christmas 2008 (the moments)

christmas is aroung the corner, more photos to come soon...

2008 rpi hair down night (the moments)

chinatown new year market (the moments)

2008 new year fireworks display (the journey)

as usual, there is the routine fireworks display at esplanade to celebrate the arrival of a new year. this year, i have decided to try my hands on fireworks photography at kallang river. i prefer this location instead of esplanade because i am able to include singapore flyer in the photo, together with some cityscape and reflection on the river. it was a nice moment shooting fireworks for the first time, and along the way, i picked up some good experience for my future firework photos.

1. a sturdy tripod and a working remote are needed, my hand triggering due to faulty remote couples with strong wind blowing, has caused unacceptable lost of sharpness in the photos
2. basic understanding of the fireworks arrangement and burst height is needed for proper framing of photos
   
3. exposure time of 8sec or less is better to prevent overlapping of bursts, which you are unable to block in time with black card for frequent and rapid explosion. longer exposure time is acceptable for non frequent burst
4. black card is a must

2008 new year fireworks display (the moments)

chinatown lantern festival (the journey)

normally i prefer subject which is natural and am not so keen in architectural stuff. however, since my wife has strongly suggested that i should take the camera for a spin at chinatown, finally we went down during yesterday's chinatown lantern festival's launching event. it was a lazy saturday evening so i have decided not to bring my tripod but keep my iso at a constant 800. time to verify various reviewers' comment on how good is d40's high iso image.

i was quite disappointed with the event's "scale", a lot of spectactors, for a small parade with only a few huge electrical lanterns and lion/dragon dance. by the time i managed to find a good spot, the parade has just went passed me. damn, i missed my hometown! small place, yeah, but the parade is one of the most attractive i have been to.

i tweaked my system -0.7ev after reading-up ken's articles but later realized that all the photos were slightly underexposed and i have to use photoshop to bring up the brightness slightly. the discrepancy is most probably because ken plays his d40 like a pns camera in matrix metering mode but i am a spotter. i prefer to spot-meter a mid gray, tune my camera into manual exposure mode and start shooting. i shouldn't be tweaking any exposure compensation before hand, a lesson learned.

chinatown lantern festival (the moments)