the golden hour as well. Nevertheless, I had a backup plan which was to dine at Suntec City. It has recently reopened after a major renovation.

 

When we arrived at Suntec, we were dismayed at the lesser food choices at the basement... as it was getting late, we settle at Ichiban Boshi for some sushi. By the time we made our way to the gardens, it was already 9.30pm!

 

 

We slowly explored part of the gardens which lead to the main area of the lanterns display. The lanterns were not as good as we expected... especially if I compare it with those I saw in Taipei last year!  Hence, we simply did some handheld shoots as I also did not bring my tripod.

I like this Hi-5 shot! (oops, got only 3 fingers!) LoL

Guess I gotta return another day to do a proper shoot of the Sky Trees as its dim lightings made handheld shoot infeasible :(

Tulipmania @ Gardens by the Bay

I was excited to know that 20,000 fresh tulips would be air-flown in from Netherlands to Singapore! I visited the Flower Dome at Gardens by the Bay on the 2nd day of the exhibit... wow! the whole place was filled with floral scent.  However, I was disappointed that there were no outdoor area & the indoor area was largely fenced up. Hence, I could only squat/sit/bend to take low angle of the tulips ~ super tiring! The strong sunlight beamed thru' the glass roof & I could shoot thru' the translucent petals... I learnt that tulips only thrive in cold climate & usually planted in Autumn & bloom in Spring. It's one of my wishes to visit the Tulips Festival in Amsterdam!

 

 

 

Do you know that of all the colours, blue tulips are missing? There's also no pure black tulips, if there are any, will have a tint of other colours.

 

Besides my favourite Sunflowers, Tulips are my 2nd like! I find that those that are 1/3 bloom look best vs those that have been fully bloom.

Yellow POPS under the sunlight!

 

 

 

Simply love these little blue bells!