Gardens By The Bay

My company recently organized a trip to Gardens By The Bay. Although I've been to the gardens twice, but this is the first time I'm entering the domes!

I read and heard much about the two domes, the main theme for today'and I understand there isn't much opportunity for HDR, so I'm leaving my tripod and my gears at home and only carrying my camera and a lens that is Macro capable.

There are two domes, being the Flower Dome, and Cloud Forest. The Flower Dome is like a showcase of plants and flowers from all over the world, in their own exhibition area. The center area will feature different flowers and decorations depending on the time of the year, with various festive decorations.

The Cloud Forest on the other hand, is based on the theme of forest above the cloud layer. There are still flowers, but mostly green vegetation. And not to mention, the place is every photographer's nightmare. First of all, you will be greeted by a huge waterfall, which splashes water at your camera relentlessly  Next, they release fine water mist into the air, to create the "cloud" effect, and you won't be able to get a shot without having a fog over your images. Nevertheless, it's still fun to visit, purely for the experience.

All the pictures below are taken at the Flower Dome. Enjoy!

This is my personal favorite. It's a sculpture of an eagle from a tree or something, and I thought desaturating the colors and enhancing it's features would make a dramatic effect.

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Gardens By The Bay

The latest mega attraction in town is none other than Gardens by the Bay. Although it is still pretty inaccessible by public transport, it attracts lots of people everyday. I went on a weekday afternoon, so it wasn't crowded, but people started to pour in towards the evening. The place is really quite huge, and almost impossible to finish walking in an afternoon, but most of the attractions is located in the bay south, which houses the super trees and flower dome.

For people who don't want to pay a cent like me, there are still many places which you can visit and take awesome pictures of. Although I prefer to shoot HDR in the day, but it is during the night where the park comes alive with all the light show and music. In the afternoon, it's just a little less exciting.

So here are 2 pictures shot on my first visit. The first picture is of this supertree. It is the biggest of all the supertrees and sits in the center of all other trees. 

http://www.flickr.com/photos/dallasgoh/7557203598/

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HDR at National Orchid Garden

It's been a real busy month in May! But that doesn't mean I'm slacking on snapping around Singapore.

A couple of weeks before, I finally managed to get my hands on my 580EX II flashlight. It's then I realised flash photography isn't as easy as it seems. I'll need lots of practice. LOTS.

Whenever I'm not working, I'll be playing with my flashlight, learning a little more everyday. I ended up with lots of weird pictures, of under and over exposed photos, and "test" shots. Well, it's part of the learning curve right?

Next step, my first L lens! I tried 17-40mm F/4L before in the past and I'm not impressed by the image quality and almost all aspects of the lens, even though it is an L lens. Or maybe my expectation is just too high.



HDR at National Orchid Garden

I've arranged an outing to National Orchid Garden with my buddy Myo last sunday. Luckily, there's good weather then, and the photos turned out well.

Even better, there is a promotional offer now (I believe it last between the school holidays) and it is FREE ENTRY for students!

Super worth the time and effort to get there. Flowers are pretty and you'll have no short of pictures to take.

Note that this place is in the Singapore Botanic Gardens, and it is a 10-15 mins walk from the main entrance.

Photo taken near the entrance of National Orchid Garden.


Camera settings:
Focal length: 18mm
F-stop: f/5
Exposure time: 1/250 second
ISO speed: 100
Exposure Bias: (HDR image)

Tripod mounted

Editing:
-Merge to HDR

- Edited sky and land seperately in Lightroom

- Combined in Photoshop with layers

- Other minor editings

Enjoy!

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My Little Butterfly Pet!

Finally, my first macro shot of a butterfly! I always wanted one, but always missed the shot as I'm restricted to the low magnification, and short focal length of my lens.

So while strolling home after a evening jog, I found a cute little butterfly on the floor at the sidewalk. It, like a 5D mark II with an L lens, caught my eye immediately and I took it home in a makeshift grass home.

At home, I took it from it's grass home, but it didn't fly away. So I took out my camera and started snapping at the little butterfly. How cooperative! I had my fill and placed it into a cupboard home, for playing tomorrow.

Want to see my new pet? Here you go!



Camera settings:
Focal length: 55mm
F-stop: f/10
Exposure time: 1.3 second
ISO: 100
Exposure bias -0.7 step
Tripod mounted

Love it?

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Lotus Love

In one of my previous post, I mention about a photo contest that I've participated. I wasn't planning to put my contest photos on the blog, but since I'm not done editing my other photos, due to usage of a new and unfamiliar technique, I'm deciding to post this picture.

I love this picture, and it's one of my favourite, and I hope you love it as much as I do. Please comment! =)



Camera settings:
Focal length: 55mm
Exposure time: 1/50 second
F-stop: f/8
ISO: 100
Exposure bias: -0.3 step
handheld

I'm thinking of making some simple photoshop tutorials as well, but not so soon, since I'm really busy everyday.

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Tiny white flowers

In the last post, I mention about sharing more photos taken with the 50mm f/1.8 lens.

Today picture isn't a great shot (but it does make a cute thumbnail), but it demonstrates the narrow depth of field that an aperture f/1.8 can produce. However, this lens does not feature a good magnification, so it's not good for macro shots like this (there is a dedicated 50mm Macro lens by the way)

This flower is about the size of a fingernail, so it's a little hard to aim at. And the winds make it even tougher.



Camera settings:
Focal length: 50mm
F-stop: f/1.8
Exposure time: 1/2000 second
ISO: 100
Exposure bias: -0.3 step
Handheld

Processing:
High pass sharpening
White balance
adjusted individual colours
Vignetting

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Flowers make me happy!

Yes, its flowers again. And there will be even more photos of flowers coming up, after the result release of a nature photography competition that I've participated.

This is one of my favourite pictures taken at Hort Park. In my opinion, its the best place ever, if you love flowers and nature. The variaty of flowers is just amazing, and new species come in every now and then.



Camera Settings:
Focal Length: 55mm
F-stop: f/5.6
Exposure time: 1/80 second
ISO: 100
Exposure bias: 0 step
Handheld

Leave me a comment! Cheers!

EDIT: I forgot to mention, this photo was not enhanced in anyway. 自然就是美！

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Emo Kid at Botanic Gardens?

Photo taken at Botanic gardens. In my opinion, the photo is not nice enough. Also don't know why, just a feeling...



Camera settings:

Focal Length: 30mm
f-stop: f/4
Exposure time: 1/800 second
ISO: 100
Exposure bias: -0.3 step

Photoshop to straighten and crop, and un-sharp mask. Lightroom mainly to tweet temperature and up contrast for yellow and green.

I'm dying to try high-pass filter, but it does nothing for me except more noise. I really need more practice with photoshop....

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A simple red flower

I love nature photography. Some day, I'll buy a macro lens to feed my hunger for close up photography, but that will be at least 2 years down the road, consider a decent lens sets me back at over $1000.


Taken at Botanic gardens. I don't have many shots of the Botanic gardens worth posting. Its either too hot that day, or that place is simply too boring. Or maybe both. I just spend over half my time in a tent, escaping for the heat.

On other note, I recently attended Nuffnang's first blogger's symposium. I was there, signed up under leonny from http://www.oureverydaythings.com. Always wondered why one recommends photoshop when clearly lightroom will be a more useful tool? I'll talk about that next time...

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