BOKEH

Making best use of the 50mm portrait lens to produce some bokeh effects. Switch to f1.8 to f2.8 for best effects.



A "normal" bokeh with christmas lights behind the figurine.


Using a self-made love-shaped filter to transform the christmas lights into love shape. (Cheng Cheng, thanks for the lovely figurine from US !)


Another self-made paper filter with a bear-shaped this time


There you are ... the love shaped paper filter. I bought some black papers (papers must not be too soft or thin; $0.40 each piece), get some dimensions of the camera lens, draw the shape on the paper and use a pen-knife to cut the shape out. Use a rubber band to secure the filters to the camera lens.


The bear-shaped filter


This is how I took the photos with a busy-body dog accompanying me throughout my shooting ! It wasn't as easy as I thought to take these bokeh photos. The greatest hindrance is that the camera refused to focus on the main subject ! Still trying to find out why this happens. Overall, it was a fun session! CK came back in time to see the "mess" I have created in the living room with christmas lights scattered on the chair and the black papers trimmings on the floor ! Bahwahwah !

My new compact camera !!!

I just cannot resist ! No, I can't ! I concocted a reason why I needed another camera ! In fact, it can just be any reason ...

Anyhow, I went ahead to Cathay Photo at Peninsula Plaza to buy this compact white beauty. Hahaha, CK should have known when I told him that I am going Peninsula Plaza to buy something ! Something fishy MUST be going on !



My white Olympus XZ-1 !!! It came in 2 colours ... black or white.


It has a large aperture of 1.8 !!! Kool !


The dial button and lens does have some similar look to a Olympus Pen.


The back of the camera with a relatively large screen. I tried my hands on this camera and was quite used to it already. Will post more of photos taken with this newest toy !

EPL1

I saw the beauty in the newspapers. I was so determined to get it by all means ! Images of dressing up the Olympus Pen delighted me for days !



With the new launch of EPL2, EPL1 has to give way and therefore explains a current promotion now. I wanted to try a different brand and technology besides Canon and Nikon. Olympus Pen is a Micro Four Thirds digital camera and is like between a compact and DSLR camera with exchangeable lenses. (2nd picture)

I got ready my cash and my man to drive me to Mscolour at AMK.

Somehow, when I held the rather retro-looking camera and shot some samples of the surroundings, I was not exactly very satisfied or excited about the quality of the images taken. Rather disappointing. Maybe I should wait ...

Since we have made a special trip there, I tried using Canon S95 which is relatively good for low-lights condition shooting. The black alumite finish aluminium cover of the camera looks so sophisticated! (Canon S95 is a very compact camera)


The salesman was very supportive of Sony camera and kept introducing me a similar model to that of EPL-1. However, I did have my reservations about Sony products. Firstly, my first-ever owned Sony Vaios laptop did not even survived the 2 years installment period I have taken up many years ago. Secondly, our Birthday gift to my cousin, a Sony Digital camera, was spolit after only a year. So I was very hesitant to make an impulse decision on the spot.

With CK besides me, strongly discouraging me to buy any cameras, I relented. However, I could not bring myself to leave Mscolour without anything, seriously !
In the end, I bought a Nikon 50mm potrait lens which I absolutely loved !!! It costs me $195 but it was all worth it !

Testing out the lens at home.

Neophotography

Always impressed by Dr New's photos.
Here are his latest works done, all taken in isolated parts of China. Despite the inconvenience, the awesome scenery seems worth it. The endless stretch of plains, mountains and local people seems so attractive.

(Quality of photos have been shrunk and was not as good as seen in pbase)

元阳




Looks so magical ...

罗平

"Cai Yu Hua" which covered the plains ... a sea of fresh lemony yellow.

Love the silky effects of the waterfall.

泸西小白彝村




The uniqueness of the people in this village ! They all look so contented and happy ...

永宁乡城子村


Love the first photo's composition .. very pleasing to the eyes !

A wonderful day @ Botanical Garden (18 Dec'10)

Singapore Botanical Gardens, with her lush beauty, admired by many is indeed a place worth visiting! To me, it is a must to visit in early morning of the day for that crisp fresh air and relatively cooling climate.

Moving around the vast grounds of Botanical Gardens at a slower pace was pretty relaxing. The greenery and beautiful landscape will stop your feet to explore more.

We met at different entrances of Botanical Gardens through miscommunications. CK, Jojo and myself walked to Cluny Park Gate to meet up with Cheng, JL and Min Min. It took us almost 25 minutes to walk from the Tanglin Gate, this shows just how big the garden is.

We bought a pear danish, croissant and a bottle of mineral water to eat a simple breakfast around the symphony lake. Cheng has also baked a yummy banana cake for me. Thank you :)

I told Cheng that we should organise a picnic and bring our own food and drinks in Botanical Garden next year ! It should be very fun and the kids can run freely in the open fields ! By the way, Jojo enjoyed his walk around the Botanical Garden too ! He was so excited that we brought out his "gai gai" bag that morning and skipped around the house !


JL, you are taller than your mummy now ! I didn't realised till I saw this photo !


Some of the trees are turning yellowish. So autumn feeling ! We saw 2 or 3 pair of newly weds in the garden that day !


The amazing roots of the well-aligned trees along the path, couldn't resist but to take some photos of my friends there!


A man-made waterfall ...


So green .....


I just love this old old tree with it's long branch stretching out towards the open field ! The branch is so charming with it's beautiful patterned stripes that ran smoothly to the twig. This particular branch is so big and heavy that it needed 2 supports to hold it up !


So Jojo, this is mummy's favourite tree in Singapore! U must take with the tree ... hahahaha


My friends must take with my favourite tree too !


Such a romantic spot!

Trains trains ....

The 78-year-old Tanjong Pagar railway station will be relocated to Woodlands from July 2011 onwards. It's going to mark another historical moment for many Singaporeans and Malaysians even to those who did not travel by this mode of transportation.

I love those old old tracks ... they brought back a lot of nostalgic moments. I remembered my only railway experience on train operated by Keretapi Tanah Melayu Berhad (KTMB) was when I was 13 years old. It was an unforgettable trip with my mum, uncle, aunties and cousins to Genting. The continuous teasing from my annoying male cousins probably was one of my "highlights" and why I remember vividly this trip so well. Lol, now we are all middle age citizens liao. That was indeed a very rare trip for many of us during that time. People were not that affluent and a trip like this meant a lot to us.

I requested CK to bring me to the railway tracks near Verde Road. Somehow, that was not very ideal location to take photos as there seems insufficient space to avoid the train. CK suggested the tracks behind Garden Vista Condo along Bukit Timah Road. That is indeed a better location. It was actually quite dangerous to walk outside the tracks. While we were there, a train came by and it was quite frightening. Recently, there was a chinese national that was found dead near the track in Hillview. When I thought of that, I couldn't help feeling that it was downright dangerous ! Jojo was shivering when the train passed by him !!!

Anyhow, here we are ... the tracks where train goes by.

iLight @ Marina

Check out this site if you are interested --> http://www.ilightmarinabay.sg/

Our beautiful Marina Bay area is taking shape !!! This place is definitely one of our pride when we showcase this breath-taking scene to our overseas friends !

We happen to know about iLight@Marina from the news. This is a good opportunity to practice my night scenes shoots ! The only problem is that it is difficult to find a cheap parking. People parked along the roads and by the time we reached there, they were all taken up! We parked at NTUC@1 Marina which was next to one of the iLight display sites. There are several lightings all around the bay. I will have to go back in end October. Clark Quay is also in my agenda in Nov for night scene photo taking.


Our latest addition to the Marina skyline, Marina Sands. This time I faithfully bring my tripod which is a must ! This special light up of Marina have attracted a lot of ardent photographers, families and tourists !


Our lovely marina area ... it was a pretty hazy night ! The skyline was rather brownish and dull. I took this using a rather long exposure time to get the reflections on the waters and building' lights.



The iLights decorations on a rather uneven soiled ground. I love the star-lighted inspired palm tree lights !



A water taxi happened to speed by and it gave a beautiful colourful lights on the waters !



The water taxi speeded towards esplanade bridge !



Have been patiently waiting for this couple to re-take their perfect shoot using their tripod. After waiting for quite a long while, they were still attempting to take repeated shoots of the bulb trees. There you are, you were captured in my picture !


My first attempted to take cars with slow exposure. There were quite a few cars speeding by, but they have been "transformed" into just colourful flashlights.
Last but not least, I would like to thank you CK for accompanying me for my night photo shoots !