Night Street Photo - Glossy Sari

Glossy Sari

Nikon D70s on Tamron 17-35mm at 26mm f/5.0 1/60 second ISO 400 • Flashlight WB Spot metering • Nikon SB-900 on TTL mode with Nikon SC-29 sync cable - Hand held off-camera

Night Street Photo - All That Bluesy Chat

All That Bluesy Chat

Nikon D70s on Tamron 17-35mm at 24mm f/5.6 1/60 second ISO 800 • Auto WB Spot metering • Nikon SB-900 on TTL mode with Nikon SC-29 sync cable - Hand held off-camera

Singapore SG50 Through The Years - A School Project

In mid May this year, I received a comment on one of my blogs here in regards of the closing ceremony of our former National Stadium. The comment was made by a nice local teacher from Serangoon Secondary School. They were doing this SG50 project in celebration of our 50th Anniversary of Independence as a Nation, where they would produce a booklet that documents the past 50 major events in Singapore.

The teacher was seeking my permission to use 2 of my photographs which I took back in 2007.  Well you can refer to the blog here. Yeah I was quite excited about this project. I told her about licensing my photos and she gladly agreed to my licensing terms and conditions with a reasonable rate.

So after 2 months of preparation, designs and printing, the booklets are completed and ready for their school distribution in prior to our National Day. Today I received a copy. I am really delighted that my photographs are published in their booklets.

Night Street Portrait - Big Grey Beard

I was out in the street last night, armed myself with an old Nikon D70s on Tamron 17-35mm lens. With past shooting experience, my old dSLR camera's limitations couldn't allow me to take quick sharp images due to slow shutter speed. So for this particular night, I brought along a Nikon Speedlight SB-900 and a flash sync cable SC-29, shooting on TTL mode.

I was roaming around in Little India when something caught my attention. I saw this old man with big grey bread and a walking stick, standing outside an eatery house. I thought he would be a good subject to photograph. He stood there for a few moments and I quickly went over and asked him if I could take his pictures. He gladly agreed. I was thrilled and took 3 shots, off-camera flash and this is the best shot.

More night street photography with off-camera flash will be posting here soon. Do subscribe for new updates.

A Night at a Fishing Village - Kukup, Malaysia.

Sunrise over Kukup streets

For my second visit to Kukup after 11 years, it was a fruitful one indeed. Of course after all these years, Kukup has changed a lot and more Singaporeans are visiting Kukup for a short getaway trip from our city's hustle and bustle. Guesthouse businesses are getting more competitive than ever before.

Make the jump to view the night photographs I made in a single night...

A Night at a Fishing Village (Teaser)

New Nocturne Blog Post Coming Soon Tonight @ 10:10PM (SGT)

384 TIDY

Just a random night photograph I made at the entrance of an industrial company. Thought of playing with lights by casting shadows of the fence upon this truck container with my FENIX LED flashlight.

Nikon D300 on 18-70mm lens f/8.0 15 seconds at ISO400.

A Night at the Last Kampung in Singapore

A week ago, I revisited the last Kampung (Village in Malay) in Singapore - Kampung Lorong Buangkok. Yes I was there once and that was about two or three years ago and that was my first night visit. I had visited in the day time before but nothing can describe my feelings when I arrived there at night.

I didn't quite make many night photos as I used film on my TLR camera back then. So, make the jump to see more digital night photos I made with my Nikon D300.

A Night at Kampung Lorong Buangkok (Teaser)

Kampung Lorong Buangkok - the last Kampung in Singapore; last of its kind. More night photos of this old village coming soon. Here's another teaser for tonight.

A Night at Tanglin Halt

It was a quiet night in a quiet peaceful neighborhood at Tanglin Halt / Commonwealth Drive. I was told that the housing in this area is en bloc and it would be nice to do some night photography here. There are about 7 or 8 blocks of this 3-storey apartment flats (as shown in the photo above). They are all refurbished with new painted walls and windows. Doesn't seem like they are on the en bloc list. Well, the ambience was nice and I managed to find this vantage spot for a little light-painting job on the concrete bench and on the tree. Here's another one.

I wouldn't say it was a good place to make night photographs but I did enjoy the atmosphere and its surrounding environment. Honestly in my heart, I wasn't keen about this place but I would always try my utmost best to capture that atmosphere and hopefully the essence of the place.

Night Street Photo - Walking Silhouette

Walking Silhouette

Nikon D70s on 17-35mm @ f/5.6, 1/125 second, Spot Metering at ISO 1600 EV -1.0, Auto WB. Post-processed in Photoshop.

Sleeping Excavator 2

Sleeping Excavator 2

I took a different perspective of the excavator at a low angle and after a few takes, the clouds set in which all came at the appropriate time. Exposed for 25 seconds with a Variable-ND filter set at 3 or 5 stops down, on my Tokina 11-16mm lens at f/11. One neutral light was used as fill light on the excavator from camera left.

Sleeping Excavator

Sleeping Excavator

Second attempt on star trails at an industrial area. The area was heavily lit with sodium vapour street lights but with proper color corrections in Photoshop, the strong yellow-orange color cast can still be removed. Neutral  cool white light was used to light-paint the excavator. 20 long exposures of 1 minutes and stacked in Photoshop using Dr Brown's Stack-a-matic.

At the time of posting this blog, the excavator was removed and the langlang (long grasses) were mowed.

Stargazing Water Tank

Stargazing Water Tank

This is my very first attempt on star trails photography. 20 long exposures of 1 minute were made and stacked in Photoshop using Dr. Brown's Stack-a-matic. Light-painted green on the water tank with my FENIX TA21 flashlight on green colored gel.

Night Street Photo - Under The Street Light

Under The Street Light

Nikon D70s on 17-35mm @ f/3.2, 1/15 second, Matrix Metering at ISO 1600 EV +1.0, Auto WB. Post-processed in Photoshop.

Night Street Photo - Enjoy The Joy Ride

Enjoy The Joy Ride

Nikon D70s on 17-35mm @ f/3.2, 1/30 second, Matrix Metering at ISO 1600 EV +1.0, Auto WB. Post-processed in Photoshop.

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.