Nocturne Photography @ Pulau Ubin

I organized a night/nocturne photography outing last Saturday, 24 Nov 2007 in Pulau Ubin. It was a small group of 6, including myself. It was fun and every participant get to do the light-paintings. It was a full moon night and some of the images are illuminated by the moon light, which created such effect as if it was taken during dawn or dusk.

Here are my nocturne images. Pleasant viewing.

Mamam Beach

Rubber Trees

Floral Nocturne 生命之歌

Ubin Taxi

Ubin Taxi
© 2007 Martin Liew Photography

All photographs are made with Tamron 17-35mm lens on Nikon D70s. All photographs are made on the spot with strong power torchlights on 5 colored gels, except Floral Nocturne - light-painted with a LED torchlight.

Ethereal Days by Chris Conrad

In August 2007 issue of Black & White Photography magazine (UK), I read an article on Chris Conrad's portfolio, Ethereal Days, in which the magazine featured some of his most amazing and stunning night photographs taken on the area around Moab, USA.

Chris started a portfolio on the fleeting pools of water that exist in the redrock canyons after rainstorms, he began the Oases series.

"I was searching for a different take on the area around Moab, looking for a way to capture the fleeting ephermeral views that appear and pass so quickly. The Oases series then led me into the night photos, and the Ethereal Days series began."

The technical difficulties involved in night reflections are myriad, and Chris' technique requires him to find the subject and set up the camera early, anticipating the path of the moon and stars. Pre-exposing the scenes to build some shadow detail, he uses a combination of polarizer and red filters - also adding split neutral density filters - to hold density down in the sky portion of the negative during this first exposure. After darkness falls, he opens the shutter again to catch the stars and moon trails, often leaving it open for up to eight hours.

Chris' Equipment:

• A Techihara 5x4in is Chris' main camera, with his favorite lens being a Nikkor 75mm.
• A Rodenstock 135mm is his back-up lens, for those times when the Nikkor is too wide.
• A Pentax Digital spotmeter allows him to figure out the difficult exposures involved in night work.
• His film is Ilford FP4 Plus, abd occasionally HP5 Plus, for the extra speed.
• His developer of course is Kodal HC-110.
• Another camera often used is his Pentax 67II with 45mm lens, loaded with either Kodak TMAX or Ilford FP4 Plus.
• For pure digital work, he use Canon EOS 20D with 16-35mm lens.
• For printing, his paper of choice is Moab Entrada Ntural, using either a Septone or a QuadtoneRIP program. The paper is run through either an Epson 2300 or an Epson 7600 printer.

To view Chris Conrad's photographs, please click here.
Here's the 5-minutes video on "Ethereal Days".

Closing Ceremony of National Stadium

30 June 2007 Saturday was the day Singaporean witnessed the closing ceremony of our National Stadium. I was supposed to go back there for some re-make of photographs I did in early June. Well I guess it's too late for me now. That evening, I received a call from a friend, who happened to have an extra complmentary ticket to the closing ceremony event. It was a last-minute call but I gladly accepted the offer.

I arrived late at around 8:45pm at the West Entrance area. Traffic was kinda heavy in that area and there were many poeple around. Most came for the friendly soccer match between Singapore and Australia soccer team. it was half-time break. During this time, I took a few pictures. Honestly all are boring photographs and i didn't bother to use my flashlight. Eventually my pictures turned out with big bokeh and camera-shaky effects, like this one below.

Frankly speaking, never before did I go for our country's national day celebration at the National Stadium. It was my very first time attending to the event at the stadium. As the soccer match getting more higher climax, soccer fans or supporters shouted and screamed and cheered for their home team. Of course there was the Kallang Wave.

After the match, there was a short stadium history and our past soccer glory stories, hosted by Brian Richmond and Glenn Ong. Yes it was telecasted live on Channel 5. Next the short fireworks display which wasn't nice at all, visually.

The party starts, with our native rock band, Kruger, took on the stage. The band kick-started with the first song, Vertigo (original song by U2) with John Molina as the lead vocalist. I wanted to take the band pictures but I was told that I have to pay $10 to enter the soccer field area where the party was held. I decided not to and bid farewell to my friend. As I walked out of the stadium by the west entrance I purposely walked along the perimeter of the stadium towards the east entrance area. Many people were leaving too. I was mingling around just to look out for any photographic opportunities.

There were ice-cream men selling ice-cream and drinks. So I took a couple of shots and though this isn't the best shot, it's merely a snapshot (above) which I think has this strong sense/sight of activities outside the stadium. Thereafter I left for home.

Night @ The National Stadium

Talking about making pictures of our National Stadium, it all started with news of the stadium demolition for a brand new design. The stadium will be officially closed own on 30 June 2007, Saturday. A closing ceremony will be held there to mark this historical event.

News broke out since last September. I went there with a fellow night photographer, Selina. We did make a few pictures but we didn't stay long. It was like our first trial and when I got back my negatives, they turn out great. I told myself I have to go back there to make many more photos of the stadium. And I did. But today I'm not able to upload those photos here as I didn't get them scanned. I will and upload them as soon as it's ready.

It was after about 6 months later, I went back with 2 other photographers who are keen in night photography. (I'll try to feature their work here soon.) I took a roll of Fuiji color negative film, Superia 400 on a Nikon FM10. Yes I did mention before that taking night pictures with color negatives isn't as good as taking it with slide film, be it in 135 or 120 format. But I was willingly to try it out, even without filter lens. Anyway I have in mind of converting all color pictures into black & white. 

So here they are.

Bridge to Stadium

Ticket Booth

Stairs to West Entrance

The West Entrance

I'm Back Again

Well, what can I say? It's been a long long time since I last wrote a blog or update this blog of mine. Almost 7 months. Where was I? You would ask. There are changes to Blogger.com as I have had to re-register by creating a new account in Google's Gmail. Well, I had thought of signing up before, but no action was taken. Procrastination.

Anyway, I'm back again and during all those times, I was still doing night photography. Mainly focusing on my Night Projekts aka Dwell In The Night, as I mentioned before, this is my long-term personal photographic project. It meant a lot to me. I'm in the midst of getting a brand new PC (or Mac if I'm able to pay by instalment), so for the time being, I'm using my office's computer.

A few weeks ago I did some night photography at our National Stadium. News were out that our great old National Stadium will be giving way to a brand new one in 2010 (I think, or later year). It will be officially close down on 30 June 2007 and there'll be a closing ceremony to mark this historical event. Starting from mid-April til end of June, Singapore Sports Council (SSC) is organising tours on every Tuesday, Thursday and Saturday form 10am - 2pm. SSC, collaborating with the Photographic Society of Singapore (PSS) in organising a photographic contest.

For more information, you can log on here.

I'll post some of those photos I made soon. Do come back and keep a lookout.