It's a shame that I have to go back to school in the middle of our sentosa trip last Saturday. So Sucre did a lot of the shooting that day and managed to get some pretty nice shots in my opinion. Thumbs up for her improving skills. Here's the photos from Sucre taken with the Sony H1 and Fuji F11.


Carlsberg sky tower. Out of focus but looks nice to leave the leaves sharp instead of that big spinning over priced disc ride, taken with the H1.


Dolphin show, at the right moment. At almost $20 per head (including the small underwater world entrance), yet another money spinning attraction of sentosa, taken with the H1.


Palawan beach, Sucre's view. Nice composition isn't it? Taken with the Fuji F11.


Why compacts are good for taking kids. Because kids are small enough to fill the frame yet leave a nice bokeh at the back which is not so creamy that you can't differentiate the background details. Taken with the Fuji F11.


Here's Ruixuan who is so shy in her tankini that she wants to pull it down to cover her belly. So funny. Taken with the Fuji F11.

singapore Ssentosa photoblog dsc h1 fuji f11

Totally screw up this one. Sigh... First there was a false alarm which caused me to rushed and fumbled to setup ASAP to shoot. Then I got the wrong angle as the fireworks were block by the trees. Then I forgot to refocus as I shifted myself, shouldn't had left it on manual focus. After the second round of fireworks (yes, the main one was second round), I packed up, assuming that's the end and started my car ready to go home. Then the finale of the fireworks started! And just when I was about to hope out to check it out, its over. Crap!

Anyway, here's a small cropped version of the NDP preview fireworks. So that the out of focus bit won't be so obvious.

Better luck next week.


Bang!

singapore fireworks photoblog

Sharing this while I wait for round 3 to start in half an hour's time. Thank goodness I have a laptop and a harddisk to backup all these photos. H1 exceed 6000 clicks today. Phew! Another landmark for me too. Backing up my precious photos while waiting for the next round and blogging about it. Here's a photo from round 2.


Gotcha!

This photo is taken with the Sony H1 with the 1.7x teleconvertor.

singapore photoblog dsc h1

Round one is over for me, time for round two soon. I'm so tired... really looking forward to the National Day break, I need it badly. Here's a sneak preview of round 1. More to come in the coming month.


Guess where is this? Not that difficult right?

This photo is taken with the Sony H1 by Sucre.

singapore photoblog dsc h1

Besides the bust, I did a mini roulette series that night too. The main reason to buy the roulette was for a photoshoot. Don't you think it's cute? Now what I need is barbie dolls gambling to complete the whole picture, nah.


Here we see a table printed on a roulette table on a wooden table


The house takes the winnings


More chips to bet?

The mini roulette series also come in the lighting effects. It adds to the mood of the picture overall... here's the results.


Place ya bets!


Betting from day till night


Where's my winnings?

All photos taken with the Sony H1 and mostly also with the M3358 close-up lens

singapore roulette photoblog dsc h1

Looking forward to the many chances at taking photos again in the next few weeks. There's about 3 unique types of situations for me to try my luck at. I shall just share one of them and keep the rest secret until it materialize and the photos are out.

Singapore Fireworks Festival.
4 Nights of fireworks galore to celebrate National Day this year! That excludes the 9th August show at the stadium. Exciting stuff. But need to go chop good places early. This would also mean there's a good break from all the school work. A deserved rest from the hectic July (without any public holidays).

singapore fireworks

So, I got this bust as a gift for paying to make a really expensive plaque of my degree scroll 2 years back. Didn't know what to do with it until recently when I thought of using it as my model for some H1 photoshoot. And some fun with lighting.


The original bust, taken indoors with the room lights on with the close up lens


The flash bust with the close up lens. The good thing about the close up lens is the ability to use flash for macro shots like these


The wide angle macro bust. Taken with the native macro of the H1 with the room lights on plus my handphone camera light from an angle


Similar shot as above but without the room lights.

Answer: At least 12 storeys high.

Proof?

This praying mantis was found outside the kitchen of my house at 12 storeys high. How did it get there in the first place?

Some photos from the IKEA trip last weekend, after buying the ethnic clothings. Somehow lost mood to blog already.. so cut straight to the point, nah.. pictures.


Little princess get to eat while shopping

Sucre knows me, every once a while I would rattle randomly about cameras and photography, about the upcoming new and exciting stuff or about how I learned a new technique or trick to do photography. Recently there's more reasons for me to rattle non-stop.

Reason One: Sony dSLR Alpha 100

More than one month ago, I was drooling for the Alpha 100 and even stated my own dream kit lens setup that I would aim for at the corresponding estimated introduction price of about S$1946. Now the official Singapore prices for Alpha 100 is out. It's going to be S$1499 for body, $1799 for one kit lens and S$2099 for two kit lens set. Much higher than the American prices. And if I order the one kit lens set and mail it from US, it costs a total of about USD$1050 or roughly S$1680 and I can "save" at least S$100 . But local market price should be about S$100 or more lower than the list price with plenty of freebies so I won't have to worry about that. But at least I know I could order my lenses overseas from reputable dealers.

Another recent event for the Sony Alpha 100 is that the cameras have reach the markets already! Some users over at dpreview had got their cameras and it's also in store in China. So I will be waiting anxiously for the final review to be posted to see how good or bad the camera can be. Which will most likely be the next time I start a random banter.

Order your A100 from Sonystyle here


Indian tailor for Chinese clothes? Taken with the Fuji F11 while shopping for ethnic clothings for Racial Harmony day.

Reason 2: New Nikon dSLR in 20 - 2 days

Nikon had started a new teaser campaign for a D70 replacement dSLR line-up. As Nikon is a more established dSLR brand in Singapore, if this new dSLR proved interesting and value for money (I want image stabilization!), this new dSLR may push me to become a Nikonian. I might just get a D50/D70 2nd hand while waiting for the new camera before selling it away. Who knows. Getting a Nikon means I would have plenty of options in buying or selling second hand lenses and bodies. But getting a Nikon or Canon on your shoulder may be a bit too common for my liking.


Yellow hibiscus of NUS, taken with the orange hibiscus posted some time back. But I find orange more pleasing so I held back the yellow one till now as a filler for my random banter. Taken with the Sony H1.

Reason 3: Sony K800i cybershot phone hits the market

Finally, a camera phone that is a camera more than a phone. Even sucre cannot stand the poor quality camera in our handphones. Now some guy wrote a review of this camera and did prints up to 5R (5" X 7") and the results are pleasing to him. Sure, the camera can't perform in low light situation but the day time shots look pretty with the 35mm prime lens. The level of image distortion is low even compared to dSLR with kit lens. If this 3.2mp K800i can do as well as my old 2.8mp P3, I would be delighted to own one as my next handphone. But I will wait till next year, when my contract is almost over and my K700i is failing me and the K800i can be bought for less than S$200 with contract then I will switch over.


Close up of the yellow hibiscus flower. Taken with the Sony H1 with macro lens attached.

Looking forward to Christmas shopping already.
P.S. Sucre, I need a dSLR or a Sony R1 to do nice nice portraits. And I need at least 3 months to learn the techniques before your graduation. Then I can be your photographer. (Which means I may need a proper flash system for day time fill flash and night shoots, fingers crossed)

singapore photography photoblog alpha 100 nikon k800i sony dsc h1

Sucre sent this to me and I thought beside being funny, it does show the different viewpoints of people, illustrated in a funny way. I have no idea who did this but kudos to you.


The Zizou incident as seen by the Germans and other neutrals


The Materazzi accident as seen by the French and their supporters


The Zizou attack as seen by the Italians and their supporters


The incident as seen by the Americans, totally irrelevant but just for completeness sake


The Zizou incident as seen by the press, blown out of proportions

world cup Sports zidane materazzi

One day, Santa brought a bag of Physics toys to show it to some Physics undergraduates, and the rest is capture in photos.


Kaleidoscope of some sorts, also sort of a fisheye lens with some special effects


Same shot as above but cropped to show more details


Fuji F11 with the cheap plastic telescope (with all the ugly fringes, loss of light and manual focusing only)


Fuji F11 with only the native 3x zoom (108mm equivalent), what a huge difference, only in size


Shuhua plays with a dancing bean. She never did succeed in winning this game.

Physics can be contagious and fun too~

Yeah Physics...

Sorry for the crappy mood today, all photos taken with the Fuji F11, because it takes better photos indoors and most important of all, I did not have my H1 with me lar...

singapore physics photoblog fuji f11

Notes can be found at the Ask N Learn site, please download them from there instead.

Very Cute

Xiaobudian making noodles with playdoh... very cute

Sooooo... Cute