Fireworks @ Opening of National Stadium

It had been a few years since our old National Stadium was demolished to make way for the new Singapore Sports Hub. Since there's an Open House today, i took the chance to pop-by for a 1st hand experience of the new kid on the block! 

It was flooded with visitors and joggers who had completed an event earlier when I reached in the evening... It was a sea of Red! (their red t-shirts, haha!) I didn't explore the whole huge area totally...Just months ago, I had took photos of the new stadium from Tanjong Rhu... Now, I found myself on the elevated patio area of the National Stadium! 

As there's an on going rehearsal for the Chinese Orchestra, visitors were not allowed into the stadium. Hence, I could only pop in my mobile phone thru' the barrier to shoot the interior! 

Well, my main objective this evening is to shoot the Laser & Fireworks show. Hence, i better look for a place to setup my tripod... I saw a potential area but a guy was standing there. While i was opening my tripod, i accidentally poked him....oops! I apologised immediately & to my surprise the guy was kind to give me his prime spot! *Happy*  So, i got to try out a few test shots & while waiting/shooting, i noticed this uncle on my right who was also holding a camera in his hands. This uncle kept sneakily tried to peep at my DSLR's LCD... i was annoyed & also purposely didn't let him see, haha! Well, if he politely ask me, I would share (perhaps)! 

Just when about the fireworks show commence, a young boy squeezed into the small space next to my tripod! Aiyo! I had to tell him upfront not to knock onto my tripod!  Finally, the show begins...The fireworks was awesome! But i also realised my framing couldn't capture the highest level of fireworks! I rarely would re-adjust my framing, but i just couldn't resist it this round, since the show looks so good! Hence, I also had some hits & misses... managed to salvage a few good ones... the rest were simply too smokey & exposure not long enough. So, here's some of my preferred shots to share! Enjoy! 

National Day Rehearsal 2013

It's the once in a year time to practice shooting fireworks and fighter jets! I decided to try shooting from Esplanade this year as I had not tried before. For previous years, I had tried shooting from the Promontory at Marina Bay, Gardens by the Bay East and from the spectators' stand at the Float at Marina.

 

I was supposedly to go alone on my shoot & never did I expect I could find a fotog buddy to join me last minute! Yeah! So I met up with LV at City Hall MRT & we strolled over to Esplanade past 6pm. The area outside Esplanade was packed & we decided to try our luck on the Esplanade Bridge. There's an on-going construction right smack at the Esplanade Bridge & we were lucky to find a spot there. Juz when LV mentioned that there were not many people up here & next thing we realised was our sides were filled with other shooters! haha!

 

My Azuki Taiyaki 'jumping' out of the water! ~ hp creative shot

The helicopters fly past with a full Moon

The usually humid weather gave way to a breezy evening & it was really enjoyable to watch the rehearsal from the bridge! We saw the navy display on the sea & followed by the 21-gun salute. For the 1st time, I could see so up-close of the gunners thru' my zoom lens! 

 

My fav fighter jet shot!

The Black Knights ZOOM past!

 

21 Guns Salute!

 

My 1st time shooting an eagle flying in the city!

Colourful smoke that looks like a pair of dragons!

 

When the Super Puma helicopters flew overhead with the Sg flag, it was relatively easy to shoot... The most challenging was the fighter jets! As I duno which direction they would fly past! I managed to get a few good shots of the jets & I especially love the solo jet shot with a fuel trail in the skies!

 

Show time!

The skies is an art canvas!

My fav shot

After 4 hours of standing, the much awaited fireworks commenced at 8.15pm. I always find it 'stressful' to shoot fireworks as I only get to practice like once a year & the success rate is low (also depend on wind direction). Well, as usual I just made sure I got my settings & focusing correct & enjoyed viewing the fireworks display while taking the shots with my remote. I was pretty satisfied this round as I managed to get quite a few good shots!

 

MBS light show

 

My 1st visit to the Esplanade's sky garden

 

Finally, we ended the evening with a super late dinner or can I say supper at Mac! It was tiring but I feel happy after reviewing my photographs.

Happy Birthday Singapore!

I had been looking forward to today! I happened to get a pair of National Day Parade (NDP) Preview tickets last minute & it's gonna be my First time watching the parade LIVE from The Float @ Marina. A heavy downpour carried on for a couple of hours & I hope that it will stop in time for the parade at 5.30pm. When the rain turned to a light drizzle, I quickly grabbed my photography gear & tripod to City Hall.

Upon arrival at City Hall, i saw a sea of RED! haha! All the NDP ticket-holders gotta shared the same thinking as me... I reached Marina Square at 4.30pm, however Ruby was late! Alamak! Like that how to get the best seats? Upon Ruby's arrival, we made our way via the check-points at Marina Sq towards The Float @ Marina. Thankfully, there were many gantries set up for the security checks & we breezed past after queuing for 25mins. Upon picking up the Fun Pack (it's damm heavy!), we made our way to get our seats at the Blue Sector.

We were timely to be seated at 5.15pm, just nice for us to settle down before the parade commenced. We opened up the bright red Fun Pack... oh boy! It's really deep & gotta dig right in to check-out the stuff ~ ranging from snacks, 2 bottles of water (explains y so heavy!), Sg Flag, Torch, inflated clappers etc... What's unique in this year's Fun Pack is probably the Singapore Scarf!

The parade opening was unique as we saw Gurmit Singh arriving in a Hot Air balloon! He's one of the 4 MC for the evening. There's Sharon Au & Jean Danker (can't rmbr the last guy) too. There were many student cheerleaders stationed among the audience to lead us in the singing & demonstrated how to utilise the various items in our Fun Pack.  I became very busy hunting for the items in my Fun Pack, while not forgetting to take tons of photos! As I would not know if I would still get a ticket next time, i gotta grab my chance today!

I realised one good point of sitting at the spectators stand is that the MC will cue us to watch out for the air display! This certainly allows me to get ready for the shoots :)

The key highlights of the parade:

The RED LIONS para-troopers!

Time for some self-pics wif my buddy!

(behind us sat ex-mediacorp actress ~ liu qiulian)

The military & uniformed groups contingents being inspected by the President (for the preview, of course there's no Mr. President!)

The Super Puma Fly-past with our National Flag

Air Display by the Fighter-Jets!

21-Guns Salute

Sea display by the Navy

Songs & Dance

Finale marked by Fireworks filling the Skies!

This is damm cool! Looks like 2 angels flying in mid-air?

Using the audience waving their torches as my foreground interest

Cool rite! Fireworks + Light Painting! haha!

This is the Singapore Scarf!

We enjoyed ourselves very much and I'm happy to be able to catch some nice photos & basking in the patriotic ambience! It had also been years since school-days singing the national anthem & reciting the pledge. I always think that i'm lucky to be born in Sg & my grandpa made a wise decision to migrate from China to Sg. Our generation of today should be thankful as we are reaping the fruits sowed by our forefathers. As Sg steps into our 47th year of independence, I wish that as citizens, we can continue to enjoy the Peace & Prosperity of our Nation as One United People, irregardless of race, language or religion. Happy Birthday Singapore!  

Explore Bay East Garden 。。。

Woke up to see thunderstorm befalling & wonder if the photoshoot later will materialise? Luckily, the rain reduced to a light drizzle & I went to meet up wif Leonard & guys from the ECP fotogroup at Stadium MRT.  My right shoulder still felt a slight tinge from the Gardens Festival shoot :( However, a tripod is a neccessity today as we would be shooting the National Day's Rehearsal fireworks later.

The organiser thought that there is a direct bus from Stadium & it turned out to be wrong info! The 7 of us ended up taking a half hour stroll all the way to Rhu Cross. This newly launch garden is pretty inconvenient if one is not driving. Thou it is situated in the CBD area, it is not near any MRT station or bus-stop.

Upon arriving at the garden, I remembered shooting the rehearsal's fireworks from the flyover (hanging over the garden) last year! Time flies! Now, this garden is offically ready. I am surprise upon stepping into the garden, it is really nicer than I thought! It is a serene place to take an evening stroll & popular with joggers. The long stretch of path gives one a breath-taking view of the Marina area's skyline.

After some random shoots & stacking our tripods neatly along the path-way, one of the guys stood guard over our belongings while a few of us went off to hunt for macro shots. I do not own a macro lens & utilised my zoom lens Canon 55 - 250mm instead. There's still a light drizzle on-going, which made the macro shots more interesting! Leonard is the macro expert, hence i definately gotta 'steal' some knowledge from him!

As we strolled along the path, thanks to Leonard warning me not to step onto the millipedes...it's really disgusting as many were crawling on the path due to the rain! We spotted many butterfilies fluttering around. Then, Leonard took over my dslr & demostrated how to get a good macro shot of the butterfly high on the tree! Wow! It's really challenging to stablise the zoom while lifting up your arms! The most difficult part was searching where the hell is the butterfly among the leaves/branches? Subsquently, gotta use manual mode to focus.

I tot i miss this shot! Pretty sunbird!

I learnt pretty fast thou i must say training one's eye to spot the insects is still a long way to go! These little creatures move alot & have to be fast too! We were lucky as this is the evening time when butterflies tend to move abit slower, hence there were points of time...we could practice firing a few shots at 1 spot. Finally, i got my 1st decent butterfly photo ^o^

My fav Skyline shot of Singapore!

When the national day parade rehearsal commenced, we returned to the waterfront & set up our tripods. Not too long after setting up, we could feel raindrops falling again! The drops seems bigger & bigger!!! All of the people in my group flashed out their umbrellas, while i put on my raincoat, haha! It's juz the 2nd time i used my raincoat while out shooting. There's 1 guy who gave up waiting in order to protect his gears. Basically, there's no shelter within 100m in this garden!

At around 7.45pm, we managed to take the fireworks photos...however, there was a lack of satisfaction as the fireworks seem far off! I only like the panaroma view & the brilliant flora & fauna in this garden... I wish this place to be more accessible thou! (pref a pedestrian bridge linking to the Bay South area)