Colorful Night Memento of Rochor Center

In 2011, Rochor Center along with its four colorful residential housing flats and shops, was announced for the Selective En Bloc Redevelopment Scheme, and has to make way for the construction of the new North-South Expressway (NSE).

Last weekend, I made a trip there to capture its "colorful" night sceneries. Make the jump for the night photographs.

Battleship Playground

Battleship playground @ Sembawang Park

This is one of the many modern playgrounds found in Singapore unlike those that are covered in my old school playgrounds serial. This is a huge "battleship" with interesting structures meant for active children to climb up chain ladder net, crawl through holes, slide down in the tubes and many other more climbings. Somehow adolescents and adults alike are drawn to this playground and couldn't help to try boarding the "battleship". It can be pretty tough and physically demanding.

I took the opportunity to do some light-paintings of this playground. There are 4 flood lights (2 shown in the picture above) around the playground and they are switched off at around 10:30PM which makes light-paintings more fun and easier. Below is one good example of playing around with the "bubbles" concept which I believe you readers have seen before in my past nocturnal work.

Instillation is a title I came up with after much experimentation with a new lighting technique a few years ago. In the context of Instillation, I want to enhance if not emphasize and insinuate more on the beauty of the night with involvement of human activities in different environmental conditions. The creation and juxtaposition of the "bubbles" requires the physical labor to create, as if the place is re-animated and being alive.

Here's another Instillation playground.

More on the Battleship playground.

This Used To Be My Playground serial - Dinosaurs playground

It's been a long time since I started out this mini project on Singapore's old school playgrounds. Paid a little visit to one of 2 Dinosaurs playgrounds in Toa Payoh. Make the leap to meet the dinosaurs.

Mount Imbiah Battery (Part Two)

Good evening fellow night dwellers! This is the second and last installment of Mount Imbiah Battery nocturne serial. Make the jump to view.

Last Days of Commonwealth Drive Old Estate

In 2008, Block 74 – 80 in Commonwealth Drive in which the area is also known as Tanglin Halt, were announced for the Selective En Bloc Replacement Scheme. Residents and business occupants have since moved out of the estate to replacement flats and/or business units. Also referred to by most older generations/Pioneers, as Chap Lau Chu (10-storey houses in Hokkien dialect), the now vacant blocks will soon be demolished and all that will be left of them will be dust and some of former residents' memories.

I paid a short visit there last Saturday night and here are just 3 night photos I made. All flats are inaccessible where metal gates are installed at all the staircases and the old vintage elevators are all long gone.

For more detailed information on this place, you can visit the following websites.

• Tanglin Halt – Where the Trains used to Pass by

• Parting glances: Blocks 74 to 80 Commonwealth Drive

• Commonwealth Drive's One Last Block Party

• The Empty Flats of Tanglin Halt

• Tanglin Halt Estate

The Water Tower of Wessex Estate

The Water Tower of Wessex Estate

An old abandoned water tower situated on a little hill top in the neighborhood of Wessex Estate, Portsdown Road. Pink cellophane paper on a neutral white LED video light lit underneath the tower for 30 seconds under a cloudy night sky.

Cable Car Display (Defunct)

A defunct cable car is seen displayed in the backyard of a 1930s Ebenezer Chapel located in Dempsey Hill, now home to The White Rabbit – one of Singapore's leading classic institutions since its opening in 2008. With an average exposure time of one minute, a few strobe pops were fired in the cable car interior; one with a yellow cellophane and the other with red. Some cool white LED fill-in for the foreground and shadow details.

Wooden Cart

A wooden cart is displayed in the premise of Loewen by Dempsey Hill. A stack of three 10-seconds exposures in Photoshop to attain this night photograph. Strong neutral white LED light on the wooden cart at 3 different angles, and background was lit by the hanging red and blue colored LED lights on the tree.

Night Summer House

Another medium form i.e. on 120 medium format color transparency film, was made and will be posted soon.

Photo info:

Apple iPhone 6 Plus on default mode Square format and post-processed in Snapseed 2.0 and color-corrected in Photoshop.

Here's one made with Nikon D300 on Tokina 11-16mm UWA lens. A minute and a half exposure of available ambience from the warm street lights. It was a windy night, cool breeze with passing by clouds which form that motion blur in the beautiful night blue sky. Some adjustments made in Photoshop to attain this satisfying result.

Luminescence

Luminescence

Last night I revisited an old place on impromptu. An old place where I first discovered back in mid 2010 and I did many night photography here. I even brought Master Night Photographer, Troy Paiva here in Oct 2010 when he first visited Singapore. Now this place has been renovated and redeveloped.

I had the great pleasure exploring the whole place which is named Loewen by Dempsey Hill. Located where the military hospital used to stand, Loewen by Dempsey Hill has transformed into an education and lifestyle destination offering restaurants, pottery classes, art classes, chocolate-making classes, programmes for children, and more. More info on Loewen by Dempsey Hill here.

Troy came back in late July 2011 and we found ourselves back to this place where we had never explored the year before. We had a group photo shoot here, too.

Last night I made some digital night photos in Loewen Cluster area along with my TLR camera on Fujichrome Provia 100F. Four more frames to complete this second roll and one last roll to go. I'll post the best results once I got it all ready.

Coming back to the night photo shown above, I wanted to expose this night scenery of an emitted pale blue light in a room on Provia but just couldn't decide. Hence I picked up my iPhone 6 Plus and made this shot in square format to see how it looks like. And surprisingly I like it.

I like it for its simplicity, warm and cool light collided. Most of all, the sense of tranquility along with the available ambience lights and casted shadows of tree leaves set against the building. All elements that made this night photo so romantic, if not poetic. With that said, I will certainly return with my TLR camera for a few exposures.

Photo info:

Apple iPhone 6 Plus on default mode Square format and post-processed in Snapseed 2.0 and color-corrected in Photoshop.

Industrial Decays

This old architectural design from the 60s or 70s
with many others around, will perhaps be demolished
and redeveloped with new industrial buildings

Took some time to explore this abandoned industrial park located in the east region of Singapore and I managed to find some interesting mundane subjects to make photographs of – on both color transparency film and digital format.

The former is yet to be sent for development. The expired slide film used is Fujichrome Provia 100F. Well it was an impromptu idea to use film and besides all 3 rolls of Provia have been stored in the fridge for too long and way past its expiration dated February 2013. Look forward to see the unexpected or disastrous results. Will update this blog or post a new one once all are ready.

The photographs you see here in this blog are all in digital format. All made without any form of light-painting. Just exposed under the available ambience lighting from the sodium vapor street lights. All photographs are color-corrected. So here they are.

Sign of nature claiming back its land

Light trail created by a military fighter jet
from a nearby air base

Since this area has been vacant for such a long time
huge trucks are able to park their vehicles here for free

The red mailbox

A quiet drive way that goes round
the whole industrial park

A small drive way that leads to the back of
each building perhaps for easy uploading of goods

Mount Imbiah Battery (Part One)

Good evening night dwellers! Two weeks ago, I wrote about my night experience at Mount Imbiah Battery in Sentosa. Tonight I want to share with you more night photographs. Make the jump to view them.

Vintage Lorry + Behind the Wheels

A vintage lorry (defunct) displayed outside the wax museum, Madame Tussauds in Sentosa. I took the opportunity during a full moon night to make this 267-seconds photo. Yellow light on the head lights, violet on the interior, warm white on license plate, lorry body, wheels and overhead banners. Lastly behind the lorry I spread cool white light with tinted blue color cast under the wheels.

Another photo made just under a minute, on the steering wheel and color-splashed with violet and green lights.

Stargazing Merlion

Had a wonderful night making photographs in Sentosa last night and the weather was awesomely good in the day and very cooling at night with the full moon hanging high overhead, illuminating the beautiful night sky.

The legendary Merlion is a half lion half fish guardian of prosperity which personifies Singapore’s history as a port city. Standing at 37 meters tall, the lion depicts the folklore of Prince Sang Nila Utama’s rediscovery of lion (singa) and City (pura) while the fish tail symbolises ancient fishing village of Temasek, meaning “sea” in Javanese. Today, the majestic Merlion is a Singapore icon attracting visitors from all around the world.

This star trails photo is made up of thirty 1-minute long exposures and all were stacked in Photoshop using Dr. Russell Brown's Stack-a-matic.

Night Photography on a Rainy Night

Mount Imbiah Battery Command Post

It's December 2015 and it seems Monsoon season has arrived here in Singapore with many raining for the past 2 weeks. Big downpours and thunderings. Last night I was in Sentosa with 2 other friends who joined me at Mount Imbiah Battery for a night photography session. It turned out to be a disappointing wet night. The above photo is one of 2 proper night photos we made before it started to rain. It stopped and we decided to carry on, as we proceed to the gun emplacement area to make this night photo – experimenting with light-drawing effect.

Battery Gun Emplacement

I'm not really into light-drawings and no harm doing it for fun sake. The twirling green light trail was created by my friend with a green color light stick. Pinkish-violet cellophane paper was used to light-paint the whole emplacement. Immediately after this is made, it started to rain again. We took shelter and waited but the rain got bigger.

While waiting for the rain to stop, we did some interesting light-drawings and here's one of the best ones after a few attempts.

As the rain begun to drizzle, we packed up and left the place quickly. Guess we have to come back on another date during the dry season for more night photographs.

Airstream Trailers Are In Town!

Good evening fellow night dwellers!

Tonight I want to share with you my new nocturnal work of these American made travel trailers. Yes they are in town! Come aboard and see for yourself.

Decommissioned British Military Fort – Batu Berlayar AMTB Battery

Good evening Night Dwellers! Tonight is the night that I'm extremely excited to share with you on my new nocturnal work on a decommissioned British military fort – Batu Berlayar AMTB Battery! Viewing pleasure is yours after the jump.

Airstream Travel Trailers - A Teaser

Good evening night dwellers!

A few nights ago, a friend of mine informed me of this place where he happened to come across these Airstream Travel Trailers. After he showed me a couple of images he took with his phone camera, I got totally excited. So we made our way there last night. It's scarce to find these American made trailers here in Singapore and there are a total of 8 trailers parked in a vacant car park. They are currently undergoing refurbishment perhaps to be rented out as mobile food stalls.

More night photographs to share in December.

Sime Road Machine-Gun Pillbox

New nocturnal work on a decommissioned machine-gun pillbox located along Sime Road. This pillbox was constructed in the 1930s as part of the British preparation for war in Singapore before the Second World War broke out on the island.

PHOTO PRINTS FOR SALE!!

Good evening fellow night dwellers! I am so thrilled to announce that I'm offering 6 of my night photographs for sale on my website.

Each photo print size is 12 inch x 18 inch. Printed edge to edge without white border on 310gsm Canson® Photo Lustre Premium RC (Resin Coated) photo paper.

Should you want to purchase other night photographs on my website other than these six, do email me the photo titles as well as your contact details i.e. name, email address and delivery address. 

For overseas order, please contact me for shipping cost details. For local delivery, there's a postage fee of SGD$5.00. All payment is available via PayPal.

Now is the right time to get some of your holiday shopping started or buy that print you have been eyeing!

Photo of the Night - National Gallery Singapore

National Gallery Singapore

Formerly known as The Supreme Court. The newly renovated National Gallery Singapore will be officially opened on 24 November 2015 Tuesday.

Apple iPhone 6+ on Ztylus Wide Angle Lens. Made in Slow Shutter Cam app and post-processed in Snapseed 2.0.

Decommissioned British Military Fort - A Teaser

No. 2 Director Tower

Good evening all night dwellers!

Here's a little teaser night photograph of Batu Berlayar AMTB Battery and this is the No. 2 Director Tower just outside the Battery. More nocturnes coming soon in December 2015.

Batu Berlayar AMTB Battery - An Urban Exploration

Number 2 Director Tower

Tonight I'm thrilled to share with you on my first urban exploration since 2013. I've always wanted to explore this place but do not know how. So I want to thank my friend (you know who you are if you're reading this) for showing me the way.

Weather was pretty good on that day and we made our way there in the evening while it was still bright for visibility. We checked out each empty dusty cobwebbed store room in which broken wooden shelves and racks were found. We climbed up onto two 4-storey director towers for some scenic views which turned out not very pretty because most of its surrounding perimeter were covered with thick foliage and canopies. The image above clearly shows what I mean.

Number 1 Director Tower

One common sight at an abandoned place is the graffito and no exception for this historical fort. They can be seen on the walls in the Number 1 Emplacement and some can be found in the director towers' interiors. My apology for not able to show you any image here.

Despite of its environmental condition, no words can describe how much I enjoyed exploring this place and I was overwhelmed so much so that I only took these 2 photographs during the entire evening. I was trying to find vantage spots for some good nocturnal photography.

As the sun set and darkness set in, we quickly settled down and set up our tripods and cameras, and off we went to create some interesting and fun night photographs.

Coming at this point, I will leave you to your imaginations. So until then in the next blog, I will post those night photographs I made. If you like my work and want to keep updated, do subscribe to my blogs. For more historical details of this Fort Berlayar, click here.

I thank you for your time to read and view my work here.
Good night and lights off!

A Night at Little Guilin

For the past 3 weeks, air condition in Singapore wasn't good as the smoky haze came back to haunt us. The main cause of this hazard was caused by illegal forest burnings in Sumatra, Indonesia. With average PSI (Pollutant Standard Index) level range from 130-200, it's considered unhealthy for any outdoor activities which I suppose any form of photography activities is included. Not if I'm wearing a good protective face mask.

Prior to the haze attack, I've planned to visit Little Guilin, located at Bukit Gombak, west side of Singapore. So I'd like to take advantage of this hazy condition to create some interesting and moody night photographs. While making night photographs in the park, the haze condition started to clear up. Not that I have had expected and so I carried on.

Light Trails with an iPhone

Last night I had the pleasure of making some light trails photos with my iPhone. Of course with a useful app named Slow Shutter Cam. By default most phone cameras are unable to make long exposure photos. After downloaded this app for a week, I wanted to try out some interesting light trails shots and so I went down to Little India for its light decors as the Festival of Light a.k.a. Deepavali, is coming in a month's time.

I want to clarify here that I'm not doing an app review whatsoever but merely to share my experience using this app and of course showing the results.

After a night of shooting, I find this app is very easy to use and it produces pretty good results. It has 3 long exposure capture modes namely Motion Blur, Light Trails and Low Light. For all the photos shown here, all were made in the second capture mode. As you can see for yourself, you can make beautiful light trails photos with this app and it's as good as using your dSLR cameras.

Well as u know, making such long exposures requires you to have a sturdy tripod which is a MUST for night photography, and a Smartphone mounting system. For the latter, I use the simple spring mount which is part of a selfie stick system, to be mounted on a used Giottos ball head. Below images show how the whole set up looks like.

Basically I was able to travel light without the burden of a camera bag, a heavy dSLR camera and lenses. Free and easy! Setting up time is short and fast. Mounting and dismounting the phone camera is so simple and the tripod is quite light-weighed yet sturdy to carry around. I would say if you want some fun and interesting yet light and simple set up, this is the one to go for.

OK here are the rest of the light trails photos I made for your viewing pleasure.

Tutorials on using Slow Shutter Cam app is available here.

All light trails were created on Apple iPhone 6 Plus with Slow Shutter Cam app except the 2 phone camera set up images.

App settings:

Capture Mode set on Light Trail • 1/16 Light Sensitivity • 15 seconds Shutter Speed • 3 seconds Self-timer • Intervalometer off • Picture Resolution at HD1080 • Picture Aspect Ratio - Native • Picture File Format - JPG • Post-processed in Snapseed 2.0 except last image was merged with 2 images in Adobe Photoshop Mix 2.0 and further adjusted in Snapseed 2.0