= Stefan's Weekly Singapore City/Landscapes II =

[SomeFormOFhuman]

I was in Singapore last week and tried 3 hours in Tiong Bahru to search for the exact location where you captured your photo #197. I failed. I have chance to visit Singapore next month. Could you please reveal the exact location to me so that I can shoot this photo? Thanks a lot.

Check your PM. Anyway I plan to redo this shot sometime again when the skies are much clearer.

 

[SomeFormOFhuman]

#246

Simply, Kranji

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2 Image HDR/DRI, 2 image vertorama using GND 0.9 soft + GND 0.6 soft + ND 0.9 for smoothed water effects. Kranji Beach, Singapore.

It's been a while since I picked up the camera and head down for a simple shoot on the beach. Took a break from photography to do my many other hobbies of interest(s). Yes, I am a man of many hobbies, many other interesting things I enjoy doing in life.

It was a mistake of me coming here pretty late at this time of the year, as I wanted the sun to set somewhere over that hill. Also I personally felt this place is a little difficult to compose, or attain any leading lines. Disliked this greatly because it has no point in the story, or any emotional build-up. Well, better luck next year.

 

[SomeFormOFhuman]

Back from the grave, everyone. Hope everyone's fine.

#247

Good Evening, My Neighbourhood

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2 Image HDR/DRI 20 image verto + panorama using GND 0.9 soft. Ang Mo Kio Central, Singapore.

Been a while since I've shot anything lately. Here's a simple one from Ang Mo Kio. The light here is awesome.

 

[SomeFormOFhuman]

#248

Chrunchy Kranji​

2 Image HDR/DRI 2 image vertorama using GND 0.6 hard + ND 0.9 x2 to achieve 6 stops for smoothed water effects. Kranji Beach, Singapore. Once again shot with the Sony A99 + 16-35mm Zeiss.

It's also been a looong time (probably about a year) since I've stepped foot on that place. I've always wanted to experiment shooting at a tide level of 2.0m, so here it is. Not sure why I named it Crunchy Kranji though. Probably because it rhymes, and somehow the messy, dark brown grungy foreground makes me kinda want to... Eat chocolates? LOL.

The yellow leaf stuck onto the fallen tree branch on the left was kinda icing on the cake to break the rhythm of a dreadful foreground. Yellow - Hmm, that's like putting butter on chocolate. Wonder how'd that taste like.

 

[MGohzxc]

#248 - nice shot!!!! great job...

 

[SomeFormOFhuman]

#248 - nice shot!!!! great job...

Thanks.

#249

Seaweed Calling

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2 Image HDR/DRI using GND 0.6 hard. Punggol Beach, Singapore.

School has started, time is running out. My shooting days are numbered and I realised I'm not getting the same freedom as I did the last time. I thank my lucky weekday mornings from now on.

Anyway, I know seaweed does exist among side of Punggol, but not until this much. I remembered coming here during low-tide, I do not recall seeing much seaweed everywhere. Couldn't help but take a shot at it.

Once again, not much processing has been done to the shot, other than slightly brightening the foreground, because light was still dim. The detail and sharpness from the A99 + 16-35 is phenomenal.

 

[SomeFormOFhuman]

#250

Trapped & The Unreachable Paradise

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2 Image HDR/DRI using GND 0.6 hard. Punggol Beach, Singapore.

I feel kinda trapped over here in this part of Punggol Beach. Everywhere I turn I see nothing but rocks and stones. There's no leading line, there's very little foreground of interest, or probably because I'm not scrutinising creatively hard enough... But yeah I feel kinda trapped here, all I see is a nice hill in the distant separated by a body of water and rocks all over. I gotta find a way to get out of here to the other side...

Not sure why I actually took this (feels kinda random, actually) but probably just an expression how I felt standing there. And I hope you feel the same.

Rocks. Rocks, everywhere.

UPDATE: Fxied dust spot issue at left side.

 

[SomeFormOFhuman]

#251

Intrude

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2 Image HDR/DRI using GND 0.6 hard. Punggol Beach, Singapore.

Last one. After walking around this tyre caught my eye. It was so large, visually loud and so intrusive to the surrounding natural environment. But thoughout the years moss and algae appear to grow on it, perhaps nature trying hard to "swallow" making it part of its surrounding.

I could've stood further away to take a shot at it with its surroundings but no, I've decided to go up close this ugly thing, to exaggerate how "loud" and monstrously ugly it is standing there. Perhaps some sort of a WWII relic.

 

[SomeFormOFhuman]

#252

My Muddy Adventure

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2 Image HDR/DRI 2 image vertorama using GND 0.9 soft. Pasir Ris Park, Singapore.

I don't really like this shot as it seems really random and subjectless. But I've decided to process and upload here as a constant reminder of my worst shooting (muddy) experience in Pasir Ris.

I was all alone in the area and admittedly panicked for a while. I nearly cried for help. Stricken, I managed to pry myself out of the knee-deep mud in which I sank in - using my tripod as an anchor, I knelt down onto the mud to reduce spread of weight of my body + camera gear evenly onto the ground as the feet was the point of pressure.

Perhaps my adventurous spirit to uncover new views of this area has left me immobilised. My footprints in front of me, felt this sinking feeling on the shin of my legs, I realised this was as far as I could go. And that's how this shot was created - I was stuck right here when I shot this.

Look at the behind-the-scenes pictures below and you'll see what I mean. It was a good thing I wore above-knee shorts or else...

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After getting out of the mud, my sandals were stuck mud-deep and my hands were dirty. I managed to get my sandals out out the mud, and that makes my left hand even muddier...[/td]

[td]

And with only my right hand clean and intact, how the hell am I supposed to shoot or dismount my camera??!! (Wait, it isn't mine - it's Sony's. And that makes things much worst if I screw anything up with it)

I don't know how I did it, but I strapped the camera to my neck, unlocked the ballhead lever all with just my right hand, carried the tripod and slowly got out of there. Thankfully there's a wash area to get all that mud out of my legs.[/td]
[td][/td]
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[edutilos-]

Just wipe the mud on your butt and wash that when you get home. :bsmilie:

My worst was falling into half-filled water body in Punggol (think they were reclaiming it or something). I nearly thought I would die when I went in up till my waist. :bsmilie:

Those are nice clouds btw, pity about the light.

 

[SomeFormOFhuman]

Just wipe the mud on your butt and wash that when you get home. :bsmilie:

My worst was falling into half-filled water body in Punggol (think they were reclaiming it or something). I nearly thought I would die when I went in up till my waist. :bsmilie:

Those are nice clouds btw, pity about the light.

Hey thanks man. Yeah and the worst part is, I travelled all the way there, only to see no sunrise at all but cloudy skies. So I was like, what the heck man, it's as though I suffered all this for nothing. LOL. Anyway well I guess that's part of a shooting journey. I'm pretty sure some of us shooters have experienced stuff like this from time to time. Just gotta be careful. Anyway, no one's perfect, it was still a great (fearful) experience. :bsmilie:

 

[SomeFormOFhuman]

#253

Changi Dreaming

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2 Image HDR/DRI f9 for foreground + 2 Image f7.1 ISO 800 for horizon, single f5.6 image for water using GND 0.9, 2 image panorama to relief spatial proportion on right side. Changi Beach, Singapore.

I received sad news - The news that said the time has come to return the camera to its maker, Sony. Probably one of my last few shots taken with the A99. Will miss the phenomenal image quality and dynamic range of this beast of a camera and 16-35mm Carl Zeiss setup.

There's so much I wanted to do but so little time. Too bad, I guess. Back to my 7D once again.

 

[ryanzyx]

Thank you, guys. Thank you for your support!

#240

Misery At The Elgin



Single Image RAW, 2 image panorama to relief left side spatial tightness, ISO 50 + f16 to achieve 400 seconds shutter speed for smoothed water effects and continuous river boat trail lights. Elgin Bridge, Singapore.

The weather wasn't really to my advantage, but the clouds were moving incredibly fast - so I thought of trying super long exposure to achieve smoothed cloud and water effects.

Within 5 minutes of long exposure, many boats came and the effects given off from it were neat. Thus, minimal post-processing was done to it.

Hi Stefan, I have a question about your long exposure 5 mins for this picture.. I have tried 3 mins long exposure during the sunset and the result quite a lot of noise that even topaz denoise unable to really remove all of that.. How do handle noise in 5mins exposure? Do you mind to share? Thanks a lot..

 

[SomeFormOFhuman]

Hi Stefan, I have a question about your long exposure 5 mins for this picture.. I have tried 3 mins long exposure during the sunset and the result quite a lot of noise that even topaz denoise unable to really remove all of that.. How do handle noise in 5mins exposure? Do you mind to share? Thanks a lot..

Hey there Ryan, thanks for asking. Do make sure you're using the lowest ISO possible. I didn't have any problem with noise - at least with the Sony A99 I used. Let me know what's your setup and exposure settings and I'll take a look at it. Thanks.

#254

The Galactic Center​

2 Image HDR/DRI 3 image vertorama to relief bottom spatial tightness. Ang Mo Kio, Singapore.

A view that has been shot to death by hundreds and hundreds of avid landscape shooters. But, every time the sun path hits that "pointed" center, it's never a miss opportunity to capture that. This was why I thought a while if I really wanted to post-process this as I've shot this a couple of times beforehand. Just do it anyway...

Shot this sometime in mid-July 2013.

 

[tecnica]

#254, always a beautiful place to shoot from when the sun hit dead centre.

 

[ACWIV]

Great shots, good write ups too. Adds to the interest, as I love knowing how a shot comes about.

 

[jtsky]

Like #254. Nice thread.

 

[macaroni]

I don't really like this shot as it seems really random and subjectless. But I've decided to process and upload here as a constant reminder of my worst shooting (muddy) experience in Pasir Ris.

I was all alone in the area and admittedly panicked for a while. I nearly cried for help. Stricken, I managed to pry myself out of the knee-deep mud in which I sank in - using my tripod as an anchor, I knelt down onto the mud to reduce spread of weight of my body + camera gear evenly onto the ground as the feet was the point of pressure.

Perhaps my adventurous spirit to uncover new views of this area has left me immobilised. My footprints in front of me, felt this sinking feeling on the shin of my legs, I realised this was as far as I could go. And that's how this shot was created - I was stuck right here when I shot this.

Look at the behind-the-scenes pictures below and you'll see what I mean. It was a good thing I wore above-knee shorts or else...

[table="width: 800, align: center"]
[tr]
And with only my right hand clean and intact, how the hell am I supposed to shoot or dismount my camera??!! (Wait, it isn't mine - it's Sony's. And that makes things much worst if I screw anything up with it)

I don't know how I did it, but I strapped the camera to my neck, unlocked the ballhead lever all with just my right hand, carried the tripod and slowly got out of there. Thankfully there's a wash area to get all that mud out of my legs.[/td]
[td][/td]
[/tr]
[/table]

Salute your effort.

 

[SomeFormOFhuman]

Thank you everyone, glad you guys liked it!!

#255

Good Night, My Neighbourhood

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2 Image HDR/DRI 14 image, 7x2 row Verto+Pano using GND 0.6 soft. Ang Mo Kio, Singapore. Shot with the Sony A99 + 16-35mm lens.

The twilight hour version of the previous shot: http://www.flickr.com/photos/_stefano_/9519111413/ Just never really thought of uploading this, and thus hesitant about it.
Well, decided to give a try anyway.

 

[edutilos-]

2 Image HDR/DRI 14 image, 7x2 row Verto+Pano using GND 0.6 soft. Ang Mo Kio, Singapore. Shot with the Sony A99 + 16-35mm lens.

Great, I like this better than the previous versions actually. I need to get here soon... So many places to go, so little time.