Kitty Cat Sat On The Wall

Kitty Cat Sat On The Wall

© 2010 Martin Liew Photography

Good evening! Here's another night photograph of Tiong Bahru alleyway, not far away from the last photograph posted here. As the photo title says it all. Did you spot the cat? It's a long exposure of 3 minutes 30 seconds and despite the cat sat quietly and motionlessly on the wall, it turned its head a few times. Hence its head appears out of focus, but still distinguishable at a closer look.

Casted shadows of nearby trees and building structures made this photograph more dramatic, if not interesting. The light that hit across the white wall forming nice gradient shades of grey. These are some of the attributes I always look out for in night streets photography.

Then The Quiet Alley

Then The Quiet Alley

© 2010 Martin Liew Photography

In mid 2010 I visited Tiong Bahru on one weekend with my Shanghai TLR camera loaded with a roll of Rollei Retro 400 black and white film. I was trying to look for some nice ambience and subjects for night photography. Tiong Bahru today has flourished into a historically significant estate, combining its rich heritage and push for modernisation into a truly unique aesthetic.

I came across this quiet alley way and really like the ambience and atmosphere. Hence I set up my tripod and camera, and made the first exposure of the Rollei film for 3 minutes 30 seconds. Film was later developed in Kodak D76 1:1 dilution for 9 minutes 20 seconds. Dried negatives were scanned on EPSON V700 and post-processed in Photoshop for better contrast.

Will share more Tiong Bahru night photos in the coming blog posts. Do subscribe for new updates.

A Chair & A Ladder

A Chair & A Ladder

© 2009 Martin Liew Photography

Good evening! In my last blog I mentioned about posting a couple of night photographs with which I made on the same night on 23rd May 2009, Saturday. So here's one and let me share with you on the making of this night photograph.

Seletar Camp was formerly the site of the largest British Royal Air Force (RAF) base in the Far East. Plans to redevelop the Seletar area for Singapore’s aerospace needs were announced in 2006. Work on the project began in 2007 and is expected to complete by 2018. Helmed by JTC, the proposed Seletar Aerospace Park project was carried out on some 140 hectare of land. When completed, the park will serve as a key centre for aerospace activities such as the maintenance, repair and overhaul of aircraft engines.

Some of the proposed changes to the area include lengthening the existing runway at Seletar Airport and building a new airport control tower. To make way for these changes, some parts of Seletar Camp were demolished or shut down, including the Seletar Base Golf Course, one of the few golf courses open to the public. The members-only Seletar Country Club, on the other hand, remains open. One hundred and seventy-four out of the 378 colonial black-and-white bungalows were demolished to make way for redevelopment.

While the economic downturn in 2009 had affected the Seletar Aerospace Park project, measures taken by the JTC, such as extending expired leases to companies occupying the site, helped to put the project back on track when the economy recovered. It was during this time period, I visited the place. Some buildings were abandoned and left empty which could be preparation for the redevelopment. The doors to the abandoned buildings were left opened and I went in to explore.

It was so pitch dark that I couldn't see my own fingers. I brought along a powerful LED flash light with which I was able to find my way around. I took the stairs to the second floor and there I saw this damaged chair at the end of the corridor, right outside a bunker. Behind the chair, a wooden ladder leaned against the wall. In that instant, I knew this set-up would be good for photography. No shifting or re-arrangement of the chair and ladder was made. I wanted to make photographs as I saw it.

Quickly I set up my tripod and mounted the camera to get the desired composition. Then I paused and thought of ways to make the first exposure. It was pitch dark and leaving the shutter open on Bulb mode is a must. The crucial part is how to light the subjects. If you take a closer look at the above photograph, you can see obviously where the shadows fall and where the light source came from.

Yes I walked into the bunker with the strobe, stood about one and a half meter away from the door frame. There, I pointed at the chair and fired two flashes. Next I walked up to the door frame, still remained out of sight from the camera, I switched on my LED flash light set at a lower lumen power and started to light paint the wooden ladder for about a minute. The shutter was still opened until I closed it at a stop time of 3 minutes 30 seconds.

So that's it. That was how this night photograph was made. In the following month, I came back to this place on every weekend for more night photography. I brought my digital SLR camera and other useful light painting tools. Many successful photographs were made, including this damaged chair.

I hope you enjoy my night photography work. Good night.

Ghost Tree

Ghost Tree

© 2009 Martin Liew Photography

Here's another night photograph I made on that same night with the white guardhouse in our last blog post. It stood strongly within the Seletar Air Base premise along the roadside, about a hundred meters away from the white guardhouse. Not too sure if this dead tree is still around.

It does look creepy and spooky as it stood against the dark night sky and has an open field in the background. Street lights hardly cast upon the dead tree in whole. The lighting effect you see here in the photograph was created using a portable manual strobe. At aperture f/8.0, I opened the shutter for 36 seconds. Within this short time, I fired the strobe twice to the left side of the tree and once to the right side, in full power. As the flashlight fell off shortly and quickly, the light could only reach the foreground and a little further mid-range of the crooked tree branches. Leaving the ones further behind in silhouettes. Hence it has this pop-up three-dimensional effect. Somehow or rather the lighting made this dead tree looks "alive".

There are quite a few soft spots/bokehs in this photograph. You can see that the bottom left corner thick tree trunk or branch has this motion blur effect. The middle part foreground tree branch is out of focus. The only focused area is the main tree trunk covered with ferns. It's all due to the wide-angle lens I fitted on the taking lens of Shanghai TLR camera. The lens is meant for normal camcorder usage and its thread size fits perfectly right on the TLR taking lens. Focussing with this lens is challenging. This night photograph wouldn't be made possible without this wide-angle lens.

I'll be posting and sharing another two night photographs which I made on that same night with this ghost tree. Do come back. If you have not subscribed to my blog, do so for new updates. Thank you for your time. 

Good night.

White House

White House

© 2009 Martin Liew Photography

I was out doing light painting at Seletar Air Base in the wee hours on 23rd May 2009, Saturday. I brought 2 cameras with me on that night – Nikon D300 and Shanghai TLR. In case you're curious and want to find out what are the color night photographs I made, here's the blog in which the photographs are featured.

As I made my way out towards the main gate, there was this guardhouse and I stopped to make one exposure with my Shanghai TLR camera on Kodak TMAX 400. The shutter was opened for 36 seconds. The film was later developed in Kodak D76 (full stock) for 6 minutes. Negatives were scanned on EPSON V700 flatbed scanner and post-processed in Photoshop for better contrast.

I will show more other black and white night photographs I made on that same roll of TMAX 400. Do subscribe to my blog for new updates.