Shooting Landscape - Pulau Ubin

I have always enjoyed photographing landscape. It is where you can really get creative. There are various tips for landscape photography. You may find that most of the times your photos look more or less the same as everyone else. That is because you are thinking like everyone else. Lets see some tips.

1. Use different depth of field (DOP). For a bit more creative landscape photography, use variations in your DOP. USe small apertures for example. Re-calibrate your horizon line.
2. Follow the rule of thirds, and break that rule at times.
3. Here again, if you want to shoot waterfalls, traffic or clear and sharp photos, always use a tripod.

Night photography - Gardens by the Bay

The Gardens by the Bay, at Marina bay, an icon and a central piece to turning Singapore into a "green city". It consists of 3 integral parts. It opened for a preview for a week, but the official opening is only for 2012. But we are not here to talk about that.

Night photography, a total different way of shooting. The exposures are longer, and the settings and lighting can make a whole difference. Want some rules of thumb? Some tips perhaps?

Well here are some useful advices.

rule 1. ALWAYS shoot using a tripod. It will give you the greatest flexibility to get the angles you need while keeping your camera steady for those long exposures. But guess what, for the photos taken below, I did not have a tripod. I did not even have a SLR. So I should go back and do the shoot one more time, properly that is.

TIP 2. Use wide angles. I love wide angles for night photography. I am not going to explain why, just try it out for yourself and you will find out why.

TIP 3. You want to minimize flares from outside light, simple... Use a lens hood.

TIP 4. Bring a flashlight, there are some very powerful 3watt, LED pen-size flashlight bring one along. Why? Simply because your camera requires light to focus. For some darker objects or subjects shine the flashlight onto it,this will allow your camera to focus properly.

TIP 5. Shooting water and traffic lights? Try long exposures, 15sec and above.

Portrait Photography

If you are keen in portrait photography, here are a few general tips you may want to remember.

1. Maintain good eye contact with the subject. Many people ask me where to focus when taking photos of a person. My advice is focus at the eyes. Make sure the eyes are as sharp as possible.

2. I know I just said keep good eye contact. But at times, you need to break this rule. "There are a lot of ‘rules’ out there when it comes to composition and I’ve always had a love hate relationship with them. My theory is that while they are useful to know and employ that they are also useful to know so you can purposely break them", in fact learn to break all of them.

3. Experiment with lighting. Side lighting, front lighting, back lighting, use a bounce flash, use a reflector. Just keep shooting the same subject but with different lighting sources. You may just be amazed.

4. Sometimes posed shots can look somewhat…. posed. Some people don’t look good in a posed environment and so switching to a candid type approach can work. The trick I apply at times, is to keep the subject in focus and immediately take a second shot once the first one is done. Usually subjects feel more relaxed in the second shot.

5. There are rules in photography, like the rule of third. For portrait, it is usually advised to give space to the subject and to apply the rule of third. Remember point 2 above. Break them. A variation on the idea of zooming in on one part of the body is to obscure parts of your portrait subject’s face or body. You can do this with clothing, body parts like their hands or just by framing part of them out of the image. This leaves the viewer to use his imagination and of course you only focus on what is want viewers to pay attention to.

Some photos of our Moon

I think the photos speak for themselves, no need for further explanations

Marina Bay, a view from the barrage

Marina Bay is Singapore playground. It is where the F1 grandprix is hosted, where they have the national day parade. It is where the classy hotels are located, the top tier investment banks, the nice restaurants. It is where the casino lies.

From the barrage, you can enjoy very scenic view of the bay skyline, and at night, most people go there to take photographs.

Melaka Drive

The Portuguese came to Malacca in 1511 and ruled the place till 1641. When they arrived at the shores of Melaka, the first thing they did was build a fort overlooking the river. They named it A Famosa. The A Famosa is one of the oldest European Architecture present in Southeast Asia.

Today, Melaka is a world heritage city, this is supposedly declared by UNESCO. Well, it has many small museums, many small temples, several food corners, a small zoo, many over-rated hotels, and 2 big malls. Construction and urban development over there is like a bee hive, always busy, always on the move. There are more projects getting starting than being completed.

But that is another story. Here are some photos I took around the 2 malls in Melaka.