Chinatown

Are you excited? I love that feeling when the seasons are about to switch and we move in to the early spring with all the weather changes that is about to bring. The first major one is happening today and we might be even able to witness and capture aurora or northern lights here in Illinois! This image is captured last spring, I used my wind painted clouds technique to emphasize the movement of the clouds and contrast it agains the still and beautiful Chicago skyline. What do you think?

@sonyalpha A7R (830nm) / FL 24mm / ISO 93 / F8/ SS 1/30s @sony FE 70-300mm F4.5-5.6 G OSS

How often do you doubt yourself as an artist? I’m very excited to share this shot just because I got to capture it while I was in the self doubt period! It is one of those shots where I was roaming the parts of the city I’ve never saw before. Worry and plan free. I know we like to appear like we had it all figured it out all time but I’m sure that we had periods of self doubt more often than we like to admit? To be completely honest my personal struggles are frustrations with the direction where I want my photography to grow. I learned that in those moments I need to stop overthinking things and go out and shoot. It takes time for style to get it’s form. I learned that from the people wiser than me, mentors and community I had a pleasure to work with since the beginning. What do you think?

Shot from Potsmouth Square on Kearny Street

Blk 335B, Smith Street Chinatown Singapore

In celebration of mid autumn festival, Chinatown lit up with 16800 lanterns over 2km of roads (entered in the Singapore Book of Records for the "largest display of street lanterns"). According to astronomy, the mid autumn festival occurs to autumn equinox. At the time, the sunlight shines vertically on the equator, equally dividing the day and night in both the southern and northern hemispheres. The moon appears in the evening with gentle winds and light clouds. This is the best time to watch the moon. Try to spot the moon in the image :)

In most Chinese folklores (there are too many variants to the tale), the origin of mid autumn festival revolves around a girl 'Chang er' consuming an elixir of life and started floating off to the moon, where she lived with a rabbit and an old man. Therefore, mid autumn festival is held annually to workship this moon deity and build family unity. Interesting to note, when Apollo 11 was just about to make the landing on the moon, Huston ground control mentioned the moon goddess with the little bunny. Buzz Aldrin replied they would keep a lookout for 'bunny girl'.

Now a little background of the shot. I have always loved the juxtaposition of the old shop houses and the towering modern skyscrapers surrounding them. Hence I knew I had to get a high vantage point to illustrate the point. After being stopped by security officers at the top level of People Park's complex's carpark, due to the installation of fireworks which were supposed to go off at 9 PM (somehow there wasn't any). We decided to find an the place which is tall enough and grantees full access (in other words, HDB flats). We loitered suspiciously along the common corridors finding the best composition. We finally stuck gold at level 16 and decided to set up for the shot. Without a rotatable central column, my Manfrotto 290 tripod was rendered useless due to the wide and high concrete railings, plus the fact that I needed to angle the camera downwards for this perspective. On the bright side, I managed to place my camera on the railings, use my wallet as a sort of beam bag and fired a few long exposures images. Well, I guess with a little ingenuity, you can always come away with desirable results :)

1 exp and edited in Photoshop! Comments and constructive criticisms are appreciated!

“Spring is nature’s way of saying, ‘Let’s Party!’” — Robin Williams

www.youtube.com/watch?v=FgDU17xqNXo