Wild. Life. Photography.

250 Years of Black and White

Thu, 24 Sep 2009 22:40 -0800

Happy Arthur's Day! Today we celebrate 250 years of Guinness beer as started by Arthur Guinness in 1759. Cheers!

To be honest, I've never heard of Arthur's Day or the 250th anniversary before, yet two days ago I decided to pick up a 4-pack of Guinness for no reason at all! I feel like my 6th sense is now working in full force, especially when choosing beer!

Portrait of a Modern Heroine

Mon, 21 Sep 2009 23:47 -0800

A close-up up the actual Coraline puppet used in Henry Selick's film. This was a part of the presentation by Martin Meunier at Spark Animation Conference. For me, it was a pure pleasure to not just be able to learn how the film and the puppets were made, but also to get up close and play with the actual props. I was totally fascinated by how industrial machine like the 3D printer became the savior of the film saving tons of labor and production time while at the same time help maintaining consistency of character's appearance.

Also, as you can see the line across her face, the film was originally intended to keep that facial feature (as the film used replacement faces technique) but later decided to erase the line in the final release.

Lens: Reverse-mounted Pentax A 50mm f/1.4
Aperture: Approx. f/2.8

Raspberry

Sat, 12 Sep 2009 23:54 -0800

A giraffe at Singapore Zoo showing off its specialty: a very long tongue. I took advantage of the feeding session to get a closeup of this beautiful creature.

Empty Corner

Fri, 11 Sep 2009 22:53 -0800

From ubiquity to rarity, traditional corner stores are becoming the dinosaurs of our age. These stores have their root so deep down in tradition that it's almost impossible to adapt to the arrival of supermarkets and big box retail stores. This one on the corner of Fort and Cook apparently bit the dust.

Midair Rendezvous

Thu, 10 Sep 2009 22:53 -0800

Superdogs show at the Fair at PNE. This time I was better equipped than last year with higher ISO for the action without having to stop down the exposure just to get the proper shutter speed. Unlike last year, I ended up with way more usable shots.

Side note: I just wish Lightroom has better noise reduction for ISO 3200+ RAW files. Even with the setting pushed all the way up, large artifacts of noise remain clearly visible. So I had to use Canon DPP to get rid of the noise, exported as TIFF, then edited in Lightroom.

Domesticated. Life. Photography.

Wed, 09 Sep 2009 22:48 -0800

Perhaps the most fun I had at PNE this year was to finally get to do animal close-up with wide angle lens. It was quite a challenge for me to get the shot while the animals (unpredictable and all) were just a few centimeters away from the lens. So close that I can smell the air that they exhale! One thing that I felt it could've been better was the light. Inside the exhibition hall, the light was so poor that I had to raise my ISO up to 3200 just to get the right exposure while maintaining the shutter speed fast enough to freeze any movement. Still, it was barely enough to get the shot that is workable as I ended up with many blurry ones. Also, I refrained from using the flash as I really don't want to startle such a large animal. If only I had plenty of light, I should be able to get most of the face in focus with smaller aperture and faster shutter speed while maintaining low noise.

By the way, no lenses were licked during the shoot!

Instant Zebrass Transformation!

Tue, 08 Sep 2009 23:55 -0800

Shadow of the cage cast on the donkey at the Fair at PNE.

Blue Bridge Blues

Thu, 27 Aug 2009 23:24 -0800

A view of the soon-to-be-replaced Johnson Street Bridge.

Raffles Hotel

Wed, 26 Aug 2009 21:07 -0800

There aren't many places that the hotel itself is a national landmark.

Abundance of Fortune

Sun, 23 Aug 2009 20:56 -0800

Ingot and bells ornament at Thian Hock Keng Temple in Singapore's Chinatown district.