Photography Backlog: Urban Panorama, Singapore

My last backlog photo...


Singapore, A non-Touristy Panorama (2008)
(Panorama, Urban, Night, HDR)

Click on the image to view it larger. The original final panorama spans a little more than 1.8m in width.
[Edit: Link now workin'. Thanks to Marc of Creativespark for pointing out this gross oversight. My Flickr account was set to only allow my contacts into the big pictures.]

Experimental image composed of 9 different shots of 3 exposures each. This HDR panorama is made up of a total of 27 shots and brought my computer to its knees... A seldom (if ever) seen cityscape of Singapore with not a single tourist landmark.

I was thrown out of the building where I took this from when security caught me. At least they were nice enough not to confiscate my CF card.

Photography Backlog: Urban, Singapore

Urban Contrast (2008)
(Urban, Night, HDR.)

Arab Street, Singapore. Between the towering modern 'scrapers and the retro shophouses of Singapore's Arabic sector. Featuring not a single tourist landmark and my favorite building. Feels like a desert creeping into a forest of trees. Sadly, it's the opposite that's true.
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Singapore Bay, a very very very typical tourists' (and locals') view (2008)
(Urban, Night, HDR.)

Singapore River(Bay), Singapore. This view doesn't get anymore typical than this. There're tons of shots with the exact same framing. Just hopin' my treatment of colors gives a different spin to it.

Photography Backlog: Streets of Malacca, Malaysia

Taken on a day trip up to Malacca, Malaysia. Malacca's a Portuguese colony back in the 1500s (1511 to be exact) and is a World Heritage Site of UNESCO since 7th July 2008. More info can be found here.


Across the River. Malacca, Malaysia. (2008)
(Urban, Street, HDR)

Row of shophouses (living area on the 2nd floor and above, commerce on the ground floor. Very common in Asia in the 'old' days).
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Jonker Walk by Day. Malacca, Malaysia. (2008)
(Urban, Street, HDR)

This is a one source HDR created from a single RAW photo. Jonker Walk (Jalan Hang Jebat in native the language, Malay), only truly comes alive at night with good food, drinks and much merry making.

Photography Blog: X'mas Bird

It's Christmas, so here's a bird. It's not a dove, but it'll do (afterall, a dove's but a white pigeon).


Flight over Ladenhall, London (2006)
(Street)

This is a really old piece taken on a lonely deserted Sunday in Ladenhall, central London. Had my camera set on servo with a fast shutter priority and when around the streets swinging my camera, makin' these damn birds fly (or at least tryin' to, they weren't too cooperative) while pressing the trigger. This is my favorite lucky shot.

Merry Christmas all :)

Wiki'mas 2008

Wikipedia, we've all used it. Professionally in our work or just for kicks over curiosity of what exactly a durian (South East Asians need not apply) is. So this Christmas, give a little back.

Wikipedia needs your help (did you know there're only 23 people on staff at Wiki?). This is an appeal from Wiki's founder Jimmy Wales.

Ignorance is NEVER bliss, but too little knowledge can be a dangerous thing.

Photography Backlog: Still Life

Continuing my backlog on the past year's work. Today I dig out my Still Life pieces:


Manual Lever (2008)
(Still Life, Macro, HDR.)

This dangerous looking mechanism is the operating switch of a dumpster (equally dangerous in my opinion). I kept hearing a voice repeating "press the red button, press the red button" but my sense of smell got the better of me. So much for logical decisions.
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Guidance (2008)
(Still Life, HDR.)

This lamp was found hanging at the Elephant Show at the Singapore Zoo. Taken with a zoom lens, just before dumbo sprayed the audience with a trunk full of water (at least, I'd like to think it was water...)

Explanation of my photography

There's not much to say, but the key thing would be I'm not interested in capturing reality. There's enough of that everyday. What I'm trying to do is turn what I capture into a painting-like thingie... thing... err...

The techniques employed include tuning of colors, usually to desaturate (tone down) colors and HDR (High Dynamic Range, a technique that has roots in Hollywood film making).

I come from a black-and-white photography background and it took me quite a while to 'like' color photography. So I guess that explains why the pictures are usually void of colors.

HDR is a little trickier to explain, but simply put, it's a combination of three or more exposures (shots) of the exact same scene; one taken in optimal exposure, one over exposed (to capture details that an optimal exposure would have missed because it's in the shadows) and one under exposed (to capture details that the optimal exposure would have missed because of burn out).

These three shots are than combined using a HDR program. It's really easier than it sounds.

Photography Backlog: Streets of Singapore

Light Dance on the Streets of Amoy (2008)
(Urban Street, Night, HDR.)

Amoy Street, Singapore. I love how only one side of the street is lit. Guess they short-changed the light people by half...
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The Temple of Heaven's Bounty (2008)
(Urban Street, Night, HDR.)

Amoy Street, Singapore. This temple is no longer functional and instead acts as a tourist spot. Temple of Heaven's Bounty is a rough translation of its original Chinese name

Photography Backlog: Portraiture

Got nothing new to start this... err... blog off so I thought I'd showcase some of my personal faved photos of 2008

Simple Pleasures (2008)
(HDR, Portraiture Candid. Night photography w/o flash made it slightly blur.)

Not wanting to disturb the gentleman, this piece was shot blind, with the camera on servo. The resulting shots were all off except this. Later re-cropped and touched-up in Photoshop.

Sometimes, a simple cup of tea is really enough to make your day...

About Ivan O.

Ivan O. (the O. in his last name stands for -wait fer it- Oh. Go figure...) would like to think he is an artist in the fields of design, illustration and photography, in no particular order.

He lives and works in Singapore and can't seem to settle down on a particular field. His past, and possibly current, designations (aside from the above mentioned) include Creative Director, Journalist, Marketing & Business Development Manager and Systems Engineer (IT). he's worked for Reuters, Siemens Advance Engineering, IAHGames and The New Paper.

He has a beautiful wife (who drives him mad) whom he loves dearly, and a magical black cat, who thinks she (the cat, not the wife) is a rat.

He finds it condescending to write about himself in the third but isn't famous nor rich enough to have someone else write this.

If he ever wins the Miss Universe Beauty Pageant, he'd wish for World Peace. Both of which he thinks are equally unlikely to happen, sadly.