Abandoned Houses

Abandoned Houses

I was in hope that the night sky would be cleared of heavy clouds so I could make my very first star trails exposure. The night weather in Ipoh was pretty good and for this photograph I exposed for 10 minutes. Guess I was lucky to have some scattered small clouds passing by and managed to capture some star trails and clouds motion.

The interiors of both houses were lit with my Fenix TA21 covered with yellow cellophane paper and a light reflector for even and wider light spread. Some neutral lighting as fill-in on the foreground for some texture details.

So, this nocturne marks the last photo from my Ipoh trip. Yes there are not many photographs as you would expected. Personally I go for quality over quantity and I am very satisfied with these nocturnes (a total of 4).

In the next blog I will show my very first successful star trails photograph. So do subscribe to my blog for new updates. Good night and lights off!

The Mime's House

The Mime's House

One of the abandoned houses in Batu Gajab, Ipoh, Malaysia, has this black and white hands signage pasted on the main house door. Well naturally I got attracted to it and hence this photograph was made.

Foliage Engulfment 2

Raining along the highway from Kuala Lumpur to Ipoh.

Good evening fellow night dwellers and photogs!

As promised, I'll be showing one of the few nocturnes that I made during my night photography trip to Ipoh, Malaysia in late March 2015. Starting tonight, I will post one night photograph per blog on every Saturday night.

Make the jump to view...

Teaser GIF Animated - Sleeping Excavator

Sleeping Excavator

Here's another teaser of a GIF Animated or so-called super-short timelapse of only 5 frames. Last night I had a great time making what I considered as good night photographs. I wouldn't talk much about it now, but do come back for new blog posts with new night photographs.

Coney Island

Coney Island

Nikon D300 on 18-70mm • Incandescent WB at native ISO 200 • Long exposure of a minute with available full moon light • Post-processed in Photoshop. The white horizontal strip of light was a passing boat.

Chalet House (HDR)

Chalet House (HDR)

Here's another chalet house but in HDR (High Dynamic Range) effect. I made 8 exposures of 2-stop difference each and merged all in Photoshop. Further processing on color correction and enhancement were made. This is my second attempt on HDR night photograph and I am quite satisfied with this result.

As usual, I want to see how it looks like in black & white tones, hence the conversion was made.

Chalet House

Chalet House

Last night I had the pleasure to visit this place located in the north-east area of Singapore i.e. Punggol Jetty Park. There's a Horse Riding Center and next to it is a row of chalet houses, as seen from the above photograph.

Minutes after sunset the area got darker and the atmosphere set in. I made a quick set up and easily created 5 different exposures for a HDR post-process. However it didn't work out well, so I decided to process in a different way and this is the result.

Well, I still love black & white images and below is the converted result. I just want to see how it looks like in black & white and somehow I find it to be more dramatic and moody.

Teaser Night Photograph - Foliage Engulfment

Foliage Engulfment

Good evening! Here's a teaser night photograph made from my Malaysia trip last week. It was a great fun and fruitful trip! More details and nocturnes to be shared soon.

Heartland Tranquility

Heartland Tranquility

Yes I'm back again. Yes I know I know. I was on hiatus again and it just couldn't get any worse than the previous one. It's 4 months and 8 days to be precise.

Well I was more focused on day and night street photography, and not totally forgotten about night photography, light-paintings and stuff. I still have a strong affinity that is stored deep inside me. Last Saturday I decided to move my ass out of the house to make some night photos, just to serve as a warm-up exercise.

I decided to pay a second visit to a place which I made some nocturnes of an old school playground before i.e. Dove playground. Visit my website to view more of my night project on old school playgrounds titled, This Used To Be My Playground.

This time round no light-paintings, no playground. The main objective was to experience and feel the night atmosphere in that neighborhood. To capture that available ambience and tranquility. News were out that these old HDB flats will be demolished. Based on the my very first visit, I recalled the night tranquility in that area which I really like it very much.

So I roamed the area and spotted a few good subjects. Heartland Tranquility is one of them. The moment I saw that hot light on the tree and silhouette and long cast shadow, I knew I have found it. I made a few long exposures ranging between 10 - 20 seconds, trying out different framing, perspectives and focal length, this is the final one after much editing during the post-production stage.

Here are the rest of the night photographs I made on that single night.

Dakota Crescent

Free Library

Sleeping on the Porch

Yes just 4 good ones. Could have more when I find time to visit the place again. I hope you enjoy your stay here tonight and have a pleasure viewing my new work. As I mentioned, this served as a good warm-up exercise for me and I will be heading to Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia next weekend, for more exciting night photography outings with a good friend of mine and fellow night photographer, CS Lee.

I'm so looking forward to this trip. So if you want to see my new work from Malaysia, do subscribe to my blog here for new updates. Thank you for your time.

CANCELLATION of Singapore Night Hunt 2014

It came as a sad news that Singapore Night Hunt 2014 was cancelled. I received an email yesterday late afternoon from the organizer. Their reason for cancellation was due to the unfavorable weather during these past few days.

I recalled the first Night Hunt 4 years ago, it was raining too. It rained during the event briefing and then stopped. It rained again at around mid-night hour. Not those torrential type. However this year-end monsoon season is coming at the wrong time. It did rain today during the late morning towards noon hour period and then rained again in the afternoon. Just light shower. There was another short showering an hour ago (evening time around 7:00PM SGT).

At the time of writing this blog, weather is partly cloudy and based on reliable weather forecast, there's a possible thunderstorms with rain at 12-midnight.

Personally I would suggest the organizer to collaborate with Singapore Night Festival, in joint to organize the Singapore Night Hunt, which I think it is more relevant. Alternatively they can organize the photo-marathon contest prior to the official opening of SIPF (Singapore International Photography Festival). Or they can organize during the dry season, not necessary have to be held during SIPF. It can be a separate event.

Well guess we have to wait for another 4 years for the next night photo-marathon contest. We'll see.

Singapore Night Hunt 2014

Yes Singapore Night Hunt 2014 is coming soon. The event date is stated on SIPF (Singapore International Photography Festival 2014) website, as shown in the screenshot above.

Four years since their very first night photography marathon in November 2010 which I took part and won 3rd prize for one of the four themes, Starry Starry Night. Yes I wrote about this event and my winning here.

This year SIPF organizer did not put up any event poster to promote but instead through their data base of past participants' email addresses (I think) with which they sent out invitation to them for participation. Well participants can gather like-minded friends to take part together. I can't remember if there was a registration fee for Night Hunt 2010, but I believe there was and probably wasn't as much as this year's fee of SGD$30 + SGD$2 online fee. Maybe slightly higher. Well, anyway I'm taking part and I feel excited about it. Really looking forward to the photo themes/challenges.

So if any of you readers who are keen to take part, you can register online here. Hurry! Only 19 tickets left! (At the time of posting this blog).

If you want to join me, you are welcome to contact me and we can meet up on that night. So I wish you guys good luck and hope to see you there on 15 November, Saturday. Cheers!

Grass Trails

Grass Trails
© 2005 Martin Liew Photography

Grass trails left by the lawn mower in a northern residential park. Somehow the trails formed an interesting patterns that spoke to me. The trail lines lead the viewers' eyes to the tree on the upper left frame and then right across to the lamp and more trees on the right side, finally coming back to the foreground. The overall ambient illuminated by the lamp and a hidden one behind the tree on the far right, created such beautiful night scenery and atmosphere that revealed textures from the tree leaves and grasses, that I couldn't resist in making this photograph with my Shanghai TLR. Kodak TMAX 400 was exposed for 220 seconds. Negative was scanned on Epson V700 with post-process in Photoshop.

Block 308

Block 308

Abandoned building in a decommissioned military base. With Kodak TMAX 400 loaded on Shanghai TLR camera, a long exposure timing of 3 minutes and 36 seconds was set, with a snooted LED flashlight illuminated on the building number. The film is developed in Kodak D76 for 6 minutes and scanned on Epson V700. Post in Photoshop and cropped in 6x7 format.

Sundial

Sundial
© 2007 Martin Liew Photography

Do you remember this sundial?

This gigantic sundial was formerly situated at the old Marina City Park, way before Garden By The Bay was built. I believe it is one of the most forgotten landmarks in the park after 7 years of development.

This sundial was exposed under the full moon with 3 pops of flash-painting at one minute interval to create rim light for a 3-dimensional effect. In the end the strobe light caused the large blob of light at the bottom frame. However I find it interesting as it adds up to the overall mood of this photograph. During the long exposure, the moon shifted as time ticked by for 9 mins that created this elongated light orb.

Night Bridge

Night Bridge
(from Dwell In The Night series)

Good evening night dwellers!

Since June, I have had posted some night street photographs made with my Nikon D70s which I think most of you had seen them. Well, tonight I want to show a night photograph from my Dwell In The Night project as shown above. Night Bridge was made 5 years ago and I thought it would be a good idea to show it here as a teaser.

Currently I'm reviewing and re-editing all the night photographs from this project and I will make an announcement once all pictures are ready for view on my website. Do subscribe to this blog for new updates or visit my other photography blog here.

Pleasant viewing.

Night Street Photo - Negotiation

Nikon D70s on 50mm f/1.8 @ f/2.8, 1/50sec. E.V. +0.7 AWB ISO 1600 Matrix Metering. Mono-conversion in Photoshop.

Night Street Photo - Bubble Girl

Nikon D70s on 50mm f/1.8 @ f/2.8, 1/30sec. E.V. +1.0 AWB ISO 900 Matrix Metering. Mono-conversion in Photoshop.

Night Street Photo - Night Shift II

Nikon D70s on 50mm f/1.8 @ f/3.5, 1/8sec. E.V. +0.7 AWB ISO 200 Matrix Metering. Mono-conversion in Photoshop.

Night Street Photo - Night Shift

Nikon D70s on 50mm f/1.8 @ f/2.8, 1/60sec. E.V.+5.0 AWB ISO 1600 Spot Metering. Mono-conversion in Photoshop.

Night Street Photo - No Entry

Nikon D70s on 50mm f/1.8 @ f/2.8, 1/30sec. E.V.+5.0 AWB ISO 1600 Spot Metering. Mono-conversion in Photoshop.

Night Street Photo - Back Alley

Nikon D70s on 50mm f/1.8 @ f/2.8, 1/30sec. E.V.+5.0 AWB ISO 1600 Spot Metering. Mono-conversion in Photoshop.

Night Street Photo - Pre-Occupied II

Nikon D70s on 50mm f/1.8 @ f/2.8, 1/60sec. E.V. +5.0 AWB ISO 1600 Spot Metering. Mono-conversion in Photoshop.

Night Street Photo - Pre-Occupied

In my previous blog I mentioned about doing night street photography and last night after work I walked the street with my digital camera. I've been doing day time street photography almost every weekend and based on last night experience, it served as a warm-up exercise. So I wouldn't expect to get any single best shot or so it seems.

I walked and took photos just the way I do day time street photography but with many great challenges like low light ambience, focusing issue, etc. I've tried auto-focus and manual focus with different camera settings. There's no fixed settings for every street scenery. Just have to pre-adjust when the situation calls for.

I was taking some shots of the Clive St coffee shop (in the background shown above) when this Indian gentleman came along and stood still right in front of me. He stood there for a few moments, looking at his cell phone and I took a few quick burst shots when suddenly he looked up, paused and turned to his left side. From the look of his eyes in this street photo, his mind seems to be pre-occupied. Soon after he walked away.

So I considered myself pretty lucky. Luck is quite important when doing street photography. This Indian gentleman didn't even bother whether I took his photos or not. I bet he didn't even notice me in the first place as the spot I was standing on was in low light condition and I was wearing black T-shirts. My camera was set to Manual Focus mode and I literally had hard time focusing on him. But in the end I managed to get it.

Nikon D70s on 50mm f/1.8 @ f/2.8, 1/60sec. E.V. +5.0 AWB ISO 1600 Spot Metering. Cropped and mono-conversion in Photoshop.

NEWS Announcement!

Good evening fellow night dwellers! I hereby proudly announce that a new night photography group has set up in Flickr on 18 May 2014, Sunday, founded by fellow night photographer, CS Lee and myself.

It's called Night Photography Asia Community (NPAC for short).

Log on to Flickr now and find out more. You can do a Group Search in Flickr by typing the full group name or click on the image above.

The main reason why we set up this group is that both of us have not really come across any night photographs, be it on film or digital format, made in any part of Asia countries. We've seen many night photographs from US and Europe. But why isn't there any in Asia regions?  Maybe there are but just that it's scarce to come by seeing one.

Many photographers would pack up when night falls and call it a day. There are so many beautiful things at night to make photographs of. Night Photography covers a wide aspect of techniques and subjects namely landscape, cityscape, urban streets, abandoned buildings, Milky Way, star trails, moving clouds, light-paintings and many more.

Lee and I are both passionate about night photography and we want to create an awareness so as to promote Night Photography as well as to inspire many others to pick up this photographic craft. So we hereby call out to all night photographers from Asia countries to join us at NPAC.

We're still at the early stage and we do have plans for future NPAC activities. But for now we're taking one step at a time working our way to make NPAC active. Do spread the word and let your friends know about NPAC.

Last but not least, we have also set up a night photography fan page on Facebook. Do LIKE us here and get new updates on tips and tricks and many interesting topics on Night Photography.

We hope to see you guys and your work at NPAC. Cheers!

Night Street Photography

Tonight I'd like to talk about night street photography. In case you do not know that I do lots of day time street photography and it isn't the first time I did night street photography. I used to shoot color negatives on my Nikon FM10 with a 50mm f/1.8 lens at night. Did a little with my Nikon D70s with the same lens. Hand-held shooting technique certainly poses a great challenge for night street photography.

The night photo shown above was taken in the same wee hours after my visit at the Fort Canning Park (the Fort Canning Lighthouse). I was heading back home and walked past this back alley, next to this Ritz Mansions condominium. Literally I walked past the openly displayed couches. I did noticed but subconsciously my mind told me to turn back and I'm glad I did. I set up my tripod and made two quick exposures at 15 seconds each.

Lighting condition was drastically great in contrast with super hot spots from the street lamps on the far right frame and some from the wall lights on the signboard and under. The 2-persons seat couch on the foreground was lit and illuminated by the street light on left behind camera, while the other couch on the background was lit by the street lights as shown.

Really love the lights and shadows displayed here, with vertical lines, shapes, textures which caught my attention in the first place. I managed to get the "correct" exposure timing. In post-production, I tried to retain the original output results in Camera RAW and Photoshop but couldn't get the desired result I wanted. So I resorted to apply HDR effect by tone-mapping and some color correction adjustments.

Next, I converted the color to black and white just to see how this scene looks like and it looks great. Somehow it rekindles my love for night photography on film and digital night street photography.

Each medium would produce different results. Night photography on film is more towards fine art style and project basis. Night street photography is similar to day time street photography where daily night activities/events are captured candidly. Some film examples of night street photography I did back in October 2006 which I posted here. Some other night street photos using Nikon D70s below.

Simple Contentment

Dozed off

Indian Store

I'm planning to do more night street photography, both on film and digital, perhaps every fortnightly, and lesser light-paintings as I've mentioned before that there are lesser or no ideal abandoned places in Singapore left to make good light-painting photos. Well, I've always keep a lookout and keep searching. Alternatively I'd have to venture out to overseas where there are many interesting subjects, though not necessarily doing light-paintings.