Spacetime – Night Streets on Slow Shutter (A Triptych)

Good evening and welcome back to my night photography blog. Yes, I'm back. First and foremost, I hereby sincerely apologize to all my supportive readers for the long hiatus. Yeah, absent for 13 months without a single blog post until now. I have been on hiatus before, sadly. Honestly, I was affected by the COVID-19 pandemic. I mean, I wasn't infected with the deadly virus but instead, it was the mentality part. I hardly go out at night to make photographs. Occasionally, I would go out in the day for some street shootings with a point-and-shoot film camera or a DSLR camera.

Picking up street photography again seems a lot harder but I have re-adapted and progressed and am slowly back on track. Lately, I got hooked up on an interesting shooting technique called ICM a.k.a. Intentional Camera Movement for creative and impressionistic effects. Then I got busy shooting and posting on the other photography blog site that I totally neglected this blog site. In case, any of you have missed out, click here for the ICM blog post.

A couple of weeks ago, three days before the local Indian Festival, Deepavali, I took the opportunity to head down to Little India for some night street shootings. I seldom make night photographs on Shutter Priority mode so it was time to do some crazy shootings.

I admit there is nothing new about shooting night sceneries with a slow shutter speed. Good examples like light trails of vehicles and the panning technique that combines a slow shutter speed with camera motion to create a sense of speed around a moving object.  We can definitely make use of this shooting technique for storytelling and emotions.

So, for tonight's blog, I'm showing these three photographs as a triptych for a good start, and more are coming soon. So stay tuned. For new readers, if you like my work do subscribe to my blog sites for new updates. Thank you all for your time and kind support. Good night.

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DITN series – Stadium West Entrance

Stadium West Entrance (right side)
© 2007 Martin Liew Photography

This was the West Entrance of the former Singapore National Stadium. It was illuminated by lights from the nearby construction site, with some faded tree shadows cast upon the signage pillar wall. The night atmosphere was fantastic and I was so compelled to take photographs of it. I took 2 bracket frames with 9 minutes for each. For the second one, I used a yellow filter lens but I prefer the first one, as shown above.

Next, I turned the camera towards the left side of the West Entrance, also exposed 2 bracket frames. 9 minutes for the first with yellow filter lens on, and the second frame without (shown below), exposed for 6 minutes. I find the second shot more pleasing in tonalities.

Stadium West Entrance (left side)
© 2007 Martin Liew Photography

All photographs were made possible with my Shanghai TLR camera on a roll of Kodak TMAX 400. Both photographs are dated in early April 2007.

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DITN series – Ticket Gantry

Ticket Gantry
© 2007 Martin Liew Photography

One of the many ticket gantries at the former Singapore National Stadium. We can tell that this gantry is numbered 20, half-hidden by the header board. Love the ambiance lighting and so decided to take this shot with my Shanghai TLR on Kodak TMAX 400.

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DITN series – Ticking Clock

Ticking Clock
© 2007 Martin Liew Photography

Tick tock tick tock... The clock was still ticking when I made this photograph at the former Singapore National Stadium in April 2007. 2225 hrs. The clock time was the exact time I pressed the shutter release on my Shanghai TLR with a roll of Kodak TMAX 400. A 6-minute exposure on Bulb mode at f/22. A manual strobe was fired from the camera right behind the pillar, out of sight and aiming at the clock. The area was really in very low light condition, hence the strobe light was necessary so as to show more details.

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DITN series – Grandstand

Grandstand
© 2007 Martin Liew Photography

The Grandstand at the former Singapore National Stadium; the gateway to the seating area. What really attracted me to make this photograph was the ambiance of lighting in the background, hidden by the header board. The light hit the metallic gate and cast shadows on the foreground, along with the symmetrical arrangement of squarish light flooring. All elements fell into place and this photograph was made possible with my Shanghai TLR on a roll of Kodak TMAX 400. Only one frame was exposed for 10 minutes on Bulb mode at f/22. The negatives were developed and scanned for post-process in Adobe Photoshop.

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DITN series – Stadium Light Tower

One of the four floodlight towers at the former
Singapore National Stadium.
© 2007 Martin liew Photography

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DITN series – Gate 2

Gate 2 @ former Singapore National Stadium
© 2007 Martin Liew Photography

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DITN series – Stadium Ticket Booth

Stadium Ticket Booth

© 2007 Martin Liew Photography

Good evening nightographers! Tonight I want to show you this night photograph I made back in early April 2007. I bet most of you do not know this place despite the photo title's giveaway. Tonight's air lingered with nostalgia. Make the jump now for more photos.

Not Quite Night series #93 – The Distance Between Us

DWELL IN THE NIGHT Official Release

Good evening nightographers! Hope everyone has a great week. Tonight I'm excited to announce the release of my life-long night photography project, Dwell In The Night. It's been a long journey for me since I started this project in late 2004. To date, there are 30 photographs and more to come. All photographs are made with an old Shanghai TLR camera on 120 medium format black and white film.

Click on the project title highlighted above to view the photographs on my website. I hope you enjoy viewing my works as much as I enjoy making them. Do subscribe to my blog if you haven't already done so, and follow me on my Instagram and NQN Instagram.

Thank you for reading.

Night Street Photo – Untitled

Not Quite Night series #92

Good evening nightographers! Hope everyone is safe and healthy in this difficult time. It's more than six months since my last blog post. My sincere apologies for the long hiatus. I was caught up with work commitment and I picked up a sport that I am spending more time in training and playing. Yes, I picked up Table Tennis again after so many years since I last played in my teens. So yeah I confess I have neglected my night photography but I'm more fitter, stronger, and healthier than ever before. And I am proud that I am fully vaccinated.

Well, tonight I'm back with a new Not Quite Night photo of an iconic art center in Singapore, and also to share a piece of updated news with you. So let's jump right into it.

Night Street Panorama – A City Beneath A Veil of Calm

I got this panorama photo filed in my archival hard disk and almost forgotten about it until now. It was made in early December 2018 with a swing lens panorama film camera. On that same night, I made another photo of the same night scene with my beloved RICOH GR2, also with the same title, which is featured here.

Photo Info:

HORIZON PERFEKT | 28mm | settings not recorded | Kodak Portra 800 Exposed for +2/3 f/stop | Film developed and scanned at Whampoa Colour Center | Further post-processed in Photoshop

Night Street Photo – Night After Sidewalk No. 9

NIKON D70s • Tamron 17-35mm @ f/3.0 1/40 sec. ISO 1600

RAW file post-processed in Photoshop

Night Street Photo – Night After Sidewalk No. 8

Single version – Apple iPhone 6 Plus on Camera+

JPEG post-processed in Photoshop

Double version – NIKON D70s • Tamron 17-35mm

RAW file post-processed in Photoshop

Good evening nightographers! It's Friday night and here are two new night street photos I'm going to share with you. This is a sequel to the last blog post of the same location same night scene but different human subjects and titles. In the last post, silhouettes were captured, for that mysterious and moody effect.

Tonight's street photos featured human subjects walked by in the foreground of the alleyway. I made two versions - one with a Smartphone and the other with a DSLR camera respectively. The light level in this alleyway is pretty low and contrasty and posed a great challenge to capture moving subjects, especially with my 17 years old NIKON D70s. The highest ISO of this old camera is 1600 and I always shoot in Manual mode as I want to have controls on the exposures. Well, it's obvious I have really limited ISO along with a slow Tamron 17-35mm lens, I have to hold my breath and camera really well and steady, at a slow shutter speed between 1/15 to 1/30 second. Exposure Compensation was applied and set to +1 value.

As for the Smartphone camera, Apple iPhone 6 Plus camera back lens has an aperture of f/2.2. I used the Camera+ app in which I'm able to set the White Balance, ISO, and Shutter Speed. WB was set to Auto, ISO at 160, and shutter speed at 1/4 second. Comparing the two photos, they almost have similar results.

Which version do you prefer? Let me know of your preference on the Comment section below. I'd love to hear from you.

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