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.

Lastly, do subscribe to my blog for new night photos updates and do follow me on my Instagram and NQN Instagram.

Night Street Photo – One Way & No Others No. 3

Version 1 – NIKON D70s • Tamron 17-35mm
RAW file post-processed in Photoshop

Version 2 – Apple iPhone 6 Plus on Camera+

JPEG post-processed in Photoshop

Good evening nightographers! Tonight I'm sharing with you 2 new night street photos I made last Friday night. I was out in the street of Little India and came across this alleyway. So I thought it would be a nice spot to do "fishing". I took a few test shots for exposure and composition while waiting for the right subject to walk into the frame. Though it's not a busy alleyway with heavy human traffic however there are people walking by from time to time. I made as many photos as possible and these two photos stood out pretty strong, which I like it very much.

Which version do you prefer? Let me know of your preference in the Comment section below.

Lastly, do subscribe to my blog for new night photos update and follow me on my Instagram and NQN Instagram.

Not Quite Night series #91

Good evening nightographers! It's another night blog to share my new night street photograph on Not Quite Night series. Tonight I would be taking you to this interesting location where I made NQN #91. So let's jump right into.

Night 38

Street Silence

Zebra Crossing

Rainy Duxton

Night Rain

Unique Bus-stop

Not Quite Night series #90

Good evening nightographers! I hope everyone is safe and sound at home, reading my blog at this point in time. Tonight I'm putting up the latest night street photograph for the Not Quite Night series. 

It's been a long agonizing nine months since the last NQN photo was posted on the first day of the year 2020. I can't wait to show you my new NQN work. So let's jump right into.

Last Glimpse of Sentosa's Merlion

Good evening night dwellers!

5 years ago I made this star trail photo of our Sentosa resort island's Merlion, and posted on this blog site. Why do i share it again? News was out today that works are under way to demolish the tallest Merlion in Singapore. So I thought it would be interesting to share it again.

It was announced in September last year that this 37 meters tall statue is making way for a themed thoroughfare that will link Sentosa's north and south shores. This is a part of the long-term plan to reshape the resort island and the adjacent Pulau Brani into a premier leisure and tourism destination.

The last day of operations for the Sentosa Merlion was 20 October 2019.  It was designed by Australian sculptor James Martin and built in 1995. So for the last glimpse of this Merlion current status, check out The Straits Times photo.

That's all for tonight's blog post. Have a great weekend.

Doorway

Photo info:

iPhone 6+ on Camera mode. Post-processed and black & white conversion in Snapseed. Further enhancement in Adobe Photoshop.

Street Photography in Punggol

Two days ago, I woke up really early just to reach Punggol before the first light. I made it on time and took the first shot (shown above) with my iPhone 6 Plus using Camera+ app. Really love the atmosphere. I continued to stroll along the park connector pavement like I'm having my morning walk or exercise, enjoying the morning fresh air and the surrounding environment.

Then I came to this spot and looked at it for a few moments before I lifted up my phone camera to make another shot. Upon previewing the photo, it looks like a black and white photo, hence I converted it in Snapseed, and this is how it looks like.

I like that 'S' shaped pavement on the right side where our subject just seen running into the scene as I pressed the digital shutter button. I like the tile textures on the sitting structure in the foreground, too and the casted shadows of the railing against the ground, in contrast with the overhead horizontal panels. A wall mural in the far background, somehow makes this photo more interesting.

This is the wall mural. Drawings of robots in different shapes and designs with dialogues, seem quite comedic. As the morning light spread across the Punggol sky, slipping through the overhead panels, leaving the strong street lamp to the far left of the frame, I made the shot.

I wish I could venture and explore more other parts of the area or other location in Punggol for more beautiful first light or twilight photos. But the sun was already rising up, and I think it gave me good reason for more future visits.

I Could See Lights At The Edge of All Things

I Could See Lights At The Edge of All Things

© 2010 Martin Liew Photography

Good evening nightographers! Hope all of you are safe and healthy. Tonight I'm showing another old photograph from my photo archive. This photograph was made ten years ago on 9th July 2010, Friday.

A few months earlier, the news was reported about the closure of Tanjong Pagar Railway Station aka Keppel Road Railway Station. The station was the southern terminus of the network operated by Keretapi Tanah Melayu (KTM), the main railway operator in Malaysia. It was completed on 3rd May 1932 and officially opened by Sir Cecil Clementi. It was around for 79 years before it ceased operations on 1st July 2011 with the relocation of the KTM station to Woodlands Train Checkpoint.

The land on which the station and the KTM railway tracks stood was originally owned by KTM and over which Malaysia had partial sovereignty. This arrangement lasted until 30th June 2011 where the land was reverted to Singapore and to be reserved as the Singapore Railway Museum.

On that night, I visited the railway station and walked all the way to the end of the station platform and beyond, right up to this signal box where it was situated about 400 meters away. As it had since ceased operations and no one was around, I took the stairs up to the second-level balcony area, and I was in awe to see this night scenery before my eyes. Quickly I set up my tripod and mounted my camera prepared to make some exposures. However, there were motorcyclists who rode by from time to time, further into and out of a small village-like community area just around the corner, where I found out later there was a Malay food restaurant. Well, I guess people came by to enjoy the food and gathered with co-workers and friends before all are gone for good.

Initially, I wanted to capture the night scenery without any vehicle light trails, and I did try but they just kept on passing by. So I thought "What the heck!" just went along with it. A strong sodium-vapor spot light hit diagonally across this wooden house with a huge 2-seater sofa in the front and a coconut tree set in the background. The weather was great with fleeting clouds overhead. At that moment I felt everything fell into place and went on to make two exposures, and this is how the night photograph came about.

A Walk In The Garden No. 4

A Walk In The Garden No. 4

© 2010 Martin Liew Photography

Good evening! Tonight I'm featuring this last night photograph of Toa Payoh Garden. It's probably one of the most favourable spots to make photographs of this stone bridge. I did one similar photograph last year on 29th December for my Not Quite Night project. Same subject different camera position.

Tonight I would not say much about this photograph. I let the photograph speaks for itself. Do subscribe or follow my blog by email for new updates.

Photo Info:

Shanghai TLR | f/16 Bulb mode - 3 mins 30 secs | Ilford HP5 Plus | Film developed in Kodak D76 1:1 dilution 10 mins 24 secs | Scanned on EPSON V700 | Post-processed in Photoshop

A Walk In The Garden No. 3

A Walk In The Garden No. 3

© 2010 Martin Liew Photography

Good evening and welcome to another showcase of night photograph made in Toa Payoh Garden. This is another vantage spot I found pretty interesting. The juxtaposition between the stone bridge, bent tree trunk and the curvature of concrete railing that bent in the opposite direction from the former two subjects.

It has this visual contrast of three different subjects of different textures that create bending lines on the somewhat orderly symmetrical lines of the wooden boardwalk. Negative space was applied on the foreground to balance the 3 heavily subjects on the upper half of the composition.

The stone bridge and bent tree trunk lead viewer's eyes in clockwise direction, from the upper left frame to the bending concrete railing on the right, all the way down to the bottom, and back again to the former two subjects.

I wouldn't say this is one good abstract photograph or visual pleasing photograph that I consider as fine art, but in terms of composition, light and shadows and textures, I'm totally satisfied and happy with it.

Photo Info:

Shanghai TLR | f/16 Bulb mode - 3 mins 30 secs | Ilford HP5 Plus | Film developed in Kodak D76 1:1 dilution 10 mins 24 secs | Scanned on EPSON V700 | Post-processed in Photoshop